Tarot Talk & Technique

Whenever you get a brand new deck, do you immediately unseal it or do you wait until you feel that the time is right? I'm more of the latter. I'd usually buy decks that I like but won't open them until weeks, months, or even years later. I feel like I must only unseal a deck when I can give it my undivided attention and lavish as much time as I can spare in studying it. It's weird since even tho I like my decks a lot especially at the time that I bought them, it's not often that I open a deck out of pure excitement. More than half of all the decks and sets in my collection are still pristine and sealed. It is good since unopened items retain their value more than t…

I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a seller on etsy that is listing fake decks and fake original drawings by Pamela Colman Smith. These fakes are, to me, extremely obvious so I don't think it will fool many people that know anything about Pamela or about the RWS, but still, this person seems to have made quite a few sales so I felt it was worth to make sure they don't get away with it. I urge everyone to report it. And in case the site is taken down, I thought some of you might enjoy a peek at the blatant lies and the fantastic quality fakes that are on offer 😁 https://www.etsy.com/shop/TAROTKAT Description of the drawings (scroll do…

Do you draw daily, weekly, monthly or just when you need to? If you do daily, do you do one card, two, or three? I assume the cards can get exhausted so I was curious what you all find best!

Hi everyone. Does anyone else ever get Tarot fatigue? I was trying to work with the cards last night, and I couldn't make any sense of them at all. Not only that, for a while I felt like I never wanted to see another Tarot card ever again. It was really frustrating, and I finally just gave up for the night. Do you ever feel like this, and if you do, how do you deal with it?

I've decide to jump on the bullet journal bandwagon! So I bought myself an unlined art journal (couldn't find any cheap dot grid ones), a selection of different highlighters, some random pretty stickers and some felt tips. But now I'm stuck! I have no idea what kind of stuff I could be putting in this thing 😂 I've gotten as far as making the cover pretty (thanks to some copper contact paper and a pretty sticker), a title page (thanks new highlighters and pretty stickers!), an index/contents page and a star chart (not entirely sure why but why not?). So... where to now...? Does anyone else use bullet journals? Any suggestions as to what I could add to mine? An…

Also, how did you feel you first reading went? I just wondered how long people waited before they felt comfortable doing a reading for another person. X/

I came across this website, How Tarot Works and Why and thought it might be good for some of us who have people in our lives who don't really understand our love of Tarots and Oracles. What do you think? Is it convincing enough? Solid?

Have you performed "forbidden" readings before? For example, very specific questions about death, like if someone is going to die within the coming year or maybe the nature of your own death, and if you're good enough, when it's going to occur. Or maybe you're studying how to summon demons or Enochian angels through cards, or how to make pacts with them. Or you've performed some good bit of necromancy - I've heard that you can communicate with spirits through the cards and from thence divine the future, altho I'm not familiar with the specifics. I'm just curious about anyone's experiences regarding these.

I've been thinking... . Other than the Oculi Occultati Tarot, the majors of which I find very interesting, but not the minors, I cannot think of any other male-centric tarot or oracle decks. Suggestions anyone? Much appreciated.

This card just continues to baffle me. I need a little help. Here's my understanding of it - A reserved, private young woman who is mysterious and possibly introverted. She has a lot of wisdom and hidden knowledge and only reveals this to ppl she trusts and feels safe with. She is feminine. She observes from afar. Is psychic and intuitive. She is pure. I'd like to relate this to astrology, but I'm finding this rather difficult. For instance, some sites say this card is Virgo, others say cancer and moon. Some say she is a virgin. Astrologically it gets confusing because the intuitive, psychic, and mystical side is more like Pisces and cancer, but the young introverte…

When I read, I ask the cards to tell me a story about me that is true for today. I don’t ask yes or no questions, I don’t do divination, I don’t apply my readings to specific situations, and I definitely don’t ask “third party” questions such as “Does he love me?” or “Is she cheating on her husband?” Tarot is for me a spiritual Rorschach test, a mirror into my soul. I just read to see what is going on with me today. I use a five card spread of my own design – the Axis of Time and the Axis of Place – like this: 5 this is around me 2 this is behind me 1 this is the here and now 3 this is before me …

Cards move for me most of the time, and sometimes one cards tells a complete story. The fixed card meanings only rarely apply. Who else reads them differently?

There are so many tarot people on YouTube, for example, showing off their massive collections, doing videos on clearing the clutter and/or getting rid of old decks to make way for new ones, etc. It's obvious many people out there don't just own one or two decks! And certainly a few whose collecting habit may have got out of hand a bit. I certainly have collector tendencies myself, so I've kept mine under control using a few tricks. To start with, my current stash is 23 tarot decks that I actually use. I also have 8 decks that I don't use but keep because they are interesting or out of print— like my two prized Walter Wegmüller decks that I got in the 1970s (…

Do you let other people touch your decks? Like do you let your curious friends go through the cards or do you only limit contact to querents? Or do you forbid absolutely everyone any kind of tactile access to your cards? I've read some beliefs on this, that a deck's bond with its owner diminishes when others touch it so that a few are unduly vigilant regarding this. If you do allow anyone, do you impose any limits? Like some people can be quite careless or heavy-handed when they shuffle, so some readers only allow them to cut and/or stack their deck. Others feel that querents can only truly imbue the cards with their energy if they shuffle them too, so they don't mind.

I wonder how many people here take direction of a card imagine into consideration. For example if two court cards are next to each other but the people are facing away from each other rather than looking at each other, do you use this in your interpretation? Or do you rely solely on the position, e.g. past - there was someone like the Knight, future there will be someone like the Knight. The reason I ask is because it's the one thing that messes with me a little when it comes to decks where the person in the court card is facing front on - I feel like I might be lacking some information. For example, in the Knight of Wands pictured below, the Knight's facial e…

I really want to trim my Druidcraft. This thing is huge and so hard to shuffle. But 20 Youtube videos later I'mstill too scared to do it. Realistically I can afford to replace it if I stuff it up but I still don't want to ruin the deck. Tell me your deck trimming success stories?

Does anybody here have a mentor/s who actually took you under their wings and taught you face-to-face all that they know about the Tarot? It can be an old relative or your parents even, if the gift has been passed down your family line for generations. It can be a close friend who happened to be an expert, or a Tarot luminary who saw your promise. It can be gratis or it may involve an exchange of resources, as long as you had a close and sincere bond with them while you were under their tutelage.

Well..., I do have lots of Tarot decks, but I'm still searching for my absolute Tarot "soul mate"... Would love to hear what is everyone else's "soul mate" deck... . A picture of one card would be lovely, too. :D :D

Sometimes I think that we're all just making things up. That we're just imagining the cards are saying things when they're just pretty images on cardboard. What can a deck of cards really say about anything? Are we simply making the general messages fit into our lives because we want to believe the messages are from a divine source? Is there really magic in Tarot? In divination? How do you deal with doubts like these? And sometimes I'm blown away by the accuracy of a tarot reading and think yeah there's definitely something magical about these cards. They do sometimes seem to pick up on things that the reader couldn't have known. It's amazing sometimes how the…

Does anyone happen to know if there are any matching Tarot and Oracle decks?

Hello everybody, Just curious if you guys and gals use a philosophy that was kind of popular about 10 years ago called The Law of Attraction that was made popular of videos like The Secret, books and YouTube videos by Abraham Hicks & new age promoter Oprah Winfrey. What exactly is the Law of Attraction? It states that this Universe is an "attraction-based Universe" and that "like attracts like". And that we are entirely responsible for everything that happens in our life's. Sounds like a simple and easy way of looking at the world, doesn't it? But the downside of it if you take this way of looking at the world is let's say you are a woman and y…

In March I am offering an intro course on tarot. I'll be briefly reviewing: History to present day The top 3: RWS, Thoth, Tarot de Marseille Why people read: divination, self-inquiry, self-help and healing, storytelling, creative expression Approaches to learning how to read the cards Hands-on activity I'd appreciate any thoughts and suggestions.

So ive read a few descriptions saying that HP is like the virgin nun. The female virgin version like the priest. But I also thought back in historic times that the high priestess was a highly regarded prostitute that the higher end of society used to respect and enjoy. So which one is it. Im confused.

I've googled a lot of things and done some prep work (though I'm still missing incense) and I think I'm just about ready to start when the full moon hits (a friend told me I should cleanse my new deck under the full moon first before I use them since I don't have other means of cleansing them atm) and being around here got me thinking... I was wondering where and how you all started. What was your personal experience when first getting into Tarot and reaching your intuition? What knowledge do you think is good for a newbie to know beforehand and what would you pass on to someone just starting out?

I've been studying Tarot for about a year now and I've just now started to use reversals more often in my readings. I definitely see how they add more depth to a reading. I'm using Benebell Wen's WIND mneumonic (weakened energy, inverted meaning, negative effect, delay), which I find works pretty well. Just curious as to when more experienced readers felt comfortable using reversals consistently. Did you use them right from the beginning?