Remembering your VERY first deck....

[Rodney]

12 minutes ago, gregory said:

 

I don't understand this sentence.....

Can't tell if you're joking or not, so will assume you're not and explain using an example. Much of the Golden Dawn's methodology for Elemental Dignities resonates with me. Two friendly interactions and one unfriendly interaction per element doesn't resonate, so I discard that, leaving neutral elements neutral and letting the specific cards determine the interaction. It also doesn't resonate that cards of opposing elements flanking a central card cancel each other out. I don't believe in ignoring cards in play in a reading.

[gregory]

2 hours ago, Rodney said:

discard what doesn't.

 

It sounds like you would send a deck out into the VOID. I don't understand this idea at all. A concept that is alien to me.

 

1 hour ago, Rodney said:

Can't tell if you're joking or not,

 

Yes and no. NO deck leaves me - except for accidental duplicates.

[Nemia]

My first deck was the Thoth, and it had a huge impact on me. 

 

I have told this story many times, but here we go 😉 

 

When I was 18 and quite unhappy, a friend of mine did a fantastic reading for me. I don't know whether she still reads the cards but I remember that reading vividly. I knew nothing about the tarot but fell totally in love with one special card, and the whole experience. However, I was sure that I have no talent and intuition at all, so I didn't buy a deck for myself. 

 

Some ten years later, I saw a book about tarot in a bookstore and on a whim, I bought it. It was Spiritual Tarot, illustrated with RWS, Aquarian and Morgan Greer cards, and I found it very encouraging. I was disappointed that I didn't find the cards I remembered there but guessed that my friend must have used another deck. But what was its name? I had no idea. 

 

So I went into a bookstore where they sold tarot decks, all of them sealed so I couldn't look at the cards. I simply bought the one that looked most promising. When I opened it at home, I found the card that I had remembered. 

 

 

The rest, as they say, is history 😉 

 

I read Ziegler's book about the Thoth but it didn't open the deck for me, it just seemed like empty words. Banzhaf was much more helpful, but only after reading Crowley himself and DuQuette could I really understand what the deck was about. 

 

It's still my best reader and I carry it everywhere. It has taught me everything I needed to know. A great deck and a great teacher. 

[GreatDane]

THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR JOURNEY, NEMIA!  I hadn't read your story before, so it's new to me 🙂

[Rodney]

1 hour ago, gregory said:

It sounds like you would send a deck out into the VOID. I don't understand this idea at all. A concept that is alien to me.

There is only one deck that I would send out into the VOID if someone gave it to me or if it were part of a lot of decks that I purchased. (Tarot of Black Cats by Lo Scarabeo. There's a thread on Aeclectic where I explained why I am offended by that deck. My view still hasn't changed.)

 

1 hour ago, gregory said:

Yes and no. NO deck leaves me - except for accidental duplicates.

I'm fine with duplicates. I have sold duplicates onto others in the past. I don't believe I've ever sold or gifted a deck that was the only copy I owned.

 

There are a number of decks I've acquired over the years that don't particularly gel with me. But I understand that just because I'm not interested today doesn't mean I won't become interested new month. And if I don't have the deck when I become interested in it, by the time I acquire it, I will likely have already moved onto something else.

[Misterei]

7 hours ago, Arania said:

And I just heard one of the last podcasts with Rachel Pollack where she mentions having had a deck stolen and then being told later that tradition was that you have to steal your first deck. Has anyone ever heard of such?

Yes. There's old skool traditions that say your first deck must be given you [common] or you must steal it [less common].

[GreatDane]

Misterei, I wonder if back whenever that started, it wasn't readers themselves that started the rumor it had to be stolen?  And that's not one I had heard before either.  I heard the one about having to be gifted the deck, but I didn't pay any attention to it.  To me, it just sounded like superstition or maybe mothers handed down their decks and it was a tradition thing and it got turned into you must have someone gift your first deck (so they could make sure you could read with it?).

 

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by GreatDane
responding to different post

[FindYourSovereignty]

That is very neat, @Nemia. Thank you for including the image.

Edited October 6, 2023 by FindYourSovereignty

[FindYourSovereignty]

8 hours ago, Misterei said:

Yes. There's old skool traditions that say your first deck must be given you [common] or you must steal it [less common].

I’d not heard the stealing one before. I’d think this would taint the deck for me. 

[2dogs]

On 10/5/2023 at 5:09 PM, GreatDane said:

Serpentwand, maybe you're a different type of reader.  To me there is no one system.  Readers read and interpret in all different ways.  Or perhaps Lenormand would be more towards your liking.  I only read tarot for myself and close friends, Lenormand for everyone else.

Quite possibly. I don’t like the layer of symbolism, having to 

learn for example what someone else thinks five coins mean. What if they’re wrong?

Edited October 6, 2023 by Serpentwand

[GreatDane]

IF it doesn't align with YOUR thinking, then their way is wrong for YOU, Serpentwand!  Reading is deeply personal.  There are MANY books, tutorials, etc etc.  I only use one, the one I started with because I was just looking for a starting point, a thread, and it appealed to my psychology background.  Again, personal to me.  That's why after I got a SENSE of the cards from the book, I just journalled.  Each deck.  I didn't have many to start and would just sit for maybe 20 minutes, look at each card for maybe 15 seconds and write my thoughts about that card in just a little journal.  

 

It's getting to know what decks you feel bonded to, which don't really work for you or that you want to read with, and what the images mean....TO YOU.  

 

Trust in yourself, Serpentwand.

 

And FYI, it took me quite a few decks to get to decks I bonded with!  My first deck I just couldn't resonate with once it was in my hands.  It can take some time.

Edited October 6, 2023 by GreatDane

[Misterei]

8 hours ago, FindYourSovereignty said:

I’d not heard the stealing one before. I’d think this would taint the deck for me

I know, right?

But then again secret societies sometimes required initiates to do something risky to prove they could keep a secret [or wahtever].

I have no idea if this is the reason. I only know of the practice via hearsay.

[FindYourSovereignty]

1 minute ago, Misterei said:

I know, right?

But then again secret societies sometimes required initiates to do something risky to prove they could keep a secret [or wahtever].

I have no idea if this is the reason. I only know of the practice via hearsay.

 

Oh, I hadn't thought of this, but it would make sense.

 

[GreatDane]

I was thinking about my first month's reading and how I saw this deck online that was sold out, privately published.  The Anna. K.  It just resonated with me and I started messaging with Anna and asked if another deck would come out.  THAT was at the beginning of my reading journey, but the deck was unavailable and I didn't see it right away.  Got it as soon as she did another Anna. K and still one of my all time favs.  Funny, and I think anyone who has read for awhile may relate, sometimes the art we love that we would put on our walls, isn't a deck we could read with and vice versa.  The Anna. K, while lovely, wouldn't fit my general vibe or interior space, but love how it reads.  

[Libra 58]

First time I came in contact with tarot was in the James Bond movie "Live and let die", and I really wanted to have a deck, but didn't know where to buy them.

Years later I got a catalogue sent home from a shop I never heard of before, had no idea where they got my adress from but I was overjoyed!

It was full of small pictures in black and white with tarot and oracle decks.

I was in heaven....😉

Finally after some days I ordered my first deck, The Tarot of the Cat People.

It was cats on it and that was the only reason why I choose that one, because I could hardly see the cards on those little pictures in the catalogue.

They where beautiful but I had no clue how to use them, so I only had them as eye candy.  Now I know little more!😁

 

Sorry about my bad English.

 

 

[GreatDane]

Your English is GREAT, Libra 58!  And I remember that movie, Jane Seymour was the reader 🙂 

 

I know many of us have been there....ooooh pretty deck!   Then get it and think um, but not a reader for me.  I have seriously moved on many many more decks than are currectly in my tarot collection.   

[Rodney]

40 minutes ago, Libra 58 said:

Finally after some days I ordered my first deck, The Tarot of the Cat People.

It was cats on it and that was the only reason why I choose that one, because I could hardly see the cards on those little pictures in the catalogue.

They where beautiful but I had no clue how to use them, so I only had them as eye candy.  Now I know little more!😁

I 😍 Tarot of the Cat People! Have I read with it in my 30+ years of using tarot? I honestly don't think so! Some decks are 78 (-ish) pieces of art, and others are reading decks... 😜 (I actually checked, and my deck is in order, so if I did read with it at some point, it was many decades ago, and thenI put it in order to add it to my database.)

 

43 minutes ago, Libra 58 said:

Sorry about my bad English.

I would bet you my entire metaphysical collection (MANY thousands of items) that your English is better than my (whatever your native language is)! Don't apologize for your "bad english"! Instead, just note that "English is not my first language." There are native English speakers who don't express themselves as well as you did! 😍

[Libra 58]

@GreatDane Thank you! 

Some years later I also bought the book to the The Cat People Tarot, I have not read the book but I have it!

And I have been working some with the deck, but it´s not an easy deck for me, but I love it since it´s my first deck!

[Libra 58]

@Rodney Thank you!

I´m from Sweden so I speak Swedish.

[Rodney]

1 minute ago, Libra 58 said:

@Rodney Thank you!

I´m from Sweden so I speak Swedish.

I win that bet! If I know 10 words in Swedish, I would be 🤯 x 💯 x 💯!

[GreatDane]

Jag är delvis dansk 🙂  I'm part danish.

[GreatDane]

Love all the beginning the journey stories....the steps are what have moved us along the path.  To wherever each of us are in that journey  

[Libra 58]

@GreatDane I guessed so. (Jag gissade det!) 

[GreatDane]

😃  Most people think it's because I have a Great Dane

 

I hope you keep sharing, Libra 58.  Always fun to have more Scandis around 😁

 

If you ever decide about Cat People, I hope you let us know your final verdict!

Edited October 7, 2023 by GreatDane

[Eric13]

My first deck, and only type I used for many years was the good 'ole TDM, in French. They were larger than the typical decks made nowadays. I learned initially from its LWB. I came into the deck and tarot from my aunt. It was her deck. I didn't steal it, but she never missed it and used as a party trick or something. I git curious one day, shuffled, laid one card down at a time, look it up in the LWB and I'll be if what I read didn't actually resonate or happen. So I kept on going.