Your first deck story

[RavenOfSummer]

I saw a discussion like this elsewhere and wanted to bring it here...what's the story of your first tarot deck? What was the deck, how did you come by it, what drew you to it, etc.

[RavenOfSummer]

Mine was a yellow box RWS, which I bought for myself from the local hippie shop in my hometown in Pennsylvania. I think I was 15 or 16 years old. I don't remember how I had learned about tarot, but I was very drawn to the idea of reading the cards.

 

I kept my cards hidden because I would have been in trouble if my mom found them. She thought tarot cards were "evil", would invite demons in, that kind of thing. I liked having something forbidden, as a teenager who was trying to find my own path rather than the path prescribed for me, but I also found it somewhat frightening myself. What if she was right?? What if I got possessed by evil or condemned because I had a deck of tarot cards?? So in that sense the cards both drew me and scared me.

 

But I think some part of me knew even then that a deck of cards couldn't be evil. And I really wanted to learn. There was something about the idea of tarot and the art and symbolism that drew me, although I couldn't have explained it at the time.

 

I had that deck for the rest of high school and brought it with me to college, but I never really learned to read with it, just got it out and looked at it every once in a while. Occasionally I would try to do a reading- I would lay out the cards in the Celtic Cross pattern explained in the LWB that came with the deck, and then I would look up the meaning of each card and try to figure out what it all meant. Unsurprisingly, I never really got very far. I didn't understand anything about the art of learning to read tarot.

 

After college, before I moved abroad to London for a couple of years, I packed up a bunch of my stuff into boxes and stored it in my mom's house. The cards were in there, and I didn't think about them for years. It was only a few years after grad school, when I began a greater process of self-seeking, that I felt drawn to tarot again, even though I still didn't really understand it. I felt I had never really connected with that first deck, and decided to explore other options. I ended up getting a copy of the Archeon Tarot because I loved the art. That did NOT work out! It is not a beginner's deck, although the art is beautiful. Even with my greater efforts to actually learn how to read with getting some books out of the library, that deck was a struggle for me because what I was seeing didn't match what I was reading in the books.

 

A few months later I somehow came across Kris Waldherr's Goddess Tarot online. There was something different about that deck. I could feel it from the moment I saw the images. I got my deck, and it was with THAT deck that I was able to start finally reading tarot. The images spoke to me, they were beautiful, I needed the feminine energy it brought. So in a way, that deck was my first deck. The first one I fell in love with, worked with, learned with.

 

After I really delved into my reading journey I remembered that old RWS and wondered if it was still around somewhere, and while visiting my mom managed to find it and dig it out of storage. A couple of cards were missing, but overall it wasn't in bad shape. I got replacement cards from US Games and now keep that first deck in my altar drawer, although I still don't read with it. I treasure it as something that reminds me of a time that at a young age I saw glimpses of my own true path and was brave enough to try to follow it, even if I didn't get very far at that time.

[Guest Night Shade]

Mine was the Hanson-Roberts mini deck and book kit.  Basically, I chose it because it was cheap,($7.95) and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to get into Tarot or not.  But I ended up loving the deck, and it led to the purchase or many, many more!

[PathWalker]

My first deck was bought so I could do a tarot course. So I bought the one I liked the most in the shop - the 1JJ Swiss.

"Nope - can't do the course with a Marseille type, sorry"

 

So swiftly (the same week) a second deck - which also caught my eye - Tarot of the Cloisters.

"Nope, sorry, you can't really do this course with a circular deck"

 

Now (2018) I wonder why I didn't just find another course! But I was keen, so back to the shop, must have been nearly the end of the week by this point, and I took home the Universal Waite, and did the course with that :)

 

So by the end of the first week of searching I already owned 3 decks - those who know me well will see the beginning of my collecting bug right there LOL

 

PathWalker

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

I used to pick a subject to study each year, and Barnes and Noble bookstores used to offer classes so in 2006 I saw Tarot being offered.

Figured that would be a meaty subject, thinking about the history and symbology.

 

So I went to Ebay and bought a deck which turned out to Not be tarot but the Druid Animal Oracle. Gee, I studied that deck and book so hard, I'll always remember that summer fondly, sitting on the deck in the sun, without a clue.

https://www.amazon.com/Druid-Animal-Oracle-Philip-Carr-Gomm/dp/0671503006

 

I can't remember what my first tarot deck was, but that was a great time to come into tarot, used decks were so cheap.

I still have the Druidcraft Animal oracle though, will never get rid of it.

[Raggydoll]

Oooh, I LOVE me some tarot-themed story time!

 

Here is my story (it is gonna be a long one, so many apologizes in advance!!):

 

I had an interest in fortunetelling from a very young age – I was probably 11 or 12 years old when it started. I had listened to stories about my (paternal) grandfather who had some special talents (he had a knack for finding missing objects and he would also do predictions based on reading signs in nature and such) and they just spoke to me, deeply. I remember seeing a book on tarot in the library and I quickly brought it home with me. I was immediately drawn to it but also felt a bit depressed since I had no idea on how I could possibly get my hands on a deck.

 

(Just to make things more clear – this was back in the 90s and internet was not a thing yet. Plus I was just a young girl living in a small town and coming from a family was definitely not well off).

 

So I decided to compromise and use regular playing cards for the time being. My parents never had a problem with these sort of things (my dad was actually intrigued by the whole thing and gladly handed me an old deck of playing cards to utilize).

 

I remember trying both cartomancy-style interpretations and more classical tarot meanings for my cards, but neither felt right. I knew that it was because I didn’t have a real tarot deck, so I decided that I would try to start saving up for one. There was just one problem: I had no idea of how much a deck actually cost (plus I wasn’t sure how I would find a place that sold them).

 

But some months later my family had planned to go to another, much larger, town to visit some friends. So I asked my mum if we could also try to find a store that sold tarot decks. My mom was very cooperative, she even went in and asked the old lady who worked in the local bookshop if she knew where to find tarot decks (and you should have seen that woman’s face!!!). But she actually knew of a small shop with obscure magical artifacts and reluctantly shared the address with us (and I think she was secretly happy to have us leave her respectable store).

 

We managed to find our way to the shop and it was a bit like coming home for me! It was such a tiny place but there was just something about it… the atmosphere… And the best thing – they had this one shelf near the counter that had several decks lined up in a row. Sadly, these decks were WAY more expensive than I had hoped for. And there was no way that I would ask my mom for money (as I said, we weren’t poor – but we definitely wasn’t well off).

 

So my dreams was crushed a bit that day. And I remember thinking that I would never be able to own a deck. It was quite sad actually.

 

Then, some months later, Christmas was around the corner. And my mom got a call from my grandmother, to hear what we kids wanted for Christmas. My mom actually had the nerve to say that I wished for a tarot deck (my maternal grandmother was a Christian, albeit a very liberal one, so there was quite a contrast from my fathers side of the family, where everyone was heathens more or less and some of them also practiced the ‘old ways’.) But somehow, my grandmother did not die from an instant heart attack, but actually wrote “tarot deck” down on her list. 

 

That Christmas I finally was gifted my very first deck. In the end, it wasn’t actually my grandmother who had bought it. She had decided that my uncle, who was really successful and who lived in a big city, was better suited at acquiring this deck (plus I am sure she secretly felt uncomfortable with the whole idea).

 

Anyways, there it was: a lovely little set with a book and a deck of cards. Sadly my uncle did not know very much about tarot so he had just grabbed the first thing he saw, so this was a majors only kit. Not the best for a newbie like myself. But that is a whole other story. (I cant remember the name of this deck, but it wasn’t an English one so it really doesn’t matter in this context I think.) 

 

[Raggydoll]

I got replacement cards from US Games and now keep that first deck in my altar drawer, although I still don't read with it. I treasure it as something that reminds me of a time that at a young age I saw glimpses of my own true path and was brave enough to try to follow it, even if I didn't get very far at that time.

 

Beautiful  <3

[Raggydoll]

My first deck was bought so I could do a tarot course. So I bought the one I liked the most in the shop - the 1JJ Swiss.

"Nope - can't do the course with a Marseille type, sorry"

 

So swiftly (the same week) a second deck - which also caught my eye - Tarot of the Cloisters.

"Nope, sorry, you can't really do this course with a circular deck"

 

Now (2018) I wonder why I didn't just find another course! But I was keen, so back to the shop, must have been nearly the end of the week by this point, and I took home the Universal Waite, and did the course with that :)

 

So by the end of the first week of searching I already owned 3 decks - those who know me well will see the beginning of my collecting bug right there LOL

 

PathWalker

 

This made me smile!!

[DevonCarter]

My story isn't too interesting. I'd liked the idea of tarot for a while, but was raised thinking it was "of the devil" or whatever. Finally a few years ago I decided I wanted to learn more, but I didn't like the usual RWS decks. I saw the Halloween Tarot (in the tin) mentioned as following RWS very closely, so I ordered that one and a tarot book from Amazon. I got it, and realized that it was probably not the best option to start with, TBH. So I bought the Easy Tarot kit or whatever with the Gilded Tarot in it. That was better, but still... the Gilded is amazing art for it's time, but it's so incredibly 90's looking now, and it really didn't speak to me at all. I had also bought the Tiny Tarot, for one of my dolls. Which is basically the Universal Waite, I think, but it is really tiny. Really really tiny. Can't shuffle it tiny. Dev there (in my avatar) reads with reversals because there's no way to keep that tiny deck all pointing the same direction! So I ended up buying the Centennial RWS in the tin, and that's been my study deck. I put it aside for a time, and came back to it about a year ago, then fell away from it for a few months, then have been really studying it for several months now.

Of course, being of a collecting nature, I have way more decks than I probably should have for only being interested for a couple years!

[Grandma]

Great thread, RavenOfSummer, thanks!

 

I don’t remember what first drew me to tarot.  It pretty much appeared full blown in my mind one day and I jumped in the car, drove to Barnes and Noble, and bought the RWS.  Everything I knew for months came from Joan Bunning’s course, http://learntarot.com/top.htm.  Because I’m somewhat (!?) obsessive I spent a lot of time memorizing meanings, making lists and charts and having Grandpa quiz me.

 

I also started collecting decks early on, more for the art at first, then gradually for the different interpretations and flavors of the decks.  I still collect for art as well as for reading.  For a long time, though, I read mostly with RWS.  I even bought a mini RWS to carry with me and I would pull it out for a reading if we stopped for coffee while running errands, for instance.

 

My first readings were simplistic.  I did at least a reading a day for Grandpa and one for myself.  Grandpa is very intelligent, but his brain is fried from decades of drinking and drugging (he has been clean and sober since we got together, but the damage is done), psychiatric illnesses, and a severe closed head injury that took away his cherished ability to read for pleasure because he can’t remember what he read a few pages earlier.  Conceptual thinking is pretty much out of his reach, to his full awareness and frustration.

 

So I stayed basic with him.  For example, if the Five of Cups showed up in the Past position, I would encourage him to think of a time when he suffered a regretful loss or bereavement – Bunning’s key words.  After we did that with each card we would “write a story” that tied the cards together.  (I used a spread that I designed myself – the much vaunted Celtic Cross still confuses the heck out of me and I was overwhelmed by the number of other choices.)  As I said, simplistic, but somehow the readings were always meaningful.  I used to deliberately skew toward the positive because he took the whole thing very literally and I didn’t like to upset him.  (I don’t do it on purpose anymore, but my readings do tend to be positive.  I wonder why?) 

 

So his pleased reaction encouraged me to think I might be good at this and I started branching out, looking up various interpretations of meanings online, reading books that came with decks, although I don’t read the traditional LWBs – they are too L for my senior eyes – developing a style and a system and a philosophy.  I had never seen or heard a tarot reading other than my own until I joined TT&M.  I don’t know anyone interested in the subject, didn’t feel like going to an unknown reader, and never found a YouTube video that caught my interest, although I didn’t really look very hard. 

 

But over the past year, since I divorced Grandpa, I developed a nuanced style of my own, which I’ve talked about here and there in the threads.  When I found this forum I saw the rich variety of reading styles.  I saw how much there was to learn and was pleased to see that my instincts had been good.

 

So that’s how I got started!  I guess I went off on a tangent – from first deck to how I learned to use it.  I hope that’s okay, and if it’s not, I hope you just skimmed over and/or skipped this comment!

 

And on a highly personal note - although it was my decision to divorce Grandpa and to cut off all contact, I miss him desperately and would give a lot to do a simplistic reading for him right now!

 

[Flaxen]

I was given a RWS deck as a present when I was 15. It even came with a gorgeous wooden box to keep them in! However, I really didn’t like it. The colours just seemed all grey and yellow and some of the images disturbed me - 5 of pentacles sticks in my mind! I put it in the box and didn’t look at it or use it.

 

The desire to try Tarot never really left though and a few years later I was in a shop which had the Ancestral Path on the shelf. I fell in love with this deck and it was my main reading deck for many years. I did supplement it with a Thoth a couple of years later and they were my regular decks for about a decade.

 

I still have them both - they still smell of the incense I used to keep in the drawer with them and just a quick sniff transports me back to that time.

 

 

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[Aldor44]

So... I didn't know much about Tarot until about 26 or so.. A year or so before ( at 25) I started my path into the world of the unseen ( the energetic world) and I was so excited about it. For some reason after hearing about Tarot I have decided that I want to learn them. My family was strongly against it and while they couldn't forbid it from a 26 year old man- they sure did all in their power to stop me.

At first I didn't listen to them and even signed to a course for a rather big sum of money. However, at the last moment my Energy teacher at a time warned me that if I pursue it I will hinder my energetic abilities - so since I highly regarded her opinion , coupled with the pressure I had from my family- I reluctantly called the course director and asked for my money back ( the course hasn't started yet).

For the next few years, I kept thinking about Tarot - but did little to actually learn it. I purchased the Osho Zen tarot- but for a novice who needed details it was super hard to read- since the booklet itself isn't very user friendly.. So I kept it on my shelf- trying from time to time to dabble with it- but with little effect.

 

A few years later, While progressing in my "spiritual" education I started studying with a new teacher - who also used Tarot ( even though it wasn't what we studied) In between our courses ( each one was a year long or so) We have decided to take a break and I asked her to teach me Tarot. She agreed.  While still afraid of what my original teacher told me- I have decided that I am much more mature and won't put so much emphasis on her words.

 

So.. for a few months I came once a week for a lesson and learned the basics.

I purchased the original RWS deck ( since in our country we don't have a lot of places to purchase stuff like that) and I wasn't strong on Internet buy at that stage, plus she used the same deck to teach me so it only seemed logical.

 

After finishing I did some reading for about a month on a local Mysticism forum which she also ran- with very good feedback.

 

I don't recall why I stopped, but I did, abandoning Tarot due to time constraints with work and school and such...

 

About a month and a half ago I visited yet another energy teacher whom also taught me Reiki a few years back because I wanted to see what else she can teach me.. and there I saw a Tarot booklet.. When I asked her she said that she was doing Tarot.. and I was like.. hmmm... maybe I should get back to it... just like that :D

 

I went home ... dusted off my old decks... found this lovely forum.. bought 3 new decks from amazon.. out of excitement... and the rest is history.

 

So yeah.. my first deck was RWS original one.. and I am actually thinking of going back to it for a while... despite not liking the art that much I feel it has a unique energy which doesn't seem to be present in most new decks...

 

 

[Wanderer]

This is really strange... but I just can't remember.  ???

 

I remember having the cards when I was doing my PhD, about 20 years ago (and doing rare readings for friends), but I simply don't know how I got them, or when. It must have been around that time (which was pretty rough, for various personal reasons), or in the few years before, because I'm sure I didn't have them as a teenager in college. I was very interested in parapsychology as a teenager, and had some peculiar abilities with picking out playing cards in sequence, but that gradually faded around mid-teens... but this was probably the root of my interest in the 'scientifically impossible' side of life.

 

Anyhow, at some point I ended up with a deck of the RWS, and I vaguely remember thinking that I wanted the most standard deck I could find, because its meanings should be the most deeply embedded in the universal unconscious. But I can't remember, even in glimpses, how I got hold of it or where, or when. And the more I think about it, the odder that gets!  :o

[odd_soul]

I'd always been interested in tarot due to its occasional appearance in movies, etc. Most notable was in Now And Then, a movie I loved when I was a teenager, and it piqued my curiosity. I think I was a little afraid of it, not because I was raised to think they were evil, or because of any overdramatic, doom-and-gloom depiction of it in a movie, but I didn't think my mom would understand if I wanted to get a deck and learn to read with it. So I had to wait, I guess, until I could buy a deck with my own money and not have to try to explain myself to her. In my third year in college (13 years ago), one of my friends was pretty into an astrology website that offered daily horoscopes and tarot cards and I think that was one of the major reasons I thought to get a tarot deck after I ended up getting an Amazon gift card for my birthday.

 

I did research into what I should get (so on brand, lol), and everyone suggested starting with RWS, but I really didn't like the art, and the colors looked garish and unpleasant. So I ended up getting the Gilded Tarot and the Learning the Tarot book by Joan Bunning to go with it. And I very seriously got down to learning how to use it. I do remember being frustrated with the Gilded Tarot's images not fully illustrating some of the card meanings for me, but I still got some good readings out of it. One of the readings I did was to help me decide whether to study abroad or not, and the reading resonated so deeply and was exactly what I needed to hear that I cried (in the best way)! So this pretty much cemented my love of tarot.

 

But alas, I did not keep up with it, and I didn't fully resonate with the Gilded Tarot's images. Years and years went by before I got back into it and bought a couple more decks that I resonated with more (Morgan Greer & Shadowscapes), but I didn't give myself enough time to do more in-depth readings and fell out of it again for another few years. This has been my pattern, but I always keep coming back to it!

 

 

 

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[Saturn Celeste]

but I always keep coming back to it!

So it hasn't really left you!  :))

[odd_soul]

but I always keep coming back to it!

So it hasn't really left you!  :))

So true!! [emoji4]

 

 

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[Guest]

I've enjoyed reading everyone's tarot stories!

 

So my mom used to read the tarot a lot when I was younger, using it to solve family problems with money and jobs and the like. Some of my earliest memories involve toddling around her while she did laundry or took a break from cleaning to read her cards - a witchcraft tarot of some kind with a name I can't remember. It had a purple silhouetted witch, cat and cauldron on it underneath a moon, and for a long time I associated that image with my mother; there was always a cat laying nearby and she wore just the kind of peasant skirts that reflected the energy of the deck.

She bought me some oracle deck or other when I was 13 or 14 - a druid tree deck of some kind - wrapped it in silk and encouraged me to keep it under my pillow, but I wasn't interested in reading at the time and lost it somewhere shortly after that.

This February we were thrifting as we usually do, and she found the Voyager Tarot on a shelf somewhere in the books and handed it to me with an air like it was meant to be mine. I thought it was so beautiful and was instantly taken with it, even though I've never been interested in Tarot before - I always left it to my mom to read for me.

So the deck I currently use is the Voyager, and you could say it is my first deck. I'm very new to doing this myself!

 

Off topic; my mom likes to tell me about a Ukiyo-e deck she used to own which would always shuffle the Empress out onto the top of the deck when the reading was complete, until she lost it on a train. It left me with this sort of fantastical 'legend' in my heart of decks being entities of their own, and so that's how I treat my deck now.

 

I love working with the Voyager. I have some very telling dreams sleeping with it under my pillow, and even though I use the Rider-Waite interpretations that differ so much from its handbook (which I've already lost), my divinatory readings always scare me with their accuracy: it is so honest with me. The cards are large and deep blue and abstract in their imagery, making it such a commanding deck and a grounding companion.  <3 you, Voyager.

[stephanelli]

I love reading all these stories, I thought I'd share mine.

 

I was in a period of searching - trying to find out who I was meant to be, what I was meant to be doing in my life.  I still am to be fair.  The way I wanted my life to go just want working out for whatever reason.

 

I was idly watching YouTube when a video on tarot came up.  It then completely stuck in my head and the thought that i could learn tarot wouldn't go away.  I was unsure about actually getting some cards so I actually found free to print off mini cards online and made them.  It was the Court Games Tarot, I forget who by right now.

 

I didn't really get on with it that well as the minor arcana was pip cards rather than images, but I did connect with the major arcana well.  I used the learntarot.com website to start learning the symbolism.

 

Then I decided that I should probably get a completely illustrated deck as I really wanted to be able to read more intuitively.  So I headed into my local town and went around searching for tarot cards.  I went to the new age shop, but just didn't connect with any of the decks there, but my local bookshop had some decks and I really connected with Collette Baron-Reid's The Good Tarot.  I brought in and took it home.  It made my learning of tarot so much easier as despite not following the RWS symbolism as much, it just spoke to me so clearly.

 

I worked with this deck solely for a while mainly reading for myself.  When I read for someone else, I generally used the Court Games Tarot because The Good Tarot didn't seem to feel right.  Like it was a personal deck at that point (its now totally cool with being used for other people).

I started getting the urge that I should read for other people more and I decided I wanted a deck that followed the RWS system more so I purchased the Herbal Tarot which I find really hard to read for myself, but really easy to read for other people (strange how some decks work that way!). We get on really well together and I love this deck.

 

Finally, recently, I've been getting an urge telling me I should try oracle cards for reading for myself and I felt really drawn to animal themed ones. I spent ages debating and trying to feel what was right and just yesterday I got The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Deck.  I'm in love already <3

 

So theres my story on my decks - sorry, it evolved from my first deck my others (seeing as I've only got the four of them)!

 

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[Jewel]

I am so enjoying all of these stories!  So here is mine:

 

As far back as I can remember I have been interested in metaphysical things (before I knew what metaphysical was lol) and when very young divination.  I even remember being a fortune teller with my Magic 8 ball globe (anyone else remember those?) in like third grade LOL.  Mom got me games and stuff with Astrology and one included some I Ching.  I never learned much about either but I do remember trying really hard and always being drawn to that sort of stuff. But I had never heard or knew of Tarot until I moved to the US many years later.

 

Fast forward 15 or so years to the early 90's .... Like Grandma, I am not quite sure where I got the idea of getting into Tarot, but the impulse came fully formed.  This was before the internet was a thing so I got in my car, headed to Barnes & Noble, went to the metaphysical section.  I saw that most books had the RWS so I picked up the regular RWS in the yellow box, a couple of books and went back home with a huge smile on my face.  I was going to learn Tarot! .... except that I did not connect with the deck at all.  The images and colors just left me flat despite how much I wanted to love the deck.  I would go into Barnes & Noble probably at least every couple of weeks to look and buy a new tarot book and look at the decks .... the Magician on the box of the Robin Wood always giving me that penetrating "come hither" stare, and the High Priestess from the Tarot of the Old Path calling to my spirit.  But why buy more decks when I seem to be getting no where, right?  ... well 3 or 4 months of this and those two decks just kept surfacing in my mind even when I was not at the bookstore, so I decided that perhaps my block with learning had to do with me just not connecting with the RWS, I broke down and walked out of Barnes & Noble with the Robin Wood and Tarot of the Old Path.

 

I learned mainly with the Robin Wood as it is a RWS clone but would still practice and compare with my Tarot of the Old Path and so it was for the next 5 or so years.  I did occasionally buy a deck here and there from Barnes & Noble (Sacred Rose & Tarot of the Cat People come to mind) but I never did anything with them.  Then came the advent of the internet and a whole new world and I began discovering how much more there was than Barnes & Noble.  I also discovered a budding website called Aeclectic Tarot  :) and finally found people to talk Tarot with and learn from, and my Tarot journey became and adventure, and oracles began to also enter my world.

 

The Robin Wood and Tarot of the Old Path remained my primary reading decks for close to 10 years until the Cosmic Tribe and later the Fey Tarot came along, and those became my primary decks .... now 25 or so years after my journey began I enjoy reading with all kinds of decks.  I either gave away or traded my original RWS (don't know, don't care), in my defense I did keep trying to give the deck a chance with the Universal, The Diamond, (both traded at some point) and The Radiant RWS.  To date I still cannot connect with the RWS imagery, it just does nothing for me, but I have chosen to keep the Radiant as it was my favorite of the RWS versions and keep it for posterity sake.  I still love my Robin Wood and Tarot of the Old Path and will never part with them, though I have not used them in eons.  Those three decks each reside in beautifully carved Tarot boxes and the boxes are displayed with love and honor.  I occasionally will look through the cards of the Robin Wood and Tarot of the Old Path and smile remembering where I was and how far I have come.  The Magician from the Robin Wood still has his spell cast on me  ;D, and the Old Path Majors still stir my spirit.  All I do know is that tarot is is a journey, not a destination and nothing I will ever fully "know", but it is the journey of a lifetime and I am so glad I found it.  It has stayed with me for close to half of my life, and will be with me for the rest of it.

[HaileyHayes]

My first deck was pretty late in life. I’d knew of readings, I’d had readings. People asked why I didn’t do them myself. At this point I became more curious if I could. The reader claimed he saw a lot of energy from me that I’d probably do well. I knew I had lots of “psychic” energy, but I didn’t understand if that exactly went hand in hand(silly I know but I was new to cards).

 

Anyhow, they say pick a deck you’re drawn to. I searched for a bit in a nearby town that had a metaphysical store and The Vision Tarot popped up. It’s cover being the Star card, which oddly pops up in my readings a lot whenever I’m read. I loved the artwork. I did struggle at first to find meaning in the cards and wondered if I’d chosen wrong, after some time I’ve found much more clarity and answers when reading the cards. I guess it’s true that sometimes you just need practice.

 

 

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[Ncharge]

I was 12. I asked my Mom for a crystal ball for Christmas, but she couldn’t afford it. So, she bought me a tarot deck. The Aquarian deck. That was 47 years ago. I still have that deck.

[Saturn Celeste]

I was 12. I asked my Mom for a crystal ball for Christmas, but she couldn’t afford it. So, she bought me a tarot deck. The Aquarian deck. That was 47 years ago. I still have that deck.

I bet that deck is worth a pretty penny now!  I have a newer edition.  I love the colors!  :thumbsup:

[Thoughtful]

As a youngster l was always interested in spiritual and psychic things but had never heard of tarot.  My interest evolved more into spiritual healing and mediumship.  But l dropped mediumship it scared me rigid, seeing figures in my bedroom and sitting on my bed they all had me diving under the bedclothes many a time. 

Like some of you l really cannot remember what got my interest into tarot.  l do remember looking on line at amazon and scrolling their tarot decks.  Kat Blacks Golden Tarot drew me in, loved the medieval feel of it and the lush colours.  l spent many an hour delighting in the images and reading the book.  This deck was my teacher and inspiration and l used it constantly for five years till l discovered other decks. 

Since then my collection grew as it does  ;D

l have just discovered the Yukio-e tarot recently in my little horde, never even opened, so spent a great time acquainting myself with it, and have had the most lovely readings with it.

But my all time favourite, friend, and advisor is my Roots of Asia which l would never get rid of, in fact you would have to prise it from my hands. It will most likely go into the hereafter with me  :D

 

[River]

My first deck was the Renaissance Tarot (or Secret Tarot, it has been re-published with a different name) but Helen Jones and Jane Lyle. I don't even know if I should count it as my first one, since I didn't use it much - I was pretty disappointed from the moment I got it. It was one of the very few ones available in my local bookstore and it came at a good price. To be honest, I like the pictures, especially the majors and the courts, even the pips were cool, but I hated hated the borders, the font, the fact that it came in my first language and the titles were translated terribly, that it didn't have the book with it like the english version, that the back of the box had something written on it like "Benefit from the wisdom of tarot cards. Gain health, better your love life, get success in your carreer and finances". I still tried to use it but as a total beginner I was uninspired by those things. Then, I came up with the idea to trim the edges and titles. I did a couple of cards successfully and finally felt like I started to like the deck and wanted to connect more with it. But I'm clumsy and ruined one card in the process, then threw the whole thing altogether. My second one was the Triple Goddess Tarot and it became my real gateway, even though I have since traded it.

[Nanook]

I was 14, it was the 1960s, and I was searching for answers, peace, something to quiet my thoughts.  My local mall had a funny little gift shop, full of glass figurines, candles, stuff like that and they had the University Press RWS and the Aquarian .  Also an I Ching set.  It’s amazing they carried these things in my conservative town, but there they were and I snatched up all 3 and then went to the Pickwick Books - oh my goodness how I loved that bookstore! - and picked up a copy of Eden Gray’s Complete Guide To The Tarot.  I studied and absorbed and got fairly good at reading.  The cards calmed me and became a comfort.

 

Then I met and married a man that had studied astrology quite thoroughly, along with the Bible and some rather strange interpretations of it. He also thought Tarot was entertaining but silly and possibly evil. He encouraged me to become Christian and at some point in my born-again zeal, I threw out my decks and book.  I regretted it shortly thereafter but the damage was done.

 

A few years ago, again in a cycle of searching, I was browsing my Barnes & Noble on a rainy Sunday  and bought the Steampunk Tarot because I found it beautiful and  a new RWS deck and and Eden Gray’s book.  I discovered the AT forum and loved finding many kindred spirits there, study groups, questions & answers - not to mention many wonderful decks to purchase.  I had no idea!  My bank accounts are somewhat lighter now but it’s been a lot of fun.  I love the art of tarot and am especially drawn to nature decks. 

 

I re-acquired my first love, a University Press RWS, through the AT forum. I will always be grateful to Rodney for making it available to me. The minute I received it, it felt like coming home.