Cold Shoulder Decks

[MysticMoonlight]

The Wildwood Tarot...it refuses to work with me and has refused since day one.

 

I've had the Wildwood Tarot for several years but it has never, ever been a reader for me. Ever.

 

I've done everything I can think of to get it to warm to me. I've cleansed it with incense, moonlight, sunlight, the elements. I've carried it around with me. It's rested on my nightstand while I sleep. I've set crystals on it. I've tried meditating on and journaling my daily draws. I've shuffled it and shuffled it and shuffled it and still, nothing. I'll leave it alone for awhile and return to it months and months later to see if anything has changed and still no. I want to work with this deck. I want to love it but it just isn't interested and frankly, I'm tired of trying really. Yesterday, after a year-ish of not touching it, I gave it another try. I did a deck interview asking what our relationship will be like going forward: The Blasted Oak (Tower), 8 of Arrows (Struggle), 2 of Stones (Challenge)  :o

 

This is my snobby, cold shoulder deck. Do you have one? More than one, perhaps?

[Raggydoll]

X-D X-D X-D How funny! I love the way you described this. But I do feel sorry for you. You have certainly been working hard to win this deck over. I am sure that I have probably had similar experiences, I just can't think of any right now. (If I come to think of them, I'll come back and share!). But one thing that does intrigue me is this - Why?. Why were you so determined to connect with this particular deck? If you can pinpoint what it means (or represents) to you then you might just have a key that will help you to move forward. I'm not making any promises though but I truly believe it might be useful to ask yourself that question. Sit with it. What kind of expectations did you have on the work you would be able to do with this deck? Perhaps you will find that it is tied to something within you; an area where you have blocks or insecurities. I'm not trying to go Freud on you (I promise!) but this is just something that struck me as important and interesting when I read your story! 

[River]

The Wildwood Tarot...it refuses to work with me and has refused since day one.

 

I've had the Wildwood Tarot for several years but it has never, ever been a reader for me. Ever.

 

I've done everything I can think of to get it to warm to me. I've cleansed it with incense, moonlight, sunlight, the elements. I've carried it around with me. It's rested on my nightstand while I sleep. I've set crystals on it. I've tried meditating on and journaling my daily draws. I've shuffled it and shuffled it and shuffled it and still, nothing. I'll leave it alone for awhile and return to it months and months later to see if anything has changed and still no. I want to work with this deck. I want to love it but it just isn't interested and frankly, I'm tired of trying really. Yesterday, after a year-ish of not touching it, I gave it another try. I did a deck interview asking what our relationship will be like going forward: The Blasted Oak (Tower), 8 of Arrows (Struggle), 2 of Stones (Challenge)  :o

 

This is my snobby, cold shoulder deck. Do you have one? More than one, perhaps?

 

My Wildwood was the same. X-D I ended up trading it.

[MysticMoonlight]

Thanks, Raggydoll and yes, if you do think of any instances, do come back to share although I will say, maybe you're lucky and haven't had this issue! LOL

 

I think the reason I've tried so hard to work with this deck is because it fits the type of deck that I love perfectly. I practice an earth based spirituality so I was thinking this would be a perfect fit. And, to boot, the Druidcraft was at this time and still is my most used and most beloved deck of all, hands down (It edges out even my beloved RWS!) so I was absolutely convinced that the Wildwood would be a sure and trusted go-to.

 

Back when AT was going, I read raves about the Wildwood and so many there said that it even beat out the Druidcraft as their favorite "earthy" deck. I was sold...until I actually got it and tried to use it, that is.

 

I love the artwork and find it amazing and beautiful. It's visually perfect. It just won't read for me though.

 

You've brought up some really good points. Perhaps I had too much expectation and somehow that's caused my connection issue. I think that's certainly possible. I've thought more than once to just let it go and let it find a new home that may be able to use it properly. I'm stubborn though and didn't want to give up on it but I think it's likely time. Thank you for your help and insight  :)

[Bluelagune]

I've seen Wildwood deck in the store. It doesnt have a cold shoulder. The Images feel empty.

[stephanelli]

Sometimes you just have to accept that you can't connect with a deck :-(

For me it's the Shadowscapes deck.  I've not gone as far as to buy the deck, but I've had readings done with it and I absolutely love the artwork, but I just can't read the pictures they seem.  I just can't connect with it.  Before I buy a deck I like to look at the artwork beforehand and imagine doing a result with it and I just can't with this deck however much I love it.

 

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[Wanderer]

Isn't that weird! The Wildwood is the only deck that has ever connected with me on a truly intuitive level, and I don't feel like I'll ever need another deck. It's incredibly deep, and works in ways I never thought possible. I do feel as though I've got a real, personal connection with it, and have had from about the second reading (after I didn't take the first one seriously enough, and it then mocked me into submission!). Ho-hum.  ;D

[Wanderer]

The Wildwood Tarot...it refuses to work with me and has refused since day one.

 

I've had the Wildwood Tarot for several years but it has never, ever been a reader for me. Ever.

 

I've done everything I can think of to get it to warm to me. I've cleansed it with incense, moonlight, sunlight, the elements. I've carried it around with me. It's rested on my nightstand while I sleep. I've set crystals on it. I've tried meditating on and journaling my daily draws. I've shuffled it and shuffled it and shuffled it and still, nothing. I'll leave it alone for awhile and return to it months and months later to see if anything has changed and still no. I want to work with this deck. I want to love it but it just isn't interested and frankly, I'm tired of trying really. Yesterday, after a year-ish of not touching it, I gave it another try. I did a deck interview asking what our relationship will be like going forward: The Blasted Oak (Tower), 8 of Arrows (Struggle), 2 of Stones (Challenge) :o

 

This is my snobby, cold shoulder deck. Do you have one? More than one, perhaps?

 

Reading this again, I don't think it's saying what you think it's saying... All three cards seem to me to be the deck telling you that to work with it you're going to need a new approach. If you stick with it, it's telling you this is what will happen...

 

The Blasted Oak is about breaking of bonds as much as disaster; you will be forced to forgo your old approaches when using this deck. It doesn't like being cleansed or washed in moonlight, being laden with crystals, or to be absorbed gently into dreams; this isn't the Greenwood, and the world of the abstract. This deck is powerful, deep and hungry, and all laid out in front of you in the cold light of day; it's about (sometimes harsh) realities, rather than dreams and wishes. All it wants is respect for what it is, and humility. This deck is one you work with, if it accepts you; you don't have power over it, and trying to change it into something else will result in readings like the above!  ;)

 

Struggle and Challenge are the crux, though. These are often mistaken for bad cards, because superficially that's what they are. But the hares challenge each other because it is their nature, and the way their world works. The figure struggling through the snowstorm is meeting adversity, but on her own terms - she is equipped and dressed for the task, and will succeed. The lantern guides her way, and you know that she's going to make it; this is Struggle, not Failure. Both of these cards are about the challenges that allow us to grow as people and personalities, that take us out of our comfort zones until we become something greater.

 

I'd actually say this was a very potent little reading, and not at all negative. If you don't give up on this deck, and try to approach it on its own terms, it will set you free. It won't hand it to you on a plate, though - you're going to have to be willing to step voluntarily into the Wildwood in order to reap the benefits. Make like the Wanderer, and your eyes will open.  8)

[ilweran]

you will be forced to forgo your old approaches when using this deck. It doesn't like being cleansed or washed in moonlight, being laden with crystals, or to be absorbed gently into dreams; this isn't the Greenwood, and the world of the abstract.

 

I have to agree with this.

 

As for decks that just didn't work for me but I really wanted them to, perhaps the Clive Barrett Norse tarot. I spent so long tracking a copy down because it was OOP, and then, nothing. Blanked me, or we just seemed to be speaking different languages.

[MysticMoonlight]

I think it's so cool that we can experience decks in such similarities and differences...it makes me ponder and smile  :)

 

I probably should've mentioned that I did try all the woo-woo stuff AFTER trying to just simply work with it for about 2 or 3 years. Sorry that I forgot to mention that, it was quite late when I made this post.

 

The woo-woo attempts were like a desperate last ditch effort, I guess you could say, on my part to work with it and I did all of that because, well, that was about the only thing I could think of that I hadn't done. My thinking was, well, maybe you're a woo-woo deck, I'll try woo-woo then!  X-D

 

Stephanelli- The Shadowscapes was a slow one for me as well, I can relate as it wasn't a deck that I felt I got on with at first. It took awhile but we're great friends now.

 

Thank you Wanderer for your insight about the reading. It really makes a lot of sense and your explanation gives me thoughts to consider.

 

I haven't decided full stop to pass the Wildwood on yet. I do love the artwork so much. I've been telling myself during all of the years in trying to work with it with no luck that it's just not time and that it'll open up when I'm truly ready to work with it. This could still be true. Like ilweran stated though, I do feel like the Wildwood and I may be speaking different languages...this describes how I've felt since the first reading with the Wildwood absolutely perfectly. I've just NEVER had a deck take this long to come around. Ever. Should I HAVE to work that hard to work with a deck? Could there be something profound if/when we ever do click? Maybe. 

 

Cheers, all!

 

 

 

[GreatDane]

FUN THREAD!

 

I only have nine tarot decks now.  Any that didn't resonate previously, I moved on.

 

Out of current meager collection, it's the:

 

ANCIENT ITALIAN and MYSTICAL Tarot that don't resonate that much for me.  I CAN read with them, they're just not ones I gravitate towards. 

 

[Guest Night Shade]

Mine is the Gendron Tarot.  There's nothing wrong with it, but we just never clicked.  The readings I get with it are only so-so.  I've been trying to work with it, but I think the symbolism really doesn't resonate with me.  I think some people and some decks are just never going to be besties.

[MysticMoonlight]

For sure, there will likely always be certain decks that we just feel "meh" about.

 

I think it's a good thing, in retrospect. I mean, I CANNOT imagine my bank account if I got along with all decks!  X-D

 

Scary thought  :bugeyed: :o

[HermitWriter]

My Cold Shoulder Decks are The Golden Tarot (Kat Black's version) and one of the Visconti-Sforza reproductions (it think it's Lo Scarabeo, but I don't have the box anymore. Anyway, it's got the border with the names in 5 different languages). I wanted SO BAD to heart the Golden Tarot. I love history, I appreciate art, Medieval and Renaissance? Yes please! But alas, we just don't click.

 

Same with the Visconti. I love the imagery, and as one of the "Ur-Tarot" decks, it should be right up my alley. I'm not sure if it's the edition I got (I definitely don't like the borders) or when I got it in my life, but I don't even enjoy pulling it out as a reference. Is very weird!

 

So of course I've doubled-down and recently ordered Mary Packard's Golden Tarot, because the unhappy associations I have with other Golden and Visconti decks won't color my opinion of these cards at all  ::)

 

And no, I haven't opened the new one yet. I'm just letting it...season! Yes, that's it...  ;)

[queenofwans]

For me, my cold shoulder deck was Tarot of the Cat People. I could never understand what it was telling me. Maybe it knew I wasn't a cat person at the time? I had it for about half a year before I let it go.

[Saturn Celeste]

MYSTICAL Tarot that don't resonate that much for me.  I CAN read with them, they're just not ones I gravitate towards.

I've had mine since it came out and I have found lately I don't use it enough.  When I'm going for a straight RW deck I have several varieties but the Mystical Tarot has been more of a Marseilles deck with illustrated minors and so I've been using it more.  Lately I'm wanting to reconnect to my Marseilles roots and pull out my JJ Swiss.  But I get a similar feel from the Mystical Tarot when I pull it out of the cabinet.

 

My cold shoulder deck is the H.R. Giger Baphomet deck.  I tried 2 readings with it and won't even store it near my decks.  It's in another room in a cabinet with NO tarot decks at all.  I could not read that deck and after trying to, I realized I didn't want to read it.  I LOVE Giger art, but as art, not stuck on a tarot card with no meaning.  It is another one of those art decks that just slap one of Giger's images on it and print up the standard LWB.  There was no intuitive feelings from the cards for me.

[GreatDane]

You summed it up so well, Saturn Celeste.

 

You can love the ARTWORK on a deck and can read with it, if pushed, but don't WANT TO!  For me what's the point of using a deck that doesn't engage me or that I resonate with.

 

So brava….that's so it in a nutshell.

[Arrow]

 

So of course I've doubled-down and recently ordered Mary Packard's Golden Tarot, because the unhappy associations I have with other Golden and Visconti decks won't color my opinion of these cards at all  ::)

 

Oh my goodness, it's this one that is my cold shoulder deck!  X-D

 

Well, I can't quite say that.  From the very beginning I've felt like it's saying to me to put it away and come back when I'm not such a rank amateur.  Like there will come a time or situation when using it is the right thing for me to do but that time is certainly not now!

[-fenrir-]

On 1/18/2019 at 8:50 AM, MysticMoonlight said:

 Perhaps I had too much expectation and somehow that's caused my connection issue. I think that's certainly possible.

I know what you mean. When you're looking forward for a deck and expect it to act like a friend you haven't seen in a while.

Like working with it should come more "natural" or something... Does that make sense?

[chongjasmine]

Maybe you can purchase another wildwood deck and see if it connects.

[Eric13]

I can't seem to get back into my Marseilles decks for some reason. I even took out the first new deck I ever bought in 1980 and couldn't do much with it. It's like walking away from a loyal friend. 

[Audelia]

My Wildwood was exactly the same!

 

I say 'was' because thanks to some excellent advice I received from people on this very forum, I can now read with it 🙂

 

It turns out, my Wildwood was just a bit snooty and required special treatment. Acting on the advice someone gave me here, I asked the deck what it wanted and pulled a card. Long story short, the deck basically told me it wanted more ceremony. I had been using it for quick reads, daily draws etc. But this is a deck that provides substance. 

 

So I started adding some ritual to my readings with it. I'd meditated before diving in, light candles, play music and commit to longer readings. Now it reads like a dream - go figure!

 

So yes, that was always my cold shoulder deck. But I will admit, the Linestrider is another one and i just can't get that to work with me no matter what I do 🙂

[Arrow]

17 minutes ago, Audelia said:

My Wildwood was exactly the same!

 

I say 'was' because thanks to some excellent advice I received from people on this very forum, I can now read with it 🙂

 

It turns out, my Wildwood was just a bit snooty and required special treatment. Acting on the advice someone gave me here, I asked the deck what it wanted and pulled a card. Long story short, the deck basically told me it wanted more ceremony. I had been using it for quick reads, daily draws etc. But this is a deck that provides substance. 

 

So I started adding some ritual to my readings with it. I'd meditated before diving in, light candles, play music and commit to longer readings. Now it reads like a dream - go figure!

 

So yes, that was always my cold shoulder deck. But I will admit, the Linestrider is another one and i just can't get that to work with me no matter what I do 🙂

I love this idea and I'm going to use it from now on when I get a new deck!  I have done more involved 'new deck' spreads before but I like the idea of a single card for a succinct answer.

[ilweran]

Thought of another one. Baroque Bohemian Cats. Love it, it's beautiful. Get nothing from it. It's like that thing where they ignore you in that terribly pointed way cats have.

 

The Wildwood is ok, though we do eye each other up slightly suspiciously because my first love is the Greenwood and we both know it 😅 It reads ok for me, but is better when I use it for reading for others.

[JustPeachy]

I wanted to, but unfortunately, I got no love for Everyday Enchantment. I was excited to get it but it sat unopened for several weeks before I looked at it. Then it was just nadda. I haven't even had the desire to do a spread with it. 😕