Hi, guys!

[bookshop]

Hullo, all! I'm taking the plunge and intro-ing myself after lurking around these parts for a few weeks.  X/

 

I'm Aja (they/them or she/her is fine), and I've been a casual tarot reader for about 11 years. I've collected a few decks over the years and I've slowly gotten steadily more invested in deck collection, so that I went from, oh, picking up about 8 decks along the way over the first 7 or 8 years to suddenly collecting, uh, 19 more within the last 2 or 3 years.

 

I really love reading tarot for other people — I've been doing that for most of the decade and I do that whenever I can. (Lately I've been doing small readings for people on Tumblr which is nice. I really love online readings.)

 

But the thing is that I'm also a really skeptical person, and I'm very careful to say that I think tarot is a tool for introspection and meditation only, not a divinatory method. This gets hairy, though! Like, how do you make any sense of the Lenormand cards unless you're trying to use them for fortune-telling? And it also makes me have deep pangs of conscience when I wonder whether people are taking the wrong messages away from my readings no matter how much I tell them that they shouldn't use tarot as a sign to make important life decisions about their health or relationships, etc etc.

 

I think I found Tarot, Tea, & Me by doing a random google search for tarot forums after (apparently like so many of you) realizing that the Aeclectic Tarot forum had closed.

 

I really love tarot, and I guess I'm looking for ways to deepen my understanding of/participation in tarotology while threading the needle on being skeptical and shying away from aspects that verge into too much divinatory practice. If that's even possible!

 

And it would also be amazing to find more local community stuff here. I live in Brooklyn, so it shouldn't be hard to find tons of tarot activity, but so far I've mainly just visited the occult cat bookstore once or twice. :)  I'm always up for hanging out in person and playing around with cards and decks if anyone's interested! :)

 

That's all. I'll probably go lurk around the tarot card threads admiring your decks. :)

[Guest Night Shade]

Hello and welcome, bookshop[/member] (cool name).  There's nothing wrong with only using Tarot for introspection and meditation - those are very useful and insightful practices.  You'll find a lot of Tarot knowledge here that's not divination related.  Enjoy the forum!  :) <3

[Thoughtful]

Welcome to the forum bookstore  X/

[Raven]

Hello, and welcome to TT&M forum. There are many different forms and uses for tarot each one is personal. Not to worry

[moonglow]

Hello Aja! I have found it intriguing to read about your experience with reading for others while at the same time shying away from the divinatory aspect of tarot (and lenormand). I have been trying to work out if that's something I could do at all, as I find the idea of the reading exchanges hosted here quite interesting. Right now, though, I am just using the cards for myself. Nice to meet you.  X/

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

welcome home Aja, please don't lurk, all posts have value, without posters the forum dies.

 

check out this link for NYC tarot

http://www.tarotschool.com/RS19/index.html

sold out for 2019 but the merchant fairs are generally no admission

[joy]

Hello bookshop[/member] welcome to the TT&M Family  X/

[bookshop]

Thank you all so much for the kind welcome! I'm excited to be here. :) Thanks too for easing my mind re: being a skeptic. And thanks for the NYC link AJ-ish/Sharyn[/member] — i look forward to checking that out! And @moonglow if you ever want to chat about skeptical card readings lol, just holler!