If you could start over

[AV86]

I once gave a few thousand dollars to someone to perform readings for me, when in reality I could have just bought a deck for myself and done the readings for myself for free, and gained a little knowledge about the subject along the way. I chose a Cathar Tarot deck, and they're labeled much differently than what I'm familiar with, but I find that the cards and I have truly bonded in the short time I've known them. 

[ReflectiveTarot]

Many of the decks that made me go from 'occasional dabbler' to 'enthusiast' are relatively recent, so I could have gained maybe 3-4 years on my journey. I'd have done a couple of things slightly differently – not bought cheap decks off ebay without full scrutiny, looked for a wider range of tarot books sooner, rejected practices that never felt right with more confidence – but all in all, I have few regrets.

 

My main point is that I got into Tarot at a point where I could afford to build a collection of (mostly mass market) decks rather than falling in love with the Tarot at a point where I was so skint that buying the 'wrong' deck would have set me back for months. I would have placed much more expectations (surely, this is The One?) on each deck, and been disappointed much more strongly. (I learnt what works for me in part by buying decks. When I started out, there was a lot of experimentation.) Ten years previously, that would not have worked as a journey: the decks weren't there, I had less freedom to take chances, and I knew less about art and thus would have made different selections. 

[TheLoracular]

If I could start over and go back to Young Me with the insight of Old Me still present?

I would have said "create emotional resilience and do not lose yourself in addictive roleplaying games or focus so much energy on being liked by unlikeable people.  Use tarot less as divination and how to pay bills reading cards for others and more for self-development and becoming the person capable of coping with crisis and adversity without shattering into a million pieces."  
 

[euripides]

I think I probably wouldn't have bought so many decks, but the second deck I bought, the Spiral, has always been like an old friend.  I wish I'd maintained a more consistent tarot practice, and connected with people away from forums so that I didn't end up so adrift when Aeclectic folded. I think when life is a bit repetitive it can be hard to see the value of regular readings, but perhaps if I'd found some other ways of thinking about it, my old friend's wisdom may have guided me better. I've made a lot of poor choices that could have used a bit more open-minded and reflective thinking. I wish I'd felt more confident in reading for others, too.

[Guest]

If I could start over again, I would spend less time trying to make sense of massive spreads like the Celtic cross, or even using past, present, future spreads long after I realized those don't work well for me.

 

Also, I wish I'd been a little better at putting down tarot books that I didn't like, and just acknowledge that I wasn't going to find anything useful there.  All I did was waste time and get annoyed.  Those books should have gone back to the library immediately, instead of sitting on a TBR pile by my bed for two weeks while I kept picking them up and putting them down again.

[ballerina]

Fun question.  😄

 

I will forever regret not buying that tarot deck in Italy 40 years ago.  In my mind it has become more beautiful than I'm sure it ever was.  I have no idea what the name of the deck was.  I guess I didn't buy it as I saw it at the beginning of my trip and I probably didn't want to spend the money yet on "trinkets" to take home.  Still, I think about that deck in the glass case in the bookshop in Florence every now and then...and sigh...

[JudyReadsCards]

If I could start over, I'd realise sooner (like not after 30 years) that I could read tarot the way I instinctively read the oracle deck I spent most of my "first tarot deck money" on (having just enough left for a mini-RWS). The oracle (Morgan's Tarot) came with no meanings, no instructions - I just had to wing it. And wing it I did, quite successfully actually, although I never gave myself any credit for it because it wasn't [dramatic chord] Tarot. 😉  I haven't thrown out the basics, but a lot of what I struggled with back then, because I thought it was necessary or important,... wasn't. 

[katrinka]

I don't think I could have done anything differently in the beginning. There was no internet and nothing available to me but the University Books RWS and Eden Gray's Mastering The Tarot, lol. Other books and decks existed, of course, but I never saw them. No ads to send off for them, none of them in the Occult section (remember when it was called "Occult" and not "New Age"?) of Foley's book department. I never even saw a Thoth until the internet happened. About a year into it I got a TdM, but that was it.

In a way I was lucky because I was forced to concentrate on one book and one deck until they were internalized.

A more jaundiced eye might have been helpful. Eden gets a little silly sometimes.

[Guest]

If I had to start over, I would not have bought the amount of decks and books I have now. I would have bought a RWS deck and 78 degrees of wisdom and tarot for yourself and sticked to that. I also wish I would not have been so sensitive to others and what they think is the right way to do tarot. Some comments have been not so friendly. 

[Sar]

I regret nothing. It was and still are a blast.

[Seren]

If I could go back, I would not have treated the Tarot as such a joke.  Almost like a party trick, something I did for friends and family (usually when alcohol was involved).

 

Even when people told me afterwards how accurate their readings had been, I didn't pay it any credence. Luck, fakery, woo, booze, nonsense who knew?  I certainly didn't have any psychic powers and I doubted the deck of cards I messed about with had any either.

 

It was only much later in life that I started to realise what a stalwart comfort the cards were to me. Day by day, night by night,  as I navigated the trials and tribulations of life, the good times and the bad, the Tarot was a reassuring, constant presence in my life and even just reading for myself, it became apparent to me that there really was something in this.  Inexplicable yet undeniable. 

 

Once I accepted that, I never looked back.  

[nord_drache]

I wouldn't have changed a thing. Personally I do my utmost to ignore regrets.

Looking back I believe I wasn't mature enough at that time to have honestly and responsibly embraced Tarot. I think Tarot arrived in my life when it was supposed to - I have always tried to be appropriately restrained in purchases and discovered some purchases may have been made before their time.

 

Jim

[Jewel]

On 4/2/2019 at 1:57 PM, Jewel said:

I would have started with 21 Ways to Read a Tarot card and journaled the way I do now.  But I have to say my Tarot Journey has been very rewarding so I have no regrets, just some lessons learned along the way as it should be  😉

I was just reading through this thread and pondering more on this.  In truth I feel very lucky to have got into to Tarot when I did.  It was before the internet, but there were a good range of decks available and some choices in books.  I did not know anyone into Tarot so I was completely on my own in learning.  I will admit that because of the books I read I did feel like I had to learn on the RWS and I put a lot of pressure on myself to connect with the deck but it was just not happening.  I had been drawn to the Robin Wood since I walked into Barnes and Noble Tarot section the first time so about 3 months of banging my head on the wall with the RWS I picked it up and it helped.  I regret not having just picked up the Robin Wood from the get go.  I struggled a lot with doing Tarot the "right way" (based on books) and I think that stumped my progress significantly, I wish I would have taken more time to "play" with my cards vs. trying to memorize.  I did have the Mary Greer Workbooks (Tarot for Yourself, Tarot Constellations, and one one other) but since I did not journal I just never delved into them as I could have.  So I think I would spent more time doing this at that particular time.

 

Overall I am glad (and lucky) I got to start my journey pre-internet, and before there were a ton of decks by artists that know nothing on the subject.  I could see that if I were starting now I might have ended up with a pretty "empty" deck, and would have probably struggled more than I did.  By time AT came around I had developed my own way, though lacked confidence in my ability to read, but AT really helped me in that respect and provided me with a great time of growth and confidence.  It really has been a great journey, confusing and uncertain at times but it evolved and unfolded and I guess I have no regrets. 

[Sar]

When I came to the purple place...

 

It was heaven.

 

So many beautiful people, so many talented readers. And I stole the style of reading to all the readers I looked up too. gregory, Bea, Rose, FireMaiden and Kwaw before I felt certain within my own style!

 

https://voca.ro/1cogUVLfj8z4

Edited October 9, 2021 by Sar

[Raggydoll]

18 hours ago, TheThumbPuppy said:

 

Am I the only one who thinks that this paragraph doesn't make any sense?

 

Not having a go at anybody, but if you knew then what you know now about reading, how could you start reading tarot again today?

 

If you could start reading tarot again today, doesn't that imply that somehow everything you already know about reading would be wiped out?

 

I knew I shouldn't have got up today – mind fog all day 😕

I think I understand what she meant, but my brain is struggling today too. Well, I guess that if I could go back in time and pick up a deck and already know what it’s like to be a tarot reader, then I’d … read more confidently ? Perhaps 😄 ! It’s been a while since I first started.. about 26 years. I was a preteen. And it probably would have been very odd if I had known them what I know now 😁

[Sar]

I liked the road to mastery, or the thinking I am a master reader of tarot. I know there are people here that put me in my place any minute I step op of the line. There is always something to learn and it is addictive. ❤️

[chongjasmine]

I wouldn't have thrown away my feng shui and chinese tarot. These are now out of print, and I miss them dearly.

I really regret throwing them away.

[katrinka]

On 7/2/2021 at 2:04 PM, JudyReadsCards said:

If I could start over, I'd realise sooner (like not after 30 years) that I could read tarot the way I instinctively read the oracle deck I spent most of my "first tarot deck money" on (having just enough left for a mini-RWS). The oracle (Morgan's Tarot) came with no meanings, no instructions - I just had to wing it. And wing it I did, quite successfully actually, although I never gave myself any credit for it because it wasn't [dramatic chord] Tarot. 😉  I haven't thrown out the basics, but a lot of what I struggled with back then, because I thought it was necessary or important,... wasn't. 

 

How did I miss that one? It's like a deck version of Be Here Now. 😁

http://www.sleepbot.com/morgan/index_p.html

 

As for "knowing what I know now", I'm with Raggy on that. I'd have been an exceedingly strange kid, it would have freaked people out. They'd have probably locked me up or something.

Edited December 4, 2021 by katrinka

[khatsar]

If I could start over, I would not bother with tarot books until I'd spent some real time with the cards themselves. I thoroughly confused myself for quite a while trying to learn what everyone else thought about tarot before opening up to my own intuition.

[Wyrdkiss]

Good question.

My first deck was the Thoth with absolutely no regrets.  But it was over three years before I discovered the creators work and writing about the deck.

That three years was absolutely wasted using a popular resource book about the deck by another author. I rarely use the word wasted when referring to experiences.  Discovering The Book of Thoth and Duquette opened up a whole new world to me. I felt like I was reading the pack for the first time.

 

 

[Morwenna]

I had books before I had decks; this was around 40 years ago. Even after I had my first 2 or 3 decks, I would study those books, and the LWBs from the decks, trying to see what all the authors had in common. I even went so far as to make a chart with all the cards down the side and the authors across the top, and what each one had to say about each card, trying to find consensus. I really should have just taken the simplest meanings and gone with that till I developed more intuition about the cards. And it didn't help that one of my first decks was pips-only and the others were RWS. I didn't know yet that they were derived from different sources.

 

And I would have started reading for others a lot sooner and more often. As was mentioned before (DanielJUK?) I had, and still have, a great issue with fear of failure. Stage fright, performance anxiety, call it what you will, I was always afraid to look foolish or incompetent. Even when I know what I'm doing, my throat gets tight and I forget how to express my insights in proper words. I believe that more frequent practice would have helped me there. I still don't do reading circles because I'm afraid of offering some insight that no one else would agree with! It makes no sense; if I can analyze individual cards outside of the context of a reading, such as in study groups, why balk at this? 

[Laura Borealis]

If I could start over, I would start with playing cards as a child, since I would never have gotten away with Tarot in my family! But we had tons of playing card decks, so I could stealth read with those. There was no internet, so I'd have to find someone to teach me, or obtain a book somehow (and keep it hidden - this was easy enough, though. I used to stash contraband books right on the bookshelf, with the spine facing in. Put them in a section where nobody would look if they wanted to borrow something. Better yet, put it inside a Nancy Drew jacket or some such. Parents, if you repress your children, they grow up sneaky.)

[Misterei]

No regrets. I wouldn't change a thing.

 

My father gave me my first deck when I was 15, so of course there were years of using Tarot to obsess over boys. 🤣 But I don't regret that. It was a phase. I learned something valuable. I came to understand the importance of NOT reading tarot obsessively. Everyone has their own learning curve. That was mine.

 

Since I started pre-internet, I was monogamous with RWS for 15 years. I was already matured as a reader when I decided to collect decks, so other than a few impulse purchases which i've since donated ... I have no regrets about my collection either. It's a good size for me and helps my business as well as giving me pleasure.

[Deian]

When I was young I was really curious about divination systems.
I remember staring at a black mirror for an hour every night for a long time until visions started to come...

 

And somewhere along the way I've gone through the stuff G.D. did with their decks. The Opening of the Watch Towers, the languages and everything...
The whole thing takes many months, at least it took for me. And I never used it for more then attuning to my deck and stuff like that... Although I have used Tarot for more then that...

 

And since I didn't knew much back then, about the Tree of Life or about the decks, it happens that I did it with the Thoth Tarot.
So many decades later, there is no way I would do any of this again I think. Its fun for a kid, but now will be... Unseemly. Yet even though I may not be with very good opinion of all G.D. did, the Watch Towers and the whole enochian system is not some astral game. Its very impressive stuff, though given for a specific reason, but I do agree with popular practitioners out there that think it could and is used outside of it as well.

Overall, I do have some stuff I think I would have done differently now. And one of those is that I would use Waites deck, instead of Thoth one to attune to. As I can't imagine I will do all that stuff now, and I don't use Thoth Tarot, anymore.

[WhiteMoon]

@Morwenna Thank you for reviving this thread!

 

I feel very lucky that I was led to exactly the right deck at the right time and that it dovetailed with my spiritual path (Motherpeace, Goddess Studies). I also feel very lucky that I was asked to read for others practically from the beginning (someone on a bus who saw me with the cards, friends who didn't mind me referring to the book) and that I took my time getting to know the deck fully.

 

Ironically, my second deck was Crowley's Thoth. Even though it is very different from Motherpeace, the creators of MP were influenced by it. A friend had a mini-deck, and I was mesmerized by Thoth's High Priestess (which is "my" card). I took a long time getting to know that deck too. It was 10 years before I picked up another deck.

 

While not all decks and books I've worked with have been keepers, I do feel that my intuition and the Universe have been "right on"; I wouldn't change anything. I'm so grateful that Tarot continues to be a comfort and a joy, even though @Misterei I also had to learn not to read obessively!