Question: Such Thing As Tarot Collecting Burn-out or Funk?

[TarotScholar]

Happy Friday the 13th and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

 

Just wanted to poise a question to more of the tarot collectors' side of the community.

I noticed a lot of people in the tarot community have been stepping back from tarot due to burnout, loss of interest, and/or hitting some sort of tarot "funk" but I noticed it was happening to those more on the spiritual tarot readers spectrum of the community. Was wondering if those that consider themselves more as collectors have experienced such a slump in their collecting. If so and if you're willing, would love to hear about the experience. TIA :)

[ilweran]

I'd say I've moved from doing more collecting than reading to the more spiritual side and reading loads.

 

Why?

 

Life changes - bought a house, got married had a child, this all changes your perspective on things, as well as the amount of disposable income you have.

 

I just don't want to buy as much stuff. I have too much stuff and would like to have less of it.

 

Working largely with one deck has reawakened the spiritual side of my life, something that has been buried for too long. I think that is contributing to the too much stuff feeling. I've also developed a specific area of interest, largely around celtic themes.

[gregory]

I have cut back - largely for financial and UK customs reasons, but also there is so much self-published rubbish out there that it bores me. I still thoroughly enjoy everything I do buy. (Goes back to gazing at her horribly expensive Opera deck she actually had never heard of and saw in Watkins.... It got me almost enough loyalty stamps to buy another deck on the spot !)

[Guest]

For me, collectng comes and goes in waves. My curiosity and taste have narrowed over the years considerably, and so has my desire to have more stuff. Also (and this is a big one) I reciently purchased a turntable after years of not having one, so I've been focused on music and journaling quite a bit more than studying tarot. Honestly the market right now isn't really offering a load of decks that I'm interested in, anyway. I've been studying and collecting for long enough now that I've seen fads and trends come back and around. There's not really a lot left that I haven't seen, and frankly hasn't been done better in the past. I think I've got what I want, for now. That being said, Yves Reynaud puts out one or two beautiful surprises a year that get me thinking about trading up 🙂  

[peacewing]

I've burnt out big time, and I don't think that I will ever go back to collecting. (But not in a bad way!)

 

Life circumstances change, and with my fiance back in school, my disposable income has gone down to... meh. LOL. I also got tired of constantly buying decks that I thought looked great, or had a great theory or approach behind them, etc. etc. only to either be disappointed and/or to have them only sit on a shelf and never be looked at or used. They took up valuable space and made me feel cluttered. I reduced my decks down to just a handful that I enjoy having around. I also have other hobbies that are very pleasurable and would rather use my hobby funds to gather materials that I can use for productive activities where I can make things or create things.

 

I am quite content and fulfilled having my handful of decks that I use and enjoy. 

[Grizabella]

I have a few decks on a list of them I'd like to get---or get again---and I've decided to accept barter for some of my readings in my quest to get them. I had a deck I didn't want that was pretty sought after, so I accepted 5 of the decks in tins that I didn't have.  ( Didn't get a tinned Wickwillow, though, but I still want one. :P)  

 

As others have said, a lot of the new decks just really don't do anything for me. There's been money in Tarot decks in past years and people got crazy and started just publishing almost anything without a lot of Tarot experience or study to get a cut of the pie. Those decks lack substance for me. i just don't find them as full of intuitive insight through symbolism as what I like to read with. 

 

There's a phenomenon that's happened to me off and on throughout the years, though, that I thought at first was a tarot funk/loss of interest/loss of ability. As it turns out, though, I've found that most Tarot readers go through periods in their journey where they just don't "feel it" anymore, sometimes for months or years. For me, those are the times when I come out of it with a greater surge of insight and clarity with the cards. It must be part of the process for some of us. 

 

Not all decks work for all people either. What's a brilliant reading deck for you might leave me cold. It depends on our Muse, I think. Muse is all I can think of to call it.  

 

The people I've noticed falling away are the ones who have preconceived ideas about what Tarot is and how it works. I find the opposite of TarotScholar's findings. The readers who are more spiritual are not the ones falling away more, in my observation. Unless you mean those who read strictly intuitively rather than through long years of intense study, that is. I do see that many of those readers fall off.  But Tarot isn't for everyone, so maybe it's just that it wasn't a strong calling for them and they soon lost interest. 

 

I've been learning and studying for 20 or 21 years and I'm very spiritual. I'm of the kind who believes I'm a spirit having a human experience rather than a human having a spiritual experience. I don't do great, involved, philosophical in-depth and prolonged studies of the cards according to Rider Waite and Crowley and whatever other sources there are so I'd never consider myself a scholar. I don't know much about kabalah or the tree of life or alchemy or anything like that. I don't learn stuff like that easily, partly because it doesn't appeal to me and partly because it doesn't sink in well-----probably both tied together like the chick and the egg thing.  Tarot isn't a religion for me because I'm not religious. I don't do spells with it either. I know so many other spiritual users of the cards who seem to be the ones who are the most dedicated to the use of the cards and for whom it's almost as natural to use the cards in a spiritual communication as it is to use a cell phone for earthly communication so they don't drop away anymore than they'd stop using a phone.  For me, I'd drop away from the use of a phone more likely. Never my cards. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grizabella]

Back to the collecting thing, I don't really consider myself a collector but in the past week or so, I've decided to start collecting decks in tins, pocket-sized, and mini-sized decks and I've loved Lo Scarabeo decks ever since I finally had a breakthrough with that company's decks about 8 years ago. Being cousin to a church mouse, I don't indulge in active collecting very much but I see a little glimmer of hope with my reading barter idea. Maybe I can actually collect in those categories here and there. 🙂

 

I've just never been drawn to collecting for the sake of owning decks. I know of some collectors I respect greatly who I know have very valuable collections but I think there are others who have started collecting in the belief they'll get rich someday when it's not likely because the market is so glutted in the past 20 years or so. Rare things are worth the money, and Tarot isn't rare anymore for the most part. Even out of print decks are very plentiful.  

 

Remember the Native American "craze" where all of a sudden it was cool to be Native American when in years gone by it was almost worse than being black, way back in history? Well, that got real after awhile and it wasn't so idealistic and airy fairy anymore so it died down some. I think we're seeing the same thing with Tarot.  It became of wave, it crested, and now it's washing up on shore and dissipating.  Another wave will wash up something new for many people to get excited about. 

[Annabelle]

I am still actively collecting; however, there's not much left out there that I want. Of the numerous new decks that come out each year, I'm only interested in a handful -- I'm thoroughly done with decks full of magical creatures, fairies, and the like. Of decks published in the past, I'm still seeking a Pam A, B, or C, but eBay sellers have been setting minimum prices that are above my budget. 

 

 

[Carla]

I stopped collecting 2 years ago. Market is glutted with dross (in my opinion).  A few years ago I bought Benebell Wen's Holistic Tarot and thought I'd hit the motherlode, but a few weeks later I got Camelia Elias's Marseille Tarot: Towards the Art of Reading and my mind was splintered into a million pieces that came back together in the stained glass window angles of the TdM, and I have not taken my eyes off it since. I got rid of most of my old decks. I still have a few left to go. 

[Morsoth]

Yeah, I stepped back too, for monetary reasons. I have too much hobbies: Movies, Comic Books and Tarot. I almost stopped buying Blu-rays, I only buy the "need to have" movies. I started selling movies that I don't need anymore.

 

For Tarot decks, I stopped buying modern decks. The very last ones were the Shadow Light Tarot (Eric Tecce) and the True Black Tarot (Arthur Wang). I don't plan buying any more "new" decks. Ultimately, they are all based on the Rider-Waite-Smith system, and I pretty much always use the RWS anyway. I love Pixie's art, it's a pure classic. The only things that I collect nowadays are historical reproduction decks. I'll continue buying new releases of Lo Scarabeo's Anima Antiqua line, and I sometimes buy facsimile editions of ancient Tarot of Marseille, but that's pretty much it.

Edited September 22, 2019 by Morsoth

[Queen of Nothing]

This is my first time popping back in in months and it has a lot to do with collecting burnout tbh. I'm definitely more on the collection side of tarot users, and I had to step back because I had so many and I wasn't really reading at all (I had a tough mental health patch), so I kinda just stopped looking at this forum and everything else tarot-related. But as for collecting burn out, I think the real big detractor is money and taste. The longer you collect, the pickier you get as you realize what works for you and what doesn't. So the urge to get every deck that comes out really dies down. Plus, there's only so much money you have and then wasting 60+ bucks on decks that didn't do it for you can really affect your passion for tarot reading. At least for me it does. 

[chongjasmine]

For me, lack of incomes still my collecting habits.

[Rodney]

Like gregory, I've cut back for a number of reasons:

• Too much of what's coming out is just repetitive regurgitation of the RWS without bringing enough new to the table to interest me
• The cost of living in my area continues to increase faster than my salary does, leaving less money for collecting
• I've finally gotten over my "completionism" *
• Space is at a premium
• I finally came to the conclusion that I don't own my tarot collection. Instead it owns me.

* - I still buy a lot of LoS decks, but I no longer feel like I need to purchase every one that comes out, especially because a lot of them fit into my first bullet point above.

 

So I wouldn't say that I'm burned out. If money and space weren't considerations, I'd probably continue to collect because how else will I ever catch up to gregory? 🤣

[zurgles]

I kinda poured my entire being into tarot collecting this past year, but I was also redirecting my cigarettes fund into tarot decks, and I'd promised myself a year of that. So I replaced cigarettes addiction with a tarot buying addiction.

 

That said, I capped myself at 22. And I'd had 5 before, and gave 3 away. I'm currently at 20. I plan on giving another away and buying the top 3 on my wishlist.

 

I have those others I want to get someday, some esoteric, but I want to focus on the decks I have and focus on saving or using that money more productively and holistically in other practical and spiritual areas of my life. Plus, my tastes and focus might change after using the decks I have 🤷🏿‍♀️ I've only been doing this for 6 years, and before this past year it was off and on. If I focus in on my decks and really get to know them - then I'll have a stronger idea of what sort of decks I like, what sorta things I dislike, and what gaps exist in my collection. Part of my obsessiveness this past year has been (anxiety, lol) due to being intense about curating for budgeting and space reasons, but also because I don't want to not know the decks I have....well. I feel like instead of stressing, I should allow it to be an exploration. I have a decent range now and a good sample size for me, so I can work it from that angle. Plus sometimes life just drops tarot (and oracle) decks into your lap - whether they're free or just more affordable 😆 So being open is good.

 

So I'm also more relaxed about it now. I think the completionist thing for me now is reaching 22. I'll probably keep checking in on indiedeckreview and kickstarter....but I'll try to limit that too. I guess I'm going for depth now.

 

I also want to focus more on making my own deck, or making decks, or tarot related art and writing. That'll help me improve my art and have fun exploring my own relationship and interpretation of tarot. So depth and creativity, instead of just being a "consumer." Plus I just expect more from decks now, and I figured out I like the Thoth deck a lot after trimming it, mainly the minors, which was kinda a surprise. And the Spirit Keeper's tarot is just a force of nature and I'd say, a magickal talisman. There's a lot to dig in here already. The soil is rich, hahaha! And I'm sure it'll change me to work with these decks.

 

Also some of what's coming out on the market is just kinda shallow to me. Even mine is probably kinda shallow if you're not me, but I made it for me. And all that is fine, I think some people will get a lot out of them, but it's not for me and kinda turns me off. They're more illustrative than symbolic. At the same time, I think there can be a time and a place for that, since beauty for it's own sake is powerful too, and that's all some folks need, but 2 symbolically minimalist decks are enough for me right now. It's nice to have easy readers, but I don't need any more. And honestly, the RWS couldn't be anymore literal as a deck. Though I do appreciate it more and more each day.

 

We've had some real gems come out though, and I'm glad there's been this tarot deck rennisance. One of these decks I'm interested in is the Herbcrafters, but I hadn't chosen to buy it because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to read with it. I think the Modern Witch is a wonderful addition, though I think I've decided that it's not it's for me. The Blood Moon tarot looks gorgeous, but I think I can wait and see. Plus I'd prefer the supposed borderless edition, even if that's a few years from now. And of course, there's Dust ii Onyx, which I'm definitely getting as the travel edition. But I think most of the decks I'm really interested in collecting have been around and are closer on the oldies but goodies spectrum, or are OOP.

 

Everything's flux-y! No point in making more commitments now. It's time to do the work is how I feel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alta]

I have a fair number of decks, though I feel fairly humble because I have seen gregory’s collection. However I ran into a pretty serious patch of depression in the last couple of years and reading just seemed like it was too much. And like the rest of you all the new decks started to look very boring without much depth. The last deck that I bought that I really really liked was Tabula Mundi.  I read with it exclusively until my brain fell over (not related events).  When I was in London in May I did find a deck in Watkins but more from the souvenir point of view.  I am here trying to get back into tarot interest.

 

So, I did indeed lose interest in tarot but part of me still wants to recapture what a great reading felt like, and excitement in a solid new deck.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

Alta and Rodney, it is lovely to see you here. 

I came to tarot in a good time, 15+ years ago when just about everything printed was still available on ebay dirt cheap so I didn't stint in my buying. Then slowly I began to learn what I liked, and what I could make sense of and began having yearly sell-offs. 

 

I was also in a very dark place for 5 years recently where my info junkie mind thought up new ways to commit suicide each day... and didn't buy any decks although I did continue to do my card of the day, deck of the week blog, which in great part was what held me together. 

When I came out the other side, there were a few new decks of great beauty and depth, and I am glad I bought them. But collecting? No, no more. So many art decks by people who haven't a clue about the symbology behind the art. 

 

collecting is an addiction like any other, and I have outgrown that part of my life. 

[DanielJUK]

nice to see you around here @Alta

 

I think you have to consider why you are collecting in answer to the op's question, yes it is possible to burn out and yes I see people who have collected for years and then they go minimalist! We are different at different stages of our lives and have different means to buy them at different times. I think also I went through a stage where I was buying decks for that adrenaline hit, they came, I opened them, looked at them and tossed them with the tarot decks. That is an awful way of collecting and we have had past threads here about addiction and spending addiction. I didn't get *really* bad but I think I was using it to cheer myself up, a little dopamine release for approx 5 mins! So if I kept going with this I would burn out on decks and financially but I am much more selective now, choosy what I buy!

 

I have never really been enabled by looking at the latest decks from the publishing houses but talking about a deck in the forum is so enabling for me if I like the artwork! I haven't bought a deck yet that I want to get rid of but I do have to becareful to not just buy a deck because it's being discussed.

 

This year I have had my security really challenged and I have to be much more careful with my spending currently and I want to rein in my deck buying a bit. I will still get a few a year but not because it cheers me up and when I can afford it. I saw a great tip from a website about curbing online spending habits and that is to not buy something for 30 days! Obviously if the deck is a special offer / limited edition or a crowd funder this might not apply if it's time sensitive but otherwise, think about it for 30 days, do you really need it in your collection? I think a lot of buys are impulse buys!

 

I have seen collectors reach a burn out when they don't need such a lot of decks anymore, this has never happened to me yet but I am curbing my buying because I want to be more selective of what I buy in future. I want to use the decks I have bought fully 🙂

[katrinka]

I've never really been a collector. I do have a good number of decks, but that's mostly due to accumulating them for years. I don't buy a lot.
What people are saying about decks by people who don't know their subject matter IS something I've been seeing more and more of. And it's the same with Lenormand - I can remember complaining stridently about some of the decks that were getting published when Lenormand was trending in a big way.

What happened/is happening with decks is what happens when anything trends. The copycats come along and try to make a fast, cheap version - witness all the plastic "designer" style bags in the discount stores. I'm all for affordable, but quality still needs to be a consideration. After all, if you're struggling to keep body and soul together, you need things that don't have to be replaced any time soon. And decks that will hold your interest, too.

So there was a bubble. It got bigger and bigger, and now it's popping. Popping is probably for the best.
 

[MollyCat]

I had about 100 decks but am not a collector.  In the first few years of Tarot, delight and curiosity motivated me but in 2012 I had a period of disillusionment and gave half my collection away.  I kept only decks to which I had an attachment or which were good examples of their kind.

 

The deeper question for me is to do with the WHY we use or collect Tarot.  After 17 years, I still look at Tarot several times a week..

 

I don't read for others but use the Tarot to gain personal insight or as a communication with my higher self or spiritual guides.  It's different from the way I first used Tarot and requires some faith or esoteric philosophy.  

 

I use different decks, often on my iPhone because it is easy and simple but there is nothing like taking time out and making space for a reading using paper cards.  The ritual in this method is important.