Hello! :)

[Etheldreda]

Hello everyone!

 

I am getting back into the tarot after more than a decade away from the practice. I was very young when I first started using tarot and oracle cards (from around age 12-15) and was mostly into the art. My mother was (and is) big into the occult and I spent my adolescence in metaphysical shops - quite literally, as she was friends with the owners of one. I remember some rather puzzling reads from adults around me, and after failing to fully grasp all the meanings of the cards (I was straining to memorize the rote meanings from books, rather than form my own interpretation) I dropped it altogether, thinking it was silly. 

 

In the last month I have become enamored with the tarot and with oracle cards again. I got rid of all my physical decks around seven years ago when I become a Catholic. I regret that now not only because I am interested in taking the practice up again, but because one of my old decks would have gone for quite a bit of money now! 🤣 I have been able to rationally reconcile using the tarot and other oracle card decks by using them as tools for self knowledge/improvement rather than for divination, and they have served me so much better this way then they did when I was trying to use them in a magical fashion in my childhood. I don't say this to knock folks who use them that way - it just did not work for me. They've spurred some pretty solid and tangible positive pushes in my life at a time when I needed them, so now I am absorbing as much knowledge as I can about using them intuitively and I find it much easier to interpret their symbolism in a coherent way then I did in my youth, for obvious reasons.

 

At the moment I have no physical decks, but have been using the Golden Thread Tarot app and Labyrinthos app, with mixed results. The oracle cards apps have been more accurate weirdly enough (I am using the free versions of Gaye Gutherie's Mystical Oracle cards, Janet Chui's Self - Love Oracle, and Elizabeth Ward's Wisdom Within Oracle cards). I am waiting to get a physical tarot deck until I am less broke, I feel like I'm going to get better results once I get my paws on one. 

 

If you got to the end of this meandering mess, thank you. I am glad to be here and hope to learn a lot. 

[joy]

Hello @Etheldreda welcome to the TT&M Family I made it to the end of your intro ;-) Hope you can soon buy a tarot deck as there is a bit of a different feeling in holding cards in your hands compared to using apps :-)

[Etheldreda]

@joy Thank you! 😊 Glad you made it through haha! I agree, there's nothing like a physical deck - it's actually kind of killing me waiting but I'm very close to my goal so I will soon have a deck in hand again. It's been great brushing back up again and it's like suddenly I comprehend it in a way that I was not able to when I was younger, likely due to life experiences. 

[LoveLightPeace]

Hi and welcome to TT&M @Etheldreda! So glad that you have found your way back to tarot and decided to join us. Hope you're able to get another deck soon. I have the Fool's Dog tarot app that I use sometimes. I do like having that option when I don't have my cards with me. Out of the apps that you're using, which do you like the most? 🙂 

[Etheldreda]

Thank you @LoveLightPeace! Of the tarot apps, my favored one is Labyrinthos. The option to create your own custom spreads in that app is a huge bonus for me. Of the oracle deck apps, the Mystical Oracle is my favorite, and I favor it (and the other oracle apps) a bit more than Labyrinthos. I credit them for rekindling my interest in tarot, but as a whole I find them lacking - they just don't seem to have the same spirit about them and for me personally they're about 50/50 in terms of accuracy for personal readings. I have no idea why the oracle apps seem more forgiving in that regard, but it could be because it's more general good advice that is more likely hit the mark. 

[Lady Butterfly]

Hi @Etheldreda, and welcome to TT&M!