We now declare the Hogwart's School Annex officially open! :)
My love affair with Tarot decks began a few years ago after J.C. Wilder showed me her impressive collection. I fell in love with the art of Tarot. Before long I purchased my first deck, the Ancestral Path deck.
But, like potato chips, you can't stop at just one.
My collection of tarot and oracle decks now consists of:
Ancestral Path Tarot
Sacred Circle Tarot (personal favorite)
Llewyllyn Tarot (most recent purchase, card pictured above)
Arthurian Tarot
Lord of the Rings Tarot
Faeries Oracle
Fairy Ring Tarot
Celtic Oracle
Rock Art Tarot
Mini Rider-Waite Tarot
Celtic Book of the Dead Oracle
Those are just the ones off the top of my head. In order to do a complete list I'd have to get up and go upstairs to my bookshelves. :)
I tend not to buy a deck unless the art really speaks to me - reaches out and grabs me. It has to be lush, beautiful, complex. So that every time I look at a card, I see something different, depending on the question at hand.
I may go years between deck purchases, until I run across something that screams "buy me!" Such a deck was my most recent purchase, the Llewellyn Tarot. Of all the decks I own, this one and also the Sacred Circle tarot give me readings that are spot on. Rarely do they fail me. The art is amazing, and it's based on Welsh legends, which includes Arthurian myth.
Some of the other decks, like the Fairy Ring tarot, are beautiful to look at, but give me nothing but gibberish when I do a reading. It's funny, because Fairy Ring was done by the same author and artist as Sacred Circle, which is one of my mainstays. Others, like the Faeries Oracle by Brian Froud, give nothing but happy, positive readings and the art is just breathtaking.
So before I wax poetic (and boring) about my beautiful tarot decks, let's hear what you have to say about your experiences with Tarot. Do you have decks of your own? Have you had readings before?
Post a comment here and I'll draw names as to who gets a free, 3-card draw from my happy, amazing Faeries Oracle deck. Good luck!
15 comments:
I had a bad experiance with tarot cards once when I was younger, it scared me and I put the deck up, I don't evan know what happened to it. But I bought my daughter the Llewellyn Tarot for Christmas, she is a beginning wiccan.
Carolan,
This is an area I've been interested in for years but never done anything about.I've only ever had one tarot reading done and it was so spot on it amazed me. Seems the older I get the more I question about "mainstream" beliefs.
And I'm Anonymous 'cause it won't let me post any other way.
Alex
http://www.alexisfleming.net
Carolyn, I have one set at the moment. The Goddess Tarot. My daughter and her friends are really into tarot cards, and all that is Wiccan.
I took a Tarot class last week through a paranormal loop on Yahoo. In the past, I never quite figured out what to do with the cards. Through the class, it started to click. I only have the Rider Waite deck at the moment. I find it a bit flat and hard to read. I use the computer definitions from Joan Bunnings site. :-) Sometimes I wonder if I'm trying to find connections to make the cards work because I don't have any psychic ability (that I know of).
I also fell in love with the Llewellyn deck and intend to purchase it when I get back to the US this summer. I also ran across another deck that I loved the art work in a pop art 50s kind of way. It's the Housewives deck! You've got to take a look. It's a riot.
What a cool idea!!!
I have the Lord of the Rings tarot deck. I'd love to eventually make my own. I'm such a newbie at all this, though... :D
Thanks for your comments, everyone!
I don't claim to be an expert at this, not at all. :) I'm still chained to the book when it comes to card meanings, because there's no way I could memorize all that. However I am trying, when I pull cards, to look at them and listen to what my inner voice is telling me. What images on the cards jump out at me, or pop into my head.
I wise person once told me that the Tarot doesn't tell you anything that you don't already know, deep down. I find that holds true, and I will often pull a card or two just to see if I'm on the right track about something. :)
Different cards suit different peeps and different needs. For me Froud's fairie oracle gives light and dark readings and often too close to home to want to talk about when it comes to warnings and things.
I guess it's why I developed the Klahdagh, I'm far more in tune with that than any of the tarot and rune sets I own.
S.J.
SJ, I would love to try making my own ogham set. I'd like to see how it "behaves" differently from the ogham stave set I bought off the shelf.
I have no experience whatsoever with Tarot. To be honest, I don't want to know anything, particularly anything negative. I don't think I need that.
I tried to read Tarot cards back when I was young and adventurous (and also had a lot more time) but, like Carolan mentioned, there was no way I could memorize all that and the cards certainly never spoke to me. It was hard work so mostly I used my keen grasp of human nature (and my mean streak, ha ha) to do the readings instead of any inner sense. I suspect I'm psychicly a deadzone :)
I'm curious. What exactly are the oracle cards as opposed to the tarot cards?
I'm not great at reading the cards, but I do like the decks. I have 2 or 3, but my favorite, by far is the Robin Wood deck. That art is just gorgeous and very easy to interpret - at least for a novice like me. ;-)
Gabriella, a Tarot deck is a deck based on the traditional 78 cards of the Tarot, which has, I think, 20 "major arcana" cards and four suites of "minor arcana" cards.
An oracle deck would be any divination card deck that's not based on this traditional pattern.
Alexis, I drew your name from the Shrek popcorn bucket! I'll email you off-blog to discuss your question.
I have my worn and useful Rider deck, and my Celtic deck which is pretty but I've never been really able to connect with.
There's a goregeous fairy tale deck I want, since I'm such a fairy tale nut.
I'll gift it to myself someday...
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