Decks

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Whoohoo! One week to go in our fabulous giveaway! We only have 24 entrants so far, so odds are pretty good. In fact, I can say with 100% certainty that SOMEONE will win that deck. :D (It occured to me upon viewing this post that it could, possibly, appear that we were giving away that box full of decks. We aren't. Not even close. We are giving away one (1) deck, NOT pictured above, Ciro Marchetti's "Legacy of the Divine" which is gorgeous and beautiful and will come to the winner brand spanking new and straight from the retailer. Those decks in the picture are mine, and shall stay that way. Stop drooling. Mine.)

So, I was going to do a card of the day, and in fact, I have several set up and ready to go (not written, but I have pictures. Cause that's the easy part.) but I am tired and I have a brand new Terry Pratchett book waiting for me, so instead, I am going to talk about one of my favorite things about tarot.

The decks.

I love tarot decks. I love the variety in them, the sheer beauty of so many of them, the quirkiness and humor in others. I love how every different interpretation of a card deepens its meaning for me. No matter what you are interested in, what kind of art you like, what size cards you want- somewhere, there is a deck for you.

My very first tarot deck was the Mystic Dreamer Tarot. It was a gift from our very own Wakingspirit, in response to the words, "I think I want to learn to read tarot cards." Her immediate reaction was, "Well, don't buy one yourself. Pick one out and I'll get it for you."

Yes, I have the best best friend ever.

I went trolling through the decks on Aeclectic, and the first deck that I oohed and aahed over was the Tarot of Prague. I thought, and still think, that it is just lovely. Fortunately, I looked up prices before I told her what I wanted, because I am pretty sure if I'd told her to buy me that one, she would have laughed herself to death. Mystic Dreamer was my second choice, and I do love it- but not nearly as much as Wakingspirit does! She ended up getting her own copy a few weeks later and uses it all the time.

This was the beginning of my obsession with tarot decks. It was also the beginning of my education in tarot superstition. (Nice segue, right? I know, I rule.) The idea that a person should receive their first deck as a gift is a superstition hotly debated among tarotists. I've since learned about other "rules"- there are, for instance, a million different "right" ways to store the cards. Some people won't touch a deck that has belonged to someone else, and some people feel that the appropriate way of discarding a deck that you will no longer use is to (gasp!) burn it.

Don't use tarot cards on wood, ONLY use tarot cards on wood; don't let the querent shuffle, the querent MUST shuffle. It's really the same in all things tarot; each individual must determine for themselves what the "right" way is.

I personally don't see any reason why someone musn't buy their own first deck, if they've no one to do it for them. For me, it was a lovely "welcome" into the tradition to have someone give me such a wonderful gift; it felt like someone else opened the door and invited me in, saying, "Look around! There's so much to learn!" But as nice as it was, I feel sad for all the people who don't learn because they're worried about bad luck or a deck that won't "work" if they buy it themselves- not to mention the people who steal them and then tell themselves it was a gift from the store. (Even my powers of justification aren't that good, and I'm a grand master!)

As for everything else, I've done it pretty much every which way (except for burning decks) and really, it doesn't seem to make a difference. After all, it's not really the cards that do the work. The cards just lay there. I am the one working.

And if you are tempted to burn a deck once you're done with it, send it to me! You don't want to inhale all that smoke. Let me "burn" it for you. :D