How to choose your first tarot deck [REDUX!]

This post is a link in a long chain of blogposts all (hopefully) posted today the 23rd of September 2014. Most likely you came to my blog by reading Stella T’arot excellent post and after you are done reading my 2 cents, feel free to scoot along to read the next in the chain, Maria Luisa Salazar (and do not forget to leave a paw-print, bloggers relish in comments!).

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The theme for this hop is quantum leaps, or about things we learned, discovered or just people we met over the years that caused us to learn or realize things not in small chunks, but in giant quantum leaps and I want to write a little bit how my ways of choosing my tarotdeck (or oracle and lenormand for that matter) recently changed due to a clear lightbulb moment.

The beginning

Not that very long ago if someone asked me to tell how to choose their very first tarotdeck I would could have commited murder by this answer:

Depending on if you can afford one or two decks you have two choices: 1) Buy a deck that speaks to you, that tickles your curiosity. Choose a deck, whos imagery cvatches your very soul. The best deck in the world would be useless if you find it too ugly or boring to read with… or 2)Buy the deck that talks to your heart as suggested above, but also buy a more traditional deck like the Rider White Smith (RWS). A RWS, the still going strong ancestor of decks will help you get a deeper understanding of the symbols of tarot and about how it all fit together. Faithful as I am I usally took my own advice.

Frustration

Now, thus far into the story I think it is only appropiate to explain that I have kind of an obesession of mine:The belief that if I only found The Perfect Deck, my reading skill would really flourish and grow.  So I almost always bought decks with my heart and soul. Decks that I really liked the images in or the colours. Imagine my disappointment and dismay when I brought the deck home, opened it and tried to read with it and it was dead silent….  For me (your experience may vary) Animals Divine and the Maat Tarot are two of those. Stunning, stunning artwork, but no voice or story to tell me what so ever.

Frustration grew to no end and I felt like a big failure, again, and agin. Time after time I tried to get a grip on why a particular deck that I had fallen in love with imagewise would be so hard to read with for me. But I hit nothing- No treasure and no lightbulb and my treasurehunt for the perfect deck continued.

The Aha-moment

Until some weeks ago. I can not remember exactly what deck it was sadly. Maybe RWS or my darling Cat’s Eye Tarot. However, all of a sudden I found the missing piece of the puzzle! For me, the difference between a dear very readable deck and a deck with stunning images but nothing to tell me whatsoever in a reading, that  could be spelled out in one single word: C-L-A-R-I-T-Y!

I think it all boils down to how that magick  that is called fortunetelling or divination is happening. In my mind it is a sweet mix of knowing the meaning of each card, and trusting intuitive flashes. Yes, it is somewhere in between that the flow of tarot is born. Hence, when looking for clarity in a new deck I am looking for one of two things (preferably both):

1.  It should be really, really easy to identify a specific card in a  deck . Either by bold, and big letters on the card (I am in awe of readers who dare trimming their decks), naming it or by visual ques (One single cup in Ace of Cups, 3 crossed swords in 3 of Swords, 8 glowing wands in 8 of Wands and so on). As an example I can talk about The Quantum Tarot. The Major Arcana talk about physical theories, and it is not set in stone that you reognizes the major immediately by image alone, but the naming is bold and colourful with both specific colour and symbol to identify it. In the minors on the other hand we see the symbols illustrated clearly in the card, although the total depth is lost of course if you do not know space or physics.
2. The second thing I have realised that I need is clear and crisp images.  Themed or not, it should be very obvious what the card potrait. Even trimmed the card shoud be easily identifird! Most RWS clones are like that, my best experience have been with the Robert-Hanson Tarot as an example. Or, if a heavily themed deck, each and every card should make an obvious statement about what the card represents. if you are new to tarot, you should not need to look the meaning in a book. You should be able to gain that info from the card directly. Themed decks are tricky in that way, since they depend on your knowledge about the subject very much. You either get it or you don’t and you really should not need to ”translate” the meaning via a little white book,  My favorite go-to deck at the moment is the Cat’s Eye Tarot, As the name indicates it is a heavily cat-themed deck. Crisp and clear pictures with obvious statements in each card and although not a clone of RWS each card makes a clear statement,  making it very easy to read with. A mature tomcat as a King is equally right as the kitten challnging the dog in the Strength-card.

Summary

How I choose my decks have changed over the years. Now soul and clear demonstration of intent, either in text or image is my way to do it, As my post is coming to its close I would love to hear about how you chooses your deck, Is there a plan behind it or just on an impulse?

Oh, and f you can not have enough of tarot and blog hops – Here is the Grande Masterlist for the entire list! Good too if you run into a weak link in the chain….