seeking advice on the tarot

[sueami]

hi, dear fellow board members,
i'm wondering if any of you who are knowledgable about tarot cards can offer a bit of advice...
i'm interested in learning the tarot. i have long been aware of how limited, or perhaps just supressed, the intuitive/mystical/magical/spiritual aspect of my personality is, thanks to my family of origin. i've only recently begun to realize that i can actively work to deepen that part of myself.
i am thinking that exploring the tarot would be a wonderful vehicle for opening channels of communication to this part of myself.
i have a tarot deck i bought many years ago, and i'm starting my lessons on that (thanks to a wonderful link to an online learning-the-tarot site posted by someone recently on the personal growth board, i think it was).
but i'm wondering if it's the right deck for me and whether i should try a second deck. i can't afford the luxury of buying a bunch and just trying them out, so i thought i'd ask what decks you have liked and why. I don't particularly identify myself with some of the major categories of tarot decks, like wiccan or native american or renaissance themed ones, although celtic has an appeal because of my irish ancestry.
is the rider-waite deck really the best to start with? i currently have a deck called the medieval scapini tarot, with beautiful and elaborate imagery on every card. it feels a little overwhelming, there's so much symbology on it.
so, any thoughts or recommendations?
many thanks in advance,
susan

[steph]

i think any deck you personally resonate with is the one to use...rider-waite is just one of the most common...

[ladylee]

Hi susan --

wow, yet another thing we have in common. I've also been learning the tarot. Here's a great thread Arduinna started which has many references for books and links, as well as people's favorite decks.

I got the RW to start, just to be traditional I suppose, but will have to find another deck that truly resonates with me, because RW does not. If you look in this thread OceanMomma recommends a website that has very helpful interpretations.

In spite of my challenges w/the RW deck I am gaining so much from this wonderful tool. For Christmas I plan on treating myself to the deck I really want, which works with the chakras.

http://216.92.20.151/discussions/sho...ighlight=tarot

[sueami]

thanks, steph, perhaps i should stop by our local new age bookstore and look at the decks they have. i'm having a hard time feeling called by the ones i've browsed on the internet.

and lee, it seems like everytime i have a question somewhere on these boards, you have such an abundant answer! i'm grateful and delighted! (i love that little waving smiley. let's see if i can get it to work in my msg. they ususally don't) i'm going to settle back with that thread right now, at least until someone starts calling for me...

[mamabeard]

i use the Aquarian deck.. i really like it and it has beautiful art.. a friend of mine had The Enchanted Tarot.. that one was *amazing*.. have fun!

[Pynki]

i had a deck with cat people on it... I loved it, but i ended up giving to a friend i think... I loved the pictures...

Best of luck

[Gendenwitha]

I answered this same question recently on another specifically Tarot board I go to. So I cheated and cut and pasted the long reviews I gave on that board. Here's the link of people reviewing their favorite decks if you want to hear everyone else's too:
http://boards1.ivillage.com/messages...arot32/35.html

I use Art Nouveau
http://www.isisbooks.com/Details.asp?item=0880793759
and I love it because it's easy to read without a book, and a great deck for relationships (which is what is most important in life really, and also what most readings are about.)

Rock & Roll Tarot is my newest deck, and I got it because I'm a music fan and because all the cards have lyrics on them and I once told a girl she and her boyfriend were on the card as "two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, running over the same old ground, [but all they've found is] the same old fears" from the moon card with two little creatures in the river. I've only done 2 readings with it so far, but I like how it can discribe intense emotions, yet get to the point at the same time. Seems great for quick readings. http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/rocknroll/index.html

One of my other "just the facts" deck is a deck of playing cards. I found this site http://www.talisman.net/tarot/regcard.html which is a similar concept, but my deck has words written on it and arrows pointing on some to show it corresponds specifically with one of the cards it's touching. I copied the deck from a friend, who copied it from her older sister, who copied it from a friend/teacher of hers. It's somewhat time-consuming, but if anyone really wants this deck I could make a copy for you.

The last deck I use most frequently is an oracle deck, not based on the tarot. It is based on "Lord of the Rings", has 40 cards, & I need the book to read it, but I like how it shows life as a journey with phases, vs. questions and answers.

For example a question of "will my dh cheat?" was answered, "here's the path you've taken, here's how he sees things and his insecurities about your path, this is how you will eventually part and why and this is how it will and will not affect your daughter." If I had answered a simple question with a simple answer it would have been emotionally devastating, and would have possible inspired her to try to change her fate, staying in a relationship that was suffocating her.
On this link, it's the second one down. http://www.mayhemltd.com/tools-lordofringstarot.htm

Tarot of the Cat People: My first deck and the one I teach my kids with. I love it because the book was actually helpful (unlike other decks) but I was able to learn to read without it as well.
One of the things that impressed me from my son was when he after saying in other cards that the cats were sad, saying, "cats okay now, kids okay now" I don't know why when he at 4 & his brother at 3 would frequently pretend to BE cats that it would surprise me he would make this analogy, but it did.

What I love about my Handil deck is the Handil layout given in back of the book.
In general I use it for emotional/spiritual issues because as I describe the deck to people, "If you kept a journal of what happens to you every day at the top of the pages, and your emotions about those events at the bottom of the pages, this deck is a little like reading just the bottom of those pages..." great for an emotional empathic reader like me, but hard to read for those hard and cold facts that skeptics especially like.

So, I usually read for people in these very emotional situations with this deck, and what I like about the Handil spread is that one of the cards is the person who gives you their full unconditional support. I've had the privlige of surprising a man in a marriage that he saw as stuggling, that their wife, dispite all their bickering, would do anything for them; and reminding a woman of a grandfather who she hadn't had contact with in years still that still loved her dearly and would do anything he could for her, and told another woman that her deceased father was still with her, looking out for her.

I can't tell you how many times reading that card, or seeing the querent's reaction has brought tears to my or their eyes.

(And although I don't usually read with a book, I keep this book handy because I'm sometimes drawn to a speciffic image or symbol I'm not familiar with.)

I have a couple more but I don't use them as much. (Yes, I have a lot of decks, but it's not as bad as it seems, I've been reading and occasionally buying new decks over the last 10 years.)

P.S. I personally Hate reading with the Raider-Waite deck, but that's just me.

[seraph]

I usually recommend the Universal Waite (not Rider Waite) deck to newbies. It's similar to the Rider but the minor arcana have actual pictures too instead of just the number and the suit. It's a nice size and the colors are good. One of my favorite decks is the Connolly deck which is just gorgeous. Some of it is overly Christianized for my taste but I usually use it for giving readings to people who are new or nervous about tarot because it's very positive and lovely. For my own personal stuff, I prefer the Daughters of the Moon deck. I love round decks, and the goddesses in the DoM set are just amazing. I have the color version but I think you can also still get it in B&W and color it in yourself. I have several other decks, Voyager, Haindl, Motherpeace, Renassance, the Witches Tarot, but none of them resonate with me like the Connolly and the DoM do, so they mostly just sit in a box.

[Meiri]

I don't read very often, but when I do I find my Robin Wood deck to be the best for me.

Robin put as much thought and detail into the minor arcana cards as she did the major arcana. She used real people as models thoughout. Her symbolisms are fairly easy to see just from the card, but she also has a really good book out about reading Tarot in general and her deck in particular. Robin Wood Tarot: THE BOOK by Robin Wood. There is also a Celtic feel to the deck, even though Tarot is not Celtic.

I also have a Daughters of the Moon deck that I colored in myself. That was an excellent exercise in itself, but I find the round cards too large to handle comfortably.

[sueami]

thanks ƒor all the feedback, everyone! i found myself responding to the osho zen tarot, and ordered it from the learntarot.com site last week. i haven't had a chance to work with it very much yet; i hope it works out.
i have another question for any and all. i'm wondering about reversed cards. i've seen several mentions of round decks. i assume reversed cards would be irrelevant/indistinguishable. the learntarot.com site indicates you can choose whether to interpret reversed cards differently or not. my zen deck makes no mention of reversed cards.
what do you do with them?

[Gendenwitha]

Reversed cards

For a long time I struggled with how to read reversed cards, trying to read them as the opposite of what they showed, but that didn't seem quite right. I finally realized the best way to put it is that they show what is NOT.

Prince Charming in reverse? Okay so hubby isn't the stuff of fairy tales, he's not an evil orgre either.

Why can't I meet someone?
A card of action in reverse... it's not that what you're doing that's wrong, it's what you're NOT doing. Try getting out of the house some of the time.

See the subtle difference? Honestly, for years I tried to skip over the reverse card as much as possible and hope they didn't ask for more about that card.

[marymom]

greetings and salutations
I have just purchased a Juliet Sharman-Burke? deck illustrations by Giovanni Caselli , read the book and studied / meditated with each card, then deck then decks then the majors, Ive done readings which were beyond my wildest expectations, just since Friday when I got them!ok, not wildest, but surprizingly relevant, -I also got a round mother deck for my sister for christmas- she may not get them as I am sooooo tempted to open it up and check them out, I was drawn to the mother part of them(Ive been a mother for the last 26 years actively birthing between the ages of 15 and 39- mother appealed to ME but round seemed as if it would be perfect for my sister) and also to the idea that they were round but I thought Id better follow directions while learning -and the Burke deck said it was specifically for the novice, Ive never even had my cards read before<insert embarassed sigh> but its sooooo wild and right on- so I think Im going to remain with the deck I have -I also was wondering about the upside down cards, my intuition told me that occasionally other meanings were inverted also, not just the meanings from the inverted cards and the directions also said that...so Ive been just putting the cards upright and then going by gut- I think Ill try putting the cards carefully in rightside up position before I give them to the person, then if they are upside down I will take note-also
I have specific questions about location, I know in the movies the readER is always sitting accross from the readee but Ive been haveing the person(usually my kids-) sit down beside me and place the cards out themselves, then we both read them from the same side- do you all set the cards out for the person or have the person set them out?where do you read the cards from? The person's side or yours? thanks
I loved the chakra site by the way -great reading! thanks!

[marymom]

ps, should cards be read during a solstice celebration? It seems like I read somewhere that it was discouraged at solstice but I cant remember...or equinox?