I used to collect Tarot cards. I don't anymore. But I still have all the decks that I have collected from over the years. I acquired them mostly by going to those metaphysics shops and looking at the large array of cards and picking out the ones that appealed to me. Some were gotten from book stores and some were even bought from the Internet.I did use them. At first to read the future and then as a tool for understanding myself and solve problems I may be having at a given moment.
Now that I'm more of a skeptic, the mystical appeal of these cards have been lost to me. I still do treasure them and still think they are fascinating. So many artists have rendered their own imaginations and given them their own personal depictions of these cards. Which is why they were so collectible to me.
I had been so fascinated by the cards that I had also bought just about every book on the subject. Including a two volume set of - I would say - more than 500 pages each of its history. These were like bedtime stories for me.
It took quite a while to get it down and memorize the meaning behind all 78 cards and use them in readings. But through practice upon practice, I was able to do it without looking through the books for reference. I had even written my own small volume on its meanings and reading methods. Now lost to me. I've been out of practice and would have to pretty much start all over again if I was to do a reading.
It actually all began when we took a trip out to Salem Mass. It was one of those high school trips you take with your class and teacher. While hitting the many stores in the area, I saw a beginner's tarot pack of cards. It wasn't a full deck. It only contained the 22 major arcana cards. But that was my first purchase in the Tarot card world. I think I was 17 at the time. It was compulsory after that whenever I took a trip to a bookstore or visited one of those shops to purchase a deck.
I had written about this before on another blog sometime ago, but since I've never really collected any other thing with a passion before (well, maybe comics) I decided to revisit it for Sunday Scribblings.
Thanks to for reading.
4 comments:
My wife is really into tarot cards - she probably has 5 or 6 different decks. I have the Rider-Waite deck, but it has sadly been gathering dust on a shelf in my office for quite a long time.
I love Tarot decks - the artwork alone is enough to draw me in, but I just can't get over their uncanny ability to see what it happening in my life at the time. Arguments can be made that I'm just seeing what I want or that I'm somehow "influencing" the cards, but whatever - it's a little piece of magic in a world that is increasingly without magic.
Hi Dan.
I too used to find it amazing that somehow the "right" cards seemed to pop up as I did a reading.
Which is why it's a great tool for self discovery and such. Because the cards represent so many aspects of our lives, it's not impossible to see some that pop up describing what we're going through at the time. At any given moment, we are always struggling with something, happy about one thing, sad about another - money issues, relationships, etc.
The Rider deck was my first. I love the newer "updated" version of it. Universal Waite.
Like you I am a sceptic but I am fascinated too. I want to draw my own set!
Very interesting post! I do not collect tarot cards myself. I do believe in them though. Some people believe in ALOT of things that can not be seen.To believe that Tarot cards work is to believe in something that can not be prooven. I have to ask...can it be prooven that God is there? Can it be prooven that a person can walk, when doctors have told them they won't? No, belief is what kept those people going.I believe but that is just me.:) Wonderful post! *HUGS*
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