What's your tarot story?

[Hämy]

I tried to make it shorter...

When I was a child I had this feeling that something was off. It is hard to describe it but I had this feeling that somehow I didn't quite belong, that I was somehow a bit away from the rest of the world. I didn't understand lots of ordinary stuff but I loved everything supernatural which to me seemed more natural. I played to be a witch, a ghost, a gypsy fortune teller, anything that could somehow fill this gap between me and the world. Luckily I have been a good actress my whole life (I even participated local theatre for few years and always got the lead role in school plays) so my "offness" was concealed from others. Instead of odd I was described as serious and highly creative. I was able to live in the world like any other kid but I yearned for knowledge, any kind of knowledge. When I learnt to read I went through our school library and read and the worlds within pages were strong enough to push my feeling of offness away. So I read a lot of children's books, probably more than anyone else in our elementary school.

I was blissfully ignorant child after that for a while, just playing games and having fun until I read from a book (about interesting topics and facts) about reading cards. I think I was 9 at the time. It was just few short paragraphs but those changed my life forever. You could read ordinary playing cards and tell anything about this world, the past, the present, the future. I felt light pressure in my chest and felt this joy of finding something amazing rushing through my body. I searched our house for playing cards and when I found them I just started to use them. Just like that with no further instructions, the knowledge what I could do with them was enough. I made up in my mind in what shape I would put them, what the cards meant and started from there. I could read with such accuracy I still find it quite amazing, I was a very confident child back then. Few years later I got my first horoscope book from a book club and fell in love with it. I started to ask who I am, what I am doing here. My playing cards were laid aside when I tried to enter the world of astrology but to the mind of a child it was maybe too complicated and I gave up, deciding I would try again when I'm older.

Then I went to middle school. I still felt I didn't understand lots of ordinary stuff and felt rather stupid. I seemed to make lot of my decisions based on hunches and words I saw within my mind. My hunger for knowledge had grown and now I had a much bigger library in my access. I was overjoyed and read every single book in the paranormal, fantasy and horror section. Then I got my hands on The Big Book of Divination. I remembered my playing cards and my horoscope book from my childhood and decided to read it. I found out what I had done was cartomancy and traditional meanings for each card. I also found a different kind of deck on the pages of that book. Tarot. I felt pressure in my chest again and knew I had found something to help me out in my young life. I searched my favourite online bookstore where I had bought a few spiritual books before and found tarot and oracle decks. I knew my mom was afraid of anything "supernatural" so I first ordered Doreen Virtue's oracle cards because they seem safe and not scary, something my mom could easily tolerate. When I felt ready I talked a little bit with my mom about the world while picking blueberries one time in the forest. She told me that some psychic gifts went through my mother's side and it clicked within me; I had inherited this too. It wasn't strong, but still. Everything started to make sense and I knew that I was going where I was supposed to go on this path. After we came back home I ordered my first deck, Gilded Tarot. I have been reading and studying Tarot cards (among other things) almost 10 years now.

 

[Aina]

Aina, you can also put a link to your webpage in your UserCP
so anyone who clicks on your name can go there.

It is a great quick way to see other peoples blogs.

Hey, thanks, I think I have put it there already. I hope you can see it, if needed.

 

[Aina]

I was always interested ibn the "unusual"--by high school I was reading about paranormal subjects and beginning to learn about astrology. And then there was my maternal grandmother, whom I barely knew (she died when I was 6 and she had dementia by then), who had been a reader of playing cards for her relatives. Unfortunately my mother never remembered more than a few cards' meanings. I was in college during the hippie era, and my interest in astrology blossomed; I did become aware of Tarot that far back but never acted on it (no one I knew was into it then either). Then in my thirties I met a lot of people who were into various types of divination, Tarot included, and many of them were also Pagan. So along with everything else I was buying books on, there was also Tarot. I had books before I had decks. And once I started buying decks, I never stopped, even though I rarely bought more than one a year--until coming to AT, of course. So I've been into Tarot for around 30 years now.

Hello Morwenna, thanks so much for sharing your story! Grandmas, high school and many books I remember going to a seminar when I was 17 that was the thing called "Michael's Teachings". They talked about weird stuff for 3 full days and it made a perfect sense to me. I felt so extremely happy in there. The next Monday I went to school and told everything word in word to my classmates. All the class gathered to listen to my story and since then I'm a 100% weirdo Wow, 30 years in tarot sounds really nice! I'm going to stalk you from now on

 

[PentQueen]

I got into tarot after my second reading, which was about 5 years after my first reading, and both readings were excellent, however, the second reader was a bona fide psychic, the best I have ever seen, she merely used the cards as a calculator, to double check her accuracy.

The first thing she said to me when I walked in her house was 'you need to pay more attention when you drive, you could get hurt' and my friend who came with me doubled over in laughter because I had driven like a crazy person to get her place on time.

Anyway, I was going through a real Tower year, long term breakup and massive mental breakdown, and she gave me the clarity that I needed. Her decks were amazing, and I was drawn to the pictures on them because her reading was so freaking accurate. I remembered all of the cards and went home and googled them, lol. And just became obsessed with tarot from there on, and started collecting decks a few months later.

That being said, I have been studying astrology since the age of eight, so the concept of tarot wasn't really that 'out there' for me when I discovered it. Astrology clicked for me when I was a kid because I always felt very introspective and as though I didn't fit in. I would read astrology books during recess, lol, it made me feel like a belonged to something, like I had answers that the other kids didn't have . I remember it well.

 

[Padma]

I have read every single post in here. So many amazing stories! I noted that often, the "I was different somehow as a kid" came up, and I fit in that pocket, too.

I began reading tarot at age 13 when my sister's friend left her deck at our house - she was hiding it from her parents. It was a Marseilles deck with no LWB, so I just did my best to figure it out. I knew, the very first time I saw the cards, that we were meant to be

I read that deck without ever knowing what the cards meant, and I read accurately, too! I read for the other kids at school. What a nut - I didn't know what I was doing! but I seemingly got it right anyways...and at about that time, I began getting flashes of intuition, as well as understanding I have precognition. I just "know" things. I also learned I was clairaudient at that time. I realised I could do psychometry as well - I could hold a belt buckle, sunglasses, a ring, and just read from that. People would tell me I was describing their inner self. I can see inside.

I put the cards away for a while and turned my talents to other things, and then got back to them when I was about 27. I did a few playing card readings that were accurate...frightened me. My father then bought me a tarot deck, (the Aquarian) so I could "read properly" as he said. Lol...it was so weird coming from him, he was so - well, he wasn't given to gypsy ways, that's all. He had a very open mind, though. Remembered his past lives.

I studied the cards and wore out two decks on numerous life changes and love affairs...then began reading professionally...it was an interesting time of development. I began to branch out, did clairvoyancy, aura readings, psychometry, then it slipped away again. I put the cards away to focus on my new married life and raising my child. Then a few years later, my father died, and out came the cards again. Have been doing them non-stop, ever since. Have tons of decks now and am learning new reading systems all the time (Lenormand, playing cards, oracles) and am always just plain fascinated by what you can learn. So much to study - it would take lifetimes to get it all in...

I've been doing tarot on and off for 39 years now. It still amazes me, and I still learn more every day. It is, to my mind, the only infinite course of study. And that is why I love it - it is the lemniscate - there is no beginning to it, and no end...much like life. The perfect analogy for tarot.

 

[PentQueen]

I'm loving this thread, so many great posts/stories!

I also wanted to add that tarot was solidified for me at the very start of my saturn return. I had just turned 27 when I had that second reading that healed me, hooked me and changed everything .

 

[Aina]

I tried to make it shorter...
I knew my mom was afraid of anything "supernatural" so I first ordered Doreen Virtue's oracle cards because they seem safe and not scary, something my mom could easily tolerate. When I felt ready I talked a little bit with my mom about the world while picking blueberries one time in the forest. She told me that some psychic gifts went through my mother's side and it clicked within me; I had inherited this too. It wasn't strong, but still. Everything started to make sense and I knew that I was going where I was supposed to go on this path. After we came back home I ordered my first deck, Gilded Tarot. I have been reading and studying Tarot cards (among other things) almost 10 years now.

Thank you so much for telling your story! I could imagine myself being in Finland, picking blueberries (I was in Finland once, picking blueberries in the forest. They were HUGE and there were loads of mosquitoes). Again, we kind of see how from the very beginning we come to this life knowing why we came here.

You were pretty young to read your first astrology book, I was more into astronomy and physics and it was my first spiritual book, lol. Actually, I think it was "The Little Prince" and I was about 10-11 years old.

We used to do this crazy love spread with playing cards where the Jacks were boys from school. And we would ask: "Which one likes me the most" and if the Clubs would come out, it would be the Jack of Clubs. Embarrassing, lol. Then there was this yes/no spread where red card is yes and black card is no

It's nice to see how planned and careful your tarot path seemed to unfold. As a younger person you even managed to prepare your mom for a tarot deck coming home It's wonderful to hear you're an actress, I love movies and theater (well, everybody does and I think it's one of the most unique talents. To be able to act on stage. It was real fun to hear how you discovered tarot! Thanks a lot!

 

[Aina]

The first thing she said to me when I walked in her house was 'you need to pay more attention when you drive, you could get hurt' and my friend who came with me doubled over in laughter because I had driven like a crazy person to get her place on time.

Anyway, I was going through a real Tower year, long term breakup and massive mental breakdown, and she gave me the clarity that I needed. Her decks were amazing, and I was drawn to the pictures on them because her reading was so freaking accurate. I remembered all of the cards and went home and googled them, lol. And just became obsessed with tarot from there on, and started collecting decks a few months later.

I love it when something bad is happening and you meet a psychic who heals you. My spiritual path you can say also started with the horror movie "The Blair Witch Project". That scared me so bad that I thought I could hear voices and see curtains move in my room. I didn't know what to do with myself. Then my mom dragged me to some psychics for the "cure" and I got better. But the most important - I love that feeling!!!

 

[Aina]

I have read every single post in here. So many amazing stories! I noted that often, the "I was different somehow as a kid" came up, and I fit in that pocket, too.

I began reading tarot at age 13 when my sister's friend left her deck at our house - she was hiding it from her parents. It was a Marseilles deck with no LWB, so I just did my best to figure it out. I knew, the very first time I saw the cards, that we were meant to be

I've been doing tarot on and off for 39 years now. It still amazes me, and I still learn more every day. It is, to my mind, the only infinite course of study. And that is why I love it - it is the lemniscate - there is no beginning to it, and no end...much like life. The perfect analogy for tarot.

LOL, I feel like reading every single post once again I guess no one is that different anymore on this thread. The sister's friend was meant to leave the deck for you in your house. I saw the real tarot deck when I was about 21 years old, bought one when I was 23 and got more interested when I was 29. Nice time span.

 

[ivanna]

Tarot arrived to my life after my grandad passed away.
Before this, I was a bit sceptical about all. The day of his funeral I think I spent all day thinking about him, and asking for a sign, something similar to "yayo, please, if you are there, somewhere, please let me know". I got no messagge, I think He was still takin charge about was happened to him.
We all all sleept at her house, as we life all in other cities.
I was having a look at her books, as we were able to take with us books, photos, and any thing we would like to keep, and I found in front of me 2 books speaking about life after death, as they were there waiting for me.
I felt him so close during determined days during some months.
One day I got some euros on a site called fiverr, and not knowing what to do with this money, I ordered a tarot reading, I never done it before, and I asked if there was something about my grandad.
I got a wonderfull reading, and after that, I decided to get my own deck, the Gilded One with the Book of Ellershaw.
So, I thing my grandad made the Tarot arrives to my life. I was looking for answers since many time, I have found many of them here, and I feel very happy.
I think Tarot is a gift he sent me to bringh me light, and i'm very happy about that and also about having found a forum like this.