Deck Distress

Hi All

After years of searching I thought I had overcome my fussiness and finally found a deck I liked - the Victorian Romantic. I'm new to formal tarot study but I felt inspired to do it so I started doing daily draws and journalling beautifully in a beautiful, special journal. All was peachy until to my deep distress I picked a card, had a look and found it more distressing than any card I've ever seen before, more distressing than the tower, distressing to the point of finding it obscene. Here's what I posted in the VR study place:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=76370&page=2

I'm cursed with knowing too much about what is shown in the card. Now I feel like chucking the whole deck in the bin! I mean, if that card came up, how could I read it knowing what I know? "You are in an impossible situation. You will suffer. There's no way out". Has anyone else found that one card in a deck made them totally hit a stumbling block? I'm really sad to abandon this deck as I liked the other cards... so far.

Maybe this means I should never buy without looking at all the cards, but it's not always possible...

Thanks

Hi pumog,

usually I'm not a big fan of taking cards out of a deck, but since you get such an intense emotional reaction from it, would that be an option for you? You said you really like the other cards, so it would be sad not to use the deck anymore simply because of this one card.

So far, fortunately, I haven't got any deck where one card spoils it all for me. Sometimes it takes me a while to get used to a certain card, though.

Hi

Yes, it's a good idea, I was thinking of that too! I'd love to tear that card up into tiny pieces and replace it with some other one, but I think all their other similar ones are either out of print or very expensive... so frustrating!

I can't say I have ever had such a visceral reaction to a card, or had such a set meaning for a card based on my reaction to the card. It is a wonderful deck, I hope you can overcome your repulsion to this card. I think perhaps you should remember it was not the card that has caused the problem but the BBC show. Perhaps that will help?

If possible, I'd probably not throw the card away, but keep it somewhere hidden. This way you can use it again if you ever feel like it, but you don't have to see it if you don't really want to.

Maybe somebody else here has an incomplete deck with cards of the same size and would give the Nine of Wands to you? Or maybe you could just do without the card completely!

When I see a card that causes a strong emotional reaction, I usually try to find out what exactly is at the bottom of this. Strong reactions to cards can point to an emotional sensitivity that you can work with, if you like, and try to heal it. But sometimes images are just too "strong", so in this case it might be better to simply remove it from the deck.

Hi The Crowned One

What really distresses me is that the guy in the card has no choice in his outcome, rather than the artwork or even the BBC show - in other words, I always used to wonder why the people of Pompeii didn't escape in greater numbers - the BBC show explained to me it was because they had no idea what was happening, they had nothing to refer back to, and thought it would all blow over quickly. So whereas the designers probably wanted to show someone who was sticking stubbornly to a bad situation when they could escape, in reality this soldier in the VR 9 wands could NOT escape, whether he wanted to or not! This is the problem I always run in to - I have a detective's mind and I always have to find out everything about everything - and very often the information, as in this card, turns around and bites me in the back side!

Hi Serenia

Very tempting suggestions, if only someone could give me an unwanted 9 wands that fitted in more or less with the deck!!!

I am very sensitive, unfortunately paired with the detective mind I was telling the crowned one - these 2 together are a massive total nightmare to me - until I discovered this card if anyone even mentioned the name of Pompeii I would change the conversation, walk away, whatever - and really had a hard time seeing all sorts of posters everywhere in my home town when the major museum did a big exhibition on Pompeii. Same thing with the Titanic, with 9/11, with holocaust.... I have to steer well clear of all such disasters or I go into a depression!

I wish I could find a deck to replace it... so far I like the mythic tarot (tho a bit too cartoony) and the magical forest (not quite enough substance to it..) - I would like a bit of a challenge, I don't totally want to stay with 100% unthreatening decks, I do like unusual good art, but so far... no luck!

Yes, way to often. One or two cards can spoil a whole deck...For exp. the Hermit from the Tarot of the crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince spoils the deck for me...(I wouldn't part with this deck though).

Hi Rylla

But does it upset you? Don't you kind of dread that that card will come up? Or do you leave it out of the deck?

You could do a visualization that empowers the guy.