daphne
This is interesting to see, any cards ready?
What got you started?
This is interesting to see, any cards ready?
LadyCeleste
My first deck was The Witches Tarot. Mom and I went to a street fair when I was about eight or nine and she bought it for me. I decided on that deck but I was going back and forth between that one and some cat themed deck. I chose it cuz it had "witches" in the title 
Neither of us knew how to use the Tarot but we "played" with the cards anyway, later on in a Subway restaurant. I lost most of the cards, but I still have what's left--I just can't part with them! Lol
When I was about seventeen mom and I were coming home from someplace and she had the Tarot of the Renaissance deck on her car dashboard. I saw it and asked her if I could have it and she said yes--turns out it was for me anyway, lol. That's the deck I first started learning the Tarot with, and the first book I bought to learn with was The Complete Idiots Guide to Tarot Spreads 2nd Ed. Though the book used the Rider Waite deck, my Renaissance deck worked well with the book and I could follow along easily enough. Well, I lent the deck to a friend and he forgot to return it when he moved, so I bought the Rider Waite deck as a replacement (I couldn't find the Renaissance deck anywhere). A few years later he found it and offered to return it, but I told him he could keep it. I plan to replace that deck though!
Anyway, that's how I got into Tarot. I've since added the Gilded Tarot, Llewellyn Tarot, and Tarot of the Mermaids to my collection (in that order). For a few days I had the Reuhrig Tarot--again, from mom, between my RW and Gilded decks--but gave it back to her because it was just weird.
Neither of us knew how to use the Tarot but we "played" with the cards anyway, later on in a Subway restaurant. I lost most of the cards, but I still have what's left--I just can't part with them! LolWhen I was about seventeen mom and I were coming home from someplace and she had the Tarot of the Renaissance deck on her car dashboard. I saw it and asked her if I could have it and she said yes--turns out it was for me anyway, lol. That's the deck I first started learning the Tarot with, and the first book I bought to learn with was The Complete Idiots Guide to Tarot Spreads 2nd Ed. Though the book used the Rider Waite deck, my Renaissance deck worked well with the book and I could follow along easily enough. Well, I lent the deck to a friend and he forgot to return it when he moved, so I bought the Rider Waite deck as a replacement (I couldn't find the Renaissance deck anywhere). A few years later he found it and offered to return it, but I told him he could keep it. I plan to replace that deck though!
Anyway, that's how I got into Tarot. I've since added the Gilded Tarot, Llewellyn Tarot, and Tarot of the Mermaids to my collection (in that order). For a few days I had the Reuhrig Tarot--again, from mom, between my RW and Gilded decks--but gave it back to her because it was just weird.
vinLove
10 year ago, I went to a new year party where a university student offered Tarot reading to all the people there. When it was my turn to be read, I did not pay too much attention, and took it as fun.
Through the year, I was able to tell all the readings on the new years day was actually happening to me, and I could not believe it.
I then thought, this is weird, and started to read and learn about Tarot myself buying some books and a few decks. I think I had studied for about a year, then I got too busy with work, and coming home late and even working during weekends, so I quit all the hobbies selling off most of Tarot books and decks as well. Time passed on quickly after that traveling into the far east and the states.
Recently my wife had some difficulties in her work, and she asked me if I could do Tarot readings for her, so I tried. But my knowledge was very little and rusty, hardly able to even remember what it was all about. I started with simple Lenormad cards, which was the only deck I had in the draw, and she liked it quite a lot.
Then I thought I will brush up my Tarot knowledge, and try to be good at it. I started to pick up books for RWS, TDM and Thoth, and got myself a few decks I used to have 10 year ago, and it's me back to Tarot studying. Now I feel this is unavoidable karma that I must study Tarot reading, because I never took it seriously in the beginning, never intended to take it up again or even thought about it for last 10 years, but accidentally and fatefully it came to me as magic(k) and something that I have to do.
Through the year, I was able to tell all the readings on the new years day was actually happening to me, and I could not believe it.
I then thought, this is weird, and started to read and learn about Tarot myself buying some books and a few decks. I think I had studied for about a year, then I got too busy with work, and coming home late and even working during weekends, so I quit all the hobbies selling off most of Tarot books and decks as well. Time passed on quickly after that traveling into the far east and the states.
Recently my wife had some difficulties in her work, and she asked me if I could do Tarot readings for her, so I tried. But my knowledge was very little and rusty, hardly able to even remember what it was all about. I started with simple Lenormad cards, which was the only deck I had in the draw, and she liked it quite a lot.
Then I thought I will brush up my Tarot knowledge, and try to be good at it. I started to pick up books for RWS, TDM and Thoth, and got myself a few decks I used to have 10 year ago, and it's me back to Tarot studying. Now I feel this is unavoidable karma that I must study Tarot reading, because I never took it seriously in the beginning, never intended to take it up again or even thought about it for last 10 years, but accidentally and fatefully it came to me as magic(k) and something that I have to do.
Barleywine
My grandmother was a playing card reader, but she would never read for us kids. Still, it got me curious, and when (around 1970) an Army friend in Germany brought out a copy of the Aquarian deck, I was fascinated by the artwork and the obviously arcane symbolism. As a former graphic art student, I found the subdued color palette and bemused facial expressions of the people to be intriguing. When I returned to the US in 1971 I started into astrology, but also picked up an early copy of the Thoth deck that has been with me ever since. Tarot speaks to the intuitive side of my metaphysical nature and astrology to the more empirical side; the two complement one another very well.
ctrymaus
This is not at all as interesting a story as others have posted, but here goes:
I can't remember when I first saw a tarot deck; but when I finally got free of a certain confining religion in May of 1990, I thought, "I can read anything I want now!" And it was within that month I got my first tarot deck. I asked my husband to find me a tarot deck when he was out on one of his walks, and he came back with a Morgan-Greer deck (there were no RWS decks at the bookstore where he picked up the deck for me). He also got me the "Easy Tarot Guide" by Marcia Masino, but I didn't find it that easy!
What helped me the most was meeting other people on Prodigy Online Service (pre-Internet) who read tarot. We were a little group who did readings together and tried out various new spreads together. I wish I could find those folks again--I miss them. I moved on to GEnie, where I met other tarot enthusiasts. That's where I met Nina Lee Braden. She is a warm friendly knowledgeable person.
I never really got the hang of intuitive reading for years and years. Adolph Lopez, part of our little group on Prodigy (and I knew him on GEnie also), tried to help me with that; but it just didn't "take". My husband is a natural at reading the cards, much more intuitive. It wasn't until the last few years I started watching YouTube videos of various folks doing readings that I started understanding how to read the cards as a story and how to go with my gut reactions to the cards.
I also really enjoy collecting decks. At one point, maybe seven or ten years ago, I felt that tarot cards were too "dark" for me, that I needed to stay with oracle cards only; so I gave away almost my entire tarot collection, against the advice of my husband. Of course, now that I'm back into tarot, I am sorry I got rid of all those decks. I've been trying to get replacements for the decks I really missed. My best score was getting a new sealed copy of the 1989 Mythic Tarot set (cards, book, cloth). That was one of my earliest decks, and I remember reading with it online, with my Prodigy friends. It was good to have those cards again, not only for the deck itself, but for the nostalgia too.
CountryMouse
I can't remember when I first saw a tarot deck; but when I finally got free of a certain confining religion in May of 1990, I thought, "I can read anything I want now!" And it was within that month I got my first tarot deck. I asked my husband to find me a tarot deck when he was out on one of his walks, and he came back with a Morgan-Greer deck (there were no RWS decks at the bookstore where he picked up the deck for me). He also got me the "Easy Tarot Guide" by Marcia Masino, but I didn't find it that easy!
What helped me the most was meeting other people on Prodigy Online Service (pre-Internet) who read tarot. We were a little group who did readings together and tried out various new spreads together. I wish I could find those folks again--I miss them. I moved on to GEnie, where I met other tarot enthusiasts. That's where I met Nina Lee Braden. She is a warm friendly knowledgeable person.
I never really got the hang of intuitive reading for years and years. Adolph Lopez, part of our little group on Prodigy (and I knew him on GEnie also), tried to help me with that; but it just didn't "take". My husband is a natural at reading the cards, much more intuitive. It wasn't until the last few years I started watching YouTube videos of various folks doing readings that I started understanding how to read the cards as a story and how to go with my gut reactions to the cards.
I also really enjoy collecting decks. At one point, maybe seven or ten years ago, I felt that tarot cards were too "dark" for me, that I needed to stay with oracle cards only; so I gave away almost my entire tarot collection, against the advice of my husband. Of course, now that I'm back into tarot, I am sorry I got rid of all those decks. I've been trying to get replacements for the decks I really missed. My best score was getting a new sealed copy of the 1989 Mythic Tarot set (cards, book, cloth). That was one of my earliest decks, and I remember reading with it online, with my Prodigy friends. It was good to have those cards again, not only for the deck itself, but for the nostalgia too.
CountryMouse
Morwenna
I think I was always interested in the magical, the spooky, the paranormal; and I also grew up with the knowledge that my maternal grandmother had been a reader of playing cards; she died when I was too young and I always wished my mother had paid more attention when she was young so she could have taught me something. She only remembered a little bit.
In high school or college I got into astrology and stuck with that for many years.
In my thirties I met a number of like-minded people, several of whom were also neo-Pagans, and I was exposed to a lot of divination techniques; that's when I started into Tarot. I had books before I had decks, but I finally got the Stairs of Gold, the Morgan Greer, and the mini-RWS within a few years of each other and just kept studying, and started a small collection at about the rate of one a year--till I came to AT, that is! I found this site quite by accident (someone on one of my e-lists linked something here, I think), and if my collection hasn't grown all that fast, my wish list sure has!
I guess I had been studying for a decade or so before I started reading in public, which I don't do very often mainly because I get stage fright. I totally relate to those who post that they have trouble second-guessing themselves and letting querents influence them. I too am way too afraid of being "wrong."
In high school or college I got into astrology and stuck with that for many years.
In my thirties I met a number of like-minded people, several of whom were also neo-Pagans, and I was exposed to a lot of divination techniques; that's when I started into Tarot. I had books before I had decks, but I finally got the Stairs of Gold, the Morgan Greer, and the mini-RWS within a few years of each other and just kept studying, and started a small collection at about the rate of one a year--till I came to AT, that is! I found this site quite by accident (someone on one of my e-lists linked something here, I think), and if my collection hasn't grown all that fast, my wish list sure has!
I guess I had been studying for a decade or so before I started reading in public, which I don't do very often mainly because I get stage fright. I totally relate to those who post that they have trouble second-guessing themselves and letting querents influence them. I too am way too afraid of being "wrong."
