Giving a deck a chance

Hi all, I've been sorting through my decks recently and decided to pass a couple on that I never connected with or was a little disappointment with the images when I received them. I have one deck however that I can't seem to part with even though I find it difficult to connect to.

I've seriously sat with it several times and tried to look, connect, feel, read the LWB along with it and I just can't crack it. I know it's okay to keep a deck purely for the imagery but I would love to read with this deck so much I just keep hoping something clicks.

Im wondering if trying a different approach or meditating with them would open a higher connection because it's not just the odd card that I think is a bit pants. For anyone interested it's the Ghost Tarot. Though a lot is similar to the RW, a lot really isn't clear.

So I guess my question is how long do you give it before giving up seeing a deck as readable?

I'll give a deck ages unless the artwork really turns me off. But if something is pulling and you can't quite articulate why - hang onto it.

Resist the decluttering trend - decks take up so little space. The joy of discovering a deck after a long time far outweighs the temporary satisfaction in "getting rid."

I've ended up liking decks after over 20 years. Don't forget that we change...

There have been a few decks that I've struggled with. There has been a couple which I couldn't read with at all and I felt that those needed to move on to someone else. So, if that's what it felt like needed to be done with the other decks, then we just hope they go to another who can read with them.

However, there have been a couple of others with which, like you, I've struggled in trying to learn. What I have done to help me work with them and learn them is to study them side-by-side with a deck which works great for me. In my case it is my old RWS which was the first deck I studied with.

As I studied the new deck I would first look at the two cards and see what their similarities are. What elements, symbols and even colors were at least somewhat alike. Then I'd look over the new one with an eye to dissimilarities, things the artist added, took away or made different in the new deck as compared to the old one. And ask yourself (still just going off the images) how do these similarities and dissimilarities affect what you see in the card and how do they affect what you would understand from the card. Think what the artist might be portraying and why they show it that way. Finally, you'll want to look at the LWB or other book which came with the deck and see what meanings the artist attaches to each card; what is similar to your other deck and what is different, what nuances does the artist add to these new cards.

Almost always, I'll have an "AH-HA!" type moment with that new deck. In some instances I will find that there is little difference between the intended meanings of the new deck compared to my RWS. However, I often find that there are nuances which add new ways of interpreting a card, or even an entire deck, because of the way the images are done.

I looked at the Ghost Tarot on AT's list of decks. It is a beautiful deck (oh, and I've now added this to my wish-list ). Based on what I see in those 9 images, the Ghost Tarot seems to be a pretty straight-forward RWS "clone". The Majors which are shown fit in well with the RWS Majors for the most part. However the minors seem to show more variance. I was particularly struck by the 6 of Coins - showing the elderly man clinging to a headstone while the spirit of his youth embraces the ghost of his dead wife/lover. This is significantly different from the rich man handing out alms to the poor as seen on the RWS 6 of Coins.

On the other hand, The Fool appears to be almost identical with the RWS Fool card. I love that one, the spirit stepping out into his new journey with the spirit of his faithful companion with him. That one is very cool.

Anyway, that is how I've studied deck which seemed difficult but that I was still strongly drawn to.

These are the things that can give a new deck a lot of character and really change the way you read with that deck.

Hang onto the deck for a few decades. Perhaps you need to grow into it.

Le Fanu said:

I'll give a deck ages unless the artwork really turns me off. But if something is pulling and you can't quite articulate why - hang onto it.

Resist the decluttering trend - decks take up so little space. The joy of discovering a deck after a long time far outweighs the temporary satisfaction in "getting rid."

I've ended up liking decks after over 20 years. Don't forget that we change...

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I'm 50/50 with this because in all honesty if I only had one deck, whatever it was, I would figure out a way to work with it. I have the luxury to pick and choose, so I can "get rid" of decks I don't feel anything for with frequency. The part about changing is true. I have done a total 360 about decks in very short periods of time, but I also can tell if I don't really feel anything for some decks and have no problem "getting rid" of them. It's usually more because of the design/quality of the cardstock than artwork though. It is fun to go back to decks after having them for a long time. For me it is also important for my collection to only be decks I wouldn't think of letting go. I scan through my deck list to make sure none of them make me go "meh".

G6 said:

I scan through my deck list to make sure none of them make me go "meh".

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Does that make it hard for you as a collector? I'm pretty fickle, and decks that I love and use all the time are 'meh' sometimes. It's more of a mood thing than the deck itself.

It's not a big deal though, as Le Fanu says, decks take up so little space. I would say keep it for a couple of years, if not decades.

I give myself a month or more to read/study/work with it. I usually work out fairly quickly if it's for me or not, that way.

I give my decks a couple of chances unless I really feel strongly they aren't for me from the start. Sometimes I will need a pause before the timing is right. It almost took a year for the Mary-El to click with me, and I tried every third month or so before it felt right

Recently I've been annoyed with myself for trading decks that I now miss lol! I am thinking of re-purchasing Clover Tarot, Halloween Oracle, and maaaybe L'oracle des Reflets.

Wow thank you everyone fo ryour insights. Some really useful tips here, I felt like I was getting stuck in a rut and needed to reach out to others for a different point of view and you've been amazing!

I did get out my original RW tarot book, the first book I ever was gifted on the tarot for some guidance. I have to say already, having this book along with the LWB book has made a few cards click! It's been about looking at the RW meaning and getting into the mindset of the deck and it's point of view and in a sense, the Ghost Tarot is almost a flip side of life. A good example of this for me was 7 of pentacles. It's almost showing the spirit of the flame of a candle that glows on the other side of life, that thin cord that connects through the ether.

I'm going to have to spend time with the Page/Knight/Queen/King/Aces as I feel a lot of the symbolism used in the RW to show their characters is ommited in the Ghost Tarot and they're really very plain cards.

I'm glad I didn't give up, feeling positive I'll get a lot further with these now. Also the Halloween Oracle, just checked these out and wow, these are now on my wish list.

If you do get this deck Trogon, let me know as I'd be really interested to chat about them if you were interested! Thank you for all of your pointers

I have let some decks go over time when I felt I really-really didn't connect with them. But not many. Even decks that I rarely read with, I still like to handle, to look at them, to answer questions, play games, sort according to all kind of things... every deck gets its chances.

Two book tips that have helped me get more out of tarot decks that were a bit difficult to get snuggly with:

I found the Tarot Kaizen book and the Tarot Playbook both very nice; Kaizen more systematic (get to know decks you don't normally use) and the Playbook more playful (do things with your deck that you never thought of).

But I'm the type of person who does everything via books, learns every skill via books and like Hermione Granger lives according to the motto, "when in doubt, go to the library"... and I understand not everybody does that.