So how did you all get into tarot?

I first learned of card reading through a very old book my great grandmother had on reading regular playing cards. I played around with that for a few years, and then in my late teens picked up my first real tarot deck. Although it was beautiful (Legend: Arthurian) I never really connected with it and put it to the side.

I always enjoyed having my cards read, but didn't get back into it myself until a while ago when I was at a friend's house. She read my cards, and did an excellent reading. I was really excited about it, and when I stopped by another friend's house the next evening, and told her all about it, she mentioned that her husband got a deck for christmas and had never opened it. They wanted me to read their cards. It turned out to be a mini version of the hanson-roberts deck. I connected with it instantly, and did a very good reading considering how long it had been since I last held a deck. Needless to say I picked up my own full-sized Hanson-Roberts, and the rest is history!

The universe put it in my path, as it was what I most needed at that time. Which I suspect is a common experience.

For me it was during a very hard period on my life. I was very confused and had no idea at all of what to do to fix everything (some love-related problems).

I found a web site that gave free rune readings and I went there every night to try and find some kind of asnwer from the universe as to what to do. I knew I needed help from a higher source. The funny thing is that the rune readings often came up as "You are misunderstanding the wishes of either the universe or G-d." Which was just frustrating me more and more, as I wanted to understand that very much, not to be misunderstanding it.

Then one night on that site I saw a link to AT (a banner ad I believe), and it sounded like something that could help me. And I clicked on it and went there. And read up about Tarot. And as I did I had a deep sense that it was something I truly needed to do.

And I did, I read and I checked out the decks here and ordered one (my first was the Haindl) and I can say the rest was history and started a great love for Tarot. But I will add in as well, that yes it was everything I expected it to be and much more.

It did not take me long at all to ask what I was misunderstanding in the will of the universe, find the answer and fix my life. And it has been a great source of the same deep wisdom and connection every since.

Bar

Free Flight said:

got a deck for a gift and discovered a new world, an addiction, an obsession and never have looked back

Click to expand...

What a wonderful gift to give someone, a gift of joy that lasts forever.

Bar

I suppose the short and accurate answer is that last January I was looking up information on a deck that I bought, found Aeclectic, and was hooked from that day on.

The long answer - I bought my first tarot deck (the Aquarian) when I was in my teens, and used it a handful of times but never really delved more deeply into tarot than the LWB took me . . . not until a couple of years ago when I re-discovered tarot using my significant other's RWS deck. I bought a book (Marcia Masino's Easy Tarot Guide) to help me learn the meanings and how to use the cards, and became semi-familiar with tarot, but didn't become passionate about it until last winter when I bought a few decks on clearance at a local store (the Russian St. Petersburg, the Halloween, and the New Century) and wanted more information on one of the decks, and found this site . . . and I've hardly logged out since!

How did I get into tarot? Well, I didn't really find it.... Because it found me. I felt like the cards have always "called" to me, but I didn't get a deck until recently. It is very difficult having a tarot deck, because I have to hide it from people. So, I have my own deck of cards now, and I take it anywhere I go.

My sister-in-law read the cards occasionally ... my husband had told me about the first time he met her, and she did a reading that - try though she might to put a positive spin on it - told him he was "doomed". EVERY negative card that could be there was there!

So I was half anxious and half eager when she pulled out the cards for me one day. This was about two years after we'd met. Many aspects of the reading were right on the nose, and I was intrigued. A month or so later I picked up a cheap bargain deck, a couple weeks after that I bought the Universal Waite from a used bookstore. And it's snowballed from there...

QueenofPentacles

I came to Tarot the long way around !!! I always have been an avid reader.. C Jung and every type of literature I could find. Joseph Campbell..etc. on and on. Always searching for knowledge. Always was fascinated with the archetypal symbols and why ??? Found Aeclectic Tarot by accident, bought a deck, Radiant Rider-Waite and still growing from here. It just feels right to me and seems to fulfill and complete so many things I had learned. One aspect I just love is that it is always moving along. Not stagnant and always more to learn. It seems to live in your thoughts and emotions. Is that because it brings us back to our very roots ? I don't know. History is another love of mine and it combines all those things.

I was always fascinated by cards. I'd bore my family stupid showing them the same card tricks over and over. Me and my brother would sit in the living room and practice telepathy by sending the message of what card we were holding back and forth and we got it right more than chance would allow.
The occult in general always fascinated me, in my staunch catholic upbringing. (I don't think they ever knew we were innocently dabbling in ESP under thier noses.)

My first deck was bought at the behest of my first partner in University who was sure it was something I needed to do.

As with SunChariot the first deck I chose was the Haindl, but it never deeply resonated with me. A couple years later I got The Daughters of the Moon, fast forward into obsession and I'm teaching, reading and spending too much time here!

I was at a friend's house and he had some tarot software on CD. He was doing a Celtic Cross spread using a deck (that I later realized was the Morgan Greer), and I asked him about it. He began to explain tarot to me, and I asked him where his deck was. He didn't have one. My comment at the time was that I thought it would be more accurate for me to use actual cards, rather than images from a CD.

The rest is history. I still don't usecomputer software to read.

Childhood

When I was a child, after my Dad left, my mum was desperate for answers.
She is a spiritual person, members of our family have always had prophetic dreams and have seen ghosts.

During this time our bookshelves at home swelled with volumes on UFO's and ghosts and general occult reading matter. Wheras most of my friends were burying themselves in Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, I was reading about stigmata, spontaneous human combustion, the Loch Ness Monster, palmistry, Ghosts, poltergeists, etc etc.

There was always a great belief in fortune-tellers in my family, and occasionally we would have visits from the local gipsies. I was always urged to treat them with great respect and I always have done. However there was a duality to this: my family were also Church Of England, and although they didn't go to church very much, occult matters were also treated with deep suspicion - if I was caught reading one of the books on my mum's bookshelf, that book would disappear. I'm fairly sure my gran would have gone ballistic if she knew what my mum was up to, but i gredit mum with being much more open minded.

One day, whilst 'exploring' I found a pile of brightly coloured cards. The artwork was so intricate and beautiful I was utterly transfixed. These cards were right at the back of the drawer so I knew I wasn't meant to see them, which of course only made them more attractive. I knew they weren't playing cards, because playing cards don't feature suns and skeletons. I remember feeling like I was touching magic itself.

As if alerted by some unknown force, all of a sudden my mum swept down on me and she was absolutely furious. She said they were not meant for children, and were bad luck. I never saw them again.

My mum is a complex character. On the one hand she had all this amazing reading matter, and yet she constantly impressed upon me the dangers of dabbling. She made a friend at this time who was going through some kind of religious conversion and as a result the subject became taboo. All the books I'd loved were put away in the attic, my mum recovered from the divorce and married again.

I maintained my interest in all things fortean and mysterious, and one day someone gave a me a book on how to tell fortunes from playing cards. I found it rather uninspiring but it reminded me of how I felt when i found my mum's cards. Later on another friend gave me a book on tarot and this inspired me to buy the Rider-waite deck (not much point in having a book but no deck) and I supose the rest, as they say, is history.

I love the multi-layered symbolism, the creativity of doing a reading, and the reflection of the artist's soul. Mum was a bit shocked when she found out I had picked up the tarot - but I now realise that she was having a nervous breakdown at the time and didn't actually understand them herself. Now she comes to me for readings, and instead it is me who warns her about the importance of respecting this gift that we have been given. Alls well that ends well, as they say.