Tarot and kids

That's wonderful! But I, too, wouldn't worry about a few naked people in the RWS, as the deck is well behaved in this regard. LOL I feel that your son (showing such interest) deserves to get to know the deck in its entirety, not in a stripped down version.

wytchayn said:

So out of no where my seven year old son decided my brand new Pocket Universal Waite deck was actually his and spent half of his free time tonight making up stories with the cards. Once I realized what was going on I discretely pulled out the handful of cards with nudity and decided to otherwise let him at it. After tonight, he's pretty much already memorized the basics of the Celtic Cross spread.

Does anyone here have kids who read tarot? Any advice for me?

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Let the kid play with the deck - the whole deck. I only wish I had had a parent who would have done the same when I was that age.

As to removing nude cards (I'm assuming The Star etc) ... um ... why? It's not as if they are pornographic, or even slightly erotic. Not at all. Has he never seen himself or a family member naked at all?

It's when we start removing harmless images like that from life generally, that we end up with a population who have a false idea that bodies are somehow wrong and unsavoury, and who get all bent out of shape about nature and the natural order. There's not a problem at any age with non-erotic nudity.

My little girl has had her own deck since she was 3...

She is 6 and a half now. I originally got her Tarot of a Moon Garden, which is perfect for a little girl. I got it for her because at 3 she was very interested in my decks and i wanted her to keep her little hands off of my decks. She has been using her Moon Garden for 3 years, to look through, shuffle and we also play snap. She is very good at Tarot Snap seeing as you have to quickly recognize the suits and 'snap'. She now looks through my decks, she knows hoe precious they are and always asks, she has her eye on Crystal Visions and i am considering gifting it to her at some point. She enjoys reading the names of the cards too and then finding and counting the suit symbols.

I haven't taught her to read a spread yet....

I didn't take any cards out because of nudity, yet can't think of any nudes in Moon garden, maybe there is..... But i let her browse all of my decks, most of which fairy, so yes there can be a lot of naked fairies but i don't mind, but we are open and relaxed with nudity at home.

I think children should be encouraged to explore all forms of knowledge - be it occult or mundane. That being said, I can just imagine how an elementary school principle or school board would react to little Suzy bringing an "occult" tarot deck to school! I don't know about other countries but here in the U.S. you're likely to have the right wing, Christian Mothers against Satanism (a completely fictitious group) picketing outside the school! Well it might not be that extreme, but I can assure you that other parents would frown upon such behavior.

Tarotwolf said:

I think children should be encouraged to explore all forms of knowledge - be it occult or mundane. That being said, I can just imagine how an elementary school principle or school board would react to little Suzy bringing an "occult" tarot deck to school! I don't know about other countries but here in the U.S. you're likely to have the right wing, Christian Mothers against Satanism (a completely fictitious group) picketing outside the school! Well it might not be that extreme, but I can assure you that other parents would frown upon such behavior.

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Before I was much into all this, when I was training as a teacher, and working with a class of 50 five year-olds (it was a team teaching situation, not understaffing !) a little girl came up to me and told me her mother was a witch. I said something like "that's nice", or "does she work at home ?" - I didn't feel comment was needed. The principal - who was observing my class came up to me later and asked what C- had said and I told him. He asked what I'd answered and I told him. "Good," he said, "because her mother is a practising witch and I won't have C- upset by people being shocked."

So - not all principals, anyway.

That's wonderful! If I have kids of my own, I would be delighted if they showed interest in tarot, for readings or for any other purpose. On the topic of decks with minimal nudity, Witches Tarot has hardly any. The woman on the Star is naked, but you see her from behind and her hair is so long that it covers most of her backside. The 5 of Cups has some mermaid "sideboob," but outside of those two, there's nothing. It's a very good general deck, so it could easily teach him the basics of the RWS system. Just throwing another one out there.

Wonderful topic and one I am going through myself with my 9 and 10yo daughters right now!

I think tarot is a wonderful gift to allow a child to experience...regardless of knowing correct spreads or memorizing symbols or meanings, the tarot gets children to recognize problems and try to understand how to solve them. I think they are wonderful for personal development.

I did several readings for both DDs recently and not only did I scare the crap out of them but I also learned my oldest has an interest in new boyfriend with dark hair and that my socilite youngster is having issues fitting in with friends. After the readings, my oldest bought the Manga Tarot (Selina Lin) with her allowance money. The cards and book are written for her age (albeit not exactly correct in meaning). My youngest cant find a deck with book that she is interested in. Seems while there are kid-friendly decks, there arent very many kid friendly accompanying books - which is a shame.

I am with the others on the nudity in that those cards shouldnt be removed. I understand he may take them to preschool but knowing the common philosophy of our society, I imagine the teachers would likely be more stunned with a tarot card in general than the nudity on the card

Edited to add that I remember seeing my first tarot deck (Rider Waite) in a kitchen drawer in my grandfathers bar/restaurant when I was about 3. It was a very very strong positive memory for me and I can still vividly recall the yellow and black colors on the cards (no idea whose they were - they were just halhazardly thrown in a drawer). This carried with me through my life even though I wouldnt see another deck until I was 19.

There's a book called The Girl's Guide to Tarot by Kathleen Olmsted that might be suitable for young girls. It's been awhile since I've looked at it, though, and it's out of print. I believe Rachel Pollack wrote a book for teenagers. It's listed here on aeclectic.net.

celticnoodle said:

I so agree. There is a lot worse things kids can get into then learning to read tarot or oracle cards, or any kind of divination for that matter. I only wish my sil would see it this way-as I'd LOVE to gift my grandkids each a deck of their own. But once they are 18--IF they are interested--I certainly will!

eta: which reminds me, WytchAyn, did Santa gift your son with a new deck?

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Sorry for the delay. I've been away from Aeclectic for a while, but I'm back now in force. ;o)

Yes! We gave him the Wizard's Pets Tarot for Yule and he adores the cards. He's taken to writing stories lately. When he gets stuck with what he wants to have happen next to his characters, I can suggest he go play with his cards and see if that gives him any ideas. He picks them up, sorts through the pictures or just picks a few at random, and then starts writing again. It's great.

I totally agree with many of you on your opinions of nudity in the cards. The problem is that the cards WILL find their way to school, and any unclothed figures WILL be a problem there. So anything that is expressly his has to be school-safe. I have no problems with him seeing the nudity cards in my decks at home, but they have to be my decks and not his.

Also, he has a tendency toward nightmares, so to avoid sleepless nights all around we needed a deck that didn't have very scary cards. Case in point - the other night I'd gotten a new deck and I let him look over my shoulder as I flipped through it. Of all the things he could have focused on, he chose the 10 of swords. He said "That's a lot of blood! I like mine better. It's just a doll." Then sorted through his deck to find his 10 of swords. That night he had a nightmare. He's seen his own 10 of swords plenty of times with no nightmare, but see it once in the Morgan-Greer and we're back to nightmare-land. /

Anyway, the Wizard's Pets is exactly what we needed at this stage. With it, my only worries about him taking it to school is that he might loose a card or two. The card stock is even something that I think will withstand a few wipings with a damp cloth after being handled by sticky fingers. Thanks, Pamela, wherever you are!

I think the Hanson-Roberts is a good bet; the only nude card I remember is the Star, who is really clothed in her hair. And the deck comes in two sizes: standard, which is really only playing-card size, and pocket which is smaller but not mini.

The same artist also did the Whimsical; now that deck would be perfect for kids, if only it came in the smaller sizes like the Hanson-Roberts! It's all based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.