Giving up on a deck?

Haha, if I had a deck I didn't connect with I'd still keep it. I have a technique for reading decks that works for learning songs on my guitar.

If I can't get the line down within a half an hour of practice, I take a five minute break, half hour practice, five minute break. I do that for an entire day, two day break, I pick up the guitar and bam. Instant epicness. Works with my decks too ^_^

I have said I never give up on a deck .However, my recent experience with the KonXari Cards and The Fallen Angles has changed my mind. It is not that they don't read well- they do, but they are bringing in spirits that I don't wish to work with. So I am giving up on them. I have a lot of tarot and oracle decks . A number of them I don't really relate that well too, but they aren't causing me harm. They will stay as I am mainly a collector . I hope to leave my collection to my granddaughters, one of whom I am certain is psychic. ( family tradition)
About your dilemma, I feel it is too soon to give up. I'd just put them away and forget them.I did that with the Quest deck. For 2 yrs it laid in a cabinet. One day it just seemed to begged to be taken out. I did and have been using it as one of my main decks since. You never know. >

I see my relationships with my decks as being similar to relationships with friends. You need to build them gently. Sometimes a relationship needs a break - after all, I don't spend all my time with one friend. Just as with a relationship with a person, we need a break sometimes.

I had a deck that I couldn't read - Lo Scarabeo's Dragons Tarot. I struggled for months and finally gave up and stuffed it in the back of my closet. It sat there for years. One day I was going through my decks, looking back on all the memories they held, and looked through it, and decided that I wanted to learn to read it, once and for all. So I did a reading with a deck that I was comfortable with, asking "How can I learn to read my Dragons deck?" The answer came back clearly: "You have to read it differently from your other decks." Suddenly, it all made sense. The meanings of the images in my Dragons deck were totally different from my more RWS-inspired decks, and that was what threw me off. I picked up the deck and started doing practice readings with it, and wow, it all worked beautifully. I can now read it very comfortably, and I love it.

Here are some other things you can try to connect to a deck:

- Get the deck a present. Sounds weird, but how do we heal a relationship that's been hurt somehow? We treat the other person to something. With my decks, I make hand-stitched bags for each one. If you're not into sewing, you could buy a crystal for the deck and store them together.

- Change how you store the deck. Try wrapping it in a scarf or dark cloth, or in a different bag.

- Cleanse the deck of any stray energies it may have picked up on its journeys to you. You can do this by setting it in a bowl of salt (sea salt works best, but table salt is fine) for a while. It's best if you can do it overnight, but if that's not practical for you, an hour will do. That's what I do with my decks.

- Sit down with the cards and tell them all about yourself. I know this one sounds REALLY bizarre, but a friend of mine (who has an AMAZING connection with her cards) told me to do this. It works wonders for me with new decks. Once they know me well, the cards tell me what I need to know.

Hope some of this helps!

-Taylor

The decks I find challenging, I try to keep to try another day. You know, with even my favorites, there are times when my mind set is just not right, so I put them up and grab something else.

I do have the one deck that irritates me. I have had it for years and I am about ready to send it to the trade bin. And I never trade away decks. But, I have tried - I have tried to study it and the myths it represents. I have tried to be opened to the images. But it just doesn't do it for me. So, it is going to go. I have an oracle deck that I bought on a whim, and I don't really care for it, either. With Oracle decks, I am a bit more lenient - if I don't "click" with it relatively quickly, it isn't ever going to.

If you don't have a problem with just making quick decisions and sending a deck on your way, then just do it. But if you feel you are "giving up," then I would examine that feeling. "Giving Up" is emotionally different than "giving it a couple of tries then making a rational decision to just pass it along to somebody else who might love it."

Debra said:

I, on the other hand, feel that if a deck is difficult to relate to and read, screw it. I don't see any reason why the Universe would send messages in exquisitely difficult code when there's more direct, clear language available.

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LOL Amen! Life's too short to worry about these things. Plus, it's just a deck of cards.

jdev, you are learning tarot right now, sometimes it won't matter which deck it is because you are too busy trying to MAKE it say something, and it probably is, but you aren't getting it just yet.

Just stop trying to read into everything, you are probably over thinking and not trusting your first impressions when you look at the cards. Don't think about ANYTHING that you think it's supposed to mean, don't try to make the card fit into a prescribed meaning, jot down the first thoughts that come to your mind and move onto the next card.

Yeah, we need the basics to get the general ideas, but you really need to clear your mind of everything you think you know and really see what the cards have to say. I think you are trying way too hard and when you are feeling frustrated, nothing is readable, not even if the cards flat out spelled it out in bold headlines.

The only experience of this sort that stands out for me is with the Sun and Moon tarot.

When I first bought it, I found it charming and "soft" and lovely . . . I wanted very much to be able to use it as a working deck.

And I tried...and tried...and tried again, and it wouldn't speak a word to me.

It's still pretty, as 78 pieces of art that I enjoy looking at. But I don't bother trying to read with it any more.

I'm back with my trusty Legacy of the Divine, which I never in a million years expected to like, but now reads like dream for me. It sings, psychically. I get flashes with the Legacy like I've never gotten with any other deck before. But that's a subject for another thread.

I totally agree with Debra's assessment - if there are other decks that you can read like a book, why struggle with one you can't? But having said that, I recognize the value in putting it away until later.

I personally (and probably to great debate) do not believe they are just a deck of cards. They are in the context that The Bhagavad Gita, The Koran, The Bible, etc, are "just books". They are "just a deck of cards" in the way that Van Gogh's works are just paintings, Tiny Tim was "just a ukulele player" and Dolly Parton's boobs are "just breasts".

Carla said:

LOL Amen! Life's too short to worry about these things. Plus, it's just a deck of cards.

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WW, I go after new loves and new enterprises with the lust, vigor, ambition, and fortitude I feel it requires! I don't think I'm trying to hard. I have Greta, my gifted Hoi Polloi deck, that I can read beautifully with, and not have to struggle for a meaning or try to make it something. Even if I doubt my intuition and have to consult a text, with this deck I find my intuition was correct.

But you're right, I get frustrated when a deck can't be as easily read as the Hoi Polloi, and I should set it aside and come back to it in a few years.

WalesWoman said:

jdev, you are learning tarot right now, sometimes it won't matter which deck it is because you are too busy trying to MAKE it say something, and it probably is, but you aren't getting it just yet.

Just stop trying to read into everything, you are probably over thinking and not trusting your first impressions when you look at the cards. Don't think about ANYTHING that you think it's supposed to mean, don't try to make the card fit into a prescribed meaning, jot down the first thoughts that come to your mind and move onto the next card.

Yeah, we need the basics to get the general ideas, but you really need to clear your mind of everything you think you know and really see what the cards have to say. I think you are trying way too hard and when you are feeling frustrated, nothing is readable, not even if the cards flat out spelled it out in bold headlines.

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Different strokes for different folks, definitely. My Sun and Moon Tarot is second only to my Hoi Polloi in ease of reading (so far)!

Annabelle said:

The only experience of this sort that stands out for me is with the Sun and Moon tarot.

When I first bought it, I found it charming and "soft" and lovely . . . I wanted very much to be able to use it as a working deck.

And I tried...and tried...and tried again, and it wouldn't speak a word to me.

It's still pretty, as 78 pieces of art that I enjoy looking at. But I don't bother trying to read with it any more.

I'm back with my trusty Legacy of the Divine, which I never in a million years expected to like, but now reads like dream for me. It sings, psychically. I get flashes with the Legacy like I've never gotten with any other deck before. But that's a subject for another thread.

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