To those who read Tarot in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s...

I was born in 1945 and grew up in an abusive, Pentecostal type religious environment. I'm surprised I ever in my life came out of that atmosphere enough to touch Tarot cards. One of my aunts bought a ouija board when I was about six years old and we tried to use it, but then I don't know where (or why) it went. I don't remember anyone having a fit about it at the time, but then grew into the family beliefs that things like that were of the Devil and demons, so probably that's why it disappeared. I didn't dare even think of believing anything else because I was taught all my life that I was going to hell. I didn't know why I wasn't good enough to go to heaven, but I accepted that my family knew something I didn't. I kept trying to get "good" enough for most of the rest of my life. Anyway, that aunt (who I was especially close to) developed schizophrenia when I was in my twenties and of course, she had to have demons exorcised a few times rather than getting any real help. Must have been that darned ouija board.

Then I went on to an abusive few marriages and relationships and spent some time being a Sunday School teacher. Back in the 60's where I lived and what I knew, that was the thing I was supposed to do to be respectable and with the everlasting hope that someday I'd get "good" enough. I found alcohol along the way, though, and that changed my world. I seldom drank, but I loved what I felt like when I did. If there were any Tarot cards around, I wouldn't have known where to find them. It was hard enough just trying to find a little sip of that magic once in awhile. Why couldn't I have been born Catholic? In retrospect, I suppose if I had gone somewhere besides church, prayer meeting and the hospital to deliver my babies I might have seen some but I didn't. The hippies in California probably had some but they hadn't "Californicated" Oregon yet. (ETA: I just read back over this and it sounds like I meant I might have found some more of that liquid magic but I meant I might have found some Tarot. I knew where to find the "magic", it was just hard to get my lips on any at that time.)

Fast forward to the 70's and my 40th birthday, when I quit drinking and letting myself get beaten up and then I became 7th Day Adventist. Met and married my late husband who was also Adventist to the "nth" degree .

In 1998 my friend sent me Jamie Sams' Medicine Cards and since the Guy With the Forked Tail didn't come to carry me off to hell for getting acquainted with those, in a little while I got the bright idea that maybe they were somehow related to Tarot cards and I set out to find some. I got out the phone book but they didn't have a listing for "Tarot". Damn it! I tried calling bookstores and even then nobody seemed to know where I could find any. (Later I found out I had called bookstores that were Christian owned. lol They probably went to have their ears cleaned out with holy water after that call. I'm just thankful I escaped being "saved" for asking.) Finally someone did refer me to an out of the way little store they said might have some and that led me to a few decks.

What was the question? Oh yeah! So that was in the late 90's and that's about how hard it was to find Tarot anywhere around my neck of the woods. I didn't read for anyone, though, or let anyone know I had the cards. Finally I decided to volunteer free readings for a Christmas gift to people on a forum I was a member of since I couldn't stand it any longer not to read for somebody. Caution: don't do that a week before Christmas if you're new to reading for others! Two hundred readings later (and I tried real hard to get them done at Christmas season) I was a basket case. When I got my health back up to par after that iditarod, I couldn't stand it again so after a few weeks, I decided I could trust one of my gay cousins not to tell on me and I read for him and some of his friends. By then it was 2003 and I found AT. Whew! Been here ever since. I'm still pretty much underground with certain of my family because I don't want the Pentecostal SWAT team showing up at my door. (You think I'm kidding, don'tcha? )

I'm able to feel confident enough to read for the right people without feeling worried about that now, and more important, I know I'm not going to go to hell for it because they're not evil. And now I know all the right stores and even the online stores worldwide where Tarot can be found!

My mother bought me my first deck in 1983 in NYC just after I had graduated from college; I chose the Aquarian. I loved that deck, but only had the LWB. Some years later I found a book that used the deck and I bought it, but it turned out to be supremely unhelpful. I didn't know anyone else who read tarot (my husband had a deck from when he was a teenager, but he didn't actually read). Finally, about 20 years later, I was in a new age bookstore and my eye was caught by a display of tarot decks. It finally occurred to me that I could get another deck. Chose the Llewellyn, and it finally clicked. Some years later, I decided that while I still appreciated the Llewellyn, I was really sick of the ill-proportions of some of the cards. So I set out to find a new deck, and that search led me to AT. And it turns out that a lot of people I know now used to read tarot.

I had always been curious about tarot, so when I saw the 1JJ Swiss in a small store, I grabbed it up. That was back in 1970. The deck came with a book and a large paper with the Celtic Cross. I read the cards for a while. I didn't know anyone else who did.

Then I got divorced and moved to a very friendly apartment complex. I started reading for other people, and really getting into it. But no one else was into it that much, and my interest faded. I did bring out my deck periodically -- I remember having a tea and tarot party for a few friends. I met someone at work who was really into it. She wound up becoming a professional tarot reader. There was a wonderful cafe in Tarzana that had tarot readings, and I went there for special occasions. Getting a reading there was always magical.

I was into rubber stamping, and the Artists Inner Vision was done by people in that world, so that was the next deck that I bought, and that was about ten years ago. It was quickly followed by the Osho Zen, because I was into Zen. I used to love to look through the cards. I never tried reading with them, though.

Then I found Aeclectic. All of a sudden I was exposed to so many different decks, and people who were into tarot. I believe that my interest might have died again if it wasn't for the internet and this and other forums. I bought a lot of new decks that I read about here -- for a while I was buying a new deck every week. I had so much catching up to do!

I started doing 3-card readings for myself, and joined reading circles here, where I learned to read for other people. I still didn't know that many people in real life, but some of my friends were always happy to get a reading.

I think that without the internet, and the tarot community that I found here, my interest would have fizzled.

I got my first deck, a RWS, in the mid-1980s. It was a gift, and I had to return it to the giver. Then I didn't get another deck until around 1990, and that was an OTO Thoth. It fascinated and mystified me, and frustrated me too. I had an on-again-off-again boyfriend who was a devotee of A.C., and he told me quite a few things about tarot and the esoteric stuff behind it that I didn't really grasp at the time. I remember struggling with the concept of the Tree of Life. There they were, all these Trees of Life through the deck, and I was all, "Wait, what does this mean again? I don't get it."

...ooops,

Grizabella said:

I was born in 1945 and grew up in an abusive, Pentecostal type religious environment. I'm surprised I ever in my life came out of that atmosphere enough to touch Tarot cards.
Then I went on to an abusive few marriages and relationships and spent some time being a Sunday School teacher.
Fast forward to the 70's and my 40th birthday, when I quit drinking and letting myself get beaten up and then I became 7th Day Adventist. Met and married my late husband who was also Adventist to the "nth" degree .
I'm able to feel confident enough to read for the right people without feeling worried about that now, and more important, I know I'm not going to go to hell for it because they're not evil. And now I know all the right stores and even the online stores worldwide where Tarot can be found!

Click to expand...

Griz:
Lovely account, thanks for sharing your story. The magical events, writings, gestures, rituals and clothing of your chosen or imposed organized religions, compared against or told in parallel with your inner journey and tarot eexperiences would make a very readable short story.

1970-1972, San Diego CA. High school. After the drama club closed a production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner," my friend, Jean Marcel DuCharme, showed up at the cast party with what I later found to be the Albano-Waite pack. He was surrounded by chicks. I obviously needed a deck of tarot.
Grimaud TdM was the only thing I could find at B. Dalton Booksellers. I was deeply disappointed the pips were not illustrated, certain I had been ripped off, and this singular event turned me off all plain-pip packs.
Found an Albano at a little shop in Ocean Beach and bought Eden Gray's paperbacks. When I compared the cards against the books' illustrations, I realized I had again been ripped off. The pentacles and swords had been altered and the PCS sigil had been corrupted. Then I was on a holy quest for a legitimate Waite-Smith deck and found the Rider pack.

Encouraged by their parents and teachers, or equally prohibited —which had the same effect, young people around me were exploring all forms of alternative philosophies, religious foundations, pseudosciences, lifestyles, dietary practices and sometimes dramatically altered means of perception. These were all of the same; 'twas the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. The Internet only makes finding weird things to try — and locating supplies and connecting with other practitioners — easier.

My first deck was in the early 70s and it was a rider waite. My friends and I were into ouija board and Egyptology and astrology. In our little girl group, my best friend was the Mary and I was the Rhoda when it came to tarot so I just thought I wasn't good at it and lost interest.

Hi Everyone,
I got my first Tarot deck in about 1967 (maybe 1966). I lived in a small midwestern town and was only able to get the deck when my family drove 80 miles to the nearest city. The deck was a Rider-Waite deck and it was the only deck the bookstore had. I don't remember seeing any books about Tarot or I am sure I would have bought one. I ended up just using the Little White Book that came with the deck. (That booklet didn't help much.) I had to keep the deck hidden because my parents would not have approved. No one at my school ever said anything about Tarot and there was a 'vibe' that anything occult-like was not accepted. It was quite a few years before I started seeing other types of decks. Tarot of Marseilles was the second deck I owned, follow shortly thereafter with a Thoth deck. Robin Wood was the fourth and then the flood gates opened and I started seeing all kinds of decks!