Making Friends with a Tarot Deck

Ahh...there it is!...
As people have been offering deck interviews - here's the one I have in my archive - though a deck interview imo, is not really an answer to your question:

INTERVIEW with your deck:
1) Your most important characteristic
2) Strengths as a deck
3) What are your limits
4) What are you here to teach me
5) How can I best learn to collaborate with you
6) What is the potential outcome of our working relationship
7) Which card do you want to show off
8) How do you see me
9) How do you see yourself.

I recommend just spending time with it, the imagery, journaling about it, the more time I spend with a deck the easier I find it is to read it

Tanga said:

Ahh...there it is!...
As people have been offering deck interviews - here's the one I have in my archive - though a deck interview imo, is not really an answer to your question:

INTERVIEW with your deck:
1) Your most important characteristic
2) Strengths as a deck
3) What are your limits
4) What are you here to teach me
5) How can I best learn to collaborate with you
6) What is the potential outcome of our working relationship
7) Which card do you want to show off
8) How do you see me
9) How do you see yourself.

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Thanks Tanga, I think an interview would be a good idea for this deck and perhaps I should let the deck interview me. Cheers, Cynthia

MadeiraDarling said:

I recommend just spending time with it, the imagery, journaling about it, the more time I spend with a deck the easier I find it is to read it

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Thanks MadeiraDarling: I have put the deck aside for now but do plan later on to spend some time with it. Cheers, Cynthia.

Cynthia_H said:

Hi everyone

A while back I acquired the Fenestra Tarot. Right from the official opening I loved this deck, the images, the feel, the whole package
My problem is that try as I may, I have never been able to read with this deck. I don't know why but the cards that I toss never seem to make sense in relation to the question or the spread. Even a general question "what do I need to know today" produces a jumble for me. It's like we are talking at cross purposes. Has anyone else had this experience and if so were you able to mend your relationship with the deck and become friends rather than frienemies and how so ?

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l have had the same experience of really loving the look of a deck and been looking forward with anticipation to working with it. l begin by using the cards for my own readings to see if we have a partnership. When a deck starts to give me off the wall readings and does not relate in any way to what l am asking, l either relegate it to the shelf, exile it to ebay, amazon or give it away. It is a pain when this happens with a deck, but in my case it either behaves or it doesn't and there is nothing l can do but bid it farewell. This is why with a new deck l will always test it out on myself first, if it reads like a dream l know it will be a reader for others.
l assume this happens with most things in life, it either works or it does not.

Thoughtful said:

l have had the same experience of really loving the look of a deck and been looking forward with anticipation to working with it. l begin by using the cards for my own readings to see if we have a partnership. When a deck starts to give me off the wall readings and does not relate in any way to what l am asking, l either relegate it to the shelf, exile it to ebay, amazon or give it away. It is a pain when this happens with a deck, but in my case it either behaves or it doesn't and there is nothing l can do but bid it farewell. This is why with a new deck l will always test it out on myself first, if it reads like a dream l know it will be a reader for others.
l assume this happens with most things in life, it either works or it does not.

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Hello Thoughtful: This is exactly what is happening with the Fenestra deck and me, probably me misbehaving. I know what you are saying about letting go but I haven't had the Fenestra that long and am not yet read to give up her. When time permits, I'll try the suggestions on this post and hope that there will be a shift in the energy fields and we can chat. I found that happened with a couple of my decks. (PS, I love your signature from Maya, it is one of my all-time favourite thoughts). Cheers, Cynthia.

Barleywine just posted a really illuminating new deck interview here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=271911. I tried it and found it very accurate, albeit not with a deck that's giving me trouble. Maybe give that a shot and see what it tells you.

barefootlife said:

Barleywine just posted a really illuminating new deck interview here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=271911. I tried it and found it very accurate, albeit not with a deck that's giving me trouble. Maybe give that a shot and see what it tells you.

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Thanks barefootlife, I'll give it a try. Cheers, Cynthia.

Cynthia_H said:

Hello Thoughtful: This is exactly what is happening with the Fenestra deck and me, probably me misbehaving. I know what you are saying about letting go but I haven't had the Fenestra that long and am not yet read to give up her. When time permits, I'll try the suggestions on this post and hope that there will be a shift in the energy fields and we can chat. I found that happened with a couple of my decks. (PS, I love your signature from Maya, it is one of my all-time favourite thoughts). Cheers, Cynthia.

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Cynthia l do hope that you are finally able to bond with your deck, it is indeed a very pretty tarot. Would love to know if you can eventually read with it. In my own experience if a deck just does not give me clear answers from the off, l know it never will. l work intuitively with my cards, so if a deck blanks me l know it is a non-goer. Here's hoping for you though.

The signature l use of Maya's is so true that l knew l had to have it, it does make one more mindful of how you treat people

Tanga said:

As said here:



...For some reason, though you love the imagery - you just can't work with it smoothly presently.
I have a few decks like that.
I can imagine that only sweaty and painstaking study might change that.
(In my case - I just don't read for someone else with the decks that I have that are like this...
They've ended up as my 'Altar decks'. Or I experiment with them on various things for myself on-and-off.
A few I know I could eventually read with, if I took the time to study their unique imagery and meaning... yes - when I eventually have enough hours in the day to do that. .
I have quite a few decks).


Have you done the stuff - of reading the LWB that came with it etc.? (of course - it may have a crap one. ).
Maybe - one card draws daily? (there's the 'am/pm 1 card draw' - where you look at the card and see what catches your eye and write about that in the morning... then in the evening look at it again and see if anything new strikes you about the card, or if there's anything about the card you can relate to your day, plus then you look up the LWB meanings etc.... You can use more than 1 card...).

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Thank you for saying this.

I just pulled out a bunch of decks I have had since I joined this forum a few years ago. I went through them all excited at the depth of possibility. There are about 12 decks I have never done anything with.

I was so disappointed that I didn't feel any sort of connection with them. I love the artwork, but the images just don't make any sense to me.
There is the Pagan Cat, Celtic Dragon, Rider-Waite Illuminated, and Rider-Waite New Visions, Mystical Cats and many more. I love the art work, and adore the kitties in Mystical cats. I appreciate the change in perspective in the New Visions deck. I just adore dragons, and love the way the dragons do stuff in the Celtic Dragon Tarot.
But when I tried to dig into them, I just felt overwhelmed or drew a blank.

I don't know if it's my ADD or if I feel spoiled for choice. But your comments above and some of the other comments in this thread give me peace that they may just not be right for right now. Also, that it is okay to enjoy a deck for its artwork, that you don't necessarily have to work with it to have it be of value to you.

Thank you.