Making Friends with a Tarot Deck

Lunaea

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.

I agree with some of the others here that reading the book can provide a portal into a deck. If the deck has an actual book, not just an LWB (though those can be helpful too), you might try using the card and book together as a tool. In other words, let the card illustrate the book, rather than the book explaining the card, if that makes any sense. That's how my Mystical Cats deck was created, for example, and I know that's the case with many other decks -- the book came first, then the art. Think of it as a kind of bibliomancy -- using cards to direct you to a helpful book text!
 

snowmoon

try to clean the deck, if it is still not work for you , or it just doesn't seems right to you.

i would give away or sell it.
 

Nemia

I have two books with a lot of ideas to make a tarot deck come alive in your hands: Allison Cross' Tarot Kaizen is explicitly intended for work with decks that we can't connect with spontaneously. I haven't done all the exercizes yet but I find them very intelligent and they build upon each other. I wish I had more time to do them less haphazardly!

Very joyful and creative is Lynda Cowles' Tarot Playbook. It's intended for getting acquainted with any deck but it encourages you to access difficult decks, too.

Both books have a lot of helpful ideas and inspired me to take out decks I don't really click with although I know they have to tell me something! (Night Sun, I'm looking at you!)

And a third book which is very very helpful in reading the cards is Deborah Lipp's Tarot Interactions. It focuses on patterns and card relationships in readings, how to help your intuition ignite, and the techniques Lipp explains help you read with all kind of decks. It's more traditionally focused on "normal" tarot card use (while the other two explore the tarot territory much more playfully and creatively) but I also find it a good resource when I'm stuck with a reading because the deck somehow baffles me.