Chiriku
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I thought about titling this thread "Your 'nostalgia' decks," but then I reflected that nostalgia has both a very positive connotation and a temporal component (i.e. the past), while the decks that have strong "associations" for us may not necessarily have positive ones, nor may they be tied to the past.
I am interested in hearing about what decks, when you think of them, instantly conjure up a host of environmental, seasonal, emotional, fantasy or any other "associations."
Maybe they take you to a specific time or place in your life.
Maybe they take you to a season or time of year.
Maybe they transport you to a holiday or trip you once took.
Maybe you associate them with a certain group of people or a person with whom you spent a lot of time when using the deck.
Maybe they take you straight back to that job you used to love or hate, when you closed the office door or found a deserted bench in the park and pulled out the cards for a draw.
These decks say "__________" to you.
For a few examples from my own life:
These are just a few of my strong associations.
What are some of yours?
Which decks transport you, and to where (or when)?
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I thought about titling this thread "Your 'nostalgia' decks," but then I reflected that nostalgia has both a very positive connotation and a temporal component (i.e. the past), while the decks that have strong "associations" for us may not necessarily have positive ones, nor may they be tied to the past.
I am interested in hearing about what decks, when you think of them, instantly conjure up a host of environmental, seasonal, emotional, fantasy or any other "associations."
Maybe they take you to a specific time or place in your life.
Maybe they take you to a season or time of year.
Maybe they transport you to a holiday or trip you once took.
Maybe you associate them with a certain group of people or a person with whom you spent a lot of time when using the deck.
Maybe they take you straight back to that job you used to love or hate, when you closed the office door or found a deserted bench in the park and pulled out the cards for a draw.
These decks say "__________" to you.
For a few examples from my own life:
- The Buckland Romani and the Hallowquest/Arthurian say "summer" to me. Although each deck pays lip service to other seasons (a card here or there with some paltry snow), I find that the majority of cards in the Buckland and Hallowquest are set in a golden late summer or a leafy green late spring/high summer, respectively. I find I use these decks a lot more between May and September (late spring/summer in my part of the world).
It is not a nostalgic connection because although I was fond of the Buckland when it first came out, I did not use it all that much, and I only began using the Hallowquest in earnest a little over a year ago. But the connection is a strong one.
- The Robin Wood is another deck with strong summery associations for me, but the summer link (heat, blazing sun, a season culturally associated with youth and vigor) is magnified for me by the fact that I have a strong nostalgic connection to the deck (it was, in essence, the deck on which I "learned tarot"), that I was a young adult when I first became acquainted with it, and that my own birthday is in summer.
Robin Wood also says "Wands, Fire, energy, strength, force of will, dynamism, the Sun" to me. I associate it with a strong so-called "masculine" (to use the gendered language of Western mystery schools) energy. Perhaps it's because of all those smiling, healthy young faces and sunny blondes, or those fighting- fit Wands characters or the welcoming, bearded, leonine energy of the Magician and the man in the Lovers.
The funny thing is, for some time now, I've felt I've outgrown that deck for a number of reasons, and I'm not entirely sure I like it all that much. But last summer, I realized that several powerful associations remained for me with the Robin Wood, that the associations were undeniable and persuasive even if my intellectual side offered rationales for why it wasn't a great deck---and I even went so far as to purchase a new copy to replace my one that's been locked in storage for years.
I used the new copy for a large birthday reading and all the old associations of Fire, sunlight, energy, enterprise, forceful will and leadership came flooding back. It was as if no time had passed between the last time I had used it, perhaps a dozen years earlier.
- The Wheel of Change says "Tarot Unknown" to me, because it was the first deck I bought with a card system and meanings markedly divergent from the RWS paradigm in which I'd been immersed. I recently found an entry in an old tarot journal that questioned whether or not I should try to enter this new "world," whether it would throw me off my game and whether I had time to learn and internalize a whole new system.
- I associate the Morgan Greer with the parties and events at which I first read for querents. My original copy (which I don't use; I use a new copy) is still marked with the drippings of wax from the candles on my table at the Halloween parties .
- I strongly associate the Nigel Jackson Tarot with a place, a specific location in the U.S.: the wooden pier on a lake I used to visit, where I conducted self-readings (and of which I have the Polaroid photos of my spreads to serve as a reminder).
- I associate the Tarocchi di Alan with cobbled streets of Temple Bar in Dublin, as that was the general area of the tiny shop in which I stumbled across it, buried among kitschy home decor items I otherwise would have passed by.
These are just a few of my strong associations.
What are some of yours?
Which decks transport you, and to where (or when)?
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