I grew up with a tarotista mother. The rest of our family was rigidly and conservatively religious; my mom was kind of a black sheep. She did reading for me when I was 11 with the RWS; it was very mysterious and spooky (and very inaccurate. My mom didn't know me very well, but she sure thought she did!) So I thought Tarot was not only evil, but also a con.
My mom also had a Barbara Walker deck that she tended to use when she was in a bad place emotionally. She thinks of it as her angry deck. It has yucky, yucky energy on it. Normally I am one for the "it's just a deck of cards" crowd, but THIS deck of cards feels YUCKY. I won't even touch the box.
So for years I had an aversion to tarot. Then, one day, in the distant reaches of July, I was reading a thread from a professional tarotist on Customerssuck.com, and they mentioned the Tarot of the White Cats. "What is this cat tarot?" I wondered. And I googled it. Then I learned of the Tarot of Prague, and several other lovely decks, and I was intrigued. I called my best friend and said, "Hey... I think I want to learn to read tarot cards."
She was floored. "Really? I thought you hated them?"
"Yeah, I think it's weird too, but I want to learn."
"OK, don't buy your own deck- I'll get you one. Go to aeclectic.net and pick one out"
And that was it. I've been here ever since.