Just a trim, please

An excellent video tutorial by Donnaleigh on removing those distracting borders from your Tarot/Lenormand/etc decks.
Cutting Corners (and Borders!) - Crafty Tarot | Donnaleigh's Blog
Off to get me a corner punch!

(I did it!)

Was your first deck a gift?

I remember coming up against the "your first deck must/should be gifted to you" concept when I first became interested in Tarot cards. What I can't remember after all these long years is whether I went ahead and bought one anyway (a Rider-Waite-Smith mini, as it happens) or whether I was given my well-used Aquarian Tarot first.

Seriously - how did this deck get so worn out in the seven years or less between it being published and coming to me? That's some heavy-duty tarot reading! I didn't contribute much to the wear-and-tear - I never really took to the deck. That's perhaps the best reason for buying your own deck.

The guys at Psychic Bazaar have been wondering about this "tradition" and tried an interesting little experiment - The Gift of Giving | Psychic Bazaar Blog.

Burning My Tarot Bra

Over in the Aeclectic Tarot forum a fellow cartomant was bemoaning the shift towards counselling and near psychoanalysis that Tarot card reading was taking. They signed off with - "Has anybody else reached this same conclusion?"

As it happens, I had an Ah Ha! moment about this very thing only a couple of days ago, so I was moved to reply (especially as no one else had since it was posted almost a month ago)...

Yes - yes I have.

I've been studying/using Tarot cards for over 30 years. I'm sure I started out in the hope of being able to "tell the future" with them. As time went by and I read more and more on the subject I began to see their deeper psychological, I prefer to say spiritual, connection.

Fast forward to the past 5-10 years and now, well, anyone starting out with Tarot would think their only intended use is for Psychic Soul Transformation or Guided Karmic Purging or suchlike. ;-) What ever happened to fortune telling?!

I "discovered" Lenormand earlier this year, while I was coming to grips with an old fortune telling deck of my grandmother's (and consequently searching online for information; deadly that, LOL). The more I worked with these cards, and a few others, the more I realised why my use of Tarot cards had stalled. The new Tarot Zeitgeist left me feeling that I wasn't really serious/worthy enough to be dabbling in such esoteric things.

Well, pfft! I've decided to reclaim Tarot for myself. I'm going to go back to basics and tell fortunes, with whatever cards take my fancy, including the Sacred Seventy-Eight. ;-)

There, I've said it.

There are, and always will be, times when Tarot cards are the most appropriate choice, based on the nature of the enquiry or the needs of the client, but I refuse to become so awestruck or precious about them that I can no longer use them.