Alright, for all of you that regularly use Tarot cards, which deck do you use and/or which have you had the most success with? I would have made this a poll, but the sheer number of different decks would make that a waste of time.

Alchemical Tarot

Inspired by the spiritual alchemy of the Rosicrucians, the Alchemical Tarot is full of alchemical symbolism and explains "the beliefs of the elixirs that make up the substance of life." Card art is hand-drawn in style reminiscent of comic books.

I have always gotten the best results with this deck!

How do Tarot cards work?

Hi,

The waite version is far superior to most deck because its the ease to use and read, as you progress, you can use any deck even playing cards.The tarot is a long study even if you have the key or keys and it was not designed for fortune telling. Good luck!

I have been reading the cards for a long time. I started using the Rider-Waite and then went from there and ened up collecting Tarot decks (over a hundred at this point). I use several different decks. For couples i often use the original Rider deck for the men and the Univeral Rider for the women. I also use the Aquarinan deck - very honest but gentle deck and the St Petersberg deck - very hnest and brutal at times. Antoher deck i use is the Robot Tarot (no longer in print) that is very interesting for reading people who are in question of their own selves. I also use the Robin Wood deck and people seem to like that one.

I usually let the seeker pick the deck they feel most comfortable with and go from there.

Wow... that was incredibly far from what I asked...


Anyway, I'm quite fond of the Crowley- Thoth deck. The same intricate imagery that make these cards diffucult to read also allow for very specific answers. My father, who is an extremely talented artist, spent months creating his own version of the Major Arcana, though it has yet to be named...

So out of forty-some thousand people on this site, we have a grand total of three who practice tarot? Yet apparently hundreds who are interested in spoon bending???

It's saddening...

Indeed. To your previous question on the workings of tarot, the answer to that is very simple yet at the same time incredibly complex. Some would say that they don't work at all, though all practitioners of the art know that they do. This question largely depends on what you ask of the cards- there are certain types of questions that are most always answered, and some that never are. I would suggest looking up tarot on howstuffworks.com, they have a pretty informative article as well as links to sites that can teach you much more... if you're truly interested.

Have you heard of angel cards? I have seen them used... How different are they from tarot cards?

Oracle cards, yes. Angel cards? Never heard of them.

In Tarot, what seperates chance from meaning?

Personally I use the Osho Zen Tarot on the rare occasion that I am called upon to attempt to "devine" anything.

Socrates, can you explain your question further?

People see those hippie psychics with beads and inscents on TV, and they think, "Wow, taror cards. ...yeah... right."

But who wouldn't love to impede the process of eating cereal by bending their friend's spoon?

Indeed the media does not portray tarot in the noblest since, often showing it as either a dark art or as a total scam, but that should not turn away people who truly want to learn more about the tarot. Actually, anyone who reads this and believes that tarot is either a waste of time or just a total scam, please tell me why you believe those things.

What I mean is, when you pick a card from the deck, what is it that replaces chance with meaning?

Chance is never a part of the equation to begin with. The same spirits and energy that allow the cards to work in the first place also guide the cards as they are being shuffled- and are also guiding the subconcious and by extension the hands of the shuffler.

I see - so the cards are controlled by spirits to begin with? What proof do we have of this? How accurate are the cards?

That's a tricky question. How do you prove something that by definition is not physically present? I can tell you a thing or two about their accuracy, though. It depends heavily upon the deck that is used. If a deck's imagery is very simple, than the interpretations are broad and vague; but in one such as the Crowley- Thoth deck, which consists of 78 cards with very detailed and intricate images, the meanings can be many and very specific. When you throw in the fact that not only do the cards have several meanings by themselves but also have alternate meanings when reversed or when they appear in certain relations with other cards- you have the potential for a very high degree of accuracy.

I tend to shy away from the "spirits guiding the cards" explaination and prefer to attribute a reading to good insight and symbolic interpretation skill. I use tarot more to advise than to predict.

However, I will say that my more "accurate" readings have come from cards that fell out of the deck during the shuffle.

There actually was another thread on Tarot, but it fizzled out...

Allow me to quote from myself ( I'm too tired to paraphrase... ):


There are many 'Divinatory Systems' out there, like Tarot, I Ching or Runes. In my belief, the underlying principle is the same in all 'techniques' (Synchronicity & Analogy also come into play though):

The concious self, the personality that you identify with, is just a part of the whole, 'higher' self (for lack of a better word). It is the higher self (not the subconcious!) that 'chooses' the cards to answer your questions. It has knowledge of your (& other people's) innermost nature (your desires/fears/behavioural patterns, etc), your true soul-structure & the tasks/challenges you need in order to grow. It has also knowledge and access to the past & future.

So, to put it simplistically: as such, it doesn't really matter what you use, as long as you give it a symbolic structure/meaning. In principle, you could use anything for divination; shirt-buttons, for example, or candy-wrappers, or beer-mats...

With regards to how "Tarot assists in that all", I've found it giving me invaluable counsel over the years, especially in times of crisis, confusion or indecision.

Tarot appeals to me because it is also a game. I love games per se, and being a game, Tarot has a certain playfulness & allows you to lay the cards on different levels of 'depth'. If I feel like it, I literally 'play around with them', or sometimes I pick a quick card before leaving the house in the morning, sort of, 'Theme of the day'. Or I lay them properly when I'm really stuck with a problem.

In addition to being a divinatory tool, Tarot cards also have a deep symbolism, representing the spiritual path, or evolution of the human soul. This is actually their original meaning & purpose. It is thought that they originated in the East, some say Egypt, some India, and were being used as an esoteric teaching tool, a 'sacred picture book', so to speak. Only many centuries later Tarot devolved into a game.

Especially the Great Arkana tells a continuous story full of grace and beauty. I also use the 'Crowley' deck. I love its rich, vibrant colours and the abundance of symbols & archetypes. I disagree by the way with the comment that the cards are vague & could be interpreted as anything you choose. The symbolism of an individual card just has many different levels of meaning, still expressing the same principle.

The same can be said for people interested in astrology, it seems...

I did not say that all cards could be vague, I said that many of the simplest decks can. Your interpretation of what the Tarot are for is a very interesting and profound one, yet I tend to believe that the cards are manipulated by something outside of one's own spirit. Lood at it this way- if the tarot accurately predicted a future event- how could your subconcious possibly do that?

That could be an arguement for how tarot cards are fake; they offer very broad information, and the reader simply interprets it a certain way.

Sorry, just wanted to point that out.

Using the same power used in precognition and similar deja-vu events.

...whatever that power is.

I started with the Aquarian deck, figuring it was my sign and maybe I could connect with it or something? Well it turns out I can read some people very well and then again for others I can't read anything!

I picked up Alister Crowley Thoth's deck but I couldn't even read anybody with them. I gave them away as I wasn't really getting any success with them....

How much experience in tarot do you have? It sometimes takes a very skilled reader to use the Thoth deck correctly.

That might be it, I've only been reading now for about two years and I still need the tarot reading book I picked up to help me with the definitions on some of the minor arcana....

I'm pretty much in the same boat- a compete novice.

Then might I offer a book suggestion that has helped me greatly in my tarot reading?

'Tarot for Beginners' by P. Scott Hollander

A very excellent book that is easy to read and very good to learn from for beginners. I'm never at a reading without it!

No worries.

The last reading I did for someone I was handed a deck I had never even seen before and was asked to give a reading. I really wasn't in the mood to give a reading so I BS'ed my way through. A skilled reader would have been in tears from the stretches I had to make. In the end he was convinced and was able to correllate every single thing I said into his own life. He was also drunk so that was probably a major factor.

Regardless as to whether it's interpreting randomly selected symbols, or the spirits guiding the draw, tarot reading still requires a degree of skill.

I think it's important to remind people that though there are people whose ability could be considered anomalous this type of thing can be easily faked as well.

Any advice on telling the difference?

A true tarot reader will be able to tell you the answer to a question that you didn't ask. So if you go to someone looking for a tarot reading, ask a simple question, yet think of what is truly bothering you- a skilled reader can tell that you are hiding your actual question, and will give you the answer without asking for any additional information.

So that's it? Out of the 500-some people who have viewed this thread, these are the only ones that practice tarot?

Can't say that I do but i'm grossly interested in it. I wish I knew someone who could give me one.

Well, as i said, it is NOT the subconscious, but the Higher Self, that chooses the cards. The Higher Self is much more spiritually aware, "powerful" and wise than your current incarnation that you perceive as "you". It has access to different spheres & dimensions and also to the future. Just don't ask me how that works technically; there we're going into the nature & mysteries of time. I just feel it to be so...

Ahh... I've heard it called the Supraconcious... Wow- you've made me rethink the way in which I view how the deck works.

I liked this because you treated it like one was somehow less absurd than the other.

Supraconnscious, yes, probably the same...

Cool! Tarot can be an extremely powerful tool!

If it's such nonsense, why bother to post in this thread?

Why don't you look at the cards and tell ME why?

And how do we go about discovering if this is true or not?

Empirical knowledge...

If all you're going to do is belittle my beliefs, I will not give you the answer to any question you ask.

I will not belittle your beliefs. understand them maybe not. I use two decks, The Witches Tarot[Ellen Cannon Reed] and The Medieval Scapini Tarot.[They felt right to me] I do quit well with them [almost as if they picked me]A mentor once told me "When you really understand whats going on ...you won't need the props"I don't use them for self readings.I don't need them to read others. I use them because thats what they want and expect.Tarot cards,Playing cards, Blank index cards... it does not matter. What you seek is within you. I can't tell you how to get from here to there. Everybody takes a different path. And all roads lead to Rome.

The whole "cards are but a crutch" thing never flew with me. If that was true, than you could use anything as your "crutch"- but you can't. I believe that the cards do posses there own power.

I would say that any deck is as good as any other.
Actually just use a normal deck of cards.
Its all bogus.

It is not a crutch. its a tool. On the otherhand... Look at my name and my avatar. guess what I do. And yes there is a difference between magic and majik.

[. I believe that the cards do posses there own power.
[/quote]

Hi profit,

It's me again , to explain somethings that people were talking about of the tarot, but first a true story.
When I was younger I stayed with a group of friends on a famous beach in L.A. Their was a man among us who was said to practicing high magic. He possessed a tarot deck witch one day I saw on a table in the living room, so being a student of psychology, I was curious about the subconscious mind and all that. Later we , the six of us drew a card and he gave us a mini reading. One week later at the same beach house a lady friend saw me pick up the cards and came over and sat down next to me. She said, " Yesterday I saw them lying there so I picked a card it was the death card. I said so what, than I spread the cards out after shuffling them and said pick a card ,she again picked the death card ,again, I replied that doesn't mean anything they are just cards. Long story short, She disappeared two weeks later ; dispight all our effords, police, and psychic help, we never saw or heard from her again.

To me tarot is a spiritual guide but that card reading was in my mind a warning to her that she was in danger. I became a believer in tarot after that. Tarot is a road map and a spiritual path rolled into one ,but only if you can read them. How can you tell your accurate? I used dream interpretation as my guide . After a year I had made almost a complete cross system between dream and the tarot.Look for the upcoming book.

Interesting. But you're possibly gonna scare the tarot newbies out there. In my own experience, the death card doesn't symbolize litterally dying, but a radical ending of a phase in your life and beginning of something new. It's actually quite a positive card. I've drawn it numerous times over the years & am still alive and kicking. Wuahahaaa...!

Maybe the woman wasn't found because she didn't want to be??

I understand it the same way. What do you feel is a stronger symbol of change- the Death card, or the Tower?