Is it best for someone to give you tarot cards before you use them?
 

I had a friend about a year ago say that you are not supposed to use tarot cards unless someone gives you a set. Is this true? I am thinking about purchasing them but don't want to break any "rules."

I heard this when starting out, but honestly, I think it's just a nice "story" and wouldn't worry too much :)

No. I mean, I bought the only deck that worked for me.

I'll also add that it can be extraordinary counter-intuitive to follow rules just because they're rules. Where did the rule come from? Is it a Thelema traditional thing? An A.E. Waite Order of the Golden Dawn thing? A gypsy thing? Who is your authority? Is your friend also a religious authority figure in your life? A tarot expert? No?

Then why follow a rule that you only heard in passing?

Tarot cards are pieces of card with images printed on them. They act as triggers to our own intuition. If you look back in the Tarot school, we once, individually, interpreted the same cards and we all gave different slants on them which proves my point. If you go back in the school, you could remove the names of the posters and you could say who the posters were just by the style of the readings.

Having said, I bought my first deck - std Rider-Waite - and never got anything special from them. My daughter bought me, as a birthday present, the Sacred Circle deck and my intuition lit off like a firework ! The difference ? Rider-Waite is rather crude whereas the Sacred Circle has multi-layered images with a mythological basis.

I think it is best that you attach the correct meaning and symbolism to your deck that will suit you and make it more 'attached' to you. I always buy something special for myself on my birthday, and sometimes I wait until full moon before doing/getting something that relates to my spiritual development. My husband has given me divination cards, and it makes it very special to me, however my favourite divination tool is runes that I carved myself. I think it depends on YOU how the deck should come to you, and how YOU want to make it special.

There are no rules, as said before they are only paper, the magic is not in the cards, the magic is within you. All my decks that I have used over the year I have purchased them, the ones given to me as gifts just sit, I dont like them. You must do what you feel is right, but to be honest I never heard of this rule.

I've heard a LOT of these. :laughing9:

"You must not purchase your own deck, it should be given to you as a gift"

"The cards must be wrapped in silk"

"You can't read cards when it's raining"

"A reading deck must never be used for gaming"

"You must sleep with a new deck under your pillow in order to bond with it"

Etc., etc., etc.

While some decks have been given to me in recent years because I am known as a person who is into cards, in the beginning, nobody gave me any cards. I got sweaters and bath salts just like the other girls, lol. If I'd waited for someone to give me a deck, I'd probably still be waiting.

The "wrapping in silk" thing is a direct rip from I Ching lore. The I Ching is traditionally wrapped in yellow silk. I Ching is from China. Tarot originated in Europe. I have decks in bags of made of various materials, boxes made of wood, metal, cardboard or plastic, and some with just a hair elastic around them. They all work. If you like wrapping your decks in silk, by all means do so. Just be aware that you don't HAVE to.

I don't know where the rain thing came from. I heard it locally, so it's probably based in Cuaranderismo, but don't quote me on this. Since this is not my tradition, I read cards when it's raining.

In the old days, itinerant card readers, like the Romany, were generally poor. They didn't have big deck collections and whatever they had certainly had to do double duty as reading and gaming decks. Yet their reading skills are legendary.

You're certainly free to sleep with your cards under your pillow and some people swear by it, but as for me, I learn by practicing while I'm awake, lol. If there's any bonding, that's when it happens.

Someone once told me that a deck given as a gift was better than if bought for oneself. And yes, I'm still waiting...

Then I saw that the "Tarot School" will be starting any day now, and thought it time to buy that long awaited deck.

There's a really nice mystery shop, down a quiet street 5mins from where I live. Their Tarot selection was very limited. Not having a great choice and thinking I hadn't a lot of time to spare, I took home the Favole Tarot - Victoria Frances

The feeling I got from the deck was that I'd made a big mistake. I have no interest in Gothic Fantasy. What on earth was I thinking

Before I knew what the pack was all about - before I'd spread the pack to look at the artists pictures - I shuffled them for ten minutes or so. I then placed the cards face down in several piles...only one card slid from a pile. The ace of masks (wands)

There is whole lot of truth in that card!

Maybe the deck will work for me. I'll stick with it for the time being.

t.

The ace of wands is telling you that this deck has energenic potential. Give it time. Personally I stay with the classic decks, thoth and rws, or I will read with playing cards.

To not reading when it´s raining.... I would go out of business :icon_eek: been reading for 45 years, those types of rules have never effected how, when, or what deck I read from, and I have never slept with a deck, wow mind blowing.

Thanks Pamuya!

"A reading deck must never be used for gaming"

Is there any games that can only be played with tarot cards?

t.