Do you interview your new tarot decks?
Added at 15:22 on 08 August 2023
Do you interview your new tarot decks?
While it is not something I've ever done myself, you see many new students doing so.
It is all well and good, unless you do not have enough tarot knowledge to work out what the reading is telling you. Then it adds confusion, as it can be blamed on the poor, innocent tarot deck, especially when confusion triggers anxiety.
When a deck interview is done, it is a snapshot of the moment in time. How the subconscious mind perceives that deck in that instant. If the deck is very different from a deck you're used to, it can do two things: either we welcome it with open arms as it is refreshing, or it can cause tension as it is too different, and the mind is expecting the same images to look at.
With both, it is rarely the individual who is seen as the problem, but the deck. The deck is never the problem; we, on the other hand, always are. Tarot cards are not a living object but a system and a tool. How we react to them will depend on how the mind views them and their imagery. They are not the magic, you are, as at heart, you are interviewing yourself.
If you find a deck after an interview, or even a new one, that does not gel with you, it can be due to the reasons above as well as the imagery triggering something within you, which, being at a subconscious level, you may not be aware of, but you will feel the fear or uncomfortable feelings it brings to you.
Pop such decks to one side. Come back after a week or a month and sit with it again. A new day will see your mind in a different place, or even within a few years, as life has been experienced.
Some decks are always a no, but some grow on us as we gain more knowledge of the tarot itself and grow as people. As well, if relevant to the individual, the psychic development side of things.
Within the book, Understanding Tarot, there are meditations to be able to step into a tarot card. This can be an excellent way to get to know a card for study as well as for personal guidance. It can be hard to do this with an entire deck, but those cards that trigger you may be worth meditating on.
If you wish to interview a deck, bear in mind the points above and do a few, a week apart if you can, with decks that you find problematic. Home in on the differences between the readings and study the cards within the spreads. If you feel ‘off, instead of jumping to a psychic fluff scenario, look to your mind, the place it stems from, as there is a message for You about You.
I’ve added a simple 3-card spread, as if you’re new to tarot, the fewer cards the better. Within this spread, you will be able to see any problems within the positions. This will not be the sign of a deck that should be abandoned, but of what within the self it brings forward.
