When the Cards Call (and the addiction no one talks about)

Now, I'm starting this post off with a little bit of a disclaimer: If you didn't think I was at least a little crazy before, you definitely will after reading this. And honestly? Fair.

Talking to a lot of tarot-interested people in my life, one of the biggest problems they seem to have is (outside of the overwhelming amount of information needed to read cards) a lack of motivation. Just recently, I sort of boiled this down to potentially using a deck that doesn't call to them- and, even further, probably because they are following "The Rules" and not following their own goals and desires. But that's just a hunch.

See, I sat on a Rider-Waite tarot deck for years. Probably over a decade! Reading the cards was an exhausting task and I just didn't like the deck. It didn't feel right! I used them maybe twice and there was just no connection. Fast forward to last September, when I was armed with birthday money and lost in a local book shop, casually browsing the "New Age" section as one does- I had sighed dreamily over various decks of oracle and tarot cards over the years, but nothing called out to me like the Jack-O'-Lantern Tarot deck. Something clicked and I was immediately enchanted- I couldn't stop thinking about this deck as I browsed the rest of the store. Finally, unable to contain myself any longer, I dashed back to the shelves as if I was apologizing to a long lost lover who I regretted leaving and quickly purchased the deck before I could make any other incredible mistakes in that book store (buying more? or buying less? We'll never know).

My Jack-O'-Lantern deck practically sprang to life when I finally had enough brain juice to tackle the daunting task of working with the cards. After sitting with my spreads for a bit and moving through my cards one at a time, I felt a fire in the pit of my stomach that I hadn't felt with the Ol' Rider-Waite deck; the passion for learning that is usually so easily triggered within me. My readings started to scare me, so I began to reach out to those close to me, who were also into tarot, and that's when everything started to fall into place: I was receiving confirmations from these people that my spreads were hitting points- points they had not told me beforehand. With the help of my desire to learn, my fear of the unknown slowly began to bloom into an acceptance and confidence I had never felt before.

Now, I have a couple of decks, and they continue to call to me. The ones I own will nag the back of my brain until I answer. And then, there are the exciting, unowned decks who catch my eye while window shopping who seem to haunt me with a daily poke or prod. The enchantment is so different from simply liking something- there's a magnetism! A real pull! If there's a deck you've really liked and you can't help but find yourself thinking about it, remembering how it felt if you were able to hold the box, daydreaming about the beautiful art and the beautiful spreads you could create with it- that's a calling, baby, and I can't guarantee that it'll ever cease for good! Hate to break it to you, but you'll probably just have to go out and buy the dang thing. It'll be fine, it's only one deck, right?

Right????