Getting to Know the Cards

When you get a new Tarot deck it is important to spend some time with.  Get to know the cards and the deck’s personality, the same way you would want to get to know a new friend.

One interesting exercise to to go through every card in your deck and sort them into three piles: Good (positive reaction), Bad (negative reaction) and Neutral.  Next, take a look at all the cards you designated as Good and pick the best of the bunch.  In your Tarot journal (you do have one, right?), write down what it is that makes these cards good.  Now look at the Bad cards, picking the worst and writing down what makes them bad.

Now, here comes the difficult part, take the Best cards and write down what makes them Bad, just as bad as the Worst cards.  You can do it.  Look close and you will likely be surprised to see some of  the characteristics you identified on the Worst cards right there on your favourites.  Now, take the Worst cards and write down what makes them just as good as the Best cards.

That just leaves the Neutural cards.  So, take the three or so that you feel the most ambviolent about and try to find some characteristics that are in both your Best and Worst cards.

If you feel ambitious and really want to get to know your deck very well, do the same exercise with all the remaining cards, using the cards you identified as your Best and Worst as the benchmarks.