Important question: can your deck turn against you?

[angelhearttarot]

I can’t pinpoint where it began but I started having an off feeling when using my tarot deck. It’s the only deck I have so I’ve only ever known the energy from this deck.

I started receiving a lot of negative answers and again, just had an off feeling. It felt like it was lying to me and purposely giving me wrong answers or very inconsistent answers.

I used another deck last week that my aunt owns and it just had a really nice feeling to it, very good energy, I was confident in the answers it gave to me.

I finally just went ahead and asked my deck if it was angry with me and a card literally flew out, and regarding yes/no questions the card meant yes.

Is this something that can happen? Can I fix this or do I need to acquire a new deck?

I cleanse with every use so I don’t believe that would be the solution but I’m not sure what else can be done?

[Joan Marie]

Is this something that can happen? Can I fix this or do I need to acquire a new deck?

Hi, and I agree, this is an important question and thank you for bringing it here and I will try an answer it as best I can.

I've been watching some videos lately from Lon Milo Duquette on his facebook channel where he takes questions from people regarding the practice of magic on which he is expert. A lot of people ask questions similar to yours and the gist of his answers, as best I understand him, is that these very powerful forces we call upon in our esoteric practices (whether that is ceremonial magic, reading tarot, scrying, etc) are coming from within us.

We are all a complex a mix of experiences, emotions, fears, worries and lots of wonderful things too. Releasing these forces is bound to, at times, might come in the form of something mysterious but, like in that old movie, "the call is coming from inside the house." This is perfectly normal and part of what makes the work so interesting and enlightening. And Fun!

In short, I don't think your deck is angry, But maybe to grow in your practice you do need to try another deck. As you said you've put a lot of energy into that one, it's full of all your questions and emotions you had when you used it which you carry the memories of if you realise it or not. All those sessions are embedded within you and are held in the physical form of the deck. Since you started using it, you've changed, grown and it's probably time to expand your possibilities with a new (or some new) decks. It's kind of like when you start a new journal. You put all the old aside and press forward a different person than the one who started that old journal months or years before.

You've already experienced the good feeling from another deck. It can't hurt to try a new one. And leave the other one, the old one, idle for a while. When you are ready you can return to that old friend and visit. There is probably much you can still get out of it, but it's probably time to spread your wings some.

[Charlie Brown]

I tend to be pretty pragmatic and non woo-woo. If you're thinking you want a new deck then there's no reason not to get one unless you're so poor that the $15 is a real problem and, even then, I bet you could get someone to give you one. That being said... I do—to the extent I think there's anything outside of ourselves in all of this—understand that different decks have different vibes to them. I have several RWS decks and there's one (a beautiful pre-copyright edition) that's just nasty as fuck in it's voice. If you really feel like something's off, trust it. Spend a few bucks and try a different perspective.

[Joan Marie]

To add to my earlier comment, I had a related experience recently.

A friend asked me to order a deck for her because they weren't offering delivery to her country. She also said I could open it up and have a look before I sent it to her. Which i did, and to my complete surprise, holding that deck in my hand and looking at it I felt really connected to it. I wanted nothing more that to read with it right then, but I didn't want to shuffle it and mess it up. So I re-packaged it up and sent it on to my friend as promised.

Then I immediately ordered the same deck for myself.

I was thinking later though that I should have kept the first deck and sent the second one to my friend. I was afraid that same magic wouldn't happen with the second one, that there had been something about that one that was special and "speaking" to me. But it was too late. I had already kept my promise (which is always a good thing to do) and the first deck was already on it's way to my friend.

When the secoond deck arrived though, the exact same thing happened. I felt immediately connected to it and have been using it every day since. Eventually it may "need a rest" but for now we are striking up a real connection.

So it wasn't the first bunch of 78 cards that struck me so, it was the deck itself, the art, the way it was made, I don't know exactly. It was a deck I would have never thought to buy myself.

So if that deck of your friend's really spoke to you, maybe you should get one for yourself.

[CharlotteK]

It sounds like your relationship with the deck has changed in a negative way, but you can't work out why?

I think what we perceive to be the personality of a deck is a manifestation of our relationship to the spiritual energy of it, which we can't see, but we can feel. In every piece of card lives the past of the trees that went into making them. Even plastic decks are created from once living things, derived from petrochemicals refined from petroleum, which was once fossilised organisms. Then there is the input of energies from the artist, all the people, places and processes of production, the place from where they are sold and of course the spiritual energy of the reader too.

That doesn't really answer your question though. I have never had a deck go hostile on me, though I have had a decks that didn't seem to want to talk to me. I could interpret the cards mechanically but the messages didn't really make a great deal of sense. I also had a very strong negative reaction to a couple of decks and didn't like the energy at all right from the get go.

From a shamanic perspective, I think it is possible to journey to connect with the spirit of the deck, and to ask questions of it about your relationship. You could ask the deck to give you a card that represents it's spiritual essence and then in meditation or journeying, establish a connection with it. You could undertake a pathwalking exercise where you visualise entering into the imagery card and engaging with what you find there with an open questioning mind.

Or you could just get a new deck! Maybe the relationship has changed because you have? It could be time to find a new deck with an energy that resonates better.

[Nemia]

I don't believe that decks of cards have a will of their own. Yes, they are products of many interconnected energies (materials, artistic vision, tarot knowledge - all contributed by many different humans and also nature) that we tune into, but they can no more "turn against us" than your books or carpet or t-shirt can. There may be a problem in your tarot practice, in the way you use your tarot deck. (Others have covered the definite possiblity that you have exhausted the answers your specific deck can give to you, and that you may have to invest in a second deck).

I'm just putting my questions out there for you, you don't have to answer me. But is it possible that you ask the tarot too often, and in too specific ways, and that you resent when you don't get the answers you'd like? Don't be angry with me for asking this question (I have myself treated my tarot cards that way and that's why I know how it works... i.e. goes wrong).

If you ask the same question all over again, you tell your unconscious/inner guide/spiritual inner voice that you don't trust it. You conduct an inner dialogue via the tarot cards between your wishes and your intuitive grasp of a sitution. (Silly exaggerated example: "why doesn't he phone?" as question - and you'd love to hear "he's so bowled over by you that he's still collection his courage", but instead the tarot says: "he's not just that into you" - so you ask again. and again....)

If you ask too specific questions or yes-and-no questions (like asking your tarot deck whether it's angry with you, and then deciding the answer was yes), you don't use the tarot in a way that it can give you what it has to offer.

It's only my personal opinion but by asking the deck: "what can I do to make my tarot work more effective?" you'd probably get an honest workable answer.

Write your own spread for it, for example:

1. what I do right in working with my deck
2. what I can improve - or problem in my tarot work
3. advantages of my deck
4. advantages of buying another deck

Just an idea of course.

Give the tarot (which is just a channel for your inner voice, your inner guide) more freedom and accept that sometimes, answers are NOT NICE. A good friend will always try to give you good feeling. A really good friend will give you the tough truth even if it's unpalpable at first.

Please don't be insulted, I think most tarot readers who read for themselves get sometimes too invested emotionally and see their own fears and suppressed troubles reflected back to them. I know there were times when I did it.

But probably I'm barking up the wrong tree. Probably, all you need is another deck or a little tarot break. It's amazing how each deck speaks with a distinctive voice!

May all your readings give you the insight you need!

[Rose Crystal]

This thread reminds me of something that happened to me many years ago. I had been reading and working with my traditional RWS deck for some years, and a friend of mine told me that she wanted to give me a Tarot deck that she bought on a fair, and that she never got around reading with. I thanked her and picked up the deck, and I recognized the Thoth deck. I was thrilled because I had wanted to try it out for a long time. When I turned the first card around, I felt dizzy and sick. And this feeling disappeared when I put it away. Every time I tried to work with this deck, I felt bad. Needless to say, they are still, 20 years later, nicely placed in a drawer.

I also experience now and then, a kind of brain fog when I do some readings. I just can't get any sense out of it, everything in my head becomes a mess. This happens when I ask questions I'm not ready to get an answer to. It happens when I have been given advice that I have neglected, ignored or forgot. The message gets blurry. This sometimes happens while reading for clients, and that is always when someone has come several times asking the same questions with different perspectives, has got some advice, don't follow them and keep asking for answers that I can't give. This never happens to people who pay for the services, because they stop and think twice before they come back and place another order. I do readings for free also, and some of those clients can sometimes come back again, and again, and again, as if they hope the advice to change for each time, but they rarely do.