So you've acquired your 1st Tarot deck and might be asking yourself. . .
What now.
There are many avenues that one can take including and not limited to just taking the tiny booklet and beginning your readings based off the information provided. There is nothing wrong with this and a lot of new witches dive into readings this way. The purpose of this post, however, is to teach the importance of interviewing your tarot before use. As you may know, there are a plethora of different stylized Tarot decks out there; not just the Rider set. That being the case, and assuming that each deck has its own *soul* we can only conclude that because of this each deck will communicate with you in its own way.
And so we come to the road block of how one gets to know their tarot deck and luckily you get to know your deck the same way you might get to know a friend; Spend time with it and ask it questions in a ritual referred to as a deck interview. In normal cases a deck interview would be one of the very first things that you but this doesn't prevent you from doing one with a deck that you've possesses for any amount of time. How your deck communicates to you may change over time as well, so doing a deck interview regularly will make it easier for you to interpret the messages your deck may be relaying.
The ritual
Cleanse a space in which you will preform your ritual
take your tarot and lay it out before you
clear your mind of external thoughts as best you can so as to *hear* what your tarot has to tell you.
Mix / Shuffle your deck "deconstruct the Universe"
Bring your cards together and reform your deck keeping their orientation as it is when you gather them* This means if you can tell when card is turned up side down or otherwise, to keep it the direction you gather it in
With the faces of the cards down begin asking your Tarot a question and pulling a card
few questions about it: Some have been listed below
What are some of your most important characteristics?
What is your communication style?
What are your strengths and weaknesses as a deck?
What readings are you best suited for?
Do you have limits? Is there anything that I shouldn't / cant ask about? What do you have to teach me? / What can I learn from you?
Do you have a connection to my purpose?
What line of magic / Element do you best represent?
What is your preferred manner of cleansing?
How do you want to be used?
What do you think of me? / Do you have any questions?
I normally ask these questions of all of my new decks and sometimes the responses can be confusing. Maybe your deck isnt comfortable answering a question that you have right then, or maybe you may need to rephrase your questions. At the end of the day your Tarot is your friend and there to help.
-TwT