Sister's first deck

[LadyLuthien]

My boy friend's sister (whom I am really close to) Asked me to get a deck for her birthday. She's wanted one for a while and has always been asking me questions. (About my beliefs as well.) She grew up in a very Christian household, as did her brother. They love their parents but neither one of them are under their beliefs. My boy friend wasn't too happy about me wanting to get her a deck at first. I know better then to throw my beliefs at any one. She came to ME and asked me. I am not about to lie to some one whom I love. My boy friend seemed to have calmed down about it. Perhaps he didn't care any more, But he said he didn't want me to influence her. I made sure she wanted to know because she felt it was something she wanted to do. And not just because it was something that I do.

She asked for the vampire tarot deck. I wanted to get her something a little bit more easy to learn off of, but I knew she wanted this one. And if she couldn't connect with it, then it wouldn't be any good any way. So I bought her the one that she wanted. I wanted to by her a book as well. I didn't have any of mine to show her because I just moved to Minneapolis from Seattle to be with her brother. Not having a lot of money I decided maybe another time after I can make sure I can by a few books. (I can't even by any Christmas presents for any one right now...)

My point of this post is, what advice can I give her for her first deck? What would be the best things to teach her? I want to make sure she's careful with them. And in the future, after I have enough money, what books would you recommend?

Thank you <3

Luthie

[LadyCelt]

Don't get too caught up in jus the card meanings. Using insights and intuition as well is good.

[LadyLuthien]

I explained to hear clearly and ruled out the misconceptions.

[HedwigHarfang]

Don't let the parents see the vampires!

Seriously, just tell her to relax and say the first thing that comes to mind. Also reading for other people often mirrors your own situation enough without clouding the responses with emotional input into the readings, which distorts the message the cards are trying to give. Tell her not to analyse too much, just sit back and enjoy what the cards are saying subconsciously.

[Labrynth]

I would recommend her just sitting down and going through the deck, studying each card and noting what feelings/ideas come to her with each card.

[LisaT4P]

Refer her to the FAQ. :)

[LadyLuthien]

She doesn't have a user name on here. ^^;; She might get one, but as I said, I don't want to push anything on her, she's not even pagan.

[HedwigHarfang]

There are Christians, Jews etc who use tarot - but in that case getting her a theme deck is a good idea because it would have interest beyond just a pack of "playing cards". It's not right to push beliefs on anyone but fortune-telling is undergoing a renaissance at the moment and both Louise and I would know who would appreciate cards as a present and who wouldn't. Louise got rid of one deck she didn't connect with to her then boss at a library she temped at a year or so ago - she just had a "feeling" that she would appreciate understanding what she was doing with them in between covering and labelling the books.

I got someone a Merlin tarot deck because she was into The Lord of the Rings and thought it might be a good thing to get her started. I found one that matched her general style and image as well and I'm not sure how she got on - I haven't seen her since - but for a lot of kids it is fascinating to explore and discover without any "belief" strings attached.

[LisaT4P]

She doesn't need a username to read it.

And, if all else fails, you can print out the relevant pages and hand them to her. :)

[LadyLuthien]

good point!

[1111]

Just trust herself and PRACTICE!

Very cool gift.

1111

[LadyLuthien]

I bought a book today at my work by Sylvia Abraham called "How to use Tarot spreads" Any one heard of that one? I thought I'd show it to my sister.

[Nitefalle]

Here is something that I felt was helpful that was taught to me as I learned (and still am learning!) - if you don't understand a card in a reading, throw down another next to it to help explain. If that doesn't help, throw down another.....even if you end up having to throw down ten more cards to get the meaning, that's okay, it really does help. It's certainly better than staring blankly at it, lol. I recently did that for someone at Samhain (my tarot mentor's boyfriend) and it ended up giving a lot more depth to the reading because I got a lot better handle on the card itself and on the cards around it.