R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for the Cards

[Strawberry Bounce]

In the book Witch Crafting by Phyllis Curott, she says that if you don't take the advice of your cards, they will stop being acurate. She also says you should thank the deck when you are done. What do you think of this?

[Felidae]

When I first started with tarot I would lay spread after spread, trying to manipulate the answer. Eventually the spreads would be gibberish. So yeah, I can support the statement. :)

[Aine of the Fae]

I don't know so much that they won't be accurate, but my thought is that if you don't take their advice why are you consulting them?

[AuroraSilvermist]

I think you get muddled answers if you try to read the same question over and over looking for a different answer, but not because the cards have anything to do with it. I believe the cards are 78 plastic-coated pieces of paper with neat pictures on them (of course all the symbolism and history runs MUCH deeper, but this is what you have on the surface). Repeatedly trying to manipulate an answer messes up the READER'S intuition. I feel you need to go with your first draw and instintively interpret the answers you receive, whether you like them or not.

I don't thank my deck, either. They're just cards! But sometimes I do thank the Universe for my ability to gain insight from the cards, since intuition is a mysterious gift and I don't take it lightly.

[Ahautenites]

Never had them become inaccurate. But then, I use them like a telephone to get more easily interpretable answers from my gods (because I have too much trouble trying to "hear" Them speak in meditation). I do always whisper thanks to the deck but it's more of a breath of thanks to my gods for speaking to me via the deck, rather than thanking the deck itself.

[Fideal]

I thank mine. I treat it nicely. They're prone to snottiness if I don't. :p

I know they're just cards, but sometimes they really do seem to have a personality.

[RavensEye]

that if you don't take the advice of your cards, they will stop being acurate.

Well I do not find that to be true at all in my case .

Also I cannot say that I thank my cards either, but that is one way of being respectful, but it is not the only way.

[Strawberry Bounce]

that is one way of being respectful, but it is not the only way.

True.

[seeknow]

It is not just about respecting the cards, but respecting yourself and your higher self.
While I don't say thank you to the decks I use, I do always write down every single reading I do and spend some time with it and try to really listen to the advice the cards give me - even if I can't make sense out of them right then.

I may doubt my skill as an interpreter of the tarot but I never doubt that the cards I get are the ones I need. I may just have to wait a few hours with the interpretation, until I can see more clearly.

[Aedrais]

In the past month that I've come to understand and hear my cards, I've come to quite like them, and I feel that they have a bit of a personality. But then, it coud always be the goddess speaking through them. One night, for example, I was feeling very frightened and stressed for no reason, an I simple held my deck and askd it to speak to me, and drew the top card-- Queen of Pentacles, a very down-to-earth, loving, supportive woman. I felt immediately better, and the woman on the card seem to look right at me and calm me down with her smile. I thanked her, and the deck, then.

I was also reading romance for myself, in regards to a certain young man, and all sorts of encouraging cards came up. (Lovers, Four of Rods, all sorts of love and relationship cards.) A friend suggested to me that they were only responding to my wishes, though, as if they wanted me to believe in myself and believe that he had feelings for me. Like you'd tell a friend that there was a chance "he" liked her, definately! Thinking it over, I feel that my cards were definately just trying to cheer me up and give me courage, which they did. Again, the idea that a goddess might be speaking through them just occured to me reading this thread, and it may be more likely than the cards speaking themselves, but I can't shake the idea that the cards have a force of their own...

And so, in response, I do respect and thank my deck. ^.~

[Mab]

I don't know about not taking their advice, b/c as Aine said--if you're not going to accept what they tell you & take their advice, why are you consulting them in the first place? I believe that the cards are just cards if that's how you see them. Tools only have the magic & meaning that we put into them. When I first got my cards, I cleansed them & consecrated them to the work of helping me see hidden things, new perspectives, and messages from the divine. I have only one deck, and we seem to have built a relationship. I respect my cards as a powerful tool for myself. I do not read for anyone else. I thank the divine for the insights I receive, and the cards for being the channel for those insights.

[KimberSly]

I think if you use them the wrong way, and ask the same question over and over again, then they are going to just give you gibberish answers. :\
After a while, all you'll see are weird meanings and wrong answers.... I think they need to be treated with respect... after all, we ARE looking to them for answers. Beggars can't be choosers, you know? :D

[Dryad's Wyrd]

I thank mine. I treat it nicely. They're prone to snottiness if I don't. :p

I know they're just cards, but sometimes they really do seem to have a personality.

I know how you feel there. I know that they are just cards but when they need a good cleansing I find that the answers are fairly cutting.......or is it me? Who knows! He he he.
Peace, Love, & Light
D

[Shatril]

The cards are a tool for me. The are shuffled and chosen in a way to allow my higher spirit to answer the question in a manner that I can understand. Do I thank the cards, not really, but I do thank my higher spirit for answering my query.

Yes reading multiple times sometimes confuses issues. If I want an indepth reading, with explanation I do the multiple deck spread. This works the best, and gives very detailed advice. However, since I'm not a good reader, I spend a lot of time with my nose in a book. I'm working on the reading part though.

[Romani Vixen]

I ask and thank politely. I've found that it helps!

[redrobin]

Do your friends and family stop being "accurate" when they don't take your advice? I mean, when I need advice, I usually go to multiple sources and combine what I gather from them and use it, mixed with a little of my own common sense, and dropping things I don't need. These sources can be friends, family, teachers, as well as the tarot and runes. Just as nothing's ultimately good or ultimately evil, nothing's ultimately right in my eyes. Every being has the potential to be wrong, even divine forces, because not even fate is set in stone.

And I agree, each deck DEFINATELY has it's own personality. I mean, my friend asked it a question about what she should do about her feelings for someone when her situation with him was hopeless, and long story short, the cards continued to give her a "Let it go" sort of message no matter WHAT she asked them. :lol: I love my cards.