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Here's a deck question:
Do you like keywords on your cards?

I really don't like them for a couple reasons. I don't always agree with them, for one, since I draw part of my knowledge from the underlying deck structure that most tarots have (and the author of the particular deck has gone off on something I find tangential). For two, if you are reading for a client they will read the keywords and jump to conclusions, disrupting the reading.
I can't quite bring myself to cut the words off, for instance, my Osho Zen deck.

Okay, now you're mystified.....there isn't just one or even a few tarot decks. There are many! I have even met some collectors online who own hundreds of them..... I have a fair number, having fallen prey to the "comparative" technique of divination. I may see more than the card in front of me....I may remember what a specific card looks like in another deck or incorporate elements from other traditions into my current work.

If you are interested in seeing the art of tarot go to aeclectic.net or Tarot Garden. Many of the publishers, like Llewellyn and LoScarabeo, have websites.

Wow! I have just found this thread and have LOTS to say.

First if you can come up with a fair price and would like to skip e-bay, I may be interested in some of your decks, or a lot if that is how you were going to give them up. I teach and having extra decks for people to look through or as you have mentioned to pass on where there is a better fit or a need is always a good thing.

Having said that, I am So glad you started this thread!

Like you I do not like decks which give a keyword. I think keywords limit you. I have seen people do excellent readings with them, but for me, well I spend a lot of time trying not say the word that I see in front of me. I do much better on my own. I try very hard to get beginners to stay away from the decks that have them. I think its easier to be trained without them than it is to be trained with them and then try to move beyond. I am sure however that there are stories out there of great readers who started off with learning with the keywords.

What you call comparative technique, I do too. though I have never really thought about it much and seldom mention it. It is nice to know that some one else does that too. Has anyone ever not understood it, or thought it is not the right way? An example would be somebody telling you that Mary Hanson Roberts had a totally different idea for the four of cups than Robin Wood and if the Hanson Roberts deck was chosen then you should only consider that art or meaning? I am a very intuitive reader, but I seldom discuss different decks with people while I am reading from one. Now when I teach however I talk a lot about comparing artwork and how different decks have different feels to them. I guess what I am asking is that you just go a little further into your experiences with the method.

I own a few oracle decks but I really prefer Tarot. I have no reasons why, oracle decks can be just as beautiful and just as deep. They can speak to all the same things a 78 deck of cards can.

Where and when are you moving? Close to Ohio maybe? I am always looking for tarot friends, I hope we can talk more.

How many decks do you read from on a regular basis? Do you find that your favorites to read from change from time to time?

I have lots more questions but will save them for another time. I don't want to overwhelm you or scare you off by being too over enthusiastic. I am So glad I found this thread!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for all the typos that I am sure are here, I only had a couple of minutes

collections, collections.....

I can't say that my collection of tarot decks has any sort of theme to it other than I am drawn to unusual art and perspective. I haven't just collected to have things but to have a menagerie whose members complement each other. If I find that a deck doesn't speak to me I tend to find it a new home, like I did with my Rock n' Roll Tarot - this is a very expensive limited-edition piece that I found had too much in the artistic overlay to actually use as a tarot deck. I just gave it away to a friend who would cherish it.

Many common decks I don't have but I do have a number of the usual ones. I have many odd ones though, including many that were out of print or limited-edition when I obtained them: Shakespeare, Barrett's Norse, William Blake, Labyrinth, Shining Woman, Dreampower and so many more. No, I don't have a Greenwood or a Dali though, now that it has come back into print, I will probably get a Morgan's Tarot.

I'm moving when I retire, still 5 to 10 years in the future, and the husband and I are planning to move from upstate New York to Arizona. I think ahead, LOL, and the collection will get dispersed between now and then. It isn't so much that I'll sell it all as that I will find things new homes.

I haven't invested in a new 'tarot' deck in quite awhile....in fact, I'm probably going to start a box for sets that need to go to a new home as I am downsizing ahead of my family's next big move (years ahead).

Today my Morgan's Tarot arrived. This is not really a tarot deck - more of an oracle deck - and is a reprint of a countercultural icon originally conceived in the 70's. I had a partial deck with hole punches in them, lacking about six cards of the 88: most of a 'sample' deck which had been strung on a chain and which I brought home rather than dispose of when I helped clean in a store I had reader space in.

I don't really recommend this oracle for people who didn't live through the late sixties and early seventies: you might not 'get' all the references, assuming you need the imagery of the divinatory tools or the layers of meaning that can be extracted from them with the historical information.