It came to my attention recently that a large percentage of people out there are under the gross misconception that you cannot buy yourself a tarot deck, but rather, that it must be gotten for you as a gift.  First I would like to express my belief that this idea might have come from family traditional witchcraft, where it is held that a great many things, your tools and divination oracles included, must be handed down to you from another member of your family tradition.  In this way, the gift of a tarot deck, either a cherished heirloom or a new, thoughtfully considered gift, would validate that theory.

However, to take the idea farther and to state that no one can buy themselves a tarot deck, is absurd.  I'd like to know what is considered the punishment for doing so?  Are you supposed to get muddy readings from a deck if you purchase it for your own use?  Likewise, if someone gifts you with a deck which you consider to be less than useable, but you see one in a shop which fits you perfectly, must you be resigned to using the one you received as a gift, merely because of a myth that tells you not to purchase your own?

I feel that it is not only acceptable to buy a deck for yourself, but recommended.  It is my personal experience that the decks one receives as gifts can be very special decks indeed.  However, one person can no more detect what another will intuitively work best with, than one can assume to purchase a car for another and know what will drive best in their possession.

Just as you would test drive a car before buying, it is important to review and learn about a deck before buying it, and even then you will not be sure how well you can read with it until you've tried it for a while.  Hence my collection.  I have several decks which were given to me, and while I love them all dearly and find them most attractive, I still get the best readings from the deck I purchased myself many years ago.

Of course this is a personal decision for anyone and those who still wish to believe that they must be given their deck as a gift, fine.  Have fun trying to coerce someone else into buying you the deck you want as a gift.  Me, I'll stick to buying my own whenever I see one I like.

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Essay Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace