There are so many tarot decks out there and each one has its own unique voice and energy. So you’ve chosen a tarot deck that’s right for you. But, before you jump right into readings, it can be a good practice to interview the deck itself to help you understand it better. This is a practice that a lot of tarot readers with multiple decks like to do so that they’re better equipped to know which deck to pull for which situations and to ensure that it’s going to give the best answers for the type of questions that they have. Though I’m talking about tarot here, you can obviously use any sort of cartomancy deck including lenormand, kipper, oracle cards, or whatever you want.
To begin, get into a meditative state and shuffle the cards with the intentions of connecting with the deck itself. Here’s the spread that I use when interviewing a deck:
- Card One: What is your greatest strength as a deck?
- Card Two: What is your greatest weakness as a deck?
- Card Three: What tone of voice do your readings have?
- Card Four: What makes you unique as a deck?
- Card Five: What type of readings are you best suited for?
To illustrate this. I will do a brief example reading interviewing The Fountain Tarot. While I could go way more in depth, I’m going to to keep it simple for the purposes of illustrating the interview process and just share my immediate thoughts based on what cards I pull.
These are the cards that I drew:
- Card One: What is your greatest strength as a deck? Two Of Cups
The Two of Cups indicates that this deck is easy to connect to and connects on a very deep emotional level. This card also indicates that this deck can easily connect to the client’s energy better than other decks. This is also a card of engaging the intuition, indicating that it allows the reader to really tap into their right brain. - Card Two: What is your greatest weakness as a deck? Seven of Swords
The Seven of Swords card indicates that there’s a brutal honesty with this deck. It won’t sugar coat things or soften the blow of things that may need to be delivered. People constantly say things such as “don’t hold anything back, tell me exactly what you see in the cards” but as discussed in Ethics of the Psychic Witch, few really mean this and brutal honesty can be damaging to a client when they may need compassionate honesty. - Card Three: What tone of voice do your readings have? Justice VIII
The Justice card indicates that the deck has a fair and balanced voice, free of bias. It may not necessarily say what you want to hear, but it will tell you the truth. The deck has a focus on clarity, presenting information regarding what is actually happening. This deck speaks with a levelheadedness and objectivity. - Card Four: What makes you unique as a deck? The Fountain ∞
The Fountain card is the wild card of this deck, very much like the popular Happy Squirrel cards in tarot decks. I laughed when I pulled this card because the Fountain is literally unique only to this deck. The Fountain card pertains to a cosmic unity and reunion to Source as a state of Oneness and awakening from the illusions of time and space. - Card Five: What type of readings are you best suited for? Five Of Cups
This deck is great for people who are having a difficulty confronting things for what they are and trouble moving on. This deck is great for those who are feeling totally stuck in the past and full of regret. Being paired with the other cards in this reading, it indicates that this deck can help break disillusionments that the client has that is holding them back – whether that’s false hopes or denials by giving a strong dose of truth to help them move on and refocus their minds and hearts.