What are /r/SecularTarot's favorite Products & Services?

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Try doing a deck interview. Or reading for imaginary people/fictional characters.

Also, you can try doing some tarot "games" for practice instead of doing spreads/readings. Check out Easiest Way to Learn Tarot for some good practice exercises.

Yes, there is a book for this exact purpose! Each card has two pages of questions and journaling prompts. It's called Journaling the Tarot by Andy Matzner, who is also a clinical social worker and psychotherapist. You can find it on Amazon here.

Psychology. Highly recommend The Placebo Magick Podcast. He's a little neck-beardy but does a phenomenal job of laying out how to use craft, ritual and tarot to basically "hack" your brain. Good stuff

ETA- I recently got a Golden Girls tarot deck and have found it a lot easier to read them intuitively. Because it's one of my favorite shows, it's easier for me to read the scene in the card visually. For me, having a pop culture tie-in helps my reading be more intuitive

I'm a huge Bowie fan, however I definitely wouldn't buy the Starman Tarot Deck. Maybe it's just personal, but I don't like the design at all - it's quite kitch and messy. Also I don't see a lot of connection with Bowie's world... It could've been so much better imo.

For the entire month of July, I am offering everyone a FREE 3 card pull, the reason I am doing this is because I myself have struggled with mental health, as an LGBT+ member, I know how hard it is trying to make it with being closeted during this time, the pressure to come out, the pressure of hiding it, etc. etc. even if you aren’t a member of the LGBT+ community, you may still ask for a free tarot reading, I turn nobody down. If you would like a free reading, you may email [email protected]

Hi! I'm new to tarot. I've had my first deck for about a month? I look at it as a way to talk to my subconscious or make my thoughts and ideas tangible (I get a lot of ugh I already knew that I just didn't KNOW it ya know?)

I got into it from a friend. She let me borrow her deck a few years ago I read the book a little but didn't touch the cards (typical its devil worship stuff growing up) through the years I've let go of some of the social conditioning and decided to actually learn what tarot was and now I'm hooked.

My first deck is my fave so far not that I have a lot experience with decks lol its The Linestrider's Journey

And I have another that was gifted is The Tarot of Curious Creatures I didn't think I would like it because the artwork isn't my style buuuuut I do use it sometimes and am finding it charming.

I'm here because a lot of people recommended it in the tarot reddit on a post. I like the spiritual side of it but I'm also openly curious about all ways to use and view tarot so I hopped in!

I have lots more studying to do. I struggle most with connecting the cards together. I have the same problem with astrology. Putting it all together. I'm such a literal person so this is challenging but I want to stick with it.

I'm fairly new to this. I probably read or work with the cards 5 days a week on average. If I have a question, I'll do a whole reading pertaining to the question. If I feel like I want to work with the cards, but I don't really have a question, I'll just shuffle and pull one card and contemplate it; sometimes that'll lead to pulling more cards, sometimes that'll be all. I also have a book of journal questions related to tarot -- sometimes I'll shuffle and pull a random card, then do the journal questions for that card.

This is less divination focused, but I really enjoyed this set of academic articles on western esotericism: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521734916/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o04\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I just got the Everyday Tarot Mini Deck by Brigit Esselmont (Amazon page linked) and I like it a lot for its shuffle! The cards were a little sticky and stiff at first, but I've been using them for a few weeks now and they're softening up and their stickiness has all but disappeared. I also have small hands, which is why I went with the mini deck, and I'm really liking its size.

I will recommend my own book.

A totally independent approach, nothing besides facts and card knowledge.

Links in case you are interested:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LJ1ZSK9
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LJ1ZSK9
Available also in all other Amazon stores in both English and Portuguese languages!

I'm new to tarot as well, but your first deck should definitely be one that speaks to you. I tried doing tarot years ago and bought a classic RWS deck, and wound up never doing anything with it because I didn't like the deck, but I thought it was the deck I "should" use. My real first deck then was the Ethereal Visions tarot. It uses the same symbology as the RWS, but in an art style I liked a lot better. Having a deck I connect with has really helped me get into tarot.

Have you read the Dice Man books? They are, arguably, as rancid as Andrew Dice Clay in many ways, but they have interesting ideas as regards dice and using them for direction

Hi! It may be more academic than what you're looking for but you might be interested in Helen Farley's A Cultural History of Tarot: From Entertainment to Esotericism. I have not actually read this yet but it is on my list! Farley is a lecturer of studies in religion and esotericism at the University of Queensland and the book is published by Bloomsbury Academic, so this will likely be a bit drier than other books on the subject but is also likely to be more rigorously researched and more nuanced. And also free of woo.

I think it looks like a solid academic reference for the history of tarot (rather than the practice of tarot,) which is precisely why it's on my list to buy! Like I said, maybe not what you're looking for, but it at least should fill a slightly different niche than some of the books already mentioned. Happy hunting!

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom is a great book to start with! My mom bought me this book to learn tarot and I LOVE IT. It views tarot as a self reflection and using your subconscious rather than believing tarot is magic and cards have a mind of their own lol. To each their own but I don’t view tarot that way.

It’s very easy to read, the sections are broken up in a great way. It’s also a great book to just pick up and read when you need help interpreting a card.

This book has really opened my mind to myself and the world around me. I love that it views tarot as a self reflective tool. It also views the cards as individual steps to complete enlightenment which really help me understand the meanings of each card.

Here it is on amazon so you can read other reviews. I think anyone interested in tarot should read this book!

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (Hardcover Gift Edition): A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness

If you decide to go this route, using a blank notebook, I use a dot grid notebook from Lemome https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07168XGHT/

I bought one of these for work purposes and loved it so much I ended up buying them for personal use. It looks good and the paper is nice, they have a couple variants if you're not into the brown one. I used notecards to write down my favorite spreads or prompts and tuck them in the back pocket.

Oh man so much dissatisfaction for the Prisma Deck! I LOVE this deck so much, but I also took a long time deciding on what deck I wanted (my first deck and go to, I don’t use it to read for anyone save myself) but instantly knew, because of the art style and my love of Van Gogh that this was the deck for me.

I am on guard now about The Spacious Deck—another deck I’d like to get at some time—since others have mentioned their dissatisfaction with that as well.

I feel like I need to survey the room now since Tarot of the Divine (the fairytale book that accompanies it looks absolutely wonderful) and Santa Muerte are also decks that have sparked something. Santa Muerte being one further outside my wheelhouse than any other deck I’ve considered or even looked at even

I don't know if it fits, as I love the deck but I despise using it for readings--- The Jungian Tarot Deck. The art is indescribably beautiful but it is so obscure, I am so used to certain visuals on my "main" decks, well--- my readings from it suck, I'm always second guessing and yeah, it sits in a drawer in my "occult workings" table.

The deck you ordered has the little white book, which I find extremely helpful because when something pops up that doesn't resonate with RWS standard interpretation, the LWB invariably helps. It's an incredible deck, and even more cool when it speaks directly from the art.

The book, the really big hardback companion book by Patrick Valenza, is a separate purchase. I wish I had the cash for it right now, but I don't, and honestly I find the LWB works well for my needs. I even scanned it and put it in a pdf so I could reference it that way too, but in the end I just put the cards and the LWB together into a kind of see through cheap organza bag and that does fine.

As far as I know, both the standard and the borderless Deviant Moon decks have the LWB and nothing bigger. They're both in tuck boxes, so there's no room for one anyway.

Just so you know, right now there's also a BLATANTLY COUNTERFEIT Deviant Moon deck on Amazon that claims to have a "guidebook" but it doesn't. So you haven't missed out on anything.

Hope this helps. I really think you're gonna enjoy this deck.

Dreams of Gaia is nice for me. Focuses more on inner growth and healing. The art is gorgeous. Suits are personified elements. Major arcana does it's own thing and has 25 cards. Death, for example, is renamed Death/Rebirth and there is no Hanged Man or Tower or any negative cards like that.

The booklet is huge and is filed with.... I guess guidance. There's been times I've read the descriptions and burst into tears because I really needed to hear it. It's also a great help when you're feeling too overwhelmed to make accurate readings.

The deck comes off as Wiccan in it's imagery and some of its wordings occasionally, but that's the least secular thing about this deck. The cards focus on the reader and their mental health first and foremost. They're mindful that their audience may or may not be religious.

Edit: Added the Amazon link Dreams of Gaia