for those of you who are into tarot/oracle cards, aren't there many ways to read them? if so what are your favorite ways to read them, and what are your favorite decks?
yes there are many ways to read them. i'm no expert, so i just use the little booklet that came with the deck i have, which happens to be the cat person's tarot, that phillis gotlieb was selling at some science fiction convention some 30 or so some odd years ago. i'm not into augeries as such, but i find them interesting, and possibly useful as some kind of psychic focus.
I have five Tarot decks but the two I use most often are the Native American Tarot Deck by Magda Weck Gonzalez and the Robin Wood deck. I also have a Rider-Waite deck, the most popular in the English-speaking world, but have yet to use it. When/if I ever decide to do readings for others, I may use that deck. Along with the books that accompany the decks, I've found two others to be quite useful: The Only Tarot Book You'll Ever Need by Skye Alexander is small and inexpensive but it gives a good overview of the Tarot in nutshelled form and uses the Rider-Waite deck for illustration. Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Lewis is more detailed, yet written in a simple, straightforward manner and uses Robin Wood's illustrations.
I have both of the books LoneDeranger suggests and they are wonderful. If you are looking for spreads, I found a good book at Barnes & Noble called Complete Book of Tarot Spreads by Evelin Burger and Johannes Fiebig. They've combined a bunch of old spreads with some newer spreads. Another terrific book is Simply Tarot by Leanna Greenaway. It gives birth meanings of each card, traditional meanings, modern meanings and "key points" so if you don't feel like reading the whole description, it has bullet points to go by. I have this standard tarot deck right now. I got it as a gift a few years ago which they claim is "bad luck" so I'm going to look for a new deck this weekend.
I have a gypsy oracle deck, and then a regular tarot deck but i need to look at the exact name of it!
