hello...when you buy your new tarot cards ..for them to get to know you and for you to get to know them...put them under your pillow for ouple dats or when you fill how long you wont to leave them there...for when you are sleeping and your subconisious is open thay will enetr your mind blessed be to all....

even though i agree with the concept and i even read this in book and might even have read it on this website but i could never bring myself to put them under my pillow because. i was afraid i would damage them as i slept.  to add to what you are saying for sure keep your cards close to you and bond with them.  for a long time i use to carry them every where i went but don't do that anymore. i will take them to work with and such places like that but not shopping or anything like that.  

Hi, I thought I would take advantage of this thread already begun by others to give a starting point for those just unwrapping their very first Tarot deck.

Begin by separating the 22 Major Arcana from the rest (from 0-The Fool to 21-The World). Then, keeping the Fool at the top or to one side, lay the other 21 cards in 3 rows of 7 cards each in numeric order, like you can see them in this thread by Gem (taken from this forum's 'Gem's Tarot Lessons'), where she used the Rider Waite. Note how a few decks can have Strength and Justice in a different order:


These 21 cards can be divided and classified through several methods. I give you a few here, but I invite you to experiment: just look at the cards and see what story they tell you, or just enjoy their design and colors and begin getting acquainted with them in a very relaxed way.

Payewacker's division:

Quote:

1-7 is Archetypal, but included and forming the "transition", is 8,9 and Ten, to 8-14 Existential. then 13, 14, 15 is the "transition" once again to 15-21 Cosmic.

Gem's: each 7 card row stands for body, mind and spirit, respectively. I wonder if the Fool would be the intuition to link them all?

Another I read somewhere: imagine this is a map of a person's life.
- First 7 cards would be the first 20-25 years (depending on longevity, I guess ), with your initial potential (Magician), inner self (Priestess), parental figures (III and IV), education and society (Hyerophant), puberty and all it implies (Lovers) and beginnings of independence (Chariot).

- Second row would be from age 20-25 to age 40-50, so a maturing process. Learning self control (Strength), how to be alone in order to clear your mind (Hermit), accept change and destiny (Wheel), seek justice and truth (Justice), make sacrifices for ideals or love (Hanged Man), accepting ends and beginnings (it's common for our elders to die in this period: Death) and trying to keep balanced through it all (Temperance).

- The last row would reflect age 40-50 to 60-75 and then some... where we learn the last lessons in life, or try to, since many don't even manage to learn the first row in their whole lives (I mean our development is never linear and some lessons we must go back time and time again, a lesson Sweetsunray taught us in this thread: ).
Those would be roughly learning to deal with addictive behavior (Devil), accepting things are not permanent (Tower), learning to take care of our global health (Star), trusting intuitive messages (Moon), see the happy side of things (Sun), learn our true mission in life (Judgment) and learning to recognize when a cycle is complete (World).

In this 'age division' I tend to see the Fool as the unborn babe. As we loose body and mind powers in our last years, we tend to go back to that stage. In fact, many elderly people who die a natural death (like one of my grannies) can be found lying in a fetal position.

Please take into account that all these divisions and meanings are just but some views it is possible to take on this matter.

Let us know about your own discoveries, please?  

A way to expand on this practice would be to draw the same tarot card from several favorite or interesting decks. This will give you a feeling for how different images can address the same issue in a given card.

I enjoy the practice of pulling a Card-A-Day, either in the morning or before going to sleep at night. Reserve this special ritual for a deck of your choice. If you like, you can pull the same card from both decks and compare them. This is a also an excellent way to get the feel of any new deck you add to your collection.

sounds like good advice to follow to get use to your cards and for them to get to know you too.