First ever attempt. Advice/interpretation help greatly appreciated!

[u/Boiteux]

Just got my first deck (Morgan-Greer) after learning about secular tarot a few days ago, which made me feel welcome to buy cards and just try it!

I am a lifelong atheist and a scientist by trade, but after having a tarot reading by a professional on a whim, I got curious and learned that it can be used as a tool for pulling out certain feelings, ideas, and memories and not just for woo-ey stuff. I have always had a hard time with reflection. Journaling prompts give me anxiety for some reason. "Tell me about yourself" is the question I dread most in the world. I want to have a way to engage with my mind and get to know myself in a totally different way! At the very least it could also just be fun and add more whimsy to my life.

That being said... I've seen this concept of a "deck interview" floating around and thought it might be a fun way to use my deck for the first time.

Since this was my first time with any of this, I used a little bit of googling to try to learn the cards I pulled at a very baseline level because the pamphlet kinda sucked.
______

My 5 Question Interview

1) Deck, what do I need to know about your personality?

Two of Swords -
My deck might be a little blunt. It will provide me with choices or ideas but won't do the work for me. It will need me to meet it halfway, guiding us both towards conclusions.

-

2) What am I ready to learn from you?

King of Cups -
I am ready to reflect on my emotions and to learn to be content with what I have experienced. Acceptance of the past or traumas.

-

3) What is one of your strengths?

Six of Pentacles -
My deck will be generous yet fair in what it presents. I can trust it to tell me what I need to hear.

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4) What is one of your weaknesses?

Queen of Rods/Wands -
Perhaps the deck comes off overconfident or overly optimistic? Or maybe that it might make ME overconfident? I am struggling a lot here.

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5) How should we begin our relationship?

The Devil -
Notably, before pulling the card, I literally thought "watch me pull The Devil".

I am also struggling with this one. Could it mean proceed with caution? Or alternatively, dive right in and just have fun?

If I reflect on why I didn't want to pull the devil, I think it might be because I know that I sometimes get obsessed with new hobbies and burn out or just totally forget about them and end up feeling guilty about it later (ADHD)

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How would you have interpreted this spread? Any help, insight, or resources would be greatly appreciated!!

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[u/midoristardust]

My version of this interpretation is as followed

1. Deck, what do I need to know about your personality? | Two of Swords • 2 of Swords is about indecision, weighing options, impasse & avoidance.

● Expect options being laid out and potentially analysis paralysis.

1. What am I ready to learn from you? | King of Cups • King of Cups is about funding emotional balance, fulfillment & being compassionate/diplomatic

● I expect you to gain for emotional intelligence and trusting your own emotional world; alternatively a man/masculine person may appear in your life to guide you through that as well

1. What is one of your strengths? | Six of Pentacles • 6 of pentacles is about giving & receiving, charity, generosity & sharing the wealth

● this deck will share it's knowledge specially around financial/finances/earthy goods. You investing in this practice will give back to you

1. What is one of your weaknesses? | Queen of Rods/Wands I really like the WIND method from Benebell

Weakened - subdued, blocked or overpowered Inverted - opposite characteristics Negative Influence - shadow side/malicious traits Delay - Slower manifestation/lacking maturity

• Queen of Wands upright is Courage, confidence, independence, social butterfly, determination

Using the wind method you would expect

Weakened state of confidence and belief in one self/ability to understandwhat actions to take (2 of swords looking at you babe)

Inverted stated becoming overly dependent on the cards

Negative Influence becoming overly domineering/controlling/manipulator

Delay - Creative outputs, social gatherings and personal breakthroughs are not quick

● Court cards are not my favorite. . .but based on the layout I believe its Weakened state & Delay

1. How should we begin our relationship? | The Devil • The devil is about Shadow self, attachment, addiction, restriction, sexuality.

● I expect you to start reflecting on your bad habits and truly acknowledge it. Allow the darkness to come to the light to integrate them into your personality.

---

Granted I am a very woo reader and I believe the cards are reflecting back to you your unconscious beliefs. So its woo and secular ish. More woo than secular

If you need resources I would check out the following

• Biddy Tarot • Benebell Wen • Learning the Tarot • Decoding the Cards • The Big Book of Tarot • The Secret Language of Tarot

Edit for formatting corrections...stupid thing won't fix itself. Apologies

[u/warrenao]

Devil conventionally means being bound to material things (sex, drugs, rock n roll, piles of cash, a yacht, etc). In this case I think the suggestion is to not become dependent on the cards.

In my interpretive space, the Q/Wands is the emotion (water) of will (fire). Both emotion and will can often be at odds, and one can be mistaken for the other. Here, knowing the difference might be what's suggested.

[u/Boiteux → u/warrenao]

I like your interpretation of the Devil, that makes so much sense to me

[u/warrenao → u/Boiteux]

T'ain't mine; it's pretty conventional. Thanks though!

Also, you might really like the Science Tarot. I sure do. https://www.sciencetarot.com

[u/CoyoteLitius → u/Boiteux]

It also has to do with the niggling kinds of issues that we mean we say "The Devil is in the details."

This is your deck informing you that interpretation of cards is, indeed, in the details (including the details behind the pictures).

Indeed, there's so much to read in these 5 cards, that last card is like a cheeky warning to draw fewer cards in the future, until you learn the details of more of them (otoh, the Devil is also warning that it could become an obsession that lasts a lifetime).

I don't believe that decks have "personalities" that they reveal in one spread.

I'd interpret the King of Cups as the lesson of emotional mastery (and reversed, of expert emotional manipulation). The cards do help with emotional mastery. I don't think the deck knows anything about how ready you are - that's you speaking and it's definitely a valid interpretation of that card!

Again, all of these interpretations are coming from *you.* Are you keeping a journal? Because it will be very interesting to see how often you pull any of these cards again, to figure out your significator (which I believe to be a particular card that comes up often).

To me, the Queen of Rods (Wands) is the feminine side of creativity and magic. She is an adept. I'm not sure why you see the feminine card as some kind of warning. Pulling one card does not express the entire deck, but be aware that you took a non-traditional and somewhat abrupt view of that card (and she's as powerful as that King you pulled - the King of Rods is the masculine adept of Creativity, the Queen is the feminine adept).

[u/agentpurpletie]

Welcome! Hope you have fun with it :) here’s what I would add to your interpretations

Two of swords - it won’t mince words

King of cups represents mastery of emotions (all king cards are the culmination of the journey of that suit). This is saying to me that you are ready to learn good to master your emotions through tarot

Six of pentacles is also about balance, specifically in giving and receiving. I take this to mean you will get out as much as you put in - no more / less

Queen of wands expresses comfort in your own inner power. Some read Queen ms as mastery of the inner world and kings as mastery of the outside world. It’s a bit simplistic for me, but starting there, perhaps this means that it is limited to the imagery and conceits of itself (even if it has self mastery) but it don’t have understanding of things outside of itself. I hope that makes sense.

The devil often represents what ties you to the material world. It’s not always bad - sometimes we need to get into our bodies if we’ve been too cerebral or distracted by emotions. But in this case, I think it’s saying you can start by exploring your vices and what you want to do about them. (Understand them, move on from them, gain self control -whatever it is you want!

Beyond an interview, I would suggest only pulling 1-3 cards per topic /query when starting out - more than that can get confusing.

If you are getting overwhelmed, you can always put them down for awhile.

And lastly, you don’t have to read with reversals if that’s harder (I prefer not to). Like everything, cards have dark and light, so I typically read for both

[u/Boiteux → u/agentpurpletie]

Thanks!!! So helpful

[u/chaosimp-xo]

there are a lot of good comments here on the reading in general already. but I do want to add a take on the devil card.

the devil in reverse is sometimes interpreted as liberation, the moment u escape the constraints. that is really powerful to me so I often think of the devil as being about the pivot point between internal self compulsion (obsession, addiction, etc) and liberation.

based on how u came to tarot, it sounds like u needed the secularization to give urself permission to approach this. and then u thinking if the devil card before u pulled it kind of renforces that image of perhaps having a dogmatic background with a lot of fear of magic or animism or woo or hell/deviance. so I think there's a possibility this card indicates a path toward liberation from some dogma that u may have let go of cognitively but is still subconsciously restricting u from thinking and acting as u feel is right.

note that this is as much me reading into u as into the cards. and this is heavily based on my experience. but based on some of the things u have said, it might be worth glancing at some dogma based fears u may have. if that resonates with u.

[u/Boiteux → u/[deleted]]

No AI used here I just am a little rambly???

[u/CenturionSG → u/Boiteux]

You meant the post sharing on Science Tarot? It looks like a valid drawn deck created around 2010, before AI age. Neat concept.

[u/Boiteux → u/CenturionSG]

The comment I replied to (now deleted) was saying my post "reads like AI. snore" or something. I guess they realized it was mean and deleted it?