I was introduced to this card lay-out when I started acquiring the Seasons of the Witch Oracle cards. I’d never seen a lay-out like this, and in retrospect, learning more about any new deck before using it seems obvious. I usually just plunge right in with a new deck. Most people who follow this blog probably have at least one divinatory deck, and many, more than one. With use, decks start to display a ‘personality’ and we learn over time to use certain decks for certain questions and not for others. This layout can reduce that trial-and-error process.
For the Interviewing Your Deck layout, you’ll use the new deck itself for obtaining answers. You don’t use another deck for learning about your new deck, unless of course you really feel drawn to use one of your other decks for the purpose. In the accompanying PDF, I’ve created a chart for how to do the layout, and space for noting which card turned up in each position, plus a sheet for summarizing the answers you received. Do this for enough of your decks, and you’ll have a handy guide for better identifying which deck to use for which question. You may even be in for a surprise or two, as you find out more about a deck that you thought you knew well. Other decks which you find you don’t use as often, because you and the deck somehow don’t ‘connect’ become more understandable to you, and you learn better when to employ such decks.