Many people decide that they are interested in Tarot and would like to explore the possibility of reading the Tarot cards themselves, but then stumble at the first hurdle, finding an appropriate Tarot Deck! With so many options on the market, picking the right deck can be an extremely difficult task, especially if you don’t know where to start. So here are a few things to think about when trying to find the right deck for you.
1. Buy your own
There is a
myth about Tarot that you shouldn’t buy your own Tarot cards, at least not for
your first deck, and that they need to be a gift. This is nonsense. The idea is
that you need an ‘invitation from the universe’ to start working with Tarot,
but if your intuitive interest in Tarot isn’t an invitation, what is? The myth
probably stems from the occult group known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn that was active in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. They probably said this to reinforce the idea that you needed to
join their order – and pay their joining fee – in order to start reading Tarot.
Personally,
I prefer buying my own cards as it means I have a chance to find cards that I
have a real affinity with, rather than a deck selected by someone else. However,
I also always welcome advice from other readers.
2. Look at the Imagery
While all
Tarot decks cover the same things, and the same cards in different decks will
communicate similar meanings, the imagery that they use to convey the themes
and meanings of the different cards can vary greatly. There are Druid decks,
Wicca decks, Art deco decks, and even Alien decks. The key is to find imagery
that appeals to your sensibility. If your beliefs are firmly grounded in
Christianity, cards which retain significant Christian imagery and references
are a good choice. If Egyptian religious imagery speaks to your sensibilities,
there are decks that use exclusively Egyptian imagery. The key is to find cards
that stimulate the spiritual and creative parts of your mind.
Fortunately,
there are many deck reviewers online such as Numerology Sign to
guide you in through the many different card designs before you make a
decision.
3. Go with your gut
Reading the
Tarot is largely about accessing your intuition, and you should also use your
intuition when it comes to picking your deck. If the universe invites you to
read Tarot by putting the desire in your head, it will also steer you to the
right deck for you. You may struggle to know exactly why you prefer one deck to
another, but trust your instincts.
4. Choose a learning deck
If you are
new to Tarot, another thing to consider when choosing your deck is how easy it
will be to learn to use the cards. While there are a great number of
similarities between all the various Tarot decks, the exact approach to reading
does depend on the deck. For example, if you have a Rider-Waite deck,
you know whether a card should be read positively of negatively based on
whether it is dealt upright or reversed. However, if you have a Thoth deck,
there is no upright and reversed, and you have to decide if the card is
positive or negative based on where it sits in relation to other cards, which
can be challenging when you are just starting out.
Similarly,
while for some decks, such as the Rider-Waite deck, there are lots of people
out there who use the deck and therefore lots of commentary and learning
resources available to help you develop your practice, with some of the more
obscure decks, you are on your own, and are expected to learn about the cards
yourself based on your existing knowledge of Tarot and your access to you
intuition.
If you are
just starting out, choose a deck that will help you learn. If in doubt, the
Rider-Waite deck is the most obvious choice. In print since 1910, the
Rider-Waite is the most common Tarot deck and has never been out of print,
despite all the original paintings and plates being lost. It is not without its
faults. Designed by occultist A.E. Waite, he incorporated many occult themes
into the deck, but also seems to have arbitrarily reorder some of the cards
without ever providing an explanation for why. However, as well as being the
most used deck, Waite also made the Minor Arcana more accessible. The Major
Arcana have always been elaborately designed, but before Waite’s deck, the
Minor Arcana were much simpler, resembling modern playing cards. Waite replaced
these simple designs with vignettes of people. This new imagery gives the
reader more to pull on than some of the simpler decks.
5. Accept that you will go
through several decks
When making
your first deck selection, it can be useful to accept that you are very
unlikely to find the perfect deck and that you will probably go through several
decks through the course of your Tarot career.
Picking
your first deck can be a matter of trial and error, and while a deck may have
appealed to you when you examined it online, you may find when you have them at
home and actually start using it, the cards just don’t speak to you in the way
that you had anticipated.
Moreover,
as you learn more about Tarot and spend more time engaging with it, your tastes
and needs when it comes to your deck are likely to change. If you invested in a
‘learning’ deck when you started out, you may find that you outgrow it quickly.
Many people who invest time in Tarot find that they develop other interest in
things such as Astrology or Kabbalah, and then find that they want a deck that
aligns more with these ideas, which may again lead to a change in deck.
For some
people, they struggle to find the ‘perfect’ deck, and so create their own,
modifying existing decks to make them more suitable for their specific needs.
This is one of the reasons that there are simply so many decks to choose from.
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