Selecting Your First Tarot Deck

Many people insist that you should not purchase your own deck, but should receive it as a gift. Who wants to wait? Go find yourself a deck, one that works for you. It is important that your deck appeals to you and that expresses your world view and your cultural or spiritual affinities.

Be sure you select a 78-card tarot deck, not an oracle deck. Tarot decks have 22 major arcana cards and 56 minor arcana cards.

There are a dizzying multitude of decks to choose from today, so look around. You can view a few cards from hundreds of different decks at Aeclectic Tarot. You can also view all the cards from nearly one hundred decks at Tarot.com.

Be cautious of novelty decks, ones that have a particular theme, for example The Babylon Five Tarot or The Alcohol Tarot. Don't avoid them, just consider carefully. I have seen some that work well as divination tools (for example, the Mythic Tarot, which is based on several Greek myths), but generally, the novelty will limit their application to real life and block your intuition. Every deck has its own personality; get one that you can be friends with.


When choosing a deck, look for imagery that appeals to you as well as detailed images. Unless you wish to pursue the Marseilles tradition, look for a deck in which the Minor Arcana cards show more than suit symbols, i.e., not just seven swords or three cups; there should be pictures scenes that you can relate to. See the two card images of the Three of Cups below for a comparison.
It's tempting to buy another deck and then another. There is no deck that will immediately transform you into a great tarot reader. Learning tarot takes time and attention, but that time will be fruitful. Pull cards regularly and consider how they relate to your life experiences.
 
My first deck was the Aquarian Tarot, which never really spoke to me. I eventually found The Robin Wood Tarot deck, which I used for years. (I was sad when it eventually wore out—so don’t riffle your deck as if you are a card sharp.) Now the deck I use most often is the Gaian Tarot, a fabulous deck that the artist spent nine years creating.

When I finally found my first tarot deck, I was unable to find any book except Arthur Edward Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot. It wasn’t helpful to me, so I had to teach myself by seeing how events in my daily life seemed connected to the cards I’d pulled. There is no shortage of tarot books today. Just remember to note your first impressions before turning to a book.
While looking for a deck, read reviews (at Tarot Passages or Aeclectic.net) to find out the quality of the cards you are considering. Some decks have cards that are flimsy and won't survive a few shuffles. Some are so large that they are difficult to shuffle. For now, don't select a miniature deck; you'll want to be able to see details in the pictures.

There are three reading styles: Marseilles, Rider-Waite, and Thoth. Most books rely on the second, so a Rider-Waite style deck is a good starting point.

If you are uncertain what deck to purchase, consider starting with the Rider-Waite deck, originally published in 1910. Since it is the most popular deck, many books have been written about it. Other decks may only have a "little white book" listing the card meanings. Also consider The Universal Waite, in which the art of the original Rider-Waite deck has been re-colored.
However, if you don't like those two decks, keep looking! Again, get the deck that appeals to you.

Once you find a deck, treat it with care. Some readers recommend that you protect your cards by wrapping them in silk, storing them in a wooden box, and not letting other people touch them. You should certainly treat your deck with respect, but if you want to let others look at and handle it, that's okay.

Good luck with your tarot explorations! When you find your deck, start working with it every day. If you don't have a partner to study with, there are study groups on the Aeclectic forum. 


Card images in this post are from: Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery, The Robin Wood Tarot, the Marseilles Tarot, the Liminal Tarot, and the Impressionist Tarot. (I only own the Robin Wood Tarot.)