Tarot Decks for Tarot Newbies
Photos are from US Games Systems, Inc.
“I’m interested in tarot—what deck should I use to learn?”
I get asked this question a lot during workshops, over Instagram DMs, and even by friends who get readings and want to start dabbling. My answer to this question never changes (like, ever), so I thought I’d finally do a blog post on this and have a resource available for anyone interested.
But first, can I even BUY my own deck?
There’s a common misconception that someone needs to be “gifted” a tarot deck for it to actually work. I find this completely hokey and 100% false (someone probably made this up to make the tarot seem more mysterious than it actually is). Think about it—if every person waited for someone to gift them a deck, then that would cut the entire tarot reader population by over half. It’s 2020, you can buy anything these days—including your own tarot deck.
Moving on…
By far, the most common recommendation you’re ever going to get for your first tarot deck is the Rider-Waite Smith. Created in 1910, published by Rider, designed by AE Waite, and illustrated by Pamela “Pixie” Colman Smith (you see how she’s not credited in the name of this deck… tsk tsk), this was the deck that broke new ground in the tarot sphere.
Before the RWS, tarot decks looked like your run of the mill playing cards. The Ace of Swords had a picture of one sword. The 9 of Cups had 9 cups drawn on it. What Waite and Smith did was interpret every single card of the tarot and draw them in scenes, using people, familiar environments, animals, and a sh*t ton of symbols.
Waite was part of the Golden Dawn, a secret society-type organization, which had their own take on tarot and carried their own allegories to go with it. The system Waite and Smith devised was groundbreaking because it made tarot more accessible to people (back in 1910).
It was so popular that even to this day, its pictures are the ones you most likely think of the first time you hear of tarot. It may not be the first tarot deck invented, but it was the first one that “translated” the tarot into pictures, making it more palatable to common folk. A lot of modern decks are based on this one (my deck included!)… which is why it’s usually the first choice for a learning deck. If you understand RWS, chances are, you’ll figure out how to read most other decks. It provides a good foundation, however, I didn’t learn on this deck because I didn’t like the pictures (lol).
The version I own came out a couple of years ago, called the Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck, which rightfully puts Smith in the spotlight. There are a ton of editions available out there and most are affordable.
Photos are from The Fountain Tarot.
If you want to go the RWS route but, like me, can’t really relate to its illustrations and antiquated symbols, then I highly recommend the Fountain Tarot. This deck used to be independently published and hard to find, but it was acquired by Penguin Random House a few years ago, and is now widely distributed (Manila peeps, it’s available in Fully Booked).
The Fountain Tarot is, IMHO, a prettied up, modern version of the RWS. It’s worth investing in as your first deck not just because the paintings are stunning and the symbols are crisp and clean, but because it has a solid, compact guidebook that explains it all. This is the Clarissa of the tarot deck world!
There is also hardly any difference between the mass market edition and the independently published one, so you’re getting a value-for-money deck for sure. Its box has a magnetic enclosure and is very sturdy, so you can throw this one in your bag and keep practicing, no matter where you are (not that we’re going anywhere given the current situation we’re in! but anyway…).
Shop the Practical Magic Starter Deck and its official companion here.
Of course, I can’t not include the deck I made, which is precisely designed for tarot “starters,” hence the name, Practical Magic Starter Deck. A lot of my friends got into tarot because of this deck and have since been reading for themselves. How I made this deck newbie-friendly is by labeling them with simple catchphrases.
One of my struggles with the tarot when I was starting to learn it was how daunting it was to memorize 78 card meanings. I thought, why not take the pressure off and put the meanings on the card? Some will argue that this is very distracting and takes away from you, interpreting the image, because you’ll keep going to the keyword instead of opening up your intuition. That’s totally a fair point, but I myself learn more through words and pictures rather than pictures by themselves. It’ll at least provide you with something to practice on, until you’re confident enough to start reading other decks that don’t have keywords written on them.
The book I wrote to go with this deck is for people who want to go deeper into their studies—it’s something to look into when keywords aren’t enough for you anymore. Each page goes a little deeper into numerology, why the cards were designed that way, and also—and I feel this is the most important part—gives you journal prompts so that you can start carving out your own meanings to the cards. I learn best when I have a personal experience to link with every tarot card, so I thought I could help people build their own tarot vocabulary using this technique.
Photo is from The Wild Unknown.
The deck I personally learned with wasn’t my first deck, but my third. The Wild Unknown by Kim Krans uses nature themes drawn in pen, ink, and watercolor to portray the tarot and its archetypes. It’s not a deck that everyone will take to, but if you want to give it a go, it’s also now mass market published by Harper Collins and is available in Fully Booked. It’s well-crafted, well-made, and beautiful IMHO. But again, it’s quite a Marmite deck in that you love it or you really really don’t like it. :)
I hope this post gave you a couple of leads in learning the tarot. Here are a few YouTube links by my faves on similar topics, in case you need more opinions:
Top 15+ Tarot Decks for Beginners! - Katey Flowers
Tarot Deck Recommendations for Beginners - Katey Flowers
Top 15 Tarot Decks for Beginners and Tarot Students - Ethony