How To Choose Your First Tarot Deck

Finding a Tarot deck that resonates with you intuitively and personally is the best method to choose one.

Even if your closest friend may gush over the Wild Unknown deck, if every time you try to do a Tarot reading with those cards, you get nervous and lose focus, it’s not the ideal deck for you.

And if your Tarot teacher insists on using the Rider Waite deck while you’re head over heels in love with the Fairy Tarot Cards, go with your heart.

If there is a bookstore or new age store nearby, visit it and examine all of the Tarot decks that are on display. What energy does the deck give out to you? Do you have a special relationship with the Tarot cards?

Additionally, if you’re trying to buy Tarot cards online, run a quick Google search and browse the card photos to see if anything clicks.

How do I pick my very first tarot card?

Choosing a Tarot deck can be immensely difficult, whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro.

There are literally hundreds of distinct Tarot decks available, each with its unique symbolism, energy, narrative, mythology, and visual representation.

So how do you start? How can you sort through the countless options to locate the ideal Tarot deck?

What Tarot deck should I use as my first one?

It stands to reason that the Rider Waite Tarot Deck is a classic. You can’t go wrong here either, even though it’s not as attractive as the newest decks. It’s reasonably priced and ideal for beginners.

What is the Tarot’s most potent card?

The Fool is typically seen as a card from the Major Arcana when performing a tarot reading. Contrary to popular belief, the Fool does not fall under either category in tarot card games. Instead, the Fool serves a function that is distinct from both the simple suit cards and the trump cards. As a result, the Fool has no number assigned to it in the majority of tarot decks that were initially created for playing games. Although Waite assigns the Fool the number 0, in his book, the Fool is discussed between Judgment (number 20) and The World (number 21). The Tarocco Piemontese is the only traditional game deck that numbers the Fool 0. Since the 1930s, the corner index for the Fool in Tarot Nouveau decks has frequently been a black inverted mullet. The Fool is one of the most expensive cards in practically all tarot games.

Is Tarot difficult to learn?

The amount of information you need to study and memorize to read tarot, though, can seem overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be that way, and that’s what we’re here to tell you. You’ll be an expert by the time your friends from college come around for drinks tonight if you just follow our quick-start tarot instruction.

Tarot reading has been practiced since the 14th or 15th century and may have started out as a card game, similar to poker, rather than a spiritual activity. Nevertheless, a spiritual component emerged, and tarot cards started to be employed for divination in the late 18th century. They have also been applied to psychological research. Even Carl Jung thought of the playing cards as a tool to depict the “archetypes of mankind.”

The majority of 78-card tarot decks follow the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition and make use of related archetypes and iconography.

Additionally, there are tarot decks from various traditions, such as Marseilles tarot decks, as well as oracle cards, which can have any quantity of cards with their own particular imagery. But chances are, if you’re new to tarot, your deck is a Rider-Waite-Smith one.

Each of the 78 cards in these tarot decks has a distinct meaning. You don’t have to keep all of that in your head, even though it is a lot to know about them. The following are the key facts to be aware of:

1. The Minor Arcana and the Major Arcana are the two categories of Tarot cards.

Similar to a standard deck of playing cards, the 56 Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. The total journey of your life is covered by the 22 Major Arcana.

What tarot deck is the most conventional?

Tarot cards by Rider-Waite The Rider-Waite deck is the most well-known deck of playing cards ever. Together with Arthur Edward Waite, Pamela Colman Smith produced this timeless work in 1909, and 113 years later, the detailed imagery is still powerful and arresting.

Is it possible to learn tarot on your own?

Is it feasible for a beginner to perform Tarot spreads on themselves? Yes! It most certainly is. Tarot is a technique that aids in deepening our understanding of the present moment, honoring our intuition, and predicting future possibilities.

In tarot cards, what does the devil represent?

In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, written by A.E. Waite in 1910, the Devil card is associated with numerous types of divination:

15. THE DARK ONE.

Ravage, brutality, vehemence, extreme measures, force, and fatality are examples of things that are predetermined but are not, therefore, wicked. Negative traits, frailty, petty behavior, and blindness are reversed.

The Devil in the Rider Waite Smith deck is inspired in part by Eliphas Levi’s well-known drawing “Baphomet” from his book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855). The Devil in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck has bat wings, ram horns, harpy feet, a reversed pentagram on the forehead, a raised right hand, and a dropped left hand carrying a torch. On a square pedestal, he squats. Male and female naked demons with tails are cuffed to the pedestal. In addition to combining human and animal aspects, Levi’s Baphomet had goat horns, breasts, a torch on his head, bat wings, a raised right hand, and a lowered left hand. The Devil is often portrayed as a satyr-like monster in contemporary Tarot cards. Waite claims that the Devil is perched atop an altar.

The devil is represented as having breasts, a face on the belly, eyes on the knees, lion feet, and male genitalia in pre-Eliphas Levi Tarot decks like the Tarot of Marseille. In addition, he possesses bat-like wings, antlers, a raised right hand, a dropped left hand, a staff, and wings like bats. Two animals with tails, hooves, and antlers are chained to his circular pedestal.

The planet Saturn and Capricorn, the corresponding Earth sign, are linked to the Devil card.

Questions you don’t really want answered

Even though it might seem apparent, it’s advisable to refrain from asking the tarot cards questions that you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to. That’s because answers to these questions can reveal information you’re just not quite ready to hear.

“Tarot can definitely come off as offensive if you’re not willing to hear the truth or consider an opposing opinion. Tarot reading Nicole Fortunaso

According to tarot reader and life coach Nicole Fortunaso, “tarot may truly come out as offensive if you are not willing to hear the truth of the problem or look at an alternate viewpoint.” She advises analyzing why you’re reacting the way you are in order to reflect on how to effectively address the underlying problem if you ask the question and aren’t satisfied with the response.