Does Anyone Know Why Tarot Decks are...?

Does anyone know why traditional tarot decks like the THOTH and RIDER WAITE are so BIG and BULKY therefore difficult for smallish or even medium sized hands to shuffle and lay out??? Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldnt find anything here on AT about it.

I know there is a long history with certain tarot decks and lots of structure and many depths and layers etc etc etc, but does anyone know the answer as to why these old traditional (not so much modern although some are big too) decks are soooooooooo huge.

Unless ancient readers were giants or people with 16 inch wide finger spans like Chopin I do not see a logical reason at all...

Anyones insight or knowledge of this topic would be most appreciated as I am so tired of fumbling with my cards and forever dropping them as I shuffle.

I don't have big hands... Nisaba has TINY hands. No problems...

But - Rider Waite ? That's barely larger than playing cards. Thoth - there are small and even pocket ones; the large is best for seeing the artwork though.

Check out a few of the shuffling threads.

I have really small hands and yet, with perseverance, I eventually managed to shuffle the MRP decks that are quite long. It's just a matter of gradually stretching till your hands can get the right grip. I riffle and I never managed to shuffle the side or corner riffle, but still I finally got so I could shuffle MRP's and I never, never thought I'd ever be able to do that.

Rider Waite has a pocket version. So does the Universal Waite, which I like much better anyway. They're the same size as the Hanson-Roberts and the Tarot decks that come in tins.

I think the reason Tarot decks seem so much bigger is that there are quite a few more cards than playing card decks have. The added thickness makes them seem even larger. Of course, there are decks that really are larger than usual. I don't use the really big ones....playing cards have 52 and Tarot has 78.

DownUnderNZer said:

I know there is a long history with certain tarot decks and lots of structure and many depths and layers etc etc etc, but does anyone know the answer as to why these old traditional (not so much modern although some are big too) decks are soooooooooo huge.

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Would tarot cards have been the domain of men in the long distant past? Honestly I have no idea .... as I do not know what the history of tarot is.

Spare a thought though for people like me with larger than normal-sized hands for a female. Finding leather or woollen gloves that fit properly is impossible. Seems most females have shorter fingers than me.

DownUnderNZer said:

Does anyone know why traditional tarot decks like the THOTH and RIDER WAITE are so BIG and BULKY therefore difficult for smallish or even medium sized hands to shuffle and lay out??? Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldnt find anything here on AT about it.

Click to expand...

So that you can actually see the details in the artwork.

I don't think the standard versions of Thoth and RWS are big at all though but if they are too big for you why not get the pocket versions?

With practice you should be able to shuffle the Rider Waite deck. You can practice while watching TV or talking on the phone. There isn't any reason to "bridge" the cards after shuffling though.

Another alternative is to shuffle by dealing the cards out into several piles and then taking one pile and dealing it out on top of the others and so on. This also prevents the cards from getting damaged or worn looking. I use this method with large cards and with my more special decks.

Have you used the minature Thoth or Rider Waite?

I think you are asking a technical question about size of cards.

Yes, 78 cards are traditional with these decks. Hefty block of cards, but now you can buy smaller sizes.

Other people do also have small hands too. I have lots of work to do, so dealing with big decks sometimes has compelled me to cut the borders. That is a,lot of work, too!

Hope you find your smaller decks for better comfort.

Playing cards, LeNormand, Etteilla and other decks varied in size from historical decks that I have seen . Some of the earlier 18th or 19th century illustrations were in the back of books for the French esoteric decks and these "plates" were supposed to be cut out. That is why some are printed one sided on a page and have huge margins and may have been found pasted in an album.

Not everyone used the illustrations as cards, more as study guides. In 1909 through to the 1980s, colors illustrations and choice of card sizes did not seem so easy or plentiful for consumers, card fans.

We moderns want to study the illustration in as much detail, have color if possible, as many cards as possible, comfortable bigness and contrast for low light and also be able to choose cards big and small.

I like being spoiled for choices, too.

Cerulean

DownUnderNZer said:

Does anyone know why traditional tarot decks like the THOTH and RIDER WAITE are so BIG and BULKY therefore difficult for smallish or even medium sized hands to shuffle and lay out??? Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldnt find anything here on AT about it.

I know there is a long history with certain tarot decks and lots of structure and many depths and layers etc etc etc, but does anyone know the answer as to why these old traditional (not so much modern although some are big too) decks are soooooooooo huge.

Unless ancient readers were giants or people with 16 inch wide finger spans like Chopin I do not see a logical reason at all...

Anyones insight or knowledge of this topic would be most appreciated as I am so tired of fumbling with my cards and forever dropping them as I shuffle.

Click to expand...

DownUnderNZer, do you shuffle the cards end on? Hold the deck sideways, and shuffle them through their ends, rather than through their sides. That way it's as though the cards are only as high as their width for shuffling.

I have small hands too, so I learnt this early with my Visconti-Sforza deck, and I never have a problem shuffling large cards.

Tarot cards weren't all traditionally large - although often longer and thinner than playing cards, as my Tarot de Marseille Noblet/Flornoy cards are really small.

I've thought the same way as Sulis, that the larger format is so one can see all the artwork clearly.

Spare a thought for all those elderly Tarot readers, before spectacles became generally available, trying to decipher those tiny details in the images!

Not all are big and bulky at all. If you buy the purple US games version of the Thoth for example it is just the right size.

Im guessing that was the size that at the time alowed for enough details in the cards , now you can laser print it or whatever , to a super small size , but not back in the day , and then the size ust stayed that way.