Questions about the Gaian Tarot

I ordered the Gaian Tarot from a bookstore a few days ago and am impatiently waiting for it to arrive. (I'll admit it - I'm an impatient person ) I've thought of a few questions I have in the interim, and thought "no time like the present"

1) I've heard the mass-market Gaian Tarot (which is the one I ordered) is a thinner deck - are there any special precautions I should take when using it?

2) How big are the cards / how big is the deck? (In other words, what size bag/wrap/cover should I buy? - I've heard it comes in a large box so I may finally order one of the bags/covers I've got on my wish list at Etsy... I'd like to order before the deck arrives though so there's not a lot of delay (in theory) between arrivals.

^ I searched around here for the size of the cards but while I found a few informative posts about this deck, I didn't notice card/deck size.

3) Do any of you belong to the Gaian Tarot Circle? I'm considering but it's pricey... and I don't really know... I'm not the most active person online. I'm really more of an online "loner"...

Any other advice/wisdom you think tarot newbies should know about the Gaian Tarot, please share.

Thanks!

There are a few older threads about this deck that you may find helpful. I got the mass market edition when if came out and gave it away pretty quickly; I just didn't like it.. It seemed very 'middle class New Age', which just isn't me at all.. I can't honestly remember the size of the cards but I don't think they were especially thin or especially huge.

Here's an older thread about the mass market edition:
Gaian Tarot...the good, the bad, the anything else

I have the cards as being 81 mm x 117 mm. Compared to a mid-90s Rider Waite, I have the Gaian listed as comparable where I list current LoS decks as having thinner card stock.

HTH,
Rodney

It's a little shorter and a little wider than a standard RWS or LS deck. The card stock is just fine.

Sulis said:

There are a few older threads about this deck that you may find helpful. I got the mass market edition when if came out and gave it away pretty quickly; I just didn't like it.. It seemed very 'middle class New Age', which just isn't me at all.. I can't honestly remember the size of the cards but I don't think they were especially thin or especially huge.

Here's an older thread about the mass market edition:
Gaian Tarot...the good, the bad, the anything else

Click to expand...

Ohmygoodness that thread. It took forever to read, but I kind of do see (nearly) everyone's point. I actually ordered more because I read for a friend of mine on a semi-regular basis, and while I love my Wild Unknown deck, only one card out of the whole thing felt right for reading for her, otherwise it just felt like it was too dark and I felt uncomfortable reading it for her, and she felt uncomfortable with every single image except the felines. Because I didn't see myself ordering a feline-exclusive deck (something that has since changed) I set out to find a deck that had "friendlier" images (lighter in theme), that I could actually stand and after looking through every single deck listed here, I landed on the Gaian deck as being right... maybe because she is a middle class yoga-practicing (?) person, I don't know. I haven't read it for her yet as I just received, and the book is way too fluffy for me (basically, once i was in a salon waiting on my mother, and eavesdropped on this convo a male stylist was having with his client about a very Eckhart Tolle/Wayne Dyer brand of new agey-ness (no offence to anyone) and that's what the book reminds me of with a very Tolle/Dyer-esque brand of feminism thrown in) and I just... I can't. The interpretations are definitely good, and I will probably note them down, but the rest of the book... yeah... I do like the images on the cards, though, and see potential in readings, so I can't wait to break them out for her the next time I read for her (January).

rwcarter said:

I have the cards as being 81 mm x 117 mm. Compared to a mid-90s Rider Waite, I have the Gaian listed as comparable where I list current LoS decks as having thinner card stock.

HTH,
Rodney

Click to expand...

Thanks so much! Sadly my case hasn't arrived yet (and why on earth do they come in such a large, cumbersome box that offers the cards 0 protection anyway?) but I'm sure it will in a few days, and your measurement definitely helped.

The Llewellyn boxes are an on going sore spot for most of us.
Surely it doesn't take a rocket scientist to design a better box.