The Best Deck.

Hello, My name is william Brayshaw.
I am a student when it comes to tarot reading.
I own the Waite tarot deck, but for some reason i do no feel comfortable using this deck.

I really really need help finding a 'traditional' deck that is good at beginning tarot readings but also insightful.

If any of you have any idea of what deck i could use.

PLEASE PLEASE PM ME.

What kind of art-style do you like?

That would be a good place to start I think, and then maybe finding a theme that works for you.

There's the Robin Wood that's more pagan in feel, and the Hanson-Roberts, cute but following the RWS-style closely and the little sweet deck can pack quite a punch.

Do you have an interest in a certain part of the world? A certain culture? A certain style of art? There are decks covering most themes out there so chances are, whatever you like you'll find one to match.
Lots of people like the Guilded and the Tarot of dreams. I find the recently released Revelations absolutely inspiring and adore my Archeon, Sakki-Sakki and Tarot of Prague, which are collage-art, something I kept away from at first but now have quite a bit of appreciation for.
All these decks do follow the RWS but all in their own style.

I also have a love for the Tarot de Marseille and the so called "unillustrated pips" but this is really a matter of personal taste.

As for insightful, any deck you feel comfortable will be just that so find one that makes you feel good when you look at the images.
A stroll through the decks section on this site or in the Tarotgarden will give you plenty of eyecandy and might confuse you, or lead you to just that deck you want to learn more about and work with.

Hello William,

Welcome to Aeclectic.

Hmm, finding the perfect tarot deck is a very subjective thing - you are going to find many differences of opinion here.

When you say 'traditional deck' do you mean a deck that follows the Rider-Waite tradition or do you want an older Marseilles style deck? (The Marseilles style doesn't use pictures to illustrate the minor arcana).
Another type of 'traditional deck' are those that follow the Crowely Thoth style.

I tend to favour Rider-Waite-Smith style decks myself.
I would recommend you look at:
The Morgan Greer Tarot - a 'Rider-Waite clone' - the images have been redrawn in a different artistic style but the symbolism and meanings remain very close to the Rider-Waite deck.
The Robin Wood Tarot - not one of my favorites but many people love this deck - it has a more pagan slant but remains close to the Rider-Waite.
The Hudes Tarot
The Hanson Roberts Tarot
Or you may like a recolouring of the Rider-Waite:
Universal Waite
radiant Rider-Waite

If you want to move away from Rider-Waite but still want a traditional deck how about The Thoth tarot

Or one of the Marseilles decks:
Camoin Marseilles

Hope that helps

Love

Sulis xx

Thankyou.

Thankyou all for taking the time to write the replays which are all very useful!

By traditional i mean the more old, and 'aged' DECKS.

Also the decks which are more unique, WHICH IM SURE THERE ARE MANY OUT THERE.

Once again thanks for all the replays and keep them coming. Thankyou.

big quest you start here

Marseille is a verry old deck but really you should go look at many deck to find something you like, i'v buy more than 30 deck and found so much about me in this quest..
even the marseille have many versions...

theses are my favorites at this times
Crystal Tarot
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/crystal-tarots/
Hadar Marseille
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/hadar-marseilles/index.shtml
Symbolon
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/symbolon/

the last one is not a tarot but an oracle which does not follow the same stucture (22 majors, 40 pipes and 16 court)

Another choice as i do is to only use the 22 majors of the Tarot, the marseille is more easy to read with this choice cause all major are illustrated.

Have fun and let use know what you choose !!!

Love, Light & Power
Omeada

william_james said:

Thankyou all for taking the time to write the replays which are all very useful!

By traditional i mean the more old, and 'aged' DECKS.

Also the decks which are more unique, WHICH IM SURE THERE ARE MANY OUT THERE.

Once again thanks for all the replays and keep them coming. Thankyou.

Click to expand...

Hi william_james, welcome to Aeclectic.

If you're looking for something really, really old, you might consider one of my favortie decks, the Tarot of Jacques Vieville from 1650. It is not based on the Waite system as it predates it by several hundred years. It's also not what is known as a Tarot of Marseilles, as it has somewhat different iconography than that family of decks.

I wouldn't normally recommend it to a beginner, as you won't be able to easily translate meanings that you find in books. However, if you're really interested in an unusual, old deck.. this might be the one for you.

Some info:
http://www.tarotpassages.com/vieville.htm
http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards62.htm

You should do a little research and find out if a Tarot of Marseilles style of deck might more your style. We have an entire forum set up for the study of this style of deck here:
http://tarotforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=38

Of the TdM (Marseilles) decks, the Kris Hader is a very good choice as mentioned by TheOld. If you want to get a deck that "feels" old as well, you could consider buying one of the decks by iL Meneghello. These decks are printed on heavy stock with minor lamination.. so it feels like you are holding a "real" old fashioned card. You can see some of these decks here:
http://www.houseoftarot.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=19

And finally, if you're looking for a Waite style deck with "old" imagery, you might consider the Golden Tarot by Kat Black:
http://www.goldentarot.com/

Good luck, and have fun!

robert

Remember you can make use of the list Aeclectic has too. Just go to the top of this page and click on the purple card icon that says 'decks' then click on 'list all decks' and start working your way down the list (do it in batches, you'll get through it all). Not only will you see the art styles on each deck, the decks are rated with stars as to their readability. Look for a 4 or 5 star deck and consider those.

"Old" usually indicates a Marseille type deck (unillustrated pips, some different meanings, etc.) so they wouldn't be the same as a Rider Waite type of deck. However there are old looking RW clones, so it does pay to check what's on the market as currently in print.

As already mentioned, some of the Italian decks are very pretty and the Limited Edition Soprafino is a fine example of a deck that does look (and feel) old. It is not laminated and all of the original marks and stains have been left in it. There are other Italian decks (The Classic and Ancient Italian) but these are laminated and in one of the cases, has keywords written down the side - a personal dislike of mine.
Soprafino - http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/soprafino/

I second the Hadar Marseille recommendation. It is more muted in palette than the Camoin. It is still bold though. If you are worried about learning the pips, there are some great threads here, which we can all point you in the direction of. There is a very cheap deck of the Conver Marseille, published by Thunder Bay Press. It is a photographed deck of the original so has the aged look on the illustrations. If you wanted to experiment with a Marseille, that would be a reasonable and affordable deck to try out. I personally like it alot.
ThunderBay - http://www.tarotpassages.com/TarotSet-mf.htm

If you want to go for a deck that is illustrated, but not necessarily old, as Sulis pointed out, the Morgan Greer is very readable and many people use it successfully. The Thoth is also great for intuition as the colours take you off into other worlds.

All of these decks have lasted and I would reccomend them all.

LB

Again, that depends on your taste, and you should not take one that you don't feel drawn to its artwork. You need to sense you could develop a connection to it.

All I can say is, for me, I never cared for much of the traditional decks that people suggest you learn on.

I started with the Haindl and for me I never regretted it. It has a lot of the traditional meanings, although the pips stray somewhat.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/haindl/

Besides the traditional meanings, it includes some Runic meanings, Hebrew letters, I-Ching symbols, and horoscopes. For me I found the addition of these fascinating. And the I-Ching symbols on the cards have been unfailingly accurate for me.

Each suit in the Major Arcana represents a different culture, Native American, Egyptian, Indian from India, and Europe...

It seems to have a strong ecological message/sonscience, pointing out to us what we have done to the planet and our responsibility to repair it. Which to me is just truth and I like that about it.

Hope some of this helps.

Bar

No such thing as the "Best Deck, Period"! LOL! Well, statistically, you can go by the Top 10 Tarot decks of the year and see which deck is number 1 most often.