learn tarot

Best Tarot Deck for Beginners

Picking a Tarot deck can be a bit overwhelming.  Here are my simple guidelines to picking a tarot deck for beginners and some of my recommendations.

Guidelines for picking your first Tarot deck:

• 

  Pick a deck based on the Rider Waite.  The Rider Waite isn’t the best deck or the true deck or the most accurate deck, but it is the most talked about deck.  Join the conversation where the majority of conversation is happening, set your foundation, and then be free to explore.

• Pick a deck that is clear and easy distinguish without excessive detail.  Start simple.  Start with 3×5. Don’t jump to algebraic equations before you’ve learned the basics.

 

• Picking a deck with pictures on the numbered cards or pips makes interpretation straight out of the box easy and without a lot of research.

 

• Pick a tarot deck with the court cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Page.  Some Tarot decks will drop one of the court cards.  Or they may change names, for example pages become daughters. To avoid confusion, stick with the standard court cards.

 

• Pick a tarot deck with the 22 major arcana, no more no less, and hopefully sticking to the “traditional” names.  Many decks will rename cards such as the Devil and the Death cards because people shy away from such naming conventions.

 

• Keep to the standard 78 card deck.  Once again, some decks will have more or less depending on the author.  Keep it simple in the beginning and play with a full deck!

My Recommendations for Beginner Tarot Decks:

• Rider Waite
• New Palladini
• Morgan Greer
• Aquarian Tarot

And if you are in need of copyright free Tarot Images, be sure to check out the deck I created.

What was my first Tarot deck?

Marseillies.  Doesn’t fit my criteria, LOL., but I’m a sucker for woodcuts!

Ever wondered if you should buy your first Tarot deck or if it should be gifted?

Post in the comments what your first Tarot deck is or will be.

You may have heard that your first Tarot deck should be gifted.

Many people ask, “Should I pick my own Tarot deck? Or wait for someone to give me one?”

My answer to that is, don’t wait for someone to give you a deck.  Go ahead and buy one.

We have lost tradition and lineage in our modern western society. It used to be that many things were passed down through families: professions, wedding dresses, watches, family history, occult knowledge perhaps…

Now that kind of passing down is very rare.  We no longer practice mentorship. Schools of thought are very different now, and very often the new ideas are favored over the old. You get the picture.

So if you wait for someone to gift you a Tarot deck you may be waiting a very, very long time.

Do yourself a favor and go buy one.

A few of my picks for beginners include:

• Rider Waite
• Morgan Greer
• New Palladini
• And of course, if you want to download a free tarot deck, feel free to use the one I created.