[Opinion] Tarot deck (and book) recommendations?

[minette]

I’ve bought a few tarot decks and have struggled to find one whose imagery felt intuitive. What are your favorite decks or books?

 

[amirartpop]

I have been into tarot the last few months, and I have researched a lot of books and decks.
My favorite decks I've gotten are the Golden Art Nouveau deck and the Bianco Nero deck.

As far as books, I've utilized The Big Book of Tarot by Joan Bunning. Very in depth and easy to understand. Also the TarotLingo app is great!

Recently got a Thoth deck and have been reading Understanding Thoth by Lon Milo Duquette - this is alot heavier and I suggest learning the Rider Waite system first.

 

[Yazata]

[Opinion] - Your favorite tarot deck

I think it's actually interesting topic, when I noticed it in suggestions so why not? What is your favorite tarot deck? (or the most used one) I have quite a collection of decks, so I have multiple favorites, how I use them I keep to myself, but these are in my specials: World of Warcraft...

wizardforums.com

 

[Robert Ramsay]

The book I recommend is "The Tarot: The Origins, Meanings and Uses of the Cards" by Alfred Douglas and illustrated by David Sheridan. It's out of print, but you can still buy from Amazon or eBay or wherever. The cards themselves are much more difficult and are selling for ludicrous prices.

 

[nargile57]

I have been using the Crowley Thoth cards since the late 70's.

 

[Reynard]

I have been into tarot the last few months, and I have researched a lot of books and decks.
My favorite decks I've gotten are the Golden Art Nouveau deck and the Bianco Nero deck.

As far as books, I've utilized The Big Book of Tarot by Joan Bunning. Very in depth and easy to understand. Also the TarotLingo app is great!

Recently got a Thoth deck and have been reading Understanding Thoth by Lon Milo Duquette - this is alot heavier and I suggest learning the Rider Waite system first.

I love my Thoth deck. I'm a beginner with Tarot, and everything I read suggested I steer clear of Thoth until I've gotten to grips with the Rider Waite deck first.

I totally ignored all that advice. Sure, Thoth is much heavier (and I might get lynched for suggesting this) but I don't see how a piece of cardboard can know the future. Basically, it's your reading of it. So I choose to look at the card and ask myself what I think it means, rather than learning the traditional meanings or looking up tables of correspondences or Kaballah or whatever.

"Ooh, that's a pretty looking card, I like all those fancy bits around the cup, very creative" and "Awesome, boobs! I love boobs! Life is so cool"... that's how I do it. It works for me

 

[dcwilson]

The Waite/ Rider deck is a good beginning since its pretty much a standard deck. (I know, boorriinngg!) You can then branch out to some more exotic decks. Tarot decks don't predict the future! What you'll get is a clearer vision of the many paths you're on, like the Rorschach or Oh cards. You can do most all of this with a standard 52 card deck! Just because Tarot has special trumps doesn't mean they're somehow the Debbil's deck. Tarot cards are used to play Tarocicci and other non-occult games. This is where fantasy intersects with reality - the trump cards could also be a religious flashcard suit to hide a "heretical" sermon in something that only Neer-do-wells and gamblers would carry, like the Waldenses. A. Crowley's deck was changed to correspond to the Kabbalah ("Tree of Life") and its opposite. Or it's just a more complicated card game akin to Hearts or Spades.

 

[Kellhuss]

Hermetic Tarot deck + Almodovar book will certainly get your intuition working!

 

[giusma]

The must have book to start for me are Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot, by Rachel Pollack, and "21ways to read a Tarot Card, by Mary K. Greer, Pollack uses Waite-Smith Deck, the second one is deep overview that allows you to choo the the you like the most

 

[hollowglasd]

Rider white smith deck is a good start

 

[Ben Gruagach]

The vast majority of books on tarot use the Rider-Waite-Smith deck as the standard so it's probably wisest to start off with a deck that is either one of the many Rider-Waite-Smith ones available, or a deck that is based on it and uses the same basic symbolism and structure.

Two authors who are good, who focus largely on tarot, are Rachel Pollack and Mary K. Greer. Greer's "Tarot for Your Self" is great for helping you establish a solid connection with your deck and the meanings of the cards. Pollack's "Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom" is a classic and another good book to start with.

 

[reverendsteveii]

I’ve bought a few tarot decks and have struggled to find one whose imagery felt intuitive. What are your favorite decks or books?

the rider-waite-smith tarot is the book. that's its entire purpose: to encode the meaning of each card into the artwork. you're not gonna intuit the meanings as a novice, but eventually after using it every day you'll start to see how the meanings are embedded into the artwork and it'll just pop into your head that, eg, the 5 of coins is about losing or needing money because it shows coins in a stained glass window while impoverished people are stuck outside. it's about recall more than intuition.

 

[ghrelling]

For modern tarot decks that aren't rehashes of the Rider Waite or just some random stuff that someone made up because they think it looks cool, check out the work of M. M. Meleen, who's made several esoterically informed decks with major influence from the Thoth tarot. My favorites of hers are Tabula Mundi and Pharos.

Another favorite of mine is the Golden Dawn Temple Tarot and its accompanying guidebook "A SEPHIROTHIC ODYSSEY: A Journey in Consciousness with the Golden Dawn Temple Tarot." Another deck with good esoteric grounding, and the artwork has really vibrant and striking colors.