Ah, the search for the perfect deck. It begins, whether we know it or not, with our very first deck. You may have been given your first deck as a gift, or gotten it before you learned what you do and don’t like in tarot imagery. Sometimes we luck out, but usually it takes some experience with tarot before we really know what we want and need in our perfect deck – our soul deck.
Thankfully, it’s much easier now to find just about any deck anywhere in the world than it was 20 + years ago when I started learning and reading tarot. Although in some ways that can be of even less help – how do you decide which deck to work with when there are literally thousands of different decks out there?
Two possible ways to narrow down your deck buying decision
Artistic Style
Some people know right away what kind of art they do and don’t enjoy, but if you don’t, I recommend looking through samples of different decks and seeing what speaks to you. A great tool for scoping out deck art is Aeclectic Tarot. They have a database of thousands of decks from indie to mass-produced. If Aecletic doesn’t have a deck you’re looking for, you can also try Cult of Tarot – they have a growing database of deck images, some of which aren’t at Aeclectic.
Human centered or not?
This could be a really big deal for you, and is worth considering carefully. Do you want a deck that features people, or one that doesn’t? For some, the representation of people in cards is critical to their intuitive understanding, whereas for others, images of people could pose blocks. Using animals or symbols in place of people can help some open their intuition better, especially for people who are dealing with human-centered trauma.
If you’re new to tarot and all this has you feeling overwhelmed, then I recommend starting with a deck strongly based on the Rider-Waite-Smith system (whether it features people or not – recommendations below). One of the many reasons this deck system is so popular are the illustrated Minor Arcana number cards. In the Marseille and Thoth traditions, numbered Minor cards are usually just a pattern of the suit symbol (think playing cards). Fully illustrated numbered cards go a long way to helping decipher the Minor Arcana when you’re first working with tarot.
Starter Deck Recommendations
There are many, many wonderful decks out there that work well for those new to tarot. The decks I’m recommending below I’ve chose because I’ve worked with them, or know them well enough to recommend. This is definitely far from an exhaustive list!
- Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, or any of it’s variants (Radiant, Golden, etc)
- Morgan Greer Tarot
- Tarot of a Moon Garden
- Light Seer’s Tarot
- The Wild Unknown Tarot (nature-based, no people)
- The Animal Totem Tarot (no people)
Digging Deeper for Your Soul Deck
No matter how long you’ve been working with tarot, there’s a desire to find your soul deck – the deck that you connect most deeply with (if you haven’t already). I first heard the term ‘soul deck’ from a fellow tarot reader on Instagram, and felt like it was the perfect description for that deck that you connect with as strongly as your romantic partner or best friend. There’s a ‘click’ when you see the artwork for the first time, and you know deeply that that this deck will work well for you. And your soul deck has the power to unlock tarot for you at a deeper level – so even if you’re a casual tarot reader or student and haven’t gotten as far as considering a soul deck, I urge you to do so.
In addition to the Aeclectic Tarot and Cult of Tarot sites, here are a list of publishers who’s catalogs you can scour in your deck search:
- US Games
- Schiffer
- Llewellyn
- Lo Scrabeo (European based they publish many Marseille tradition-based decks along with RWS-based)
- Weiser/Red Wheel
- Baba Studio (beautiful but pricy decks)
And then there’s the world of indie tarot decks. That’s where I found my soul deck, the Brady Tarot, but there are pros and cons (mostly pros) to going with indie published decks:
Indie deck pros: Supporting the artist/deck creators directly; much wider range of styles and artists; higher priced decks often have card quality far superior to publishing houses.
Indie deck cons: Card and book quality can be an unknown until you get the deck (I’ve had some indie deck disappointments); more expensive on average; don’t stay in print as long (which could actually be a plus if you’re a collector).
Indie Deck Resources
Indie decks can be harder to track down due to their nature, but here are some places to start:
- Phoenix and Lotus (US based)
- Little Red Tarot (UK based)
- Tarot Garden (indie US shop that carries both publishing house and indie decks)
- Etsy
If, in your search for your soul deck you find yourself with an unexpected tarot collection, you can check out my article on deck collecting, where I explore my own unintentional collection and how I (attempt) to keep it in check.
And if you’d like to see what’s currently in my deck library, you can head over to my Decks page.
Blessed be!
