If you are reading this review, you either feel or have felt the complete confusion that I initially

experienced when starting to look at the various decks.

You may wonder why there are so many

decks and why is the Rider Waite the standard that all decks are based upon?

 

The Italian Connection (some humor in that title)

 

Tarot up untill the late 1800's was mostly known as a card game. The Italians started playing it in

as early as the 14th century and the game was called Tarocchi. The modern day derivative is

called Tarock and it is still played in parts of southern europe, mostly Switzerland and Austria.

Even thought it was known to the public as a game, many now believe that the game was

encouraged by those who used the cards in a divinatory manner to avoid oppression by the

religious mainstream. They figured that if the tarot was mostly associated with a card game, they

could avoid the "heat", and go about the business of reading the cards.

In any case wealthy Italian families would sometimes have card decks commissioned to favorite

artists, and, often family members, family Crests and even sometimes their enemies were

depicted on the cards. The most well known deck along these lines is the Visconti deck. There

are several versions that have survived and they are in different museums around the world. The

Visconti-Sforza deck is the most complete; it is only missing 4 of the original 78 cards. Those

original Italian decks, because they were produced for the wealthy, had gold inlay and were quite

breathtaking. Several Tarot manufacturers have made reproductions of the various Visconti

decks. Some reproductions available today, show the cards as they look now after years of

degradation, and some cards are produced with the gold in an attempt to show the decks as they

would have looked originally, 500 years ago.

The French:

We know that the Italians began production of Tarot decks, but it wasn't long before the French

picked up production. Many of these decks are known as The Marseille decks. The Marseille

decks are actually more of a style than a specific deck because the Marseille decks were done

originally by a lot of different artists, and they each had their own take on things. They are called

Marseille because that city in France was the center of production for many playing cards and

many tarot decks came from there. Usually, the cards were reprinted from wood cuts that were

covered with ink colors and used to print the decks. It gives the Marseille decks a simple look

and design. So when you see a deck called "Marseille" now, you will know it is the second

generation of Tarot as we know it today.

Just to take a moment here: I would recommend picking up a Visconti deck and a Marseille deck

and having those as a part of your collection. As you gain more knowledge and expand your

collection, it is great to have the historical roots right there in your sacred Tarot box.

Tarot from the 15th century till the late 19th century was mostly known as a game, even though

all along, on the sidelines people used the cards to gain insights into their souls and the future.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Tarot as we know it began to emerge.

Egyptian and Kabbalah influences in Britain during the 1800’s and early 1900’s

In the late 1800's, early 1900's the study of the metaphysics, Egyptology and Kabbalah

became popular in Britain. Some of the prominent occultists in the of that time were in a group

called “The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn”. This group grabbed on to the use of Tarot

cards as a way to combine their beliefs with a tool for personal growth and divination. Now, the

Anglo's had no history of tarot, so when they needed to use tarot, they went across the English

channel and used the French Marseille deck. There were French occultists using the tarot at the

same time and the two groups: French and British shared ideas and really launched the modern

study of Tarot as we know it now.

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

From the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn came two great influences on our decks today.

They are Aleister Crowley and Arthur Waite.

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley created a tarot deck called the Thoth deck. It was Mr. Crowley that decided that

The Fool card would be the first in the deck. Up until then, The Fool was a free floating,

unnumbered card. Now it is numbered 0, which effectively placed it at the front of the deck.

Arthur Waite

One of his contemporaries was Arthur Waite. He hooked up with Pamela Coleman Smith and

they illustrated the entire Tarot deck and made the pictures easily understood. The deck they did

together is called the Rider Waite deck.

The Rider Waite came under a lot of criticism when it was initially released. They were the first to

illustrate all 78 cards and they made their pictures simple, and loaded with symbols to make it

easier for the lay person to understand. Despite the criticism, the Rider Waite deck became

widely popular and I think it is safe to say that most tarot on the English speaking market follows

either closely or loosely the format they created. That is why their deck is called the RWS or the

Rider Waite Standard.

Prior to the Rider Waite deck, only some of the Tarot deck cards had illustrations on them. It

used to be that the 22 Major Arcana cards and a few of the minor cards had pictures on

them. For the most part, the 56 minor cards were "pip" cards or cards like our modern playing

cards. They used a symbol for the card. For example the ten of swords card would have ten

swords on it and not much of anything else. The Rider Waite collaboration changed that and put

a picture of a person lying down with 10 swords sticking prominently out of his back. Do you see

how the Rider Waite deck made it so much easier for people to understand the meanings?

Why so many decks?

Well we know why there were various decks made up until the early 1900's. What has happened

in recent times is that as the study of tarot has become more popular and de-mystified. To a

large degree we can thank the Rider Waite for that. Now talented people of a wide variety of

spiritual backgrounds have used the Tarot as a way to express themselves.

So now we have decks that fall into a variety of categories.  I think of decks as fitting into two three very broad categories, and with some overlap.

1) Traditional Decks, Marseille, Rider Waite Thoth are a few examples

 2) Decks promoting certain spiritual points of view

 3) Theme decks, such as: Art decks, Manga, Erotic, Cartoon, Mermaids, Gnomes, Cats, Dogs,

Dragons

 

There are decks that are geared towards study. Some examples would be of course the RWS,

Ceremonial Magick Deck, Universal Tarot, etc...

Then there are decks that are promoting certain spiritual points of view. For example they might

be heavily influenced by Native American beliefs such as the Gendron Tarot. Wiccan and Earth

based spirituality are fit easily into Rider Waite symbology and an example would be the Pagan Tarot.

A Third Category would be decks that are truly theme decks. They have 78 illustrated cards just

like the Rider Waite, and usually follow at least loosely what was originally depicted there, but the

true purpose of the deck is to express a theme, not so spiritual and are considered more of a

collectors item. There are all kinds of theme decks, Art decks, Manga, Erotic, Cartoon, Mermaids,

Gnomes, Cats, Dogs, Dragons, you name it, there is probably a theme deck.

 

So in the end, why are there so many decks?

 

Well, we know that a variety of decks still in

production are a part of our Tarot History, the Visconti, Marseille, Thoth, Rider Waite and a few

others that I didn't review here such as the Etellia Tarot.

However, as we have become more open to Tarot, (to a large degree because the Rider Waite

made tarot accessible to all) in the infinite creativity of the human race, we now have Tarot cards

that have been illustrated to promote all kinds of ideas and to express individual creativity and

artistry in every single one of the 78 cards.