These days tarot has gone from being a tool of gypsy curses to a psychological tool of self-awareness. And that, my friends, is why there are so many decks to choose from.

When using Ebay as your basis of comparison there are several categories where you may find tarot decks stashed. The easiest thing to do is search tarot cards, tarot deck, antique tarot, tarot lot, tarot decks to find them, but this will also yield readers and other assorted related interests. White Light Tarot's "Light from within deck" for example, you'll find listed under Everything Else, Metaphysical because it combines tarot and reiki energy in chakras. Other Matching Categories range from Everything Else, Metaphysical, Memorabilia, to Collectibles, so they’re all over the place, and that makes them easy to find, but how to decide which one to buy?

When choosing a tarot deck the first thing to consider is how you’ll use it. Do you want to use it daily or only in ritual? Is it for display, private use, or group use? Just like picking a tarot reader, you should feel comfortable with the cards themselves. They should ‘resonate’ with you. When I say resonate, what I mean is that the cards should feel good in your hands, inspire you in some way, or give you a sense of recognizing the commingling of the divine and the human element.

But remember that the cards are pictographic allegory, for they come from a time when only the very privileged could read. This means that sometimes they’re hard to read, especially if you’re using a deck that’s allegory is from the 13th century. Whatever the case, the images should speak to you as much as anything, and ultimately the way that you read the cards is by instinct, or what strikes you suddenly, i.e., inspiration. That’s the basic idea for a reading, to inspire an answer from within. 

If you’re a stickler for tradition, then you may well want use one of the Visconti decks. These are the oldest remaining decks. Made for royals, okay, Dukes and possibly depicting the family as the players. Artists were hired to make them for key celebrations, and ceremonies like the Duke’s daughter’s wedding. It’s kind of a who’s who of Milan in and around 1480. By the 1600’s tarot had spread across Europe, and the style outside Italy is commonly referred to as Tarot de Marseille, this is the French version which became more standardized as time passed.

Skipping a few centuries ahead to the 1800’s . There was a major resurgence of interest in tarot in the 1800’s because of the Rosetta stone. The Rosetta stone you may recall was the cipher that finally allowed archeologists the ability to read Egyptian hieroglyphics, because it has both Egyptian and Greek writing on it, they could break the code. We’re still waiting to find such a stone for South American cultures, but at this point their stone tablets remain a mystery. Anyway, getting back to the Egyptians, they became very vogue at the turn of the 20th century, because we could now understand and begin to assimilate their ancient culture. Hence, many magical and mysterious things were attributed to Egypt, and as such tarot became associated with Egypt in popular culture. The Occult age of the tarot had arrived, and secret societies like the Golden Dawn emerged, with members like William Butler Yeats, Aleister Crowley and Arthur Edward Waite. Fantastically prolific, these men created decks that are still popular today, such as the widely known Rider –Waite deck by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, and the Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley.

The reinterpretation of the tarot was taken very seriously, at the beginning of the century and again at the end. Fast forward to the 1970’s when a resurgence of self-exploration was surfacing, the 70’s was a decade of “trying to find meaning in a society spiritually empty and in a state of moral decay.” The sixties radicalism had imploded leaving the seventies bereft of any soul, and in need of a serious attitude adjustment. Seeking equality was rampant in society, and adjustment was slow, cumbersome and difficult. The art of the time often reflects the mood of society. Hence, in the 1980’s, the me generation wasn’t going to let tarot slide, it needed a good overhaul. Reinterpreting and integrating additional cultures, the Mother Peace deck was instrumental in integrating feminist thinking, and relating the symbols back to earth based religions.

Since the internet and desktop publishing, more and more reinterpretations of the old symbols have emerged. Some integrating other modalities into their interpretations just as their predecessors did before them. These decks are sometimes scorned for not being ‘traditional’, but one of the first decks to correlate astrology, the Kabbalah and tarot was the Crowley Thoth deck which was scorned for being unconventional at the time, and is now considered a standard. Some decks today combine a number of ideas for healing, to help you get a more thorough interpretation, like White Light Tarot's "Light From Within" Tarot deck which combines the seven main chakra centers with keywords for each card and tarot archetypes. These days, it is commonplace to find correlations with Crowley’s concepts, but you can also find a plethora of decks that offer correlations with herbs, yoga, animals, crystals, chakras, any number of different modalities that can be further correlated to the archetypal symbols that intrinsic in the tarot.

If you like cats, there is a deck for that. If you like only white cats, there’s a deck for that as well. There are other anthropomorphic decks available, and many that do not limited themselves to a single species. Fantasy decks abound that include fairies, elves and one that has Yoda, I believe. Not to mention that these days there are art decks like Salvador Dali’s deck and limited edition decks in both the semi-traditional and unconventional interpretations. Some will venture to be cutting edge incorporating different modalities in the pursuit of healing our psychological ailments, like White Light Tarot’s – light from within deck. Ultimately, it boils down to taste when choosing a deck. What feels good and communicates a sense of ease and healing. And for all you collectors out there, there is always eBay.