Fascinated by Tarot?  Daydreaming about having all the answers as close as your own nightstand drawer?  Interested in fortune-telling for your friends and family or perhaps getting some insight for yourself?  Want to develop your intuition?

First, that there is a huge variety of Tarot decks available.   Second, that you have no idea which one would be best for you.   There are several ‘Beginner’ sets marketed—which one of those?  Or should I forget the beginner sets and just go with the one whose artwork I find most appealing?   Or go with the oldest and most classic deck….Or what??

I’m often asked which deck of Tarot cards is most appropriate for a beginner. 

My answer is simple: start with a classic deck, fully illustrated in the Rider-Waite-Smith style. 

Some examples are:

The Rider-Waite Tarot

The Radiant Rider-Waite

The Golden Rider-Waite

The Universal Waite Tarot

The Hanson-Roberts Tarot

The Gilded Tarot

Why do I say this?  Many reasons.   The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, developed in 1910, has had a tremendous influence on Tarot.  Until this deck, most decks were not fully illustrated, i.e. as in each card having a pictorial scene.  Until this deck, most decks had 22 illustrated Majors, 16 illustrated court cards, and then all the other cards were ‘pips’.  That is, the 6 of Swords showed six swords arranged against a background.  The 4 of Cups showed…you guessed, four cups.  And that was it! 

The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck has a scene on every card, not just on the court cards and Major Arcana. 

The RWS deck attempted to take each card’s traditional divinatory meaning and express it in a picture.   The six of swords meant “travel”  “improving cirucumstances”  “a journey by water” so the illustration for the six of swords became that of a couple traveling in a boat—darkness behind them, but a lighter sunnier sky before them. 

Before RWS, card meanings had to be memorized and there was usually very little on the card that could help prompt your memory.  Each pip card was very similar to all the others.  After RWS, you had unique and distinct pictures for each card, and the pictures could easily be related to the card’s meaning!  Journey by water….picture of a boat.  Much easier to remember. 

The RWS became very famous and ushered in a new era for Tarot cards—one in which they became much more acceptable and popular.   Books began to be written on the meanings of Tarot.  Psychologists saw parallels in Tarot to each individual’s journey to self-knowledge and maturity.  Counselors found they could use the cards to help people talk about things they would not normally talk about.  Creative types could use the cards to stimulate new ideas.  And all of this due mostly to the RWS deck. 

Many many wonderful books have been written using the basic illustrations and meanings of the RWS deck.  Many other decks have been designed using those elements and meanings.   If you continue to study Tarot, you will it nearly impossible to do so without learning the RWS meanings at some point.

This commonality and wealth of information is what makes RWS or a close clone nearly perfect for beginners. 

Now, some find the art of the RWS very off-putting.  That is why I’ve listed some close ‘clones’: decks that use re-drawn or re-colored RWS imagery.  The Universal Waite is very pretty and appealing, featuring hand-drawn artwork very much in the style of RWS.   And the Gilded Tarot is a beautiful new computer-graphic deck, in a more modern, up-dated RWS style.  Both are very faithful to RWS imagery, which will make them easier for a beginner to learn, but also very attractive.

So, put the “Gothic Tarot of Vampire Kittens” away for now and concentrate on RWS.  Once you have those basics mastered, then you can feel free to branch out with kittens, unicorns or whatever you like!  Tarot is a wonderful voyage of self-discovery.   Enjoy the journey!