Let me deal with the old story first. You do not have to wait for someone to give you a tarot deck. That superstition has kept a great many people from ever starting, and nobody can say where it came from. Choose your own. You will choose better than a well-meaning aunt.
I have read tarot since 2011, and I have bought decks that I loved and decks that I never used. Here is what I have learned to look for.
1. Choose a deck with a picture on every card
This is the one piece of advice that I would insist on. In some decks the numbered cards of the four suits show only an arrangement of symbols: six cups, eight swords. In others, every card carries a full scene with people in it. Scenes are far easier to learn from, because the picture tells you the meaning. Our tarot guide explains how the deck is put together.
2. Look at all seventy-eight cards
The box shows the three most beautiful cards. Before you buy, find images of the whole deck and pay attention to the ordinary ones: the Four of Pentacles, the Seven of Wands. If the minor cards are dull or confusing, the deck will be hard to read.
3. Choose art that speaks to you
You will spend hours looking at these pictures. Can you tell at a glance what each figure is feeling? Does the style draw you in? A deck that an expert recommends and that leaves you cold will stay in its box.
4. Look for yourself in it
Tarot shows the whole range of human experience, and it helps if the people in the cards look like the people in your life. Many modern decks show a variety of ages, bodies, skin tones, and relationships. If that matters to you, it is easy to find.
5. Check the size
Standard tarot cards are larger than playing cards, and some decks are larger again. If you have small hands, look for a pocket or travel edition. A deck that you cannot shuffle comfortably is a deck that you will not use.
6. Do not pay for the extras
Gilded edges and a thick guidebook are pleasant. Neither will make you a better reader. A plain, standard edition is all that you need, and a secondhand deck is perfectly good. Check that all seventy-eight cards are present, and cleanse it before use if you wish.
7. Know the difference between tarot and oracle
Oracle decks are sold alongside tarot and are often mistaken for it. An oracle deck has no fixed structure. It can have any number of cards and any theme. They are enjoyable, but they are a different thing, and the skills do not transfer. If you want to learn tarot, check that the deck has seventy-eight cards and four suits.
Your first week with a new deck
- Look through every card, slowly. Notice which ones you like and which make you uneasy. Both reactions are useful.
- Put the deck in order, the Major Arcana from the Fool to the World and then each suit from Ace to King, so that you can see how it is built.
- Cleanse it if you wish, by passing it through incense smoke or leaving it on a windowsill at the full moon.
- Ask the deck to introduce itself. Shuffle and draw three cards: what this deck does well, where its limits are, and how the two of you can best work together. It is a pleasant way to begin, and the answers are often apt.
- Draw one card every morning and write down what you see in it before you look anything up.
Keeping it
Store your deck in its box or in a cloth bag, away from damp and direct sun. Some readers wrap theirs in silk and let nobody else touch them. Others lend theirs freely. Neither custom has any effect on the cards. It is a matter of what makes the deck feel like your own.
The right first deck is simply the one that you will pick up every day. Choose that one, and begin.