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How to Choose a Tarot Deck: Criteria and Tips

Tarot · ~8 min read

On a shop shelf or a page of search results, every tarot deck looks much like the next — and yet the one you pick will largely decide how much pleasure you take in reading. Here are the criteria that truly matter, explained simply, plus a step-by-step method to make up your mind without spending three weeks on it.

First: tarot, oracle, or something else?

A classic tarot has 78 cards: 22 major arcana (from the Fool to the World) and 56 minor arcana split across four suits — wands, cups, swords, pentacles (or coins). This structure is stable from one deck to another, which means that the learning you do on one deck carries over largely to another.

An oracle, by contrast, follows no imposed structure: a free number of cards, free themes, symbolism specific to its creator. Quicker to read, but not transferable. And some contemporary decks, such as the Emergent Strata Tarot used in Cardologia (52 cards), sit somewhere between the two: a coherent architecture, but designed from scratch.

The first sort is therefore simple: if you want to learn a shared, transmissible symbolic language with an abundant body of literature behind it, take a 78-card tarot. If you're mainly after an immediate support for introspection, an oracle or an author deck will do the job very well.

The three great families of tarot

The Tarot de Marseille

The historic European family, whose printed models go back to the 17^th–18^th centuries. Its minor arcana are non-figurative: the Five of Cups shows five cups, not a scene. The practical consequence: you read a great deal through the numbers, the colours and the orientation of the motifs. It's demanding at first, very rich afterwards. The common re-editions (Conver, Grimaud, Camoin-Jodorowsky) differ mainly in their colours and the restoration of the line work.

The Rider-Waite-Smith

Published in 1909 by Rider, conceived by Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Its decisive innovation: every minor arcanum is illustrated with a scene. The Three of Swords shows a pierced heart, the Ten of Wands a man bending under his load. The result: the image tells a story, and the beginner can interpret before having memorised everything. It's the most documented deck in the world, and the basis of the vast majority of modern decks (the "RWS clones").

The Thoth and the esoteric decks

Aleister Crowley's Thoth, painted by Frieda Harris, adds a dense layer of correspondences (astrological, kabbalistic, alchemical). Superb, but talkative: it assumes you want to enter a system. Best kept for a second stage.

A word on the astrological correspondences often highlighted on the packaging: they come in large part from the Golden Dawn and are consistent from one deck to another within that lineage — the Emperor associated with Aries, the Moon with Pisces, for instance. They enrich the reading, but they aren't essential to get started.

Choosing in five concrete steps

1. Define your dominant use. A daily draw for yourself alone? Long readings for loved ones? Symbolic study? A travel deck doesn't have the same constraints as a study deck.
2. Choose the family (Marseille, RWS, author deck) according to the previous criterion. In case of genuine doubt for a first deck, an RWS or an illustrated derivative remains the shortest path.
3. Look at all 78 cards in images before buying. Most publishers and retailers post galleries. Scroll through the minors, not just the majors: that's where you'll spend the most time.
4. Check the physical qualities. Format (a deck that's too wide shuffles badly in small hands), thickness of the card stock, matte or glossy finish, white borders or not, quality of the box. These are trivial details until the day they annoy you at every reading.
5. Test it over a month. One card a day, noted in two lines. If you feel like coming back to it, it's the right deck. If opening it feels like a chore, switch without guilt.

What it changes day to day

A well-chosen deck reveals itself through a very ordinary sign: you take it out. The real driver of progress in tarot isn't erudition, it's regularity. A deck whose images speak to you spontaneously produces associations, and those associations become your personal vocabulary.

Concretely, it looks like this. You draw the Two of Swords one morning when you have to decide between two professional options. The card doesn't tell you which one to choose — it stages a posture: blindfold over the eyes, arms crossed, decision suspended. Symbolically, this may evoke a refusal to look at information you already have. The useful question then becomes: "what am I avoiding considering?" A figurative deck makes this kind of shift immediate; a Marseille gets there too, by another route.

Another everyday effect, more discreet: the constancy of the support helps memory. Always drawing from the same deck, physical or digital, lets you recognise the cards that recur over a period — something the Cardologia reading journal makes visible without effort.

Points to watch

• The myth of the "deck that must be given to you." It's a tradition, not a rule: there's no evidence that a deck you buy yourself works less well. Waiting for a gift mainly delays the start of the practice.
• Collecting fever. Five decks barely opened are worth less than one deck you actually use. Keep a main one for at least a few months.
• Overly prescriptive guidebooks. Be wary of decks whose booklet announces dated events or certain outcomes. Tarot offers symbolic leads; it predicts nothing reliably.
• Sensitive subjects. A deck of cards is not a diagnostic tool. For a health question, a legal decision or a committing financial choice, a reading can at best clarify what you feel — the opinion of a qualified professional remains essential.
• Decks with anxiety-inducing imagery. Some very dark aesthetics are magnificent but weigh heavily in a daily draw. Choose what supports you, not what impresses you.

Frequently asked questions

Which tarot deck should you choose as a beginner?

A Rider-Waite-Smith or one of its illustrated derivatives is generally the most accommodating: the 56 minors tell a scene, which lets you interpret early, and the available documentation is immense. The Tarot de Marseille remains an excellent first deck if its aesthetic genuinely draws you in — attachment matters more than theoretical difficulty.

Is a digital deck as good as a physical one?

They're two complementary uses. The physical brings the gesture, the shuffle, the pause. The digital brings a genuinely random draw, guided interpretation and a history of your readings. Many practitioners use the digital during the week and the paper deck for long readings.

Should you purify or "charge" a new deck?

There's no obligation. These rituals — incense, a night under the moon, sorting the cards into order — have no demonstrable effect; their value is psychological and it is real: they mark a beginning and set up an attentiveness. Do them if they please you, skip them without worry if they leave you indifferent.