How to Choose Your First Tarot Deck
Walking into a tarot shop or browsing online can quickly become overwhelming. With hundreds of beautiful decks available, it's easy to wonder whether you should follow tradition, trust your intuition, or simply choose the artwork you like most. Every reader has a different opinion, which often makes the decision even harder for beginners. In this guide, you'll learn what really matters when choosing your first tarot deck and how to find one that's enjoyable to learn and easy to read.
Nobody Has to Give It to You
Start by clearing away the most persistent piece of misinformation in tarot. You will hear that your first deck must be a gift and that buying one for yourself brings bad luck. That rule appears nowhere in the historical record, it has no source anybody can point to, and it has probably prevented more people from starting than any other belief in the subject. Buy your own deck. Choosing it yourself is genuinely useful, since the deck you will read with for years should be one whose artwork you actually respond to. If somebody does give you a deck, that is a lovely thing and it carries no special power. Waiting for a birthday to begin a practice is a poor use of your time. Go and choose one this week.
Why Rider Waite Smith Is the Usual Answer
For a first deck, the Rider Waite Smith deck published in 1909 is recommended so often for one specific reason. Pamela Colman Smith illustrated every card with a full scene, including all fifty six Minor Arcana, which had rarely been done before. That means you can read a Five of Cups by looking at what is happening in the picture rather than by memorising a definition attached to five cups in a row. Almost every modern deck and almost every book uses this deck as its reference point, so learning it makes every other resource available to you. It is also inexpensive and available everywhere. You are not obliged to use it forever and it is by far the easiest place to start. Learn this visual language first and you can read most decks you pick up afterwards. That transferability is the real argument for starting here.
Marseille, Thoth and the Alternatives
Two other traditions are worth knowing about even if you do not begin with them. The Tarot de Marseille is the older European pattern, and its Minor Arcana are pips, meaning the Five of Cups shows five cups in a pattern with no scene. Reading it relies on numbers, suits and traditional structures rather than images, which is a genuinely different skill and a demanding first step. The Thoth deck, designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris, is visually extraordinary and deeply loaded with astrological and kabbalistic correspondences. Both have devoted readers and both reward serious study. Neither is a comfortable first deck for somebody learning alone. Come to them in your second or third year when you have a foundation to compare them against. They will make far more sense once you have a baseline.
Pick Artwork You Will Actually Look At
Beyond the structural question, choose a deck whose pictures you want to spend time with. You are going to look at these images hundreds of times, so a style that irritates you will quietly reduce how often you practise. Look at several full card galleries online rather than judging from the box, and specifically look at the Minor Arcana rather than the famous cards. Ask whether the people in the images look like anybody you recognise, since decks that feel remote are harder to read intuitively. Consider whether the deck's tone matches how you want to work, because some are gentle and some are deliberately harsh. Trust your reaction here rather than reviews. A deck you enjoy handling is a deck you will learn. Aesthetic preference is a practical consideration rather than a frivolous one.
Check the Practical Details
Several physical factors matter more than beginners expect. Card size varies considerably and oversized decks are beautiful and genuinely difficult to shuffle, especially if you have small hands. Cardstock quality determines whether the deck survives a year of daily use, and cheap printings develop soft edges quickly. A matte or linen finish handles better than a glossy one, which tends to stick together. Look at the backs as well: a symmetrical back design lets you use reversals, while an asymmetrical one tells you which way up a card is before you turn it. Border style affects readability more than you would think. If you can, handle a deck in a shop before buying, since photographs tell you nothing about how a deck feels. Size and finish are the two things people regret most.
The Guidebook Question
Most decks come with a small booklet and their quality varies enormously. Some contain a couple of keywords per card and nothing else, which is nearly useless once you get past the first month. Others are properly written and worth keeping. Do not choose a deck primarily for its booklet, since you will outgrow any of them, and a good standalone book will serve you far better. What matters more is whether the deck follows the standard Rider Waite Smith structure, because if it does, every book and website ever written applies to it. If a deck renames the suits or reorders the Major Arcana, check that it explains the changes clearly. Novelty structures are interesting later and confusing at the start. Save the reinvented decks for when you know what is being reinvented.
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Where to Buy and What to Spend
A first deck should not be expensive. The standard editions of well known decks cost very little, and spending more does not make you a better reader. Buying in person lets you see the size and finish, and many bookshops and metaphysical shops keep display copies open for exactly this reason. Buying online gives you far more choice, so look for a full gallery of card images rather than relying on the three shown on the product page. Be cautious with very cheap unbranded reproductions, since the printing is often poor and the colours inaccurate. Independent decks from small creators can be wonderful and are worth supporting once you know what you like. Spend modestly on your first and keep the budget for your third. By then you will know exactly what you want.
How Many Decks You Need
One. The instinct to buy several at once is understandable and it slows you down, because learning tarot is largely about becoming deeply familiar with a specific set of images. Readers who switch constantly in the first year tend to know a little about many decks and not much about any. Work with one deck until you can read most of it without checking anything, which usually takes several months of regular use. After that, a second deck becomes genuinely interesting, since comparing how two artists treat the same card teaches you a great deal. Collecting is a real pleasure and it is a different activity from learning. Start with one, use it daily and let the collection begin later. Depth first, breadth afterwards.