My Five Essential Tarot Decks
The search
Quick note:
This post contains a single link to a NSFW webpage.
Yesterday, and today, I was engaged in a project that was kind of serious, and kind of goofy at the same time. I was looking to determine what five Tarot decks are absolutely essential to my Tarot practice.
Think of it as the five decks I would want to have if stranded on a deserted island kind of thing.
For this project I sat down with every deck that I’ve purchased over three and a half decades or so to decide just which were essential.
Most of them were easy. They were decks that I bought simply for the art, or never was able to connect with, or that I don’t clearly flow with the symbolism. I imagine that almost all of us have decks like that. Decks that we are pleased to own, but that we don’t actually use.
Some were more difficult. The Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg has always been a favorite. I shouldn’t admit this, but I find Tarot Erotica by Lori Walls to be superb to read with, and fitting for some specific readings. I believe that it has been unfortunately out of print for decades now. Infinite Arcana by Travis Lawrence is a Majors only deck that I truly love.
These three were all very close to making the cut of decks I believe essential to my Tarot practice.
I suppose that many people will disagree with me, but when it really came down to it, when the rubber hit the road, and I had to choose my five essential decks…
I chose…
Wait for it…
One. Minor variations of the Ryder-Waite-Smith. I don’t mean decks based upon the RWS system, rather I mean the RWS decks themselves with some coloring variations and the like.
If I’m honest with myself, I have to admit to myself that the only Tarot deck that is truly essential to my practice is the plain old RWS designed by A.E. Waite and Pamela Smith so long ago.
That kind of puts lie to the big collection of decks in my office, so I don’t think that I’ll be mentioning it to my wife, but that’s it for me.
Give me any version of the RWS and I suppose I’ll be a happy camper. After pondering things for two days now, I have to admit that it is the only deck actually essential to me.
So, I guess that I’ll have a single deck on my deserted island. For ease of everything, let’s make it a Centennial.
Another quick note, or two in this case:
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The Keystone is 100% Artificial Intelligence / Large Language Model free. I write every word here.
Although I have no tarot decks, I have plenty of playing cards I use to perform magic. that resonate more with me aesthetically, mysteriously and of course practically. They each have their own energy. I always go for my lucky decks! 🍀♣️♦️♥️♠️
I've been collecting decks as well, even before really delving into learning. Mostly for the art appeal. But after looking into the history of the RWS decks, I am seriously hooked on the Conrad Steyn deck made from scans of one of the original 1909 decks. I'm also looking into getting the 1910 Pam A deck from Conrad.