The Weiser Tarot

Some thoughts about a new deck

I admit it, I am a Waite-Smith Tarot junkie. I have loads of other decks, and I love buying other decks, but Waite-Smith is my go-to deck and always has been.

But, I am aware that some people feel that this deck, first published way back in 1909 is representative of the time and place it was created, and not representative of our society today.

While this hasn’t been a limitation for me, or for the people I know, and we do after all have so many decks available to us now that everyone can find a deck that will truly speak to them. I know that this particular limitation with the Waite-Smith deck does bother some people.

And I know that Weiser has tried to address this with the Weiser Tarot. A recoloring of the traditional Waite-Smith Deck.

I have seen lots of photos of the Weiser cards since the deck came out, and I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. It just didn’t quite seem ‘right’ to me. Most especially the background colors of the cards. But, I figured that I would pick one up someday, even if I didn’t use it much, it seemed like the right thing to support an effort to make this most iconic of decks accessible for more people.

The Weiser Tarot - Ankh Spread

I’m on vacation these past days, visiting one of my favorite places, Astoria, Oregon and Long Beach, Washington. And everytime I visit Astoria, I make sure to stop at a wonderful bookstore there, Godfather’s Books. Godfathers is a small, independent bookstore, with a wonderfully curated collection. Including Tarot decks. I spotted the Weiser Tarot on their shelf and couldn’t resist.

I started in with it at our hotel.

And I have to say that I was wrong thinking that I wouldn’t like this deck.

-OK, an aside: Looking at the photo above, of a spread I did at the hotel, I still think that I couldn’t possibly like working with this deck! The green of the Knight of Pentacles, the orange of the Queen of Wands, the washed out look of The Sun and Justice, the flaming red hair against the light purple in Judgement. Looking at that photo, I don’t like it. It isn’t for me.-

I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t look the same to me in person. In person, cards in my hand and in front of me, I really, really like it.

I can’t explain why this is, but it just is.

Cards in hand, I really like the look of them. I really like the super sturdy box they came in. And I love the Little White Book.

Like I imagine everyone who has read Tarot for a long time, I usually don’t pay too much attention to the LWB. But, I do read through them when I get a new deck, and two things really popped out for me in this one.

It acknowledged, more than once, the role that Freemasons had in creating the occult Tarot as we understand it today. Far too often in my opinion, the role of Freemasonry, Fringe Freemasonry, and Masons had in the development of Tarot is seemingly completely disregarded. It was wonderful to see that this was not the case in this LWB.

Secondly, the LWB gave (extremely brief, these will need to be developed further by individual readers) instructions for the Ankh Spread shown above. It indicates that the spread was created to go along with this deck. And, I’ve got to say, it has tremendous potential usefulness. I’ve enjoyed experimenting with it, and imagine that I’ll be using it in the future.

Bottom line, this is an awesome reimagining of the Waite-Smith deck. If you’ve had your eye on it, I don’t think you will regret purchasing a copy for yourself.

I only have two small disappointments with the deck.

First of all, it is marked as being made in China. While I am not opposed in any way to international trade, I hope to see as many manufacturing jobs remain here in North America as possible.

Secondly, the finish on the cards is different from what I’m used too. It seems much less slick than the US Games manufactured cards that I use most often, and that makes shuffling more difficult for me.

But, ultimately, I don’t imagine that I should worry much about shuffling. Lord knows that I have zero dexterity, which results in me being the world’s worst card shuffler anyway. I should just be glad anytime that all 78 cards aren’t exploding out of my hands onto the floor.

Those are my only two disappointments in the deck, and they are really minor.

Ultimately, it is a really wonderful deck with a superb LWB and a sturdy box. I’d highly recommend it to anyone.

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Godfather’s Books in Astoria, Oregon is a great place to visit. Their website is here.

Astoria is awesome. You can learn more about it here.

You can buy The Weiser Tarot here.