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DrTodd wrote:Noblet and Dodal Tarot De Marseilles

Age, history, colours, imagery, flexibility, ease of use, feel,rigidity, rarity, etc.

Don't get hung up on which tarot deck to use. I have a couple of dozen decks I use professionally. They range from thecheap Rider Waite to a VERY expensive hand made deck I only use with one very special client and her friends. For the rest of the time I carry a selection and use the one that seems to be most appropriate to the mood and expectations.

The Morrigan wrote:Don't get hung up on which tarot deck to use. I have a couple of dozen decks I use professionally. They range from thecheap Rider Waite to a VERY expensive hand made deck I only use with one very special client and her friends. For the rest of the time I carry a selection and use the one that seems to be most appropriate to the mood and expectations.

I think this is why I like the Rider Waite decks. They're very Dennis Wheatley (very "skulls and smoking jackets in the drawing room") with lots of symbols and meaning the sitter can pick up on themselves, so they fit a lot of situations.

If there's an argument against playing cards in mentalism because they imply trickery instead of honesty, then surely there's also an argument against using a tarot deck that doesn't fit the situation, viz: http://tinyurl.com/aacpq

Hey,

I did a bit of Tarot a while back, I've got a Yeager Tarot deck which has some nice artwork on it...

Recently I've purchased some Fortune Telling Cards which I do my readings with instead, definately recommend them and they look awesome... I'm using Madam Endora's cards, they are available on Amazon. Have a search for them and when you see some of the artwork you'll see why I think they're awesome.

Cheers
JJ

The Robin Wood deck tho when I get better at it, I'll probably upgrade to a different deck as time goes on.

Tomo wrote:

The Morrigan wrote:Don't get hung up on which tarot deck to use. I have a couple of dozen decks I use professionally. They range from thecheap Rider Waite to a VERY expensive hand made deck I only use with one very special client and her friends. For the rest of the time I carry a selection and use the one that seems to be most appropriate to the mood and expectations.

I think this is why I like the Rider Waite decks. They're very Dennis Wheatley (very "skulls and smoking jackets in the drawing room") with lots of symbols and meaning the sitter can pick up on themselves, so they fit a lot of situations.

If there's an argument against playing cards in mentalism because they imply trickery instead of honesty, then surely there's also an argument against using a tarot deck that doesn't fit the situation, viz: http://tinyurl.com/aacpq

Ha ha! I'm loving some of those decks! I could do kids partys with the Hello Kitty one!

I don't know what the OP is wanting to do with his tarot but I assume it's readings etc. in which case finding one or more decks, as other posters have suggested, that 'fit' with you and your reading style etc. is the most paramount concern. I found a nice little tarot gallery which might help your search.

Personally, I've gotten myself a deck of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot although they're not used for 'readings' per se, but rather I want to replace bikes in my routine with tarot. Crowley is mentioned more than once throughout my routine so his tarot are just the natural choice. From what I've heard, they're not particularly liked by readers. No idea why though!

And yes, it is VERY expensive to make a TOD from Tarot!! LOL

Personally, I like the Robin Wood Tarot the best. It's based on the Rider, but much prettier. When I'm doing readings, I usually give the punters a choice of decks, and more often or not, they choose the Robin Wood themselves. Lovely.

Okay. So I read through everyones replies and could not find a deck I really liked initially (some of the suggestions I could not find at all!), so I ended up just going with the cheapest deck I could find and use that for practice.

I have been having some excellent success with these cards but want something a bit more artsy and a little less cheap.

I particularly like both the Cruel Thing Tarot and Dark Grimoire Tarot.

The Grimoire I love for the absolutely beautiful depictions, however, they are a little bit "surreal" for want of a better description. Can anybody suggest a deck with similar artistry but with more traditional (?) depictions. Something along the lines of "the Rider-Waite meets the Dark Grimoire"?

Also any recommendations of where you buy your decks from?

I still like Rider Waite as one of my main working decks. I got mine from Amazon for only £8.44

There is a H.P. Lovecraft tarot and a Necronomicon tarot if you like the Lovecraft inspired images. I quite like the look of the surrealist tarot. The bohemian gothic was popular a few years back for darker images. The H.R. Gieger tarot is interesting, but can't imagine using them for a reading. I've flirted with other decks, but ultimately come back to my Rider Waite deck. I've been trying Marseille variants after going over Enrique's material again, but Rider Waite is my day to day choice.

Those of you that favour the Rider Waite, is it because of the ease it gives to the reading as many people recognise them?

yes, but i also feel very at ease using them and find that i can adapt the reading a bit more with the deck.

My first deck was the Rider Waite, and when I'm reading out in the wild they're still the cards I fall back on. I'm just happiest and most comfortable with them. It's hard to say precisely why.

My favourite decks from a purely aesthetic point of view are the Victorian Romantic and the Bohemian Gothic. I have an original pack of Bohemian Gothic and Romantic Victorian, both of which I believe can fetch around £100 on eBay. Pity I chucked the boxes and the booklets! Drat. Wouldn't part with them anyway. To be honest, what I've done is mix these two decks together to create my own unique deck (both are the same sized cards). I really like the idea behind doing this (creating a unique deck), but I will reiterate that when push comes to shove and I walk out on to stage, it's the Rider Waites that I reach for.

See here: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/vi ... -romantic/ and http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/bohemian-gothic/

I use the Prediction deck but the bloody things have gone out of production. The Rider Waite is good but some of the images on the cards can make the client uncomfortable so I only use them for mail order readings where the client cannot see the cards or for repeat readings. They can be excellent for the latter since you will be saying entirely different things because the meanings of the Rider Waite cards are entirely different from the Prediction deck.

If you can't get the prediction deck there are other decks, which as Tony mentioned, have only numbers and suits on them. Here I combine numerology and the meaning of the suits. I explained this in my lecture for International Magic.

I have now seen the Tarot DVD that International are putting out and it is two hours long. I understand that it will be on the market once the cover is finally done. It looks pretty good and I am particularly pleased to see my niece on it for such a long period. She happend to be in the audience that night. She is a fan of the tarot and actually believes in it. She is far more spiritual than her wicked uncle.

Tony B is also seen on it for a few moments as is Mandrake. They both have speaking parts. I can't remember what the deal was with seminar attendees but I vaguely recall that if they paid a certain price the DVDs would be included. There are two of them and are packed with information.

Anyway, International Magic will have the details. They are already selling one of the DVDs. Oddly enough I have never actually seen it myself. I hope to do so in the next week or so.