Your favourite tarot deck

[pihlaja]

So this is practically for tarot readers, but even if you're not but have any kind of an opinion, please feel free to post. Basically I'm just curious about people's favourite decks and how they look. Do you have one favourite or several ones? Why it is/ they are you favourite(s)? Or does it depend on the mood? Do you usually use one deck or do you use all of them or more than one? How do you decide which one you're gonna use?

I have just two decks and I find the other one kind confusing and even disturbing (Tarot Favole, it's also quite badly made -> cards don't seem to fit the meaning), so basically I have just one deck I can consider to reading. Luckily I'm totally in love with it. It's so multidimensional, beautiful, mysterious and can be used in so many ways that I haven't bought other decks beside the Favole one which I bought because of the pictures.

So my favourite deck is Tarot of the Secret Forest, drawn by Lucia Mattioli and published by Lo Scarabeo. Every card is illstrated, not just major arcana, and every card has two sides: the coloured one and the black and white sketch. (And no texts in several languages like in some Lo Scarabeo decks I've seen).

You can find pictures for example here: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/secret-forest/

I'm considering getting another deck too though, because I want to see if I'd have other kind of relationship to other kind of deck and if that would allow me to read tarot in a different way in certain type of situations. (And I don't want people to shuffle this deck, so I can't practise reading to others because I think shuffling is the thing which the target of the reading should do.)

[thalassa]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I have three sets that I am quite fond of, even though I'm not a huge tarot reader:

The Mythic Tarot (official site) (review)

The Transparent Tarot (review)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJW0ipQuEtk[/youtube]

The Housewives Tarot (official site) (review)

[Gardenia]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I don't do much work with tarot, but I do own several decks.

My favorite?

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/gummibear/index.shtml

It's so darn cute!

My second favorite (and what I usually use when I work with tarot) is just the standard Rider-Waite deck.

[xLilyPondx]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

It usually depends on the artwork, for me at least, and whether or not the cards 'call to me'.

My favorite deck is the Mystic Dreamer Deck : http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/mystic-dream/

[Medusa]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I've only worked with one. And that was the Thoth deck.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3DEdkUiJns[/youtube]
It's a visually stunning deck. Though it is for the advance Tarot reader.

[thalassa]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

[quote author=Gardenia link=topic=251.msg2793#msg2793 date=1287103294]
I don't do much work with tarot, but I do own several decks.

My favorite?

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/gummibear/index.shtml

It's so darn cute!

[/quote]

that is awesome.

I have to put it on my list.


...maybe I'll start collecting obscure and odd tarot sets

I'm also a fan of the Hello Kitty deck

[SageGreene]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

This one is my personal favorite

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/animals-divine/

the pictures are beautiful <3

[PharaohKatt]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

The Thoth deck is really, really cool. I'll have to get a copy.

I've just discovered this: http://www.sciencetarot.com/ The Science Tarot. What do y'all think? I reckon it's kinda nifty ^_^

[Madness]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I only recently (year or two) learned tarot. I went to the store, picked up one deck but decided to look at the others. Went through their entire absurdly huge collection - took over an hour - and finally decided that I liked the one I picked up first! Must have been a sign.

Aquarian Tarot

[shadow1982]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I have a couple of decks but this is the only deck I read with (altho I am still very much a beginner) http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/cosmic/

[PainAndLight]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

[quote author=pihlaja link=topic=251.msg2254#msg2254 date=1287003705]
So this is practically for tarot readers, but even if you're not but have any kind of an opinion, please feel free to post. Basically I'm just curious about people's favourite decks and how they look. Do you have one favourite or several ones? Why it is/ they are you favourite(s)? Or does it depend on the mood? Do you usually use one deck or do you use all of them or more than one? How do you decide which one you're gonna use?[/quote]

Once upon a time, my favorite deck was the Haindl deck, but I haven't used that one much in quite a while. When I do drag out the cards anymore, it's either the Archeon or the Deviant Moon deck. I probably use them about equally- and often end up using both. I use the spread that was in the little white book for the Deviant Moon Deck with that one. With the Archeon deck, I work in a much more free-form manner. It usually ends up that I shuffle the cards for a while, and then will pull a couple of cards, then shuffle them again and pull out a few more cards, doing this sometimes three or four times to comprise a single reading (yes, on occasion, half the deck comes out, but it usually winds up being more like 8-10 cards). It's pretty intuitive and sometimes feels like an exercise in futility, but is usually useful. Sometimes I'll throw down a spread with one deck and then throw the same down with the other and compare.

And the links to the decks that I've mentioned...

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/haindl/index.shtml

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/deviant-moon/index.shtml

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/archeon/index.shtml

And a er, less than honorable mention..l.ol...my least favorite deck either, my first deck and the one that I generally pretend I never had, is the Wheel of Change tarot. The artwork in that deck is so garish, distracting and gimicky that I could never even begin to read with it and eventually um...I don't remember what I did with it anymore..lol

[DanieMarie]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

My favorite is the Golden Tarot, which keeps a lot of the symbolism of the Rider Waite deck but it's more aesthetic. It's a collage work of art from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

http://goldentarot.com/

[Storm]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I own several decks, but I only use Sacred Circle.

[Bjorn]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

I am positively in LOVE with my Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg.



My love affair with Russia and its colorful history is satisfied with these vibrant cards and the iconic style that was so popular throughout Russia's past. There are come cards that take the symbolism from the Rider-Waite deck, but many more are made either less solemn, or more symbolic to Russia's history. Many of the cards in the Major Arcana are also depicted as prominent figures throughout the ages, like the Devil which is an obvious representation of Stalin, and the Emperor, which is basically a spot-on portrait of Ivan the Great.

Oh, and its also got dramatic gold designs around each card's painting so that it mimics the faberge eggs of imperial Russia. Freak AWESOME!

The original artist, Yury Shakov, a VERY famous miniatures painter, finished the Major Arcana and the suit of cups and then, sadly, died. A mystery artist was brought in to complete the deck, which just adds to the mystery that has always shrouded Russia, and makes the deck, I think, just that much more interesting.

[Eglentyne]

Re: Your favourite tarot deck

The Thoth deck is my study deck. It's really hard for me to get anything out of it in terms of divination.

Lo Scarabeo published its own deck, and that one is pretty straight forward. It's pretty, simple, easy to work with, very approachable for beginners.
I also picked up the Shadowscapes Tarot, which is absolutely gorgeous. I really got that one for the pretty factor. Very good for relationship advice.