Favorite Tarot Decks

I have the same thoughts about the Toth deck. The imagery is wonderful. It was the first deck I was ever drawn to and bought, and the first one I bought again when I delved back into tarot recently. It is quite complex in that there is so much symbolism to work with and learn about if you choose to.

My other two favourite decks at the moment are 'Dreams of Gaia' by Ravynne and the Osho Zen deck. The dreams of Gaia cards are stunningly beautiful. I think I would have them even if I wasn't reading Tarot:) The meanings feel very spiritual to me, and find them most useful for personal readings. I love the artwork on the Osho Zen deck too and find I can connect to meanings and get intuitive results far quicker with this deck than the other two for some reason.

I have tried the Crystal Tarot by Trevisan and I love the major arcana cards, but can't get on with the simplicity of the minor arcana and the guidebook meanings.

The Rider Waite is one that is often suggested for beginners, but I just can't connect to the imagery. I also find the imagery 'simplistic' - that's not to say they are simplistic as they do have a lot of symbology too, but I find I'm drawn to a different style of artwork.

Tarot is definitely very subjective.

I'm not really a tarot reader but I own several decks and love using the cards for meditative purposes. The Thoth Tarot has easily been a favorite of mine for about 12 years or so since I first started exploring matters of a more esoteric nature. Some people seem to consider it "dark" but I've never really gotten that from the deck, although I suspect much of that is the result of people projecting their understandings and misunderstandings of Crowley on it. I personally like the Waite-Rider deck but I prefer the B.O.T.A. deck, which is admittedly a rip-off of the former but includes symbolism Waite intentionally left out (and, as an added bonus, you have to color it yourself!). I'm also a fan of Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero's Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot, which, like the B.O.T.A. deck, seems designed with meditation in mind.

(As an aside, I'm Matt... I've been a lurker here for about two years or so. I've drawn quite a bit of hope from some of the predictions I've seen around here regarding the political situation here in the US  and this place has helped bolster my spirits.)

Hi Matt.  Welcome!  I lit up when you said you love the Thoth deck.  There is a kind of kinship that arises when you meet someone who also loves that deck.  

I’m fascinated with the idea of looking through the other decks you mentioned for meditative purposes.  Curious to know what you see when you pull a Thoth card to meditate on it.  

Last year I read a biography about Crowley that deepened my understanding of the man. He was the bad boy of his age — a kind of Mick Jagger figure but more accomplished in my mind.  

Brilliant, crazy, an accomplished mountaineer who climbed  some of the highest peaks. And a scholar of ancient myth.  He wanted to know everything that could be known about spirituality and magick.  He put it all in the deck for us to read.  And Frieda Harris, the painter, had the artistic genius to pull it off for him.  Still I doubt I would have liked the man if I met him.  But I wouldn’t have liked Paul Gauguin either. It’s what he created and his genius that matters.

To me, the  deck is no more dark than the human mind and nature itself which are both exciting, beautiful and yes, harsh.  No pulled punches.  

Anyway, what do you mean when you say that you meditate, say, on a Thoth card?

Hi Jeanne! Thank you for the kind welcome!

Crowley has admittedly fascinated me for a while now. Before I started exploring these things I was a hardcore convert to Catholicism. I was very conservative and straight-laced but there was something deep inside me that rebelled against the outward persona I had built for myself. Without going into too much detail, it culminated in leaving the Church, becoming a Freemason (a real no-no for faithful Catholics, which was part of why I did it), learning about Qabalah and esotericism, and eventually bumping into Crowley's Thoth Tarot and writings. He was a product of his upbringing and age, which, rather than embrace, he chose to rebel against in a similar manner as I had. I think you summed him up perfectly... not sure I'd like him as a person, I'm at odds with parts of the personal philosophy he promulgated, but he definitely had something interesting to say and that's always refreshing. I've frankly come to the opinion that such is sort of how he wanted it. Lady Harris was absolutely brilliant in her artwork and I've never shown the deck to anyone who has failed to be impressed by it.

My understanding is that certain decks, particularly those that developed out of the Golden Dawn system, are designed with imagery that's intended to make certain suggestions to the subconscious for the sake of personal spiritual development, through the forms on the cards, the symbolism, and even the colors through Qabalistic correspondences. The technique I was taught was to stare at the card and "step inside", so to speak, for 3 - 5 minutes. In practice, it's not much unlike holding an image inside one's mind during a closed eye meditation and, indeed, one could use the images in that manner as well once one has that level of familiarity with them. 

I admittedly don't "see" much apart from the images on the cards. I'm not aware of being particularly psychic in the slightest, at least not in any sense that I understand. It's more that I find that the meditations cause my mind to find correspondences between events around me to the symbolic meanings of the cards. My interest tends to be more on the "magical" side of things, and even then for me it's more to do with spiritual development than developing the power to make strange things happen.

It's interesting that both you and Blue mentioned earlier that the Waite-Rider imagery was too simple to look right on a large card. As I mentioned earlier, Waite actually intentionally left certain symbols out of his cards due to certain Golden Dawn oaths that he had previously sworn. Paul Foster Case, who was also a member of the Golden Dawn and who designed the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) deck, based his cards on the Waite-Rider deck but left the blinds in -- it's interesting to compare the two and not what's missing from Waite's deck: B.O.T.A. Tarot Deck

Interesting post Matt, thanks for sharing your experience of the Thoth deck. I like the idea of 'stepping' into the cards, that's a fascinating technique. Regarding symbolism for both sets of cards from Golden Dawn teachings I find the Liber Thoth to be very helpful (link is to a free downloadable pdf).

Thanks, Blue! That is really a fantastic resource. For the Thoth Deck, I'm also very fond of Lon Milo DuQuette's Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot and Aleister Crowley's own The Book of Thoth (although Crowley has a tendency to go for over-obscure at times, and some might be slightly off-put by the fact that he devoted something like 20 pages to the Fool Card alone, fascinating as it might be). On the non-Thoth side, I've also been studying the writings of Paul Foster Case (again, B.O.T.A. deck), who seemed to have a rather deep insight into the Hermetic nature of the Tarot.

I find all of these discussions incredibly interesting if not psychologically and psycho-spiritually fascinating. I was filled with visions of journeys through the cards through your gifts.

I don't own any of these decks nor have I ever done more than a few trial spreds of any kind of Tarot ever, but see imagery and stories through people not cards and visioning in my own ways.

Your discussion...you,  Jeanne and you, Matt, were so incredibly resonating with me that the two of you lit me  up. And Blue thank you, for all of your comments as well. I opened the link and am vibrating with its energy. Amazing helpful connections to decades of esoteric readings.

Simply, though not truly simply at all, I was given intense visions and insight from your discussion of Tarot, into a loved one who needs my help with instant imagery.

Apparently, the decks do work in mysterious ways ? I am literally moved to tears.

Thank you.?

Hi Michele,

I'm glad I was able to be part of an exchange that resonated so strongly with you!

I feel you touched on something here that is I personally find to be very deep and important when it comes to Tarot. The cards are just tools. All of the power lies with the reader. Good cards present an archetypal symbolism that should evoke a reaction on a deeper level when properly understood. Like I said earlier, any psychic abilities I may or may not have are not particularly well developed but I've studied this stuff a bit... personally, I think there's something very advanced and quite cool about being able to extend the ability to "read" beyond mere cards and instead use the world and people around you as your personal Tarot.    ?

In a deeper sense, I suppose it's very much the same thing!

All I'll add is that it's not the decks that work in mysterious ways... it's you. ? 

I love this discussion.  I spent a few hours reading up on the Thoth Star card (the 17 Trump) a few years ago when I was about to teach it to a class.  I have a group that meets locally every Thursday night for ten years now, called the Thursday Night Tarot.   Some students have been coming for many years, some just started.  

What I learned about the Star Card changed my life. It's hard to capture it in words because pictures evoke more than words can say. But Frieda Harris's rendition of the Star taught me something. The figure in the card is Nuith, the Egyptian sky goddess. She represents the sky and the universe out there with all the loving energies that come to us from above.   She's in the curved shape of a spiral, passing along the light of the Universe to us. There's a distant star sending energy to us, like the energies we sometimes feel coming from spirit guides from other worlds.  When you are in the consciousness of the Star Card, you have raised the ceiling of your  awareness to something much higher than our regular earthly feet-of-clay consciousness.  You may be down here in the trenches with worries about climate change or your job or the cruelties of this world.   But no matter how worried you are about this world, you can take in the loving light of the universe and know that there is guidance, redemption, hope, and something eternal. 

The great Cathedrals of Europe have the high ceilings to provide the same effect of raising your own consciousness to new heights. The Star has the same message. 

There's more to see in this card, but that understanding alone sweeps me up in the most positive light when I need it. And I feel Crowley and Harris succeeded in depicting it.