Tarot Set for beginner - any recommendations

[daojones]

I would like to get a tarot set, but am new to tarot and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations?

I liked the looks of the jungian tarot deck...but wasn't sure if this would be more confusing to use.

[Zhongyongdaoist]

For a variety of reasons too complex for me to go into right now, for a complete beginner a simple Waite deck, sometimes called Rider-Waite, is the best place to start:

Wikipedia on the Rider-Waite deck

Almost all of the major decks in English are based on it and its symbolism and the fundamental structure which it represents is very positive and powerful.

 

I don't like the art work of the original, but there are many beautiful decks that are based on its fundamental structure, my favorite being one done in Chinese style. Still you should start with the original deck and as you get a feel for it look around for another based on it that resonates more with your personal taste if you are not satisfied with the original art.

[Aeran]

I'll second the Rider-Waite recommendation. I bought one a few years back and have found it immensely insightful and surprisingly accurate.

[RiverSnake]

Rider Waite is an excellent deck. I would also recommend that you look through various decks and see if you have a strong connection with any in particular. The deck i am working with right now really called to me and pulled me in unlike any others. Best of luck…..Tarot is awesome!!

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited January 17, 2014 by OldChi

[soaring crane]

The Osho cards are beautiful and profound. A friend of mine got a set for her birthday and was at first very unenthusiastic, but quickly fell in love with them. She's been laying cards for a good twenty years and has I don't know how many decks but I think the Osho deck is her favorite.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Osho-Zen-Tarot-Transcendental-Game/dp/0312117337/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389966856&sr=1-1&keywords=osho+zen+tarot

Edited January 17, 2014 by soaring crane

[mYTHmAKER]

Rider-Waite

[SonOfTheGods]

Rider-Waite

 

Crowley's last.

[daojones]

Ah interesting about the osho deck, as that was the first one I was exposed to. I was looking into the jung deck by robert wang as well.

I'll go ahead with the rider-waite deck for now. Thanks for the suggestions

[Nungali]

Good luck with reading Waite (if you try that) .... and figuring out his mess up with the courts ... but at first that wont matter.

 

IMO it depends on your outlook and demeanour - I have read Thoth for over 30 years (some professionally), I would also recommend Mythic tarot and Jungian Tarot.

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

The Crowley deck is kinda eye catching.

 

...

[mYTHmAKER]

...

 

The Crowley deck is kinda eye catching.

 

...

too dark

[mYTHmAKER]

.

 

Edited January 20, 2014 by mYTHmAKER

[Nungali]

Only if you explain why Thoth is 'too dark' ... dont you like the dark ????

 

It allows us to see the stars and beyond our gravity well.

[mYTHmAKER]

I prefer to go to the light

[RiverSnake]

What kind of deck your drawn to I think largely depends on where you are at personally. Thoth is well suited to some people...but not necessarily to others. The deck I have is more of a "Light" deck. I agree Thoth seems pretty "Dark" but that's not necessarily a bad thing....IMO some people are more drawn to that than others.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[rex]

 

Tarot of Marseilles

 

[mYTHmAKER]

Tarot of Marseilles

love this deck, however it only has illustrations of the higher arcana

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Let's go back to what I said at the beginning:

For a variety of reasons too complex for me to go into right now, for a complete beginner a simple Waite deck, sometimes called Rider-Waite, is the best place to start:

Wikipedia on the Rider-Waite deck

After all of these responses, now seems a good time to start looking at some of those reasons. At this site:

Delving Into Tarot and Astrology in the Golden Dawn Tradition

Down at the bottom you will find this section:

Golden Dawn Astrological Correspondences in The Minor Arcana

and material like this:

 

• Ace of Cups – “The Root of the Powers of Water”; Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces; The Water Signs of the Zodiac
• Two of Cups – “The Lord of Love”; Venus in Cancer
• Three of Cups – “The Lord of Joy”; Mercury in Cancer
• Four of Cups – “The Lord of Blended Pleasure”; Moon in Cancer
• Five of Cups – “The Lord of Pleasure Lost”; Mars in Scorpio
• Six of Cups – “The Lord of Friendship”; Sun in Scorpio
• Seven of Cups – “The Lord of Illusionary Success”; Venus in Scorpio
• Eight of Cups – “The Lord of Abandoned Success”; Saturn in Pisces
• Nine of Cups – “The Lord of Happiness”; Jupiter in Pisces
• Ten of Cups – “The Lord of Perfected Success”; Mars in Pisces

These titles, 'The Lord of Love', 'The Lord of Joy', etc., and their astrological correspondences are from the Golden Dawn which associates each of the Minor Arcana numbered two to ten with one of the thirty-six ten degree sections of the Zodiac, called Decans. Compare these titles to the pictures on the Waite deck Minor cards and you can see that Waite has represented each of these in picture form. These suggestive pictures are not only a help for beginners with remembering the meanings of the cards, but they also demonstrate that Waite intended his cards to be a Golden Dawn type Tarot, which is also important, but I will have to deal with that in another post.

Particularly if you are at all interested in what I posted in 'Tarot as a Magical Tool?':

Any well formed symbol system is useful for both passive uses, like divination, in which it reflects a train of events and for active purposes like magic, where it can be used to influence a train of events. The Tarot is excellent as a magical system, the average "magician" can hardly dream of all that is concealed in Western Geomancy as a form of magic, the same goes for Yi Jing, Mah Jong, and many other systems like that. I have experience with several of them,some for decades. They are worth the time and effort investigating.

You will want to pay particular attention to these astrological correspondences.

[Nungali]

What on earth do you guys (two of you now) mean in saying that; the Thoth deck is too dark.

 

The reason I ask is some people (men and women) have been captivated by it, its artwork and style, some instantly like it. Also the concepts; look at the Devil Card - it represents Pan and creative life force, he is bedecked with flowers. Now look at the weird Waite Devil card - it is a symbol of repression and seems full of bondage, control, mis-understood unconscious forces, etc. I could go on about similar cards in both decks.

 

Thoth also stems from the GD tradition, the minors have the same decanic associations. The astrological associations are written on the cards along with the associated Hebrew letters, The decanic symbols are written on the minors ... they even have descriptive names on the minors , so thats easier for a beginier than remembering what those little theatre scenes on the Waite minors mean .

 

Where is the darkness in that?

 

Its not a problem with Crowley being projected onto the cards is it? If so, I find that a little biased , ... after all, does one find the astronomy of Tycho Brahe inappropriate because he had an electrum nose, kept a clairvoyant dwarf under the table at dinner and his pet moose got so drunk at a party in his castle it fell down the stairs? Is the art work of Van Gough inappropriate because he cut off his ear ... and a hundred other examples.

 

Someone please explain why the Thoth tarot is 'dark' or 'too dark'. ?

Edited January 19, 2014 by Nungali

[BaguaKicksAss]

I've heard it is too complex for someone new; I've never heard the "dark" bit.

 

Now if you want a dark deck... I have a few recommendations heheheh.

[Nungali]

Like this one ? :

 

 

 

[BaguaKicksAss]

lololol I was thinking more the Linda Falario deck actually . Boy do I have some horror stories about working with a whole set of 8x10's of the major arcana of that deck!

[SonOfTheGods]

lololol I was thinking more the Linda Falario deck actually . Boy do I have some horror stories about working with a whole set of 8x10's of the major arcana of that deck!

ahhh the tunnels of set

[BaguaKicksAss]

While they do line up with those quite nicely, there was also something different about them. I did travel the tunnels, but not with the cards. What I did is print all the major arcana out, and created a magic circle with them... that I worked in for awhile...

 

Btw, this is NOT recommended, do NOT do this at home, that was one of my dumber moments... lol.

[Nungali]

please explain

 

Okay I will go first to try and encourage YOU to answer MY question (as it would only be polite for you to do so since I am answering yours )

 

 

[Tarot beginner? Probably best not to read this post. I doubt it will make a difference at the beginning stage.

It all depends on why you use the Tarot and what your methodology is. If you are only using the cards for divination/doing readings and are purely a "go with my instinct/intuition" and "the cards mean what I say they mean" kind of person, then just don't worry about the correspondences. It doesn't matter.]

 

The RW associations are based on the G. D. tarot document Liber T.

The scheme with the courts is a reflection of the suits and that is a reflection of YHVH (also note the two ‘female’ H s - representing the passive aspects of water and earth).

In Liber T all courts are listed with a title and a name ;

Titled; “The Lord of …. King of the …. “ and named “Knight of … “

“Queen of the ….” and named “Queen of …”

“Prince of the …” and named “King of …”

“Princess of the …” and named “ Knave of the …”

 

The Knight of Wands is not the King of Wands (for example) he is however the’ King of the Spirits of Fire” but he is not the King of Wands. The King of Wands is ‘The Prince of the Chariot of Fire’.

 

Okay, maybe Waite wanted to use the sub-titles in some way (wrong IMO) but then when we get to Knave of Wands … who is actually a Princess … we don’t get a Knave or a Princess but a Page. So now in the courts, instead of a balanced male/ female dynamic we have 1 women and 3 men.

 

Also with Waite’s order of King, Queen, Knight, Page; the Knight is 3^rd (Vau) yet the GD description of the vau set does not have the word Knight in it - it has ‘Prince and King’ .

 

 

This has led to endless difficulties for some who look deeper into the tarot for esoteric significance.

 

 

The GD Knights are the RWS Kings. Each rules from the last decan of a fixed sign through 20° of the next sign (which would be mutable). The GD Kings (Princes) are the RWS Knights and rule from the last decan of a cardinal through 20° of the next sign (fixed). [Mathers quotes Agrippa: "But there are none of the sensible elements that are pure. But they are more or less mixed, and apt to be changed the one into the other. . ." ]

 

 

The GD Knights and the RWS Kings use chariots or thrones and are the fiery aspects of their elements; while the GD Kings and the RWS Knights ride horses and are airy.

 

What are we to make of Waite's designations here: “A Knight should be chosen as the Significator if the subject of inquiry is a man of forty years old and upward; a King should be chosen for any male who is under that age a Queen for a woman who is over forty years and a Page for any female of less age. “ But also that; “The four Court Cards in Wands represent very fair people, with yellow or auburn hair, fair complexion and blue eyes.”

 

All very good, but he had earlier written of the King: “The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble.” And further of this same King of Wands; “Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious”. But then, the Knight of Wands; “A dark young man, friendly.”

 

BUT Waite collected ideas (including card meanings). He makes clear in various places that he doesn't think much of some of them (even though he records them), and that quite a few of the meanings taken from various sources contradict each other. If you missed that reference it’s bound to get confusing.

 

Waite's deck is not a true Golden Dawn deck, although he was clearly influenced by the Golden Dawn correspondences, it is full of paradoxes.

 

The Knight was made King, but then Princes were shown riding in Chariots. To make the Knights Kings but then do Princes to look like Knights began a cycle of confusion.

 

Book "T" is very clear about how to correspond traditionally suited decks to their court system. The Thoth deck is incredibly close to Book "T"'s description of the court cards. The RWS deck is less close, but still shows some small features if you line it up with RWS King=GD Prince and RWS Knight=GD King.

 

 

 

Now ... why is the Thoth deck 'too dark" ?