Tarot boot camp: Where and how to get a Tarot deck

A lot of people will tell you that your first Tarot deck has to be given to you as a gift. It does often happen that way, so it’s “traditional.”

A friend, family member or mentor may decide you are ready to discover the Tarot or you may ask for a deck as a holiday gift. If so, you are one of the lucky ones. Even if that deck isn’t exactly the one you would have chosen, there is a specific magic to the first deck and it is bound up with the gift and with the giver.

In the days before the internet, it probably almost always happened that way. How else would a new initiate hear about Tarot, learn that they could use it effectively or gain access to a deck. Sure, there was the rare store where you could buy a deck, but without at least a little mentoring, it was unlikely that someone just curious enough to buy a deck would ever learn to use it well.

Today things are different. The internet is full of information about Tarot and a myriad of similar tools. A person interested in Tarot today has a completely different—though no less serious—problem. There is so much information and so many decks to choose from that it is bewildering.

And plenty of new Tarot readers hear about the old tradition requiring that one’s first deck should be a gift, and feel mildly guilty about buying one.

I have a solution if that bothers you. My initial posts on Tarot will be called “Tarot boot camp” partly because, if you do it right, the initial learning phase of Tarot can be grueling and because spiritual people and healers of all stripes are increasingly being called to take on the role of cultural warrior—either protecting the earth, fellow creatures, natural environments or those socially marginalized. Tarot is part of that.

I’m inviting you to this boot camp and it’s free. It’s a gift to you. It doesn’t necessarily include the deck of cards, but here is how you obtain one. The next time you have money that isn’t marked for bare survival—rent, food, heat, water, getting to work, childcare and the like—take a fourth of it and put it someplace separate. Mark it as a gift to yourself or the self-care fund.

Creative Commons image by Alan Morgan

Then use that money to buy things that nurture your soul—be that non-sensible shoes or a massage or a deck of Tarot cards. This is your gift. Whenever you spend it, remember that it is a gift. That will help remind you to be conscious of what you’re doing with it and will also make you feel less guilty about spending it on things that keep body and soul together.

For most people reading this blog, that will mean you’ll have money for a $20 Tarot deck in no time. But for some it may take months. There is some advantage to be found in this particular hardship. The time, focus and self-discipline required to get to Tarot will be directly proportionate to its power.

If getting several decks and books comes easy to you and you have plenty of time to peruse them and play with the cards, I am glad for you because it will be a lovely experience and I encourage you to undertake it with joy. However, be aware that it will likely take some time and work and study for you to discover the mysterious power of the Tarot. Fortunately, having all those shiny, new, good-smelling books to read will probably console you.

If on the other hand, all you can get is the smallest old-style deck of cards and a dusty, second-hand book from 1973 and the only time you can get to touch them is after a long day of work and chasing kids in the precious moments before you collapse into sleep, you will likely find that if you are open to it, the mystery will be burning through the thin wrapper and reading the Tarot will be like having a conversation with a long-lost friend.

Need and effort really do matter here. They matter more than the “gift” tradition, but even so the gift has been given. I give you permission to care for yourself. I give you this boot camp study guide, and as you will learn in the study of Tarot, you can give yourself a gift of knowledge and comfort.

After all, reading the Tarot is a conversation with a long-lost friend. That friend is your authentic self.

And that is likely the reason for the tradition of a gift of a Tarot deck anyway. Teachers, mentors and friends recognize that many of us need the Tarot in order to find this true friend. So they step in as a surrogate and give us that first deck. But they are merely a stand in.

So once you have filled your self-care jar with dimes and nickels or whatever the equivalent is, where do you actually find a good Tarot deck? Every major city in the world these days has a metaphysical shop with a shelf or an entire bookcase (or three depending on the city) devoted to Tarot.

If this is your first foray into Tarot, I highly recommend visiting such a shop in person and looking at the books and boxes of cards. The better shops will have posters showing what the cards look like in each deck, even if you can’t unwrap them, and you can choose according to your own aesthetic.

I will cover choosing a deck and a book in a future post in greater detail. But at this point, all you really need to know is that there is vast variety in Tarot decks today and they all have merit. It is important to choose a deck in which the colors, themes and aesthetic appeal to you, and even give you a feeling of calm and joy.

If you study Tarot in depth or if you want to spend the years it takes to become a Tarot master, you will need to look at these images for a long time. Make it as pleasant an experience as possible. There are Tarot decks for every taste—from spooky gothic, death-obsessed decks to Star Wars themes to Celtic druids to esoteric, astrological symbology. While I recommend taking it seriously and choosing something that will have lasting meaning to you, rather than a momentary silly whim, there is nothing inherently wrong with a superhero-inspired Tarot deck, if you are either a kid, a kid-at-heart, a graphic artist or someone otherwise deeply inspired by superhero imagery.

The one caveat that I—and most Tarot teachers—will add is that, for a first deck at least, I recommend sticking to something that generally reflects the traditional Rider-Waite format. What does that mean to a beginner exactly?

Check the book that comes with the cards or the description. Most importantly the deck should have 78 cards. There may be reasons eventually to use decks with fewer (or possibly even more) cards but in the beginning using the 78-card deck will connect you to others who practice Tarot and give you access to a lot more free and inexpensive information in much greater depth.

Secondly, the description should say that the deck is divided between higher and lower classes of cards, often called the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. “Arcana” just means “mysteries.” Twenty-two cards make up the Major Archana. The rest are divided into four suits—kind of like playing cards. These suits were traditionally disks, cups, swords and staves, but today they can be called just about anything.

Each suit may be associated with an object, a type of animal, an element or even an ethnicity. But in a standard deck there should be four of them with numbers from Ace to Ten and four “court cards.” These were traditionally page, knight, queen and king. But today, just like the suits themselves, they can be just about anything and sometimes they aren’t even people at all.

The closer your deck is to traditional, the easier access you’ll probably have to both Tarot books and community, but as long as the general format of the deck is standard you should be able to use my boot camp posts and similar free information on-line to get started.

If you really can’t get to a physical shop because you live outside western countries, like I do, or in some very remote place, ordering your first deck online is acceptable. There’s no mystical prohibition against it—at least not one I would put any stock in. But before buying, I recommend googling the name of the deck you think you might want to order along with the word “images.”

This will generally give you a lot more images of the various cards than the advertisement where you are purchasing. Look through the images and get to know them before you choose. It is worth some care and thought. You may eventually have a dozen or more decks, but you will always remember which one was your first. And it may even have a special kind of intensity long after you have adopted others as your favorites.

Next I will cover the specifics of choosing a Tarot book, since many decks you may choose either don’t have a specific book, have only a tiny booklet that is inadequate or have a book that is less wonderful than the artwork on the cards. After that, we’ll get into the really fun parts.

Until next time then…