Articles · Lessons

The Best Tarot Deck for Beginners (and How to Pick Yours)

The best tarot deck for beginners is any deck built on the Rider-Waite-Smith pattern, with a full scene on every one of the 78 cards. Not because it's the one "correct" deck, but because nearly every book, course, and app teaches from it, so the pictures you learn will match the lessons you read. Pick the version of it whose art you'd like to look at every day.

Why Rider-Waite-Smith first

• Every card has a picture of what it means. In 1909, Pamela Colman Smith drew a scene on all 56 Minor Arcana, not just the 22 Majors. Three swords through a heart says "heartbreak" before you open a book.
• The lessons match. Most teaching material, ours included, describes these scenes. Learn on a different system and you'll spend energy translating.
• The knowledge transfers. Thousands of modern decks are "RWS-based": new art, same scenes, same order. Learn one and you can read them all. Rider-Waite vs Thoth vs Marseille explains what the other two families change.

A five-point checklist before you buy

1. Scenes on the Minor Arcana. Look at the Five of Cups or the Eight of Pentacles in the listing photos. If you see a little story, good. If you see five cups in a row, keep looking (for now).
2. Card titles printed on the cards. Some decks show only a numeral. That's fine once you know the deck, and a pain while you're learning.
3. A size your hands can shuffle. Standard tarot cards are about 2.75 by 4.75 inches, which is bigger than playing cards. Small hands do better with a "pocket" or "mini" edition, and how to shuffle tarot cards has a method that works at any size.
4. Art you'll want to look at daily. The deck that gets used is the one that teaches you. If the original 1909 colors leave you cold, choose a modern deck that keeps the scenes.
5. A guidebook that says more than keywords. Nice to have, not required. All 78 meanings are here whenever you need them.

Decks to save for later

• Marseille-style decks. Beautiful, historic, and the number cards are just arrangements of cups and coins. Great second deck.
• The Thoth deck. Dense, gorgeous, and built on astrology and Qabalah you don't know yet.
• Heavily abstract art decks. If you can't tell which card is which without reading the title, it'll slow you down.
• Oracle decks. Not tarot at all. Lovely, but a different thing; see tarot vs oracle cards.

Do you have to be given your first deck?

No. You can buy your own tarot deck, and almost everyone does. The gift rule is folklore, not tradition.

If you'd rather try a deck before buying cardstock, the Toe Bean Tarot app comes with three Rider-Waite-Smith-pattern decks, including the public-domain 1909 original, and its card scanner reads paper Waite-Smith-style decks best, so the deck you learn on and the deck you buy can be the same pictures (Android only).

Once it's in your hands

Go through all 78 cards in order, then run the deck interview spread to get acquainted. The rest of owning a deck, from shuffling to storage, is in the tarot deck guide, and the beginner's roadmap takes it from there.

Quick answers

What is the best tarot deck for beginners?

Any deck based on the Rider-Waite-Smith pattern with a full scene on every card, because most learning material teaches from it.

Is the original Rider-Waite deck good for beginners?

Yes. It's the reference deck. If its 1909 colors feel dated, a modern deck that keeps the same scenes is an equally good start.

Are themed decks okay for a first deck?

Yes, as long as the scenes on the Minor Arcana are kept. If the Three of Swords still shows three swords through a heart, you're fine.

Should a beginner avoid Thoth or Marseille?

For a first deck, yes. Marseille has no scenes on the number cards, and Thoth assumes you know its correspondences. Both are worth exploring later.