Category: Opinion

My top 5 go to TdM styled decks of 2019

Lets jump right in. Most of the decks below have a slightly smaller size to them besides the Trionfi. Which feels really good to shuffle with and make excellent travel companions. Additionally, I appreciate the quality of the card stock on all of these.


1. Tarot de Jean Dodal de Lyon (5th ed.) by Pablo Robledo

Out of all of the classic TdM style tarot decks, this is my absolute favorite. I love the way the art is and the styles of the faces on the characters. It tickles me but also rings true towards capturing the essence of a reading. I cant get enough of this deck and need to find a back up copy as soon as possible. I cannot see myself living without this one.


2. Flamand Vandenborre by Pablo Robledo

Also known as the Flemish Tarot. Bacus also replaces the Pope for Key number 5 in this deck. I happened to find this one by happenstance. It is quirky and fun and the minor arcana pips are not in a standard tdm format there are numbers in the center of some cards. It took a little bit of experimenting to get used to reading with this one, but because I can quite figure it out and because it feels odd enough I keep on coming back to it.


3. Tarot de Marsella by Pablo Robledo

This deck is just a classic Conver based TdM. It is great to teach with and compare my other decks to as a baseline reference. It is essentially a gold standard. I adore this deck and it was awarded the Historical Deck of the year back in 2013 by Tarot Association.


4. The Spanish Tarot by Fournier

This is a Liguria-Piedmontese woodcut deck. Radical color differences in both minors and major arcana alike. The introduction to the color purple is unusual for this style of tarot deck. The cards are naturally ‘weighted’ so you do not have to mark your cards for those of you who like to read reversals. When I want to stray from the typical color palette and shuffle with the intention of reading reversals this is my go to deck of this school.


5. Trionfi della Luna by Patrick Valenza

Trionfi della Luna. Monsters in our mists, a strange dream world where humanoid figures roam the terrain of a pipish land. This modern re-envisioned TdM stlye decks reads like a storybook. The structure of the original art style; tips its hat to the historic land of TdM decks. This deck is really so fun to read with, after all when we are going through struggles and hardships it is not hard to feel like you are some kind of humanoid dream monster navigating on this earth. Here but out of place somehow. This deck has a lot of miles on it, I simply cannot get enough.


If you want here is a video of my go to Tarot de Marseilles style decks of 2019 and a brief audio version of why.

Buying your First Tarot deck and Where to Start?

The age old adage of “use what works for you” and “use what you are attracted to” had been beaten to death. As true as it is, I always feel the underlying basis of this question comes from someone looking for a bit of foundation as in– “Where do I even start”?.

I always like to make the distinction that are are roughly three camps of tarot that is typical as a “foundation” for people. These are your big three camps. Many modern decks are derived or influenced by one of these three:

The oldest, Tarot de Marseilles or TdM for short.
The popular, Rider Waite Smith or RWS for short.
And the infamous esoteric Thoth Tarot.

Now, here is an important distinction to make before you run off and purchase a deck.

Tarot de Lyon de Jean Dodal by Pablo Robeldo



TdM has a long history and purist may not consider all pip decks (pips meaning the minor arcana is non-scenic) as a true TdM. This is because some versions were not created in Marseilles, but in other places like the Noblet 1650 is from Paris, Dodal 1710 is from Lyons, and Conver 1750 is from Marseilles. Conver is the most popular of the TdM decks. There are many out there. Furthermore, there are some books available on the market and do a good job at helping you to get going with readings. If you happen to speak French I believe that opens more avenues for books.

Pam’s Vintage Tarot by GameCrafter

Do you want a lot of written material on the tarot deck you purchase? If so, you would probably want to go with a RWS based deck as this has the most written about it, hence its popularity. There are hundreds of RWS editions and clones available on the market. You cannot go wrong here.

Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley

Thoth is Thoth same as with TdM, there is a limited amount of books written for this but the resources available are fantastic to get you going. There are a small amount of Thoth based clones on the market but many of them are lovely. Additionally, the minor arcana are ‘pipish’.

Now that I am off my soapbox, here is a video I did with my deck and book recommendations for beginners:

In this video I discuss an overview of the three tarot traditions and some resources to help get you get started on your way. All of the decks I showed can be found on Amazon at reasonable prices.

Tarot de Marseille

Deck shown: CAMOIN JODOROWSKY
Books:
->The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards by Alejandro Jodorowsky
->Tarot on Earth by Tom Benjamin
->Tarot – The Open Reading by Yoav Ben-Dov

Rider Waite Smith Tarot

Deck Shown: Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck by U.S. Game Systems Books:
->Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot by Rachel Pollack
->Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin
->Tarot 101: Mastering the Art of Reading the Cards by Kim Huggens

Thoth Tarot

Deck shown: The Thoth Tarot
Books:
->Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo Duquette
->The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley
->The Chicken Qabalah by Lon Milo DuQuette
->The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols by Angeles Arrien (I forgot to mention this one but it is good one if you do not want to get into the ‘esoteric’ stuff but still want to learn)

Website mentioned to browse for decks: www.aeclectic.net