Which Tarot Decks Are Most Commonly Used?

The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, created by Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, is one of the most widely recognized and commonly used Tarot decks. It consists of 78 cards, divided into the Major Arcana (22 cards representing significant life events). The deck has been around for about a century and is often considered the first modern Tarot deck.

The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck is the most popular and widely used deck for tarot card reading, with clear, easy-to-understand illustrations that allow for uncomplicated interpretations. For beginners, the Rider-Waite Tarot deck is the best choice due to its clear and easy-to-understand illustrations. The deck has become synonymous with tarot and has been used by tarot students for about a century.

There are various types of Tarot decks available, including traditional, oracle, themed, and modern options. The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck is the most popular and widely used deck, with countless interpretations available in books and on the internet.

For newcomers, the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck is the best choice due to its clear, easy-to-understand illustrations. The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck has been around for about a century and will likely continue to be the most popular tarot deck for about a century.

What is the No 1 Tarot card?

The Magician, also known as The Magus or The Juggler, is the first trump or Major Arcana card in traditional tarot decks, used for game playing and divination. In the occult context, the trump cards are recontextualized as the Major Arcana and given complex esoteric meaning. In this context, the Magician is interpreted as the first numbered and second total card of the Major Arcana, succeeding the Fool. In French, Le Bateleur, also known as “the mountebank” or “sleight of hand artist”, is a practitioner of stage magic.

In Italian tradition, he is called Il Bagatto or Il Bagatello. The Mantegna Tarocchi image of the Magician is labeled Artixano, the Artisan, and is the second lowest in the series. 18th-century woodcuts of the Magician reflect earlier iconic representations and can be compared to free artistic renditions in 15th-century hand-painted tarots.

What is the main tarot deck?

The Major Arcana are the 22 named cards in a cartomantic tarot pack, typically numbered from 0 to 21. These cards are used for divination by occultists, while the Minor Arcana consists of 56 unnamed cards. Before the 17th century, tarot cards were used for playing games, with the Fool and 21 trumps having simple allegorical or esoteric meanings. The occult significance began to emerge in the 18th century when Swiss clergyman and Freemason Antoine Court de Gébelin published two essays on Tarot in his encyclopedia, Le Monde Primitif.

Court de Gébelin assigned Egyptian, kabbalistic, and divine significance to the tarot trumps in his first essay, “Du Jeu des Tarots” (The Game of Tarots). The term “Major Arcana” is rarely used by players and is typically associated with divination by occultists.

What is the luckiest card in the tarot?

The Wheel of Fortune is a card in a tarot deck, the tenth trump or Major Arcana card. It is used in game playing and divination. The Rider-Waite tarot deck, developed by A. E. Waite, is a key figure in the development of the tarot and forms the basis for many modern decks. According to Waite’s 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Wheel of Fortune card carries several divinatory associations.

What is the most basic tarot deck?

The Rider-Waite Smith is the most popular recommendation for beginners when it comes to tarot decks. Created in 1910, it was designed by AE Waite and illustrated by Pamela “Pixie” Colman Smith. Before the RWS, tarot decks were similar to playing cards, with the Ace of Swords and 9 of Cups having a single image. Waite and Smith interpreted each card and created scenes using people, environments, animals, and symbols.

Waite and Smith were part of the Golden Dawn, a secret society organization that had their own interpretation of tarot and allegories. Their groundbreaking system made tarot more accessible to people in 1910.

What is the most well-known tarot deck?

The “Waite-Smith” tarot deck, published in 1910, is a globally iconic 78-card deck. British artist, illustrator, and costume designer Pamela Colman Smith, who was responsible for creating the illustrations used in the deck, shared her ideas on how to view paintings in a 1908 article. In 1909, Smith and poet Arthur Waite met through the “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn”, and their mutual belief in spiritualism, rituals, symbolism, and psychic practices led to the creation of a tarot card deck.

Today, the deck is known as the “Waite-Smith” or “Rider-Waite-Smith” deck. A new edition published by Taschen, “The Tarot of A. E. Waite and P. Colman Smith: The Story of the World’s Most Popular Tarot”, features a complete deck of the original cards and contextual essays about Smith, Waite, and the deck’s creation, delving into its history, importance, and popularity.

Is there a standard tarot deck?

The modern tarot deck, based on the Venetian or Piedmontese tarot, consists of 78 cards divided into two groups: the major arcana (22 trumps) and the minor arcana (56 cards). The major arcana features pictures representing various forces, characters, virtues, and vices, numbered I through XXI. The cards are arranged in a series of order, from juggler to papess, empress to emperor, pope to lovers, chariot to justice, hermit to wheel of fortune, strength to death, temperance to devil, lightning-struck tower to star, moon to sun, last judgment to world, and the fool.

The minor arcana consists of four suits of 14 cards each, similar to modern playing cards. Each suit has 4 court cards (king, queen, knight, and jack) and 10 numbered cards, with the value progression in ascending order from ace to 10, then jack, knight, queen, and king.

What is the traditional tarot deck?

The modern tarot deck, based on the Venetian or Piedmontese tarot, consists of 78 cards divided into two groups: the major arcana (22 trumps) and the minor arcana (56 cards). The major arcana features pictures representing various forces, characters, virtues, and vices, numbered I through XXI. The cards are arranged in a series of order, from juggler to papess, empress to emperor, pope to lovers, chariot to justice, hermit to wheel of fortune, strength to death, temperance to devil, lightning-struck tower to star, moon to sun, last judgment to world, and the fool.

The minor arcana consists of four suits of 14 cards each, similar to modern playing cards. Each suit has 4 court cards (king, queen, knight, and jack) and 10 numbered cards, with the value progression in ascending order from ace to 10, then jack, knight, queen, and king.

What is the oldest known tarot deck?

The oldest surviving tarot cards are the 15 or so decks of the Visconti-Sforza Tarot painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan. ( 14 ) In 15th century Italy, the set of cards that was included in tarot packs, including trumps, seems to have been consistent, even if naming and ordering varied. There are two main exceptions: ( 15 )

• Some late 15th century decks like the Sola Busca tarot and the Boiardo deck had four suits, a fool, and 21 trumps, but none of the trumps match tarot ones. They seem to have been made on the model of tarot decks, but were voluntary departures from an established standard.
• The Visconti di Mondrone pack, one of the Visconti-Sforza decks, originally had a Dame and a Maid in each suit, in addition to the standard King, Queen, Knight, and Jack. Additionally, the pack includes three trump cards which represent the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and are not present in any other tarot deck of that era.

Although a Dominican preacher inveighed against the evil inherent in playing cards, chiefly because of their use in gambling, in a sermon in the 15th century, ( 16 ) no routine condemnations of tarot were found during its early history. ( 2 )

What is the most commonly used tarot deck?

The Rider Waite Smith Tarot is a popular deck for tarot card reading, first published by the Rider Company in 1909. It was based on the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The deck has been published in numerous editions and inspired a wide array of variants and imitations. Over 100 million copies circulate across 20 countries.

The images in the deck are simple but feature abundant symbolism. Some imagery remains similar to earlier decks, but overall, the Waite-Smith card designs are substantially different from their predecessors. Christian imagery was removed from some cards and added to others, such as the “Papess” becoming the “High Priestess” and the “Lovers” card resembling naked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Minor Arcana is illustrated with allegorical scenes by Smith, unlike earlier decks.

Symbols and imagery in the deck were influenced by 19th-century magician and occultist Eliphas Levi and the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. To accommodate astrological correspondences taught by the Golden Dawn, Waite introduced several innovations to the deck, such as changing the order of the Strength and Justice cards to correspond with Leo and Libra, and based the Lovers card on Italian tarot decks.

What was the original tarot deck?

Tarot cards originated in Europe during the mid-15th century, with the earliest known decks being created in Italy for a game called tarocchi. These decks, like the Visconti-Sforza deck, were hand-painted and commissioned by wealthy families as symbols of their status. The Major Arcana, consisting of 22 cards, represents life lessons, spiritual themes, and archetypal energies, with each card having its own unique symbolism.

The Minor Arcana, consisting of four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) corresponds to the elements of fire, water, air, and earth, focusing on everyday matters, personal experiences, and challenges and opportunities encountered in life.

Which is the strongest tarot card?

The Fool is a card in tarot games, not part of the Major Arcana. In most games, the Fool is independent of both plain suit cards and trump cards, and does not belong to either category. Tarot decks originally made for game playing do not assign a number to the Fool indicating its rank in the suit of trumps. The Fool is one of the most valuable cards in almost all tarot games.

In tarot games originating from Italy and France, the Fool has a unique role, sometimes called “the Excuse”. In these games, the player excuses the player from following suit or playing a trump. At the end of the trick, the player takes back the Fool and adds it to their trick pile, giving the trick’s winner the least valuable card from that same pile. If there are no cards to give in exchange, the Fool is worth one point less and an extra point is given to the trick-taker.

In a minor variant option of French tarot, a player dealt trump 1 but with no other trumps or the Fool can make trump 1 behave the same as the Fool. In official tournament rules, a player in this situation must declare their hand and force a redeal.