Which deck should you use?

Advice on choosing a tarot deck

In order to keep a tarot journal, you'll need a deck of ‎tarot cards — ideally, a traditional tarot deck with 78 cards.

But which deck you choose is up to you — and when it comes to tarot journaling, you can use any deck you like. ‎

Actually, forget about finding a deck that you merely like. You will have the best results if ‎you use a deck that you love. ‎

Click here to see a list of nine great decks for journaling.

The deck you choose should fascinate you. You should be mesmerized by the colors, the ‎lines, the forms, and the style of each card. You should be attracted to the characters pictured in the ‎cards. You should like their faces, their hairstyles, their body language, and their clothes. You should ‎be inspired by their landscape, and intrigued by their architecture. You should be able to recognize ‎several of the artist’s symbols — meaningful touches such as accessories, props, power animals, and ‎astrological references. In fact, you should be able to imagine yourself living in that world — ‎because on some level, you will be. ‎

If you're new to the cards, you might want to start with a standard Rider-Waite tarot deck, which revolutionized the tarot world back in 1909. That's when Arthur Edward Waite hired a stage and set designer named Pamela Colman Smith to illustrate a deck he designed. She took the groundbreaking step of adding a scenic illustration to every single card. Previously, only ‎some cards featured people and places; most tarot cards generally consisted of a ‎repeated motif, such as six cups in a row, or seven swords. ‎

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck has engendered hundreds of derivative decks, such as the ‎Universal Tarot and the Gilded Tarot — both good choices for use with this book. Other decks that ‎lend themselves to journal work include the Voyager Tarot, the Sacred Circle Tarot, and the Shining Tribe ‎Tarot. ‎

If you are interested in myths, legends, classic stories, or the like, you might want to choose a ‎specialty deck that reflects your interests, such as the Arthurian Tarot, the Tarot of Oz, or the Celtic ‎Dragon Tarot. If you feel especially creative, you could even adapt the exercises in this guide to work ‎with other types of divination decks, such as The Fairy Ring Oracle and the Witches Runes.

If you missed it before, click here to see a list of nine great decks for journaling.