any advice for making ur own tarot deck?

[Jessica]

i’m mainly looking to have a deck without spending money- i did use to like drawing though

what to use as reference… how to organize it/ideas… would u recommend looking at lots of decks? would u use index cards for thickness?

have u done it before? did u start with just a really basic first one and then make a more involved one after? maybe just trace parts of other decks?

i’m not looking to have too much of an individualized feel to it. but i don’t think i’ll straight up copy an entire deck- like i said maybe just certain aspects. kinda exciting now that i’m thinking about it

any tips?

Discussion

[LS-LL]

My first question would be ‘do you already know how to read tarot?’ If not I’d suggest tracing or drawing your own copy of a deck you can access reference material for. RWS (and to a lesser extent Marseille) would be the easiest in that regard, but any free app like Mystic Mondays or Labyrinthos (which has several decks) would also be good options.

Actually designing your own deck (even just by combining components of other decks) would be a huge undertaking, and without knowing how to read I’m not really sure how you could make heads or tails of it. There’s a big functional difference between 78 tarot cards and 78 tarot-inspired pieces of art.

If you do know how to read but simply don’t have a deck, and especially if the deck you made would be a holdover until you could buy/be gifted one, then I think it would make sense to keep it simple for your first go. That way you’d have something to read with if you still felt like working on a more involved project.

I’ve also seen people print decks and glue them to index cards, so that’s an option. If ink/toner and printer paper are readily available for you it could be one of the cheapest and easiest ways.

My last thought would be that since you’ve said it’s a matter of money rather than pure creative drive: if you don’t already have all the supplies you would need once you’ve decided what you’d be making, price it out first. I did a quick check online of the cost for several possible configurations of supplies, and given that I don’t currently have anything I would need it seems I’d be better off grabbing an inexpensive deck like the Everyday Tarot – if I was in your shoes.

Hope that’s helpful.

[blueeyetea]

Look up the stick figure tarot deck, it’s about as basic as you can go.

[ameliarose000]

I feel like if you’re going to all this effort already, why not make your own design instead of tracing?

[GildedMoth]

I created a deck years ago that was a rider-waite clone with my own designs and it took me well over a year to complete.

If your only driving force is to save money then I would honestly just save up for a cheap deck or ask for one as a gift. You can get public domain RWS images and print your own.

If you want to learn and connect with tarot better I think that creating your own deck is a very good way to do that, but it is a pretty large undertaking, so keep that in mind, and it probably won’t be much of a money saver.

[Owen-of-GreenTara]

I figure it takes at least 5-10 years study to learn enough about the Tarot to make your own deck, then 3-6 months working out how to depict them. They are supposed to hold occult information in visual form, not just be a bunch of pretty pictures.

[DisastrousBet7320]

Just shell out $20 for a deck. My god.