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Discussion
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Recently I was inspired and motivated by this sub to buy my first tarot deck. I spent a lot of time searching online and comparing different decks and ended up buying Mary Evan’s apparition deck as I really loved the art. Recently I’ve been hearing advice about the importance of using rider waite as a starter deck to learn because lots of decks use the imagery or themes of rider Waite. I’ve yet to receive my apparition deck in the mail and today I’m thinking of going to my nearest psychic/metaphysical store to buy a rider Waite deck. I just wanted to see the communities opinion on learning first with rider Waite, and also if it’s bad luck to have bought two decks and intending to learn and use my second before using or touching my first. Thanks everyone!
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Learning tarot with my first deck
updated 2 years, 5 months ago
2 Members
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Reply
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First, stop thinking it’s bad luck to do anything. Tarot isn’t some magical thing that has required superstitions and rituals to make it work correctly. Some people do have their own rituals when working with tarot but it’s purely based on their own beliefs of how tarot works and what they feel grounds them and puts them in the right state of mind.
You’re using pieces of paper with images to tap into your unconscious knowledge, a part of you that is more aware of the energies around you than your concious which is clouded by your ego. That’s it. There are best practices, like don’t use tarot to spy on people (doing readings on other people’s business without their permission) but even that is more about privacy and respect that something bad happening as a result.
Second, using an RWS deck is not a requirement, just a suggestion. The reason being that most tarot decks use the RWS card meanings and using the original style deck helps these meanings stick faster and with a greater understanding because their meanings are portrayed in the imagery. Not all tarot decks adhere to the standard RWS meanings though, and in that case it doesn’t really matter which you start with. I would personally still recommend learning the RWS interpretations so you know the foundation though.
You can start with whatever deck you want and you can develop whatever rules you want that feel right to you.
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You can buy as many decks as you want. If you feel safer (before starting to read) you can clean your cards. Rider Waite with his symbolism is surely the most helpful for a beginner. There are so many different interpretations depending on decks (tarot du marseilles have basically opposite meanings) but RW is ok. A lot of us certanly started with it.
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You don’t need RW, the biggest thing that helps with it is just that its very widely known and thus most people you meet will be able to help you with reading it if you have trouble and it has lots of resources.
You can start learning with any deck!
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I didn’t start with Rider Waite. Trust your spirit and intuition and go with the deck that connects most. Not just follow what other ppl say you ‘should’ do.
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I would get both, tbh. If I had the disposable income. You will be doubly inspired to do some tarot – get a notebook to jot down thoughts too!
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If you want to take anything out of your experience, then that you should think twice about people who tell you that you “must” do something. Read or listen to people with actual arguments, they often have good points, and think about those – but ultimately, decide for yourself.
Tarot is a thing with a long history, and while the RWS is pretty iconic with easy imagery, it isn’t right for everyone. I for example have one that is solely for referencing. I have done maybe two readings with it, and then decided it was just not for me. And why? Because I don’t “vibe” with the imagery, and therefore cannot pull nearly as much out of it as I can with my other decks.
You’re new to this, so you’ll learn for yourself what type of reader you will be, but some of us are more fact-focused and know their meanings more this way, others are more intuition-focused and definitely *need* a deck which they can flow with. The more you draw from your intuition, the more important it is for you to work with decks which make this possible for you. But even for fact-based readers, it might be important to get into a “flow” with their deck, as the symbol their eyes are drawn to first might be a helpful clue to them how to interpret the card in front of them.
The strict “you need a RWS deck” is IMO even worse because there are also a lot of us who like our pip decks (like the Tarot de Marseille)! Some pip deck readers would even go so far to say that the imagery on RWS-inspired decks is a hindrance to them.
That’s a lot of words for: It’s good to listen to people’s arguments, but in the end, you’re the one who has to work with it, so take one or more decks you can actually work with.
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For me i remember when i didnt work i just wrote the rider deck on blank flash cards lol. I took notes on them in a journal too. But bought a small deck of the rider deck later when i got some money because i had to keep looking at the images online, going back and forth between my notes and meanings online.
You dont have to get it first though. Its more about how the cards mean to you. Each deck is different. As long as you feel you can connect with your deck, that’s all that matters.
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