What would you recommend to a beginner tarot card user?

Question by Red Herring: What would you recommend to a beginner tarot card user?
I’m curious about tarot cards and their uses in card games and divination. I’m wondering what deck should I look into getting if I’m brand new? Are there any books you could recommend to explain the whole tarot cards thing as well? Any help or information at all as what to buy would be appreciated!

Best answer:

Answer by philebus
As you mention, tarot cards are used for different things and the pack you buy will depend upon how you want to use them.

I’ll start with the cards for playing games. There are broadly two types of packs.

The traditional packs have the four Latin suits of Cups, Coins, Swords, and Batons, while the trumps feature the traditional Italian designs whose theme is a triumph procession. There are a few different patterns of these that are still in play, three of which are in Italy:

The Tarocco Piedmontese, which is a 78 card pack and can be used to play most, and with some substitutions all tarot games.

The Tarocco Bolognese is unique to Bologna and has an unusual arrangement of trumps, with a reduced number of pip cards – you will need these to play the games of that regions, such as the excellent Ottocento.

The Tarocco Siciliano is unique to Sicily and features some unusual trump designs that borrow from the old Minchiate pack (no longer in play) – you can easily use the Piedmontese pack to play the Sicilian games (and most of Sicily does so) but it is nice to use the regional pack.

A Latin suited pack is also in use in Switzerland for playing the games of Troccas and Troggu. It is known as the Swiss 1JJ and although it is sold in the UK and US the English titles reflect occult beliefs, so if you want to use them for game play, you will need to make sure that you are buying an import with the original French titles.

At the start of the 18th century, German card makers began to produce tarot cards that employ the French suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Trefoils (or Clubs). They also replaced the Italian trumps with a range of themes, such as exotic animals and local landmarks. This variety is now the most widely used for game play. In those countries that only play games with a reduced pack, the cards are sold as just 54 cards and the designs seldom vary. The French cards, used in France, Belgium, and Denmark, have the full 78 cards and come in the sort of variety that we see in Poker packs, with a range of novel themes featuring everything from pin-ups, cartoon characters, and films.

The best books to look for are rather costly – but you might be able to get them from your local library:

The Game of Tarot
by Michael Dummett with the assistance of Sylvia Mann
Duckworth 1980 ISBN 0 7156 10147

A History of Games played with the Tarot Pack Volumes One & Two
By Michael Dummett and John McLeod
Edwin Mellen Press 2004
Volume One ISBN 0 7734 6447 6
Volume Two ISBN 0 7734 6449 2
Supplement from Maproom Publications 2009 ISBN 978 0 9562370 0 2

There is also a small selection here:

The Penguin Book of Card Games
By David Parlett
Penguin 2008 ISBN-10: 0141037873 ISBN-13: 978-0141037875

You can find rules for many of the games at these sites:

http://www.pagat.com
http://www.tarocchino.com

The rules from this second site are being revised at a new site (still a work in progress):

http://www.gameoftarot.com

For the shopping in the US:

http://www.tarobearslair.com/
http://www.tarock.net/

Web Stores based in Europe (and who will ship to the States):

http://www.alidastore.com/
http://www.playingcardsales.com/

Occult uses of the cards are first seen at the end of the 18th century and for 100 years were limited to just France before they were introduced into the English speaking world by some British occultists. Occultists began to heavily redesign the cards to better reflect their beliefs, as well as to make divination easier by introducing illustrations for the pip cards. Today, most occult packs are based upon either the pack designed by Arthur Edward Waite (executed by Pamela Coleman-Smith ) or Alastair Crowley (executed by Lady Frieda Harris). Which of these you will depend upon your personal taste – but few of them will be suitable for playing the games with.

If you want to learn about tarot reading, then I would suggest this site:

http://www.aeclectic.net

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!