Most Beautiful Tarot Decks

[Siavahda]

Okay, with the obvious understanding that personal tastes are going to vary widely here...which tarot decks do you think are the most beautiful? No worrying about how they read or how well they connect to you - which decks take your breath away with their art?

 

Here're mine, in no particular order;

 

[*]Dreams of Gaia

[*]Prisma Visions

[*]Shadowscapes

[*]Tarot of Transformation

[*]Tarot of Eden

[*]Joie de Vivre

[*]Fantastical Creatures

 

And though I don't have them in my hands yet... I think I've gotta include the True Black, Numinous, and Yoshi Yoshitani's Fairy Tale Tarot.

 

What about everybody else? Which decks make your jaws drop with the sheer pretty?

[Tanga]

The only one I have which is like - OOH - soooo beautiful - that mostly I don't read with it

because I get distracted with looking at all the details of the artwork...

 

Is The Shadowscapes Tarot.

 

Lol.

[Bookworm]

I think the most beautiful one I own is the Crystal Tarots by Trevisan. I can't read with it at all, but it's gorgeous!

[DavidMcCann]

I'd love to own some of the full-size prints of Stephanie Law's Shadowscapes, but the cards are just too reduced: lovely to look at with a magnifying glass but otherwise a lot of the detail is almost invisible.

 

I think Miranda Gray's pictures in the Arthurian are the best I've got for pure beauty. The artwork is pretty good in the Tabula Mundi, Matt Myer's Art Nouveau, and the Universal Fantasy.

 

[EmpyreanKnight]

I consider the following decks to be the most beautiful:

 

Golden Tarot of Klimt

Kabbalistic Visions

Lover's Path

Mary-El

Medieval Scapini

Pagan Otherworlds

Renaissance

Smith-Waite Centennial

Sola Busca

Thoth

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

roots of asia

Margarete Petersen

Tao Oracle

[jema]

I am not always a fan of the most stunning decks, My heart goes to the ugly ducklings most of the time.  But there are exceptions.

I love and adore the Alice deck.

Soprafino is so beatiful too and the Robledo TdMs

 

 

 

[Page of Ghosts]

Some of my faves:

 

- Shadowscapes (considering getting this deck next year as I think it's so beautiful but I've heard some complaints about the detailed artwork in the tiny cards, whioch has steered me off of it for a few years... thinking I should actually give it a chance myself soon!)

- Medieval Scapini

- Sasuraibito

- Circo Tarot (it's gotten a reprint and I'm buying it next month I hope!)

- Dreaming Way

- Trionfi Della Luna

[EmpyreanKnight]

Among the decks that I do not currently have, I agree with the two versions of the Prisma Visions. I must also add the Cary-Yale and the upcoming True Black Tarot.

[Padma]

My absolute fave treat for the eyes is the Prisma Vision, the first coloured edition. Love!

 

After that would come Kat Black's Golden, and her Touchstone. I love classical art, and am impressed how well she altered the paintings. I am not usually a fan of cut and paste/techno art. She did a great job!

 

Fantastic Menagerie by Baba Studios. Also - Tarot of Delphi. And Egyptian Tarot by Julie Cuccia-Watts. The Daniloff tarot - though originally I was put off by the marionette style of art, I soon grew to absolutely love his flourishes, faces, and the humour of his art.

 

 

 

 

[dancing_moon]

The 'beautiful beautiful' deck for me is Lo Scarabeo China Tarot, and the deck that absolutely takes my breath away is Tarot of 1001 Nights.

 

http://www.albideuter.de/assets/images/db_images/db_CHL-_XVIIII_-_Die_Sonne1.jpg

http://www.albideuter.de/assets/images/db_images/db_1001-_Kelche_13_-_Konigin1.jpg

[CharlotteK]

Chopping the borders off a large Thoth has opened my eyes to how stunning this deck is. Each card is a work of art and so many of them are very beautiful.

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

 

[Flaxen]

That is a fantastic trim job! I love the Thoth - it is stunning. I find it really interesting that most people go for the RWS. I wonder if Aleister Crowley's reputation puts a lot of people off or if it's just that the RWS and derivatives are so ubiquitous...

[EmpyreanKnight]

I'm currently writing a post that mentions the Thoth Tarot and Thoth the Egyptian god, when by chance I opened this thread and saw your trimmed deck, CharlotteK. What a beautiful coincidence. Regarding your deck - whew what an absolute marvel it is!

[Saturn Celeste]

I have a few favorite decks that I think are beautiful.  I'm using Aeclectic links because I don't have the time to get my decks out and take photos.

 

One of my very first decks is the Tarot Illuminati

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/illuminati/

 

Witches Tarot

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/witches-dugan/

 

Gorgon's Tarot, even though it's black and white, I think it's a beautiful deck.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/gorgon/

 

Beautiful Creatures (1st edition)

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/beautiful-creatures-tarot/

 

Modern Spellcaster's Tarot

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/modern-spellcasters-tarot/

 

Universal Fantasy

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/universal-fantasy/

 

Healing Light Tarot - I love this deck so much!

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/healing-light-tarot/

 

These are some of the decks I consider beautiful and diverse.  :D

[katrinka]

The Thoth, I totally agree. Especially the gold box one. I like the greenies, too.

Any of the Baba decks, especially the ones with cold stamping. (Can't wait for the new Victorian Romantic!)

Tarot of the Holy Light (the backs could be better, though.)

Giordiano Berti's decks, and a lot of Il Meneghello's.

I really like the way the Pam's Vintage came out!

Probably a few others that I will kick myself for not remembering off the top of my head.

[RavenOfSummer]

I agree with the many mentions of Prisma Visions!

 

The 'beautiful beautiful' deck for me is Lo Scarabeo China Tarot, and the deck that absolutely takes my breath away is Tarot of 1001 Nights.

 

http://www.albideuter.de/assets/images/db_images/db_CHL-_XVIIII_-_Die_Sonne1.jpg

http://www.albideuter.de/assets/images/db_images/db_1001-_Kelche_13_-_Konigin1.jpg

 

I'm so glad you mentioned 1001 Nights, dancing_moon. It is very beautiful, and I'm always surprised that this deck isn't more popular.

 

If I were to have to choose just one though, I think the most beautiful for me is the Celtic Wisdom. Followed probably by the Prisma Visions. The majors from the Llewellyn Tarot are among the most beautiful majors. I think the Kris Waldherr tarot decks, Goddess Tarot and Lover's Path, are very beautiful as well.

 

[Raggydoll]

There are lots of truly stunning decks out there, and I do agree that the Thoth deck looks amazing trimmed (I've trimmed mine as well and found it much more likeable afterwards!).

 

One deck that really comes to mind when I think of beautiful decks are the Japaridze tarot. I really admire the fact that it has real (old-school) art and some of the depictions feels so genious.

 

I wanna share two of my favorite cards from this deck (it's a trimmed copy).

 

[Bookworm]

Those cards are gorgeous, Raggydoll. That's a deck I've been wanting for a while. This is a dangerous thread!

[Raggydoll]

Those cards are gorgeous, Raggydoll. That's a deck I've been wanting for a while. This is a dangerous thread!

 

The only 'downside' to them is that they are slightly larger then most other cards and that is the real reason behind me trimming them. I just couldn't shuffle them comfortably, they felt too wide and were digging into my hands. Now they are perfect size wise, but their backs were slightly off center so they don't look quite as nice as the fronts do (but it's really no big thing. I believe that Truth in story on YouTube has a review where she also trimmed her deck and showed what the backs look like after they've been trimmed, and she had the exact same experience with the backs being off center)

[Bookworm]

Thanks, that's good to know. I don't have the patience to trim -- or skill, for that matter -- so I think when I do get the deck, I'll have to just make do with it as is.

[EmpyreanKnight]

This is a dangerous thread!

 

I might have performed a slew of meditation techniques so as not to get enabled by the other suggestions in this thread. It's a good thing that there are scarcely any pictures here

[Raggydoll]

EmpyreanKnight: Now you almost made me feel bad for sharing pictures  8) Good thing that you’ve taken some protective measures against all us enabling people  ;)

[EmpyreanKnight]

Lol I also post a lot of pictures in the Tarot and Oracle Deck threads that I start, so I guess I've got that coming, Raggydoll. :P

[Saturn Celeste]

EmpyreanKnight: Now you almost made me feel bad for sharing pictures  8) Good thing that you’ve taken some protective measures against all us enabling people  ;)

Me too! lol  But I always post images if I can!  I forgot to mention the Thelema deck the other day.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/thelema-tarot/