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Tarot Association's Top 50 Essential Tarot Decks Redux

Saturn Celeste

By Saturn Celeste
in Tarot Decks

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Tarot Association's Top 50 Essential Tarot Decks Redux  

158 members have voted

  1. 1. Select all the decks you own from this list! This is multiple choice but you MUST make your choices all at once before hitting the submit button.

    • Waite-Smith Tarot by A. E. Waite & Pamela Colman-Smith (US Games) – produced in different editions, such as Commemorative, Radiant and Original.
      139
    • The Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley & Frieda Harris (US Games & Others) – produced in different editions and sizes.
      93
    • The Mythic Tarot by by Juliet Sharman-Burke, Liz Greene and Giovanni Caselli (St. Martin’s Press, 2011) – originally produced by a different artist, the older version is now scarce.
      39
    • Deviant Moon by Patrick Valenza (US Games, 2008. Also borderless edition, 2014)
      63
    • The Wildwood Tarot by Mark Ryan, John Matthews, Will Worthington (Sterling Ethos,2011) – a popular revisiting of the Greenwood Tarot, which is now extremely rare.
      60
    • The Druidcraft Tarot by Stephanie Carr-Gomm and Will Worthington (St. Martin’s Press, 2005)
      65
    • The Morgan Greer Tarot by Bill F. Greer (U.S Games, Inc., 2012)
      74
    • The Golden Tarot Deck by Kat Black (U. S Games Inc., 2004)
      33
    • The Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert (Llewellyn, 2011)
      17
    • The Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti (Llewellyn 2012)
      47
    • The Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell (Llewellyn, 2012)
      37
    • Tarot Illuminati by Erik C. Dunne and Kim Huggens (Lo Scarebeo, 2013)
      39
    • The Enchanted Tarot Deck by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber (Connections, 2009)
      28
    • The Mary-El Tarot by Marie White (Schiffer, 2012)
      45
    • The Jungian Tarot Deck by Robert Wang (Marcus Aurelius press, 2001)
      15
    • The Lo Scarabeo Tarot by Mark McElroy (Llewellyn, 2007)
      20
    • The Hanson-Roberts Tarot by Mary Hanson-Roberts (US Games, 2012)
      37
    • Tyldwick Tarot by Neil Lovell (self-published, 2013)
      26
    • Osho-Zen Tarot by Osho with illustrations by Deva Padma (Newleaf, 1994)
      49
    • Housewives Tarot by Paul Kepple & Jude Buffum (Quirk Books, 2004)
      41
    • The Hermetic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson
      35
    • Tarot of the Zirkus Magi by Doug Thornsjo (Duck Soup Productions, 2014)
      10
    • Chrysalis Tarot by Toney Brooks & Holly Sierra (US Games, 2014)
      35
    • City Mystic Tarot: NYC by Virginia Jester & Chris Hopkins (Self-Published, 2014)
      4
    • The Psycards by Nick Hobson & Maggie Kneen (US Games, 2002)
      16
    • The Philosopher’s Stone by De Es (Currently out of print)
      6
    • Oracle of Visions by Ciro Marchetti (US Games, 2014)
      15
    • The Oracle of Initiation by Mellissae Lucia (Self-published, tarot-sized edition, 2014)
      1
    • Grand Etteilla – produced in different versions, for example, The Book of Thoth: Etteilla Tarot (Lo Scarabeo, 2003)
      34
    • Visconti Sforza Tarot – produced in different versions, for example, the Visconti Tarots (Lo Scarabeo. 2000)
      47
    • Sola Busca Tarot – produced in different versions, for example, the Sola Busca by Wolfgang Mayer (1998), offered by Giordano Berti.
      36
    • The Minchiate Tarot – produced in different versions. A deck of 97 cards running parallel to the development of Tarot.
      32
    • The CBD Tarot de Marseille by Yoav Ben-Dov (2012). A version of the Conver (1760) deck with clean lines and colours.
      30
    • The Original Lenormand (Forge Press, 2012) – based on the original Game of Hope located in the British Museum by Marcus Katz & Tali Goodwin.
      17
    • The Blue Owl (Blaue Eule) (US Games, 2011) and in different versions.
      30
    • The Gilded Reverie Lenormand by Ciro Marchetti (U.S. Games Systems, 2013)
      31
    • The Transparent Tarot by Emily Carding (Schiffer Books, 2008)
      20
    • The Tarot of the Nine Paths by Dr. Art Rosengarten (Self-Published, n.d.)
      3
    • Tarot in the Land of the Mystereum by Jordan Hoggard (Schiffer, 2011)
      4
    • The Voyager Tarot by James Wanless & Ken Knutson (Fair Winds Press, 2008)
      18
    • The Word of One Tarot by John Starr Cooke (1992)
      6
    • Tarot of the Silicon Dawn by Egypt Urnash (Lo Scarabeo, 2011)
      23
    • The Alice Tarot by Karen Mahony & Alex Ukolov (Magic Realist Press, 2013)
      27
    • Darkana Tarot by Dan Donche (Self-published, 2013)
      6
    • Sun and Moon Tarot by Vanessa Decort (US Games, 2012)
      24
    • Tarot de St. Croix by Lisa de St. Croix (Devorah, 2014)
      12
    • The Aquarian Tarot by David Palladini (US Games, 1988) – or the later New Palladini Tarot (US Games, 1996)
      50
    • The Burning Serpent Oracle by Rachel Pollack & Robert M. Place (Self-published, 2014)
      10
    • Tarot by Dennis Fairchild (Running Press, 2002)
      10
    • Revelations Tarot by Zach Wong (Llewellyn, 2012) for its take on reversals, or Tarot of the New Vision by Pietro Alligo, Raul Cestaro & Gianluca Cestaro (Lo Scarabeo, 2003) for its reversal of perspective on the Waite-Smith design.
      32

Recommended Posts

SilverFox

SilverFox

Posted
Posted

5 out of 50.

Visconti Sforza

Sola Busca

The Minchiate

Tarot de Marseille

The Voyager Tarot

Marguerite

Marguerite

Posted
Posted

Oh dear! I must have over 100 decks in my collection and only 7 out of 50 from this list😅

 

RWS

Thoth

Hanson-Roberts

Osho

CBD Ben dov Marseille,(one of my faves)

Gilded reverie Lenormand

Aquarian

Misterei

Misterei

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, SilverFox said:

5 out of 50.

 

5 hours ago, Marguerite said:

Oh dear! I must have over 100 decks in my collection and only 7 out of 50 from this list😅

Other than being a fun game I totally disagree with this list. Not to mention with a plethora of new decks releasing every minute of every day ... what is "essential" any more?

 

That being said, I think a serious collector might want to fulfill certain categories as essential. For example historic decks like the early Tarocchi or Sola Busca. RWS and Thoth both had worldwide impact, so those. And Eteilla as an historical side note. Certainly some of the TdM decks are classics of that style. I think there's a Type 1 and Type 2 Marseille format. [either that or I've got it confused with diabetes 🤣]

 

But other than historic decks--nothing seems "essential" any more. There's too much out there now.

Laura Borealis

Laura Borealis

Posted
Posted (edited)

Seven, but two are in the Bay basket (as in, waiting to be listed and sold) and a couple more may join them. Clearly they're not essential to me.

 

RWS

Thoth

Deviant Moon

Morgan Greer

Jungian

Housewives

Silicon Dawn

Edited by Laura Borealis
SilverFox

SilverFox

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Misterei said:

 

But other than historic decks--nothing seems "essential" any more. There's too much out there now.

 

That's right.

Too many decks! There are a lot of indie decks lately (personally don't like most of them).

This list of tarot decks (in the topic) can in many ways be considered very subjective.

Misterei

Misterei

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, SilverFox said:

Too many decks! There are a lot of indie decks lately (personally don't like most of them).

The digital revolution has been both a blessing and curse in Tarot world.

The obvious blessing is the wealth of creativity and also the ease of reproducing antique historic decks. LOVE that.

But yeah, so many people jumped on the Tarot bandwagon that there's now much throw-away garbage out there just trying to follow a trend or conform to a style. Bleh.

Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I have 16. Would have been more but I've sold some of the decks on that list before. 

Marguerite

Marguerite

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Misterei said:

 

Other than being a fun game I totally disagree with this list. Not to mention with a plethora of new decks releasing every minute of every day ... what is "essential" any more?

 

That being said, I think a serious collector might want to fulfill certain categories as essential. For example historic decks like the early Tarocchi or Sola Busca. RWS and Thoth both had worldwide impact, so those. And Eteilla as an historical side note. Certainly some of the TdM decks are classics of that style. I think there's a Type 1 and Type 2 Marseille format. [either that or I've got it confused with diabetes 🤣]

 

But other than historic decks--nothing seems "essential" any more. There's too much out there now.

Yes, I feel the same. If was fun to check the list but I don't necessarily agree with all of those as top essentials. Since the 80s-90s there's been so many different ones out there. I don't always follow or research what's coming out in new decks but I can only assume it's even more today! 

 

The diabetes insert made me laugh! and only 1 TdM mentioned, there could have been a type one in there too lol 

 

I feel everyone has their own personal faves, and list of essentials decks.. my list wouldn't please all that I am sure. and I like hearing about other people's essential lists, makes me discover new things 🙂

Natural Mystic Guide

Natural Mystic Guide

Posted
Posted

Three decks.  I have three of these.  I feel fine.  In fact I hate one of these three so soon it will be two of these.  I will feel even better then.

Rachelcat

Rachelcat Supporter

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thanks for bumping this up!  Some collection fun for me!  Of my collection of 343 decks (tarot and oracle):

Edit!  I have 15 of the decks listed.  (I missed the Sola Busca first time around.)

(OMG, I have owned and passed an additional 20!)

 

For accuracy, I have Tarot of the New Vision, not Revelations.  (Kind of strange to make that one item.)

 

Although I counted them as 1 each above, as in the list, I have:

5 Thoth decks (all Crowley-Harris Thoth but in different sizes, etc.)

6 Visconti decks (different versions, different cards included, etc.)

4 Minchiate decks (2 the same version, 2 others different versions)

 

I agree that only one Marseille version on the list is also kind of strange.  I have 6 decks that call themselves Marseille, along with lots of other historical decks.

 

 

Edited by Rachelcat
Wooden_Nickel

Wooden_Nickel

Posted
Posted

Just another listicle like Top Ten Upsets in Synchronized Swimming or Twenty Unforgettable Historical Decapitations, generated with minimum time and effort to attract the greatest number of eyeballs. 🤑

As everyone has said, the criteria for getting onto the list are unbalanced. We have singular decks ranked against a handful of individual titles where each one represents a category of varying size, either huge like RWS, or small (RWS revisions like New Vision + Revelations).

 

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