Don's Decks

Decks I Like - And Use

• Universal Waite Deck - normal and pocket sized [UW] - the deck I use and like the most, and which I always come back to. It's prettier and more mellow than the normal RWS deck because of May Hanson-Roberts recoloring/reworking of the cards. I also have the Universal Pocket Tarot deck.
• Sharmin Caselli Deck - Comes with the 'Tarot for Beginners' book [darn good book] and deck set, but you can get the deck separately now, as well as getting a smaller version in the book and box set called 'The Tarot Box' and both are excellent. I also have the Mini-Sahrmin-Caselli deck that comes in 'The Tarot Box' set which I only paid 5 bucks for at Borders.
• Universal Tarot by Robert De Angelis - a standard for those who seem to want to stun the Rider-Waite deck for whatever reason. It's showing up more in more in tarot books. Nice deck but I don't care for the older looking Pages [Knaves] and many of the human figures look ... awkward [best way I can think to describe them].
• Robin Wood Deck - I get very accurate readings with this pretty deck.
• Rider-Waite-Smith Deck (RWS) - The deck I basically started learning from - this and the Tarot Classic Deck.
• Osho Zen (OZ) Deck - Very beautiful imagery in/on the cards of this deck. I only use the deck for my own personal use.
• Hanson-Roberts Deck - Regular and the mini-deck that comes with the 'Tarot To Go' deck and book set. The regular sized deck is playing card size.
• Radiant Rider-Waite Deck - pretty 3d type recoloring/reworking of the RWS deck. Personally I find the cards rather 'slippery' [slick feel] to work with.

Newer Decks I Like

• Golden Dawn Tarot Deck [by Robert Wang] - I just like it despite the fact that the minors basically just have x-number of suit emblems on them - except for the court cards.
• Rohrig Tarot Deck - Overly large sized cards which makes it a bit hard to shuffle/handle. I really like the deck - a lot. A good Thoth deck alternative in many ways, especially if you are like me and can't stand the Thoth/Crowley deck.
• Medeival Enchantment/Nigel Jackon Tarot Deck - I just like the deck but I disreguard the Fire/Swords and Air/Wands association of the deck creator.
• Tarot of the Old Path - A very much 'in your face' deck. Some of the [negative] names for the Majors have been replaced, i.e. The Moon-Illusion, Death-The Close, The Devil-Temptation, and so on.
• Druid Craft Deck - The large cards are a bit of a drawback and renaming some of the cards - like Temperance to something I can't even pronounce bites the big one.

So-So Decks

• Gilded Tarot Deck - pretty deck but don't care for the black borders and the deck is very light/hazy on symbolism.
• Tarot Quick and Easy - RWS deck with meanings on the cards.
• Tarot Nova Mini-Deck - I have no clue why I like this small deck. The cards on the web site are much darker than the actual deck.
• The Sacred Circle Deck and book - the book is excellent in my opinion but the deck leaves a lot to be desired.
• Tarot Classic Deck - no imagery on the Minor cards but that can be a plus.
• The Mythic Deck
  Note: I never use this deck but it's an ok deck - but I detest the book that came with it - it sucks!
• Celtic Tarot Deck by Julian De Burgh
• 2 decks with no pip imagery and have no clue as to their names. One of the decks came with Liz Dean's book 'The Mystery of the Tarot' and deck is called Art of Tarot, which I just learned a few days ago [6/2006]. I can use both these decks quite well. But they don't go over as well with clients as do the full image decks.

Decks I'm Not Sure Whether I Like or Not [Verdict is Still Out]

• Tarot of the New Vision - The Rider-Waite-Smith deck but with images that are looking from the backside. I do not care for the coloring they used in the cards. Very somber colors and a rather depressing look and feel to the cards. That said, I like the concept and will continue to work with the deck.
• The Medieval Scapini Tarot - the deck bugs me in many ways but there is something about it I kind of like.
• Spiral Tarot Deck - Some of the art is extremely poor. The cards are stiff and it takes a long time to break in the deck - and when you do the cards start to break down [crack, etc.].

Decks I Don't Like But Have

• The Witches Tarot - The worse deck on the planet - it totally sucks imo. Strongmen??? Give me a break! And the High Priestess looks like a stripper. And the Fool is a totally Gumby looking card. The deck and book are jokes.
• Thoth Deck - large size - or any size for that matter just doesn't do it for me. The art is haphazard, disjointed, and ugly in my opinion. I like people to actually look like ... people and not blobs!
• The Lord of the Rings Tarot - just a really poor deck in my opinion and I love the books and the movies - to bad.
• Haindl Tarot Deck - a nothing, ugly deck imo. Most of the cards look like someone puked on them.
• The Elemental Tarot Deck - not as bad as I first thought but still not a good tarot deck, especially for beginners.
• The Dragon Tarot - Dragon theme gets old fast and there is little other symbolism to fall back on.
• Quest Tarot - most of the figures look like the liquid terminator dude in T2.

Don's Other Goodies

• Power of Rune Cards
• Two sets of Runes
• Blum's deck of Rune Cards [I like the deck but not Blum]
• Numerous books on Tarot, Numerology, Astrology, Runes, and web page/site buliding.
• 3 zillion Magic the Gathering Cards out in my garage collecting dust.
• Lots of old AD&D stuff

Don S.