Best Tarot Decks for Beginners
- Gem Blackthorn
- Jan 7
- 5 min read
How the Rider-Waite-Smith Deck Helps You Learn Tarot Faster
If your local metaphysical shop is anything like mine, it has a floor-to-ceiling selection of tarot and oracle decks to choose from. As an experienced tarot reader, I find this exciting. I love to see how illustrators use their unique artist visions to create deck styles I’ve never considered. For example, there’s the Santa Muerte Tarot Deck by Fabio Listrani with its beautiful Día de los Muertos imagery, and the Secrets of Paradise Tarot by Leticia Ferrer-Rivera, which is inspired by Caribbean and Latin American culture.
A wide selection is great for people who appreciate art, but it can be overwhelming for tarot beginners. The symbolism can be inconsistent (or even absent if you choose a deck drawn in a minimalist style). When you are learning tarot, it’s best to stick with a tarot deck that has standard tarot symbolism. This is why I recommend starting off the with Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
Why the Rider-Waite-Smith is the Best Tarot Deck for Beginners
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck (often called Rider-Waite or RWS) is ideal for beginners because nearly all modern tarot symbolism and card meanings are derived from its illustrations.
It was the first widely available deck (published in 1909) to illustrate all 78 cards, including the Minor Arcana, with full symbolic scenes. The Rider-Waite is the reference point for most contemporary tarot decks. Most tarot decks created since 1909 are either direct clones or artistic reinterpretations of the RWS imagery and symbolism. When a tarot reader says “In the classic deck, this card shows…”, they are almost always referring to RWS.
This means that learning from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck provides foundational knowledge that will make it easier to understand and read the hundreds of other decks that came after it.
In order to understand the layers of meaning of each card, you have to understand the original symbolism.
For example, The Empress card features:
12-pointed crown: the 12 zodiacs and her connection to the celestial
A rounded scepter: power and guidance
Cushions: representing a life of comfort and security
Red bedding: creativity and sensuality
Venus symbol on a heart-shaped shield: the power and protection of love
Trees: her connection to nature
Fruits on her robe: abundance and fertility
Wheat: growth and ability to nurture and “feed” (give to) others
Seeing these symbols and knowing what they mean, you wouldn’t be surprised to know that The Empress card represents abundance, beauty, sensuality, fertility, and creativity. You didn’t have to memorize it, although you will over time, you just had to understand the symbolism.
If you choose to learn tarot with a themed deck, however, its creators may omit traditional symbols or introduce new ones specific to their theme. If you aren’t familiar with that theme, maybe because you chose the deck for its artwork alone, you may struggle to interpret the cards.
For example, The True Black Tarot is a minimalist deck. The Empress in the True Black Tarot features a woman city on a golden throne holding a golden sphere. She does have a golden crown of sorts, but you lose the symbolism of the 12-pointed stars and their connection to the zodiac. The scepter is replaced by a sphere, which may not immediately invoke power and guidance to the untrained eye, but instead female intuition (which is not wrong, but incomplete). You lose the symbolism of the red bedding because there is no red, the creator made an artist choice to use predominantly black and gold. The shield is gone. Nature symbols like trees, fruits, and wheat are also absent. And while she looks comfortable in her golden throne, the cushions are also missing. This is not to say that this deck is “bad,” it’s actually captivating and beautiful. I just wouldn’t recommend it to beginner tarot readers because it requires you to remember that this card also represents connection to nature, the celestial realm, fertility, creativity, and the powerful protective aspects of love.
The Empress in the Urban Tarot features a mother feeding a baby in the kitchen. She does have stars over her head, but there are fourteen instead of twelve. Foliage is visible through the window. She’s sitting on a cushion, but it’s a chair instead of a throne. The red is not on her clothes, but on her walls. The wheat is replaced by baby food because it means the same thing: nurturing others, feeding others, giving to others. There is no shield or Venus sign, although one could argue that love and femininity is implied through the act of feeding her child. But does she convey power? I believe so, because I believe mothers are powerful, but that may not be an immediate conclusion if a reader is new and isn't yet practiced in uncovering layered meanings.
All of this to say, learn from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Its imagery provides the essential vocabulary of tarot. Once you are fluent in this language, you will be able to confidently read any deck, no matter how the artist reinterprets the symbols.
A Dedicated "Learner's" Deck
You should do your best to learn with a standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck, but if you need additional assistance, I recommend starting off with a learner’s deck. These decks use the same RWS imagery, but include keywords and phrases at the bottom of the card. This will reinforce the connection between the image and its meaning and may help you with memorization. However, you should only use this as a training deck for a short period of time. Challenge yourself to read without the keywords given to you. Over-reliance on printed keywords hinders the development of a fluid, professional style and the intuitive interpretation essential for advanced readings.
Speaking of which, it’s also not suitable to use a training deck to read for paying clients (although if you’re new, you should not be charging for readings). Clients pay for your expertise, not for you to recite keywords they could just as easily look up on their own.
From First Deck to First Reading
Choosing between these two options is simply about identifying your preferred learning style. If you learn best with visual analysis, start with the classic Rider-Waite-Smith. If you want immediate textual guidance to build confidence, begin with a learner’s deck.
Remember, the goal is to move from simply recalling meanings to understanding the larger narrative.
Move beyond tarot for beginners. Book a Private Tarot Tutoring session for personalized, guided instruction. We’ll progress past memorization and develop your professional reading style.
Explore more resources. For visual guidance, subscribe to my YouTube channel. For creative inspiration, download 300+ writing prompts inspired by the Tarot. For organizing your practice, access my Book of Shadows Notion Template here.
