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The Butterfly Throne Method

Part Two: Choosing Your Deck

There are a lot of myths about your first Tarot deck. It used to be that most people believed you couldn't buy it for yourself, that it needed to be a gift, and although that belief is less common these days, people are still often concerned about what makes a deck the perfect deck for them, especially if they're starting a Tarot journey for the very first time.

Now, my own intuition is very auditory, so you'll find me using a lot of auditory metaphors on these pages. Your intuition will likely be very different from mine, so don't expect to experience things the way I do. That said, I often refer to a good deck for you as one that "speaks your language".

Now does this mean your first deck needs to be from the same place, culture, or background as you? Not really!

What this means is that the deck uses images and metaphors that make sense to you.

In The Internal Reference Library article, we talked about how everything you know is fair game for your intuition! In other words, if you and the deck have a shared reference library, or even have a few references in common, then you will find the deck easier to get good readings out of. You will see images that are linked to the knowledge in your own library, and draw those connections between concepts more freely than if you see images and wonder what they could be.

In fact, one of the best starter decks you can get is a fandom deck. If you have a favorite TV show or video game, or a pet subject, then a deck revolving around those things will have a rich bank of knowledge to work from in your mind. You will know the characters and images pictured, and be able to connect them to stories and ideas.

As an example, I love Lord of the Rings. If I look at a Lord of the Rings tarot and see a card depicting the Ring itself, then I know from my experience reading the books and watching the films what the Ring is, what it does to people. I may think about how it corrupted Smeagol, or its nickname "Isildur's Bane", or the scene in Bree when Frodo puts it on in the tavern. The card could communicate any of these things to me with a simple image of a golden ring, because of our shared reference.

The same applies for special interests of all kinds! If you're interested in plants, why not look up a botanical deck? You might see a rosehip on a card and know volumes more things about them than I would, volumes more than could ever fit in a little white book. Animal lover? Art lover? History buff? Finding a deck that lets you draw on your knowledge of these things will help you learn to trust your intuition, trust what you already know, and gain the confidence needed to become a great Tarot reader.