Seldiy Bate, Arcane Sage, answers your questions....

 

Are there different effects or interpretations depending on the tarot deck you use? I have just been given my second deck and find it less intuitive.

Jess

I think different designs of Tarot Deck can influence the way you interpret them. The meanings of the cards are the same, regardless of the artist's interpretation. The symbolism remains the same. However, there are a lot of BAD Tarot decks amongst the few good ones and I am sure if you picked up the wrong one, knowing little or nothing about the Tarot, it would be a poor introduction and you would not learn much or find the cards "speaking" to you. I do think everybody has their favourite(s).
There are several packs I like, probably the Golden Dawn being one of my all time favourites, but it is one that makes you work very hard. So is Crowley's Thoth Deck, a masterpiece in terms of what it contains and in terms of the wonderful artwork by Lady Frieda Harris. That one I would probably reserve for a one off, intense reading (if at all), or more for learning, meditation or magickal work. If I am teaching or doing loads of readings one after the other, I have a very battered, much used, Rider-Waite pack (complete with wine and candle-wax stains! and even students' notes). I then find that if I'm getting stale or feel I'm being repetitive, if I switch to a different pack, it gives me fresh insight into the interpretations and to the Client's situation. Someone once asked me, at a lecture I was giving in Central London, which pack was the best for a beginner. I suggested Waite's pack and explained: "It was conceived by Arthur Edward Waite (designed by Pamela Coleman Smith) and published by Rider in 1911 - hence it's known as the Rider-Waite pack. Go round the corner to Atlantis Bookshop and ask for it there." The owner of Atlantis later told me they were puzzled by someone asking for the "Wide Awake" Tarot Pack!

I think the short answer is use the pack you feel best with, but give it some time and don't be afraid to experiment. You'll soon gain an affinity not just with that pack, but with the Tarot, its rich and valuable symbolism and its endless possibilities.

Seldiy Bate

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