I compiled a list of resources that I found helpful for reading Tarot and doing divinity. This list will be a combination of books, recommended decks, and websites that will facilitate learning the divine arts.
Corrine, Kenner. Tarot for Writers. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Print.
Berres, Janet. Your Guide to the Tarot. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2005. Print.
This first set of resources is a Tarot kit and a book. The Tarot Kit for Beginners comes with a Tarot deck and a guide book by Janet Berres. These resources would be an excellent start if this was your first deck.
Tarot Kit for Beginners contains The Universal Tarot and is a redrawn rendition of the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck. Kenner’s book uses the same images in the Universal Tarot deck and takes you deeper into the cards and how to read them in different ways.
Wild Unknown
Krans, Kim. The Wild Unknown Tarot Guidebook. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2016. Print.
Krans, Kim. The Wild Unknown Animal Guidebook. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2018. Print.
Krans, Kim. The Wild Unknown Archetypes Guidebook. San Francisco: HarperOne. 2019. Print.
Golden Dawn Tarot
These cards offer a deep yet comprehensive easy to use divinity system rooted in the teachings of Golden Dawn Magic. The methods feel complex and daunting, but if you read through the guide book offered you will see that the cards are setup in such a way to help the magician consult the tarot. The guide book offers much to the querrent who seeks a new method of tarot reading.
A suggested companion to these cards and guide book is the Golden Dawn Magic: A Complete Guide to the High Magical Arts, also by Cicero and Cicero. This book can vastly expand your understanding of divinity and help develop a sense of spirituality.
Oracle Cards
Despite being from different cultures and time-periods, the Russian Gypsy Cards and the Lenormand cards seem to use similar imagery. For that reason, these two decks seem to play nice with each other. Each comes with a guide book to instruct you have to use the cards.
Wisdom of the Oracle Divination Cards is a unique take on Oracle cards. The imagery is evocative and the messages found in the cards are complex and meaningful. It has 52 cards just like a regular playing card deck. Each card has multiple messages written into the guide book. Interpretation is easy.
Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing Cards by U.S. Games Systems Inc.
The Starseed Oracle: A 53-Card Deck and Guidebook by Hay House UK.
Other Divinity Systems and Games
So far we have been using cartomancy for the majority of this website. That means using cards to cast a fortune. There are other ways to do this cast fortunes.
Legge, James. I Ching. Ed. Raymond Van Over. New York: New American Library, 1971. Print.
The I Ching system is a powerful language to understand for casting a fortune and gaining a deeper insight into yourself. When you spend enough time with it you will see it has a personality of its own. It has sage wisdom that can be useful for everyday use. I have a copy of I Ching that is edited by Raymond Van Over. This book also contains excerpts and full texts from James Legge’s original translation of I Ching.
Van Over’s text is much easier to read when looking up the meaning of each hexagram. Legge’s original meaning is preserved along with Van Over’s new interpretation. This allows the reader to tap into a lot of information for each hexagram. Additionally, with this book you will be able to learn to cast your own fortune with coins or yarrow stalks. This is a worth while book to have in your collection if you can find it. There are other books just as good to teach I Ching, but this is the book I have.
Viking Runes are another old system of casting divinity. This book comes with rune stones to use and the guide book is very comprehensive. This is an easy system of divinity and it too has its own personality. Get to know this one as well.
Buckland’s Domino Divination by Pendraig Publishing.
Domino Games, 6 Color Dominoes Set, Domino Tile Games 28 Pieces Set.
Enigma: A Mysterious Game of Chance, and Divination by La Luz de Jesus.
Must Have Tarot Decks and guide books
Ideally you want to have a good quality guide book that comes with your Tarot. In a lot of cases there are guide books written separate about the Tarot deck that prove to be helpful. Here is a list of Tarot decks and a few guide books that give a deeper insight into the decks.
The Smith-Waite Centennial Deck – U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
This is the tarot deck that all decks usually take influence from when it comes to imagery. The Universal Tarot by Lo Scarabeo is a mirror image of these cards. I tend to prefer the original images by Pamela Colman Smith.
A Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray.
Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot Deck – U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
The guidebook for this tarot deck is very compact and fits perfectly into the box it came in. Don’t let the size of the guide book fool you (pun intended). The booklet is robust with important information.
Occult Tarot by Rockpool Publishing.
The guidebook that comes with this book is outstanding. This is a complete box set that comes with everything you need. The only other thing you may need is the Angel Tarot. Both are complete box sets.
Angel Tarot by Rockpool Publishing.
A game using Tarot cards. Need we say more?
Having a French Tarot deck in your possession will be a game-changer for you. Playing beat the devil with this deck is an incredible experience. You will realize it has more use than just the game it was designed for.
Yeager Tarot of Meditation – U.S. Games 1982.
An out of print sometimes in print Tarot deck. If you can get your hands on it you won’t disapointed.
This deck is out of print everywhere and when you do find it, it costs lots of money. I was fortunate to have this deck gifted to me a long time ago. It was my first tarot deck and it has quite the personality. It tells it to me straight. The imagery is expressive and draws influence from the Kabala and Crowley’s Thoth deck.
The Book of Thoth by Llewellyn Publications (Etteilla Tarot).
An old fashioned style Tarot. To know where you are going you have to know where you have been. See old time images through this Tarot deck.
Like Etteilla Tarot, this deck provides an old look into what a Tarot would have looked like in a different time period.
The Linestrider Tarot Mini by Llewellyn Publications.
A pocket sized high quality Tarot deck. What else can we say about it accept that you should check it out.
Playing Cards
You shouldn’t be without a playing card deck when you are learning tarot. In fact, you should have a few different decks. Bicycle playing cards are known for having a variety of designs. Have a few different models of decks to play with. Use them for beat the devil, or other card games. I always have a crib board around too for when I have company over. Another thing I do is when I buy a playing card deck I get two of the same kind. Then I can combine them together and play spite and malice.
Bicycle Eco Edition Playing Cards by The United States Playing Card Company.
United States Games Systems The Original Wizard Card Game by United States Games Systems.
An playing card deck with more than 52 cards? Yes, Wizard the game has a bigger deck. A trick taking game like the game of Tarot.
Scopa Traditional Italian Card Game by Rejects from Studios.
Great two player card game that is quick to learn and fun to play. Use the cards for divinity afterwards/
Astrology and Numerology Books
Simpson, Jean. Idiot’s Guide: Numerology. United States: Alpha Books, 2013. Print.
Magic
Old Style Conjure: Hoodoo, Rootwork, & Folk Magic by Weiser Books.
Buckland’s Book of Gypsy Magic: Travelers’ Stories, Spells & Healings by Weiser Books.
Large Magical Glass Sphere by Llewellyn Publications.
The Path and Tarot card suite
The Path and Tarot deck and its companion decks are now available on Make Playing Cards! You can get the tarot deck, the elemental deck, and the playing card deck. Click the image bellow to buy the deck or click here.
Recommended Web Sites
Tarot Association – This is great resource to start with. Click Free Tarot Class & Courses for a lecture by Marcus Katz. This video lecture will show you a quick way to read cards using a simple formula. There is also a video for how to read Lenormand cards if you have an added interest in going beyond tarot.
Tarot de Marseille and the Open Reading – Creative commons tarot deck by Dr. Yoav Ben-Dov. Downloadable and free to use for non commercial use. (card attribution: by Dr. Yoav Ben-Dov, www.cbdtarot.com)
The Wild Unknown – This link is for the wild unknown guidance section and contains articles discussing reading and what spreads to use. Very valuable.
Benebell Wen – Benebell Wen is a well-established author and tarot reader. She provides a wealth of resources and free content to use to help learn tarot. I can’t recommend her site enough.
Tarot School – This website is a resource in itself. Articles, study guides, books, decks, classes, and birth card calculator, The site has more than enough to offer.
Dynamic Tarot – This is a Tarot website by John Ballantrae. He is a fantastic tarot reader and his site has some resources that could be valuable. This site could be a little out of date, but it is worth a look.
The Tarot Lady – This is a great site for tarot learning. I recommend her podcast.
Aeclectic dot net – Think of this website as a dictionary for tarot decks. Want to see what any deck looks like? Aeclectic.net has you covered.
Back Yard Banshee – Are you stuck with the tarot and need a card spread idea? Check out Back Yard Banshee’s site to learn tarot cards spreads for astrological retrogrades, brithdays, the law of atraction, and more.
Extra Resources
The Game of Hope – If you are interested in learning Lenormand cards you might as well learn the card game. Created by Johann Kaspar Hechtel, the Lenormand cards carry the last name of Marie Anne Lenormand who was a napoleonic era cartomancer. This is a 36 card deck used for cartomancy and is still popular to this day. Originally the Lenormand cards were used to play the game of hope, also known as Das Spiel der Hofnung in German.
Elemental Dignities – This is a document hosted by Benebell Wen that teaches the rules for using elemental dignities in your tarot readings. This a document that can help bring deeper meanings to your cards. This may even help deeper your understanding of Krans’s Animal Spirit deck.
ForgottenBooks – Sometimes books go missing, find books that are forgotten here. I recommend the King James Version of the Book of Revelations. “Revelation 5, line 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” – King James
National Emergency Library – This is a recent addition to this page. In the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic this resources became available to everyone world wide. This emergency library “supports emergency remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual stimulation while universities, schools, training centers, and libraries are closed.” Sometimes global crisis brings out the best in people, so here it is.
Internet Archive – This is where the National Emergency Library is hosted, the Intern Archive. A need to place to borrow electronic books. They have a great parapsychology section! Do look.
Project Gutenberg – This a online library of over 60,000 books in the public domain. I recommend Dracula and anything by Joseph Conrad.
The Simon Necronomicon – the full html text for this book. Great read if you haven’t already.
Book T – This is online free resource and comprehensive guide to the tarot.
Dark Books dot Org – Need to know website for magic and the occult. Support this website in anyway you can. The resources are freely available and great for learning the occult, and tarot.
Liber Null by Peter J. Carroll – A magical text… need I say more? Full pdf here at this link. You can also find this book in the Internet Archive.
Old Book Illustrations – Ever wonder what old book illstrations look like? Well you can. They are all here. Why would I want to know if I am on a tarot/divinity blog? Well… the language of tarot is images. That’s why. This is a free resources use it.
Art Encyclopedia – Same idea as the Old Book Illustrations, accept this is a more low tech format for old pictures. I prefer low tech data directories over a flashy site. Maybe that’s how I like to see things.
Aeon – If you pay attention to my tweets I usually post articles from Aeon. I can’t say enough good things about the site. Well written essays about great topics.
Open Culture – An open source foundation for free resources of all kinds. Daily posts on the most wild of topics. Why is this here? Because I think its a good resource for learning, period.
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