Here’s a thing I didn’t know when I started reading Tarot that I wish I did: the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is public domain, meaning if you’re buying a deck what you’re paying for is not the images but the materials they’re printed on. So unless it’s a fancy edition or an older/antique version, don’t pay a bunch for it! I bought my original Rider Waite for probably like $18 ten years ago and that’s WAY more than it’s worth considering it’s just generic plastic-coated cardstock and started peeling almost immediately.
It also means you are free to print out copies for yourself without worrying about breaking any copyright laws. Here’s a PDF version for the deck in color, 9 cards to a page in its current arrangement, so smaller than standard but not by much. Here’s a version that’s just the line art in case you don’t have access to color printing or want to color them in yourself.
My suggestion? Go get construction paper, or if you have a little extra money, go to Michael’s and get cardstock paper in a nice pattern or color. Then get either a regular glue stick or if you can afford the extra couple bucks, buy the Elmer’s Craft Bond Extra Strength Glue Stick (it’s like $3ish at Michael’s and is designed to not oversaturate paper and make it ripple). Then print, adhere the printer paper to the construct paper/cardstock, let dry and cut out. They may be a little difficult to ruffle shuffle but beyond that it will function the same as any other deck AND if you spill coffee on your spread it’s not the end of the world, just reprint the cards you stained.
ive seen a few different posts talking about wanting to get into tarot but deck prices being somewhat prohibitive so wanted to bring this back since it has the links to the PDFs and such in it. Tarot ought to be accessible, print your own deck and get started!
Check this out if you can’t buy a deck!
Additional note: if you want to download a free program like Autodesk sketchbook that’s also a great way to color the cards how you wish! Then you can get them printed on some decent card stock/heavy weightpaper at like a staples and paint/stamp the back to look however you want 🙂
Published
Candlelight-magick 