What makes a deck readable?
It isn't one thing it is a combination of things that all come together to make a deck readable.
For me it is card stock...size...colors and image simplicity.
The last two being the most important.
I feel that I intuitively know the first time I handle a deck if I will find it tactile.
And that is not to say that I find only one style comfortable.
Illuminated, Wild Unknown, Alchemy Oracle, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Old US Games cardstock all have different feels, but I knew instantly they would be good shufflers and would be nice to work with.
Stiff card stock with a lot of gilding on the sides is a no go for me.
Also sticky, blocky decks that come out of the box in a clump and seem to be very affected by any humidity.
If you have an aversion to even picking up a deck because it is uncomfortable in your hand what's the point??
Size plays into this too....not to big and not to small...a nice happy medium.
If I can put a deck in my hand and comfortable close my hand around it that's a good size.
I am especially happy with bridge or poker size decks.
I find short wide decks especially hard to work with.
And those ginormous decks like Light and Shadow ...I feel like I'm lost right away...it doesn't feel intimate to me.
Color so super important to me!!!
I like a nice clear saturated color...perfect examples would be Robin Wood , Morgan Greer, Guilded, Halloween, Universal Waite, Hoi Polloi.
I love watercolor decks, but I find it hard to connect to the more washed out subtle colors....still love them though... sigh...
An exception to this is Tarot of Transformation which I think is water color... I love the imagery so much and when I have time to really sit over a reading I like to use it.
Decks done in prisma color pencils I am very attracted to...I think it is because I am so familiar with the colors as I use them myself. Greenwood, Journey Home, Universal Waite, Hanson Roberts, Robin Wood...in love with all of them.
I have a first edition Anna K and even though the colors are bright, the dark background totally sinks me.
So a lighter back ground is important to me...exception being the Guilded, for some reason it doesn't bother me at all with this deck, maybe because the color tones are so jewel-like, they are like little lights on bright.
And finally simplicity of the picture.
If there is to much going on like the Pearls of Wisdom, the Paulina, I don't get that instant mind jump from the cards...that moment where the cards make sense as a whole.
I have to work to hard to stop and examine the nuance of the pictures.
That might be nice in some way if you are just doing a leisurely reading for yourself and have all the time in the world...but when reading for clients I need that jump...and a lot of imagery all watercolory, swimmy, and drugged up feeling is not going to work for me.
Wild Unknown works very well for me because the images are so simple and they have a pop of color to add emphasis.
I love Rider Waite for imagery and I could probably write a whole post on the different versions and how their different colors work or don't work for me.
A word of advise...the deck you find you can read best with might not be the deck you see yourself with.
I see lots of people come and go on AT and some see themselves as these dark mysterious entities and they buy the Hidden Realm or a vampire type deck...or some sexy deck with a lot of half dress maidens draped over rocks with muscle bound Celtic tattoo men standing seductively over them.
They never learn to read tarot.
Because they are trying to pretend a life through their card choice...and aren't choosing the cards for the right reason.
What truly connects to them and their journey in life up to that point.
And they might find they read best with the Hanson Roberts, Rider Waite or "gasp" a Doreen Virtue deck.
But they don't feel that projects who they want to be seen as..so they struggle along with a deck they don't truly connect with.
And then drop away, or keep buying the same type of deck in hopes one will be "the one."
We are a product of our life journey, and I think embracing that makes us more mature and that maturity dissolves the single mindedness of only seeing ourselves in one way.
And that in turn opens our mind to try new decks, and when we find the ones we can truly connect with we also have the maturity to say I don't care what you think of my fluffy, bunny lollypop, deck...I can read great with it and that's all that matters to me.
So when you find your deck...the deck you can read with ease...embrace it, defend it and most of all use the heck out of it.
Enjoy the journey!