TdM deck recommendation for tarot newbie?

Which Marseilles reproduction deck would you recommend to someone just learning tarot? And why?

Thanks!

I'm no expert so I'm sure you'll get better recommendations but I'd recommend the YBD (correct: CBD!) Tarot with Yoav Ben Dov's book. It gives you everything you need to start reading this TdM, restored and "smoothed" by Yoav Ben Dov, out of the box. It doesn't have the roughness and imperfection of some historical decks, but its clarity makes it, at least for me, an ideal learning deck. I bought other decks from the TdM tradition later, and Ben Dov's book helped me work with them, too.

I love reading with Marseille decks and I have a lot of them. If you want the vintage feeling, get the Madenie reproduction. If you don't mind computer images, Nemia's suggestion is fine. If you like bright colours, the Fournier Marseille.

After reading Alejandro Jodorowsky's Way of Tarot the Camoin Marseilles deck is now the one I use daily. Interpretation of the minors is different from the Rider Waite deck so that might be cumbersome for some people. But if you are new to tarot it shouldn't be a problem.

My advice is like Michellehihi's: pick the deck that appeals to you, on the basis of the artwork and the size of the cards and such. Whether the deck is an old or modern version, clean lines or messy & ambiguous, are also issues for some people. But I don't think there is a deck that's particularly suited to people new to the TdM.

My personal favorite is the Burdel-based Lo Scarabeo, the one with the white backgrounds and primary colors, rather than the Universal. It has a left-handed Ace of Swords, hilted swords, round-looking staves, fleurs-de-lys on the coins, and a mildly obscene detail in the the Queen of Staves found in some TdM decks. And loud colors. This isn't a suggestion for your own choice, but an example of the silly little things that might feed into finding a preferred deck.

As you already have the Camoin-Jodorowsky, my personal suggestion would be to get an older style, 78 card deck, either a cleaned-up restoration or a facsimile deck that is less altered. That would give you some variety in the decks you have to choose from. Maybe since you have the Noblet trumps, you might want to experiment with something more fuzzy and kicked around looking.

This is a facsimile deck of cards printed from the old wooden blocks. The cards are big enough to see the details, or more often, that the details are fuzzy and ambiguous. The earlier, American edition of this reproduction often shows up on eBay as The Tarot Set by Jane Lyle. (Ms. Lyle wrote the accompanying book, which a lot of TdM types disdain because it gives meanings associated with the RWS tradition.) But there are plenty of other old-fashioned decks to choose from.

In case you want to follow up on Nemia's fine suggestion, Yoav Ben Dov calls his rendition the CBD. I suspect the "C" is for "Conver."

How about the lovely ISIS deck? It is so beautiful that I can't keep my hands off it. Somewhat surprisingly, it is a faithful reconstruction of the ancient Conver Tarot, as can be seen from the comparison pictures at the ISIS site. (Scroll down the page to see the comparisons).

Here are a couple of my favorite cards:

Nemia said:

I'm no expert so I'm sure you'll get better recommendations but I'd recommend the YBD Tarot with Yoav Ben Dov's book......

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He actually designed the CBD to illustrate his book Tarot: The Open Reading. It is a pretty deck, notable for the pleasant facial expressions. It is similar to the Grimaud but more colorful. Ben-Dov studied Tarot under Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Thank you all for your suggestions! I'm checking them out as I have time.

Michellehihi said:

I love reading with Marseille decks and I have a lot of them. If you want the vintage feeling, get the Madenie reproduction. If you don't mind computer images, Nemia's suggestion is fine. If you like bright colours, the Fournier Marseille.

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Is this the deck you mean?

http://tarot-de-marseille-heritage.com/english/catalogue_madenie1709.html

If so, it's beautiful! I really like the more subdued colors. The bright colors of some of the other decks feel kinda......garish...?...to me.

Of course, I don't have a clue what the colors on the original decks look like.

Richard said:

How about the lovely ISIS deck? It is so beautiful that I can't keep my hands off it. Somewhat surprisingly, it is a faithful reconstruction of the ancient Conver Tarot, as can be seen from the comparison pictures at the ISIS site. (Scroll down the page to see the comparisons).

Click to expand...

This is an interesting deck with a very modern feel to it. Am I correct that it's a re-drawing of the Conver deck? The comparison pics show that it's both very similar and very different.

Nemia said:

I'm no expert so I'm sure you'll get better recommendations but I'd recommend the YBD Tarot with Yoav Ben Dov's book. It gives you everything you need to start reading this TdM, restored and "smoothed" by Yoav Ben Dov, out of the box. It doesn't have the roughness and imperfection of some historical decks, but its clarity makes it, at least for me, an ideal learning deck. I bought other decks from the TdM tradition later, and Ben Dov's book helped me work with them, too.

Click to expand...

I already have this book, so maybe I should consider getting the deck, too.