Your Most Readable Deck

CharlotteK

For clarity and relatively effortless readings, I'd say Morgan Greer and Anna K.
 

Onaorkal

For me it would be the Mystical Cats Tarot.

As opposed to my other decks, with this one I don't find myself going to my RWS tarot app to see the keywords it relates too. I find most of the images very evocative. I guess it's because I'm quite comfortable with the theme? I'm quite familiar with cats and their behaviors so each scene depicted will easily ring a bell for me.
I'm also studying the deck in depth and the results of my research help me for sure when doing readings.
Finally the book is quite helpful. I don't always like or agree with the accompanying books/LWB, but in this case it's really well written and everything makes sense to me.
 

Amberjune

I grew up with the Thoth and spent many years with the Margarete Petersen. These are two decks I am deeply familiar with because I've lived with them for so long.

A very friendly, highly readable deck is the Hanson Roberts.
 

MadeiraDarling

The enchanted tarot is a very easy read for me, as is the Halloween tarot, also the Paulina deck from the app is SUPER readable, actually the deviant moon too. I have a little more trouble reading the Tarot of Vampyres but I think that's cause it's Thoth based and I'm not used to it yet.
 

Lee

I find the Hallmark Tarot to be particularly readable, in fact at the moment it's one of my regular reading decks. Also, reading with TdM majors only has recently been a revelation for me!
 

barefootlife

Definitely Wild Unknown for me, at least so far. I love the minimalism of it, and the flexibility of meaning that really lets the cards flow into each other.

But it lives up to its name in terms of being wild, and I understand why a lot of people find it difficult or unhelpful, especially if they're used to reading RWS with classic associations and humans on the cards.
 

Penthasilia

This is a very interesting thread for me- I have read through it a couple times.

For me, the deck that is the most "readable" is the one that puts me in the space where I can "see" and "hear" what is being told to me.

Sometimes- I am in this space naturally- and at those times I have done outrageous things like reading with a pack of dinosaur old maid cards as they were the only cards a friend had in her house. (Seriously, not even a pack of regular playing cards, and the reading was spot on- go brontosaurus! That was also the same day we used a mechanical pencil, needle and thread to make a pendulum and it never again would work as a pencil- its status now elevated to such lofty realms-it had no use for such mundane matters!)

Other times, I need a boost- and that is what the cards give to me. So my most readable decks are the ones that somehow reach my psyche in a way that I can get into the space to read. The best ones- well, I am so deep that I know the card that is coming before I even draw it.

So I have had decks that I used for years- and one day, poof- it was gone. The Thoth was like this for me- my first reading deck ever and used for 20 years- then suddenly- it was a stranger. Did the Thoth change- obviously not. It was me- my soul shifted and suddenly that deck was no longer the one that opened that door. Some shut the door in my face every time I tried- the RWS was like this for me- hateful thing- I could almost hear it snickering in the background. It definitely was my "mean girl" deck. I rid myself of it after realizing it was not going to change it's prissy ways.

For who I am today, and where I am now on this journey- I would say that my most readable deck is the Pagan Otherworlds- that is the one that even if I am feeling a bit like a brick, I can shuffle it and somehow melt into the space (this is where the cardstock comes in for me, being a riffle shuffler- if the darn thing sticks, I end up more frustrated than open and wanting to throw it across the room- I am looking at you Tarot of the Sidhe). Then the images pull me in- I can almost hear them, the quiet rippling of the water in the 9 of swords, the sigh of the swan as it realizes it's path. Softly, quietly. This deck opens me every time since I have received it.

Otherwise- I would have to say in general that decks that are very non-scenic work well (including playing cards) when I am already half-way in. They aren't so busy, and don't force my eyes into something that isn't really there. I like the Dark Exact Tarot, or Icelandic for this purpose- though again, the Icelandic cardstock was so terrible I ditched it. Dark Exact isn't bad- not awesome, but not as bad as the Icelandic. The Marseille distracts me with it's bug-eyed ways- the art just isn't what I enjoy and so I end up with that look one can get on their face when eating a food that isn't enjoyable from either a taste or texture standpoint.

Of course my most readable decks can change, and will change- as I change and grow. But for now- I am always happy to find at least one that fits the bill for the time and space I am in now.
 

rakusribut

it is similar for me, penthasilia, you put it into words beautifully..... the space where i can "see" and "hear" what is being told to me. "readable" is a difficult concept for me to grasp. i would rather say: which deck gets the message through most directly/effectively/completely. and that does depend on whether i am able to establish a connection with the cards. and that, in its turn, greatly depends on my own state of mind in the moment i draw the cards.
the decks i connect most to at this time are the sakki-sakki, the fountain and the margarete petersen. but there are also decks that give me exactly what i need, even if i am unable or unwilling to listen. i tend to experience those decks as "unreadable", or rather: "unfathomable" at first, but if i spend some more time with the cards, or return to them in a later stage, the message sometimes suddenly comes through.
this happened to me with the silver era tarot, where i couldn't make any sense of its wimpy looking king of wands, until i realised that he might be telling me that looks can deceive and that fiery energy and visionary leadership might be more successful if built on a foundation of balanced and controlled emotion.
the mystic dreamer's seven of swords had me confused as well. couldn't connect to the idea of sneakiness and subterfuge attributed to that card at all. later on it suddenly made sense. that was me, there on the deserted tournament field, picking up the carelessly discarded swords, making sure they will not be used again by people wanting to hurt and kill other people, maybe taking them to a smith to turn them into something more useful.... it was a major breakthrough, enabling me to more clearly see and accept my role and function in the world at this stage of my life.

i only read for myself, so i don't know how reading for others changes a deck's "readability" but i would think it makes a lot of difference. as well as the way you are reading: do you meditate on the cards, tell stories, or do you consult the guidebook? do you use illustrated decks or pip decks? etc etc.
 

Rose Lalonde

Tabula Mundi

Tabula Mundi

I read once that 'symbols do their own thinking', and though that's poetry, there's also a grain of truth about how they work on me. Much like the Thoth that inspired it, symbols in TM convey a great deal, bypassing the language center of the brain to slip under and in. But the added genius of TM is in the way symbols reappear across cards in organized but artistically imaginative ways that make the deck a web of meaning instead of 78 solitary cards.