When most of us think of Tarot Cards, we think of the Ride Waite Deck. This is the standard deck that has 78 cards in total. A typical deck consists of 22 major arcana cards and 56 minor arcana cards with suits of Swords, Coins, Wands, and Cups. This deck also includes court face cards, Aces, and a fool. The Rider-Waite Deck was invented in 1909 and most other decks are based its images and structure systems.

Over the years, there have been all kinds of permutations of the basic Rider-Waite deck. Here is a look at some of the most interesting variations of the classic Rider-Waite deck that have come into publication over the last century.

Butler Tarot – This Tarot card set was published in England in 2004 and has already become a collector’s item. This was a tarot deck of 78 cards that was made out of a fascinating series of collaged photographs put together on a black background. It was also unconventional in its illustrations. For instance, the card the Empress consists of a woman with a phoenix, a strawberry, bay leaves, the symbols for Venus, and an array of strawberries and kiwis.

Tarot Chaste – This odd tarot consists of black and white photos of women with huge breasts. It was published in 2010 in Australia and was created by Laurie Jeffrey. The Magician card depicts an attractive Asian woman staring intently at a candle.

Gummy Bear Tarot - This Tarot Deck features the same imagery that is on the typical Rider-Waite Deck but instead features naive drawing gummy bears playing the major characters, such as the Queen of Wands.  It was designed by Dietmar Bittrich, Anneke Larsmeyer and Sascha Tessmann and was published in the U.S.A. in 2004. Everything that has a face in the real deck has the same face as a gummy bear including the Sun card in the major arcane. It is also done in yellow, green, red and blue with no other color.

Mountain Dream Tarot – This eccentric deck features black and white photos and photo collages of scenes from a hillbilly’s life. It was created by Bea Nettles and published in 2001. The Sun card in the major arcane features a real little girl on a donkey with a beatific mother wearing a crown of daisies superimposed on top as the Sun. Many of the face cards in this deck depict people sitting in hard backed chairs or rocking chairs.

The cards never lie! Try a FREE TAROT CARD READING with a live tarot reader right now. Click Here or Call 1-888-752-3999

The Mysteries of Love and Sex – This Tarot deck depicts a redo of famous work of art about copulation on almost every card. For instance, the Five of Pentacles card depicts a couple from the Kama Sutra mating and the Magician card depicts an Victorian scene of a maid being taken on a chair. It was created by Cynthia Joyce Clay and Mel Fleming II in 2009 and published in the U.S.A.

Science Tarot – Over 9 people designed this very oddly illustrated Tarot which was published in 2010 in the U.S.A. Every image on it pertains to science in one way or another. The card that usually would mean betrayal, the nine of swords, is now a picture of a Black Hole. What would normally be the Ace of Cups is now the Ace of Beakers and depicts a big cell with the words “Integration” written on it.

Silicon Valley Tarot – This very odd deck was published in 1998 in the U.S.A and depicts people in ordinary office scenes. The Magician card is a computer hacker and there is a CEO of Disks (as in CD-Roms) as the King of Coins. This clever deck was designed by Thomas Scoville.

Songs For the Journey Home – This is a deck with 78 round cards (shaped like disks). Each card features a natural theme that is illustrated and somewhat collaged together. It is a bit offbeat. For instance, the Ten of Wands features bugs caught in a Spider’s web and are called “The Ten of Wind Songs.” The artists behind it are Dwariko von Sommaruga and Catherine Cook and it was published in 1993 in New Zealand.

The Tarat – This 78 card deck features storybook drawings of white rats.  The strength card shows a white rat kissing a tabby cat and the Star card shows a giant rat standing on the earth and holding a star. It was published in 2010 in the U.S artist Akisha VanderHoeven.

The Transparent Tarot – This deck consists of drawings on clear transparent plastic. The drawings are so simple they are more like sigils then real depictions. For instance, the Ace of Wands is just a stick with a fire burst.  It was created by Emily Harding and published in the U.S.A. in 2008.

The Tarot Vampire – This novelty deck designed by Adam Ball was published in Australia in 2010 and certainly capitalizes on the craze for all things of a “Twilight” type nature. The Lovers card features a woman making love to a corpse and the Moon card features a Vampire sneaking up on a victim under a full moon.

As you can see, there are many different exciting Tarot card decks that you can own and that there is more to the world of reading Tarot then just using the same old Rider-Waite deck.

The cards never lie! Try a FREE TAROT CARD READING with a live tarot reader right now. Click Here or Call 1-888-752-3999