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Sabio Tarot · Decks and systems

By Sabio Tarot

What to check before using a tarot book with a modern deck

You have bought a contemporary deck that calls Cups “Water”, replaces the Page court card and adds two new cards. A tarot manual may still teach you how to frame questions and relate spread positions, but it might not describe the images in your hands. Before memorising its chapters, check compatibility with a small sample.

The V&A explains how Pamela Colman Smith's images influenced later decks and also shows contemporary artistic reinterpretations. Influence does not mean identity. The BnF holds different tarot families. A book suited to one may need its vocabulary translated for another, or may simply be unsuitable.

Begin with the deck's card list

Count the cards and find the groups. Are there 22 Major and 56 Minor Arcana places? Does each of the four suits contain ten numbered cards and four court cards? Which equivalents does the artist identify? One deck may preserve all 78 positions while changing their names; another may change the structure itself. The first case lets you adapt an outside manual. The second calls for closer attention to the deck's own guide.

Do not impose correspondences based on a superficial resemblance. If a card is called “Guardian” and reminds you of a King, check where the card list places it. If the booklet gives no correspondence, label the idea as your own and do not present it as the creator's intention.

Four control cards

Justice or its equivalent: check number, name and scene. If your deck numbers it VIII but the book says XI, translate the book's index before studying.

The Fool: see whether it is numbered zero, left unnumbered or given another title. Its place in a reading may change even when the image retains part of the classic motif.

A low-numbered card, such as the Two of Swords: check for a scene, suit symbols or a new visual treatment. An explanation about characters does not describe an unillustrated pip card.

A court card: check its title, suit and function. Some decks rename Kings and Queens or remove gender labels. A manual that automatically assigns a person's sex to these cards can be particularly unhelpful here.

The four checks reveal changes of index, imagery and organisation. If all four agree, the book can probably serve as a main guide; if only the names match, use it as a secondary reference.

Separate method from detail

A general method may transfer: define the question, set positions before drawing, first describe what is visible, then check whether the interpretation holds together. A detail does not transfer automatically: “the figure looks at three spilled cups” is an observation only if that scene appears on your card.

On a sheet of paper, make two columns headed “stays the same” and “changes”. For one card, write: “The position of the Five of Cups stays the same; the scene and the suit's name change.” You can then see which part of the book may help you and which part needs to be read through the new deck's booklet.

An example reading with two sources

Question: “What do I need to check before taking on another responsibility?” Position: “hidden cost”. You draw the Ten of the suit your deck calls Fire. Its booklet equates Fire with Wands, but depicts ten objects spread about and no person carrying them. A Rider–Waite–Smith book describes a body beneath a heavy bundle. You can retain a general hypothesis about accumulation, supported by the ten and the position; you cannot claim that your card shows someone walking hunched over. The modern edition may stress dispersal rather than weight. Naming that difference makes the reading more precise.

Do not turn this example into a work forecast. The card may guide the questions you ask about schedules and resources; the answers come from the real situation.

If the deck has too little guidance

First look for a description by its artist or publisher. If there is no correspondence table, work from observation and your own notes without attributing them to a historical tradition. You can use a general manual to learn tarot's structure and spread techniques while leaving edition-specific details open until you understand the deck.

A beautiful deck has no obligation to follow every manual. What matters is avoiding claims of compatibility you have not checked. Continue with whether all 78-card decks read alike and how to identify Marseille or Rider.

Distinguish adaptation from literal translation

If a modern suit is called “Water” and the publisher equates it with Cups, you can use general explanations of that suit as a starting point. An equivalence of names, however, does not mean every scene works alike. Perhaps the artist designed the Three of Water around a river rather than three vessels. A Cups manual may supply one question, while the modern card supplies another image. Keep both layers visible in your notes.

Adapting court cards requires even more care. Replacing “Queen” with “Caregiver” might alter associations of rank, gender or function; it might be only a change of name. Without a publisher's table, neither conclusion is secure. Check the card list, booklet and, if available, the artist's explanation. If documentation is missing, use the title printed on your card and state that your correspondence with another court card is provisional.

Two errors a good test detects

The first is a false structural match. A deck has 78 cards but divides them into different groups. Counting the cards and locating the suits reveals the problem before you spend hours on an incompatible book. The second is an assumed visual match. A deck preserves 56 Minor Arcana and calls one suit “Wands”, but redraws every scene. Checking four cards shows that the manual provides a general map but does not describe what you see.

A third issue is the date. A booklet may cite a historical design while printing a new edition with changes to colours or symbols. In any comparison, identify both the book's edition and the deck's. “Rider–Waite–Smith” can refer to different reprints, restorations or reinterpretations; a claim about a tiny visual detail needs an identifiable copy or reproduction.

An honest teaching decision

If the modern deck offers too little guidance, a general book can still teach you a procedure: question, positions, observation and summary. When you reach a scene description that does not match, stop, write down the image you do have and form your own hypothesis without attributing it to the book. Over time, your journal will show which correspondences hold and which feel forced.

If mismatches are widespread, it may be easier to practise first with the deck for which the manual was written and save the modern one for a second pass. That choice is no judgement on either product's artistic value; it reduces the work of translating every page while you learn the structure. The useful question is “Can I follow this example with the cards I own?”, not “Is this deck good or bad?”

Sources consulted