PSA: You Need a Tarot Card Deck in Your Life

Hi, yes, we have a Cosmo tarot! Featuring gorgeous collage-style art (if we do say so ourselves) and an instructional guidebook by Sarah Potter, this deck was created with beginners in mind. If you’re reading this, we promise you’ll love it! 

This deck isn’t just cute (it *is* really cute tho), but it also includes instructions on everything you need to know to read ’em like a pro charge your friends for readings. Created by artist Grace Duong and first published in 2018 after being fully funded on Kickstarter, the Mystic Mondays Tarot is full of vibrant color and positive vibes. 

Also: It has its own app, so go ahead and hit “download” and “add to cart” at the same time.

The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck was originally published way back in 1909, and it’s probably the most popular and influential tarot deck out there. Along with featuring iconic images you’ll recognize (there’s Death again!), the Rider-Waite-Smith deck has inspired many modern tarot creators to put their own twist on the cards, keeping the same or similar names and basic interpretations but adding new imagery. 

The cards were designed by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith, who may have been a queer woman of color (others say there isn’t clear evidence of her race or sexuality), but her contributions to the tarot were, and still sometimes are, often overlooked. In the past few years, a Pratt Institute art exhibit and a biography have drawn new attention to Colman Smith’s work.

This elegant deck is hand-drawn! Has gold-foil stamping! Is art-nouveau-inspired! I want it!

Created by artist Matt Hughes and first published in 2018, the Etheral Visions Illuminated Tarot is an art nouveau dream that basically belongs in a museum. Also, it includes two bonus cards.

Instead of 78 cards, this tarot deck has 53—the same number as a deck of playing cards. However, it still contains the entire Minor Arcana and Major Arcana—some cards just serve double duty, representing both a card in the Minor Arcana and a card in the Major Arcana.

All this means that you can use your tarot deck for Go Fish or poker—cool, no? Designed and illustrated by Caitlin Keegan, this deck was first published in 2017.

The Luna Sol Tarot uses “a soft color palette that gently warms the heart” and “wraps your intuition in a positive embrace.” With illustrations featuring people of all races, ages, and sizes, this tarot deck puts a modern twist on the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Kerry Ward, who y0u might know as the writer of our weekly tarot horoscopes, created the Good Karma Tarot. It’s designed for beginners, but its adorable illustrations mean that it appeals to pros too.

The Good Karma Tarot is designed to be used for personal guidance—consult it when you’re stuck between two career options, seeking relationship wisdom, or trying to figure out the source of your gut feeling.

Read your cards and pick out your next tattoo. It’s called multitasking. Published in 2018 by tarot reader and writer Diana McMahon-Collins, the Tattoo Tarot takes a classic tattoo art style and applies it to the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith iconography. And yeah, maybe you’ll pick up some fashion or hairstyle inspo too.

Created by tarot reader and actor Rachel True—star of ’90s classics like The Craft and Half-Baked—True Heart Intuitive Tarot focuses on intuitive tarot reading. The accompanying guidebook, which combines memoir with how-to instructions, teaches readers how to read cards intuitively instead of by memorizing meanings.

“With tarot, the magic isn’t in the cards. The magic is in what your mind feels and processes when you see the image from the card,” True previously told Cosmopolitan.

Illustrated by indie comic artist Trungles, or Trung Le Nguyen, this deck incorporates fantasy beings like fairies and mermaids—plus it’s diverse and LGBTQ+ inclusive. Published in 2020, it is an Amazon best seller and offers multiple Lovers cards to reflect different sexualities and romantic expressions.

In the introduction to the guidebook, Trungles writes, “At the turn of the century, European tastemakers and artists would often misappropriate imagery from Africa and Asia to convey a superficial sense of mystery and exoticism. The Star Spinner is meant to evoke iconography that is less deeply rooted in that esoteric visual language and challenge the imperialist trappings of that time.”

Created by Jerico Mandybur and first published in 2019, the Neo Tarot focuses on tarot’s role as a healing tool. It includes colorfully illustrated cards with diverse representation and a detailed guidebook with self-care advice for each card (like baking something sweet for the Four of Wands).

Published by Black-owned publisher Abusua Pa with art by Kenyan collage artist Safara Wanjagi, the Tazama African Tarot uses collage art to, as the creators put it, “embody African ancestry through historical images.” The name Tazama comes from the Swahili word meaning “to see.”

The She Wolfe Tarot was created by artist and writer Devany Amber Wolfe and has been called the “ultimate feminist deck.” Featuring “themes of Goddess power, ancient Egypt, and vintage desert imagery,” the deck features diverse people and psychedelic designs.

Created by Mike Alfaro—known for the Instagram account @MillennialLotería and Millennial Lotería game—this lotería-inspired tarot deck celebrates Latinx culture. The guidebook draws connections between the classic game of lotería and the practice of tarot.

Instead of predicting the future, this deck “is specifically designed to help you better understand your present and get in touch with your heritage,” reads the description. “The only person in charge of your future is you, so the guidebook accompanying this 78-card tarot deck focuses on self-reflection and inspiration for your goals, all done with a sprinkle of Millennial Lotería humor.”

This pretty-in-pink deck is minimalist, chic, and trendy enough to go with anything. Like your cubicle. Created by artist Adam J. Kurtz and first published in 2018, the OK Tarot style has been compared to a stick-and-poke tattoo. Although this deck is certainly cute, by boiling the tarot down to its most essential imagery, the OK Tarot’s simplicity is the point.

The Kaleidadope Tarot, created by illustrator and author Krystal Banner and first launched in late 2020, is described as simply bringing “tarot into the 21st century with a mix of color, culture, and representation. It’s dope.” 

Taking inspiration from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, Banner updates the imagery with modern references, like showing a variety of cups, including a red solo cup and a patterned coffee mug, in the Cups suit.

Created by King Khan and illustrated by Michael Eaton, the Black Power Tarot contains 25 cards and is based on the Tarot de Marseilles. This deck incorporates figures from Black history, such as Richard Pryor for The Fool, Marie Laveau for The High Priestess, and Eartha Kitt for Justice.

Created by Nashville-based artist and intuitive Mary Elizabeth Evans and first published in 2014, the Spirit Speak Tarot reinterprets the Rider-Waite-Smith deck with folk art imagery. The black-and-white cards are simple and easy to interpret, making them a strong choice for beginners.

Illustrator Yoshi Yoshitani drew from various folklore, fables, and spiritual traditions to create the Tarot of the Divine. These intricately illustrated cards draw from the cultural traditions of China, Japan, Peru, Norway, Persia, England, Greece, Denmark, the Maori tribe of New Zealand, and more, while the guidebook explains the origins and meanings.

This teeny-tiny tarot deck is small enough to fit in your pocket or your purse. Maybe even your bra? Because you never know when and where you’ll need to do a Celtic cross spread. (It’s a thing.)

Created by Brigit Esselmont, founder of Biddy Tarot, this mini deck is designed for practical self-help. Head over to the Biddy Tarot Instagram to check out a ton of tarot spreads!