6 decks · 1650–2012
Tarot decks compared
Six decks spanning 362 years, from the Marseille pattern of 1650 to independents published in 2012. All six carry the same 78 cards in the same 22-plus-56 structure — what changes is who drew them, what they renamed, and whether the minor arcana show a scene or just a count of symbols. That last difference is the one that decides how hard a deck is to learn.
In order of appearance
| Deck | Published | Drawn by | Cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarot de Marseille | 1650 | Anonymous woodblock cutters | 78 |
| Rider–Waite–Smith | 1909 | Pamela Colman Smith | 78 |
| Thoth | 1969 | Lady Frieda Harris | 78 |
| Dalí Universal Tarot | 1984 | Salvador Dalí | 78 |
| DruidCraft | 2004 | Will Worthington | 78 |
| The Wild Unknown | 2012 | Kim Krans | 78 |
1650 · Multiple workshops
Tarot de Marseille
Predates the occult revival entirely: it was a card game deck first, and the divinatory readings were attached to it more than a century later.
Its minor arcana show only counted suit symbols with no scene, which is why readers of this deck lean on number and suit rather than pictorial memory.
Long out of copyright — the pattern is reproduced freely.
1909 · William Rider & Son
Rider–Waite–Smith
The first deck to give every minor arcana card a full scene instead of a bare count of suit symbols. That single decision is why the minors can be read at all by a beginner, and why nearly every modern deck copies its imagery.
Pamela Colman Smith drew all 78 cards for a flat fee and no royalties. For most of the century the deck was named after Rider and Waite alone; the S was added to the name only after her contribution was reassessed.
The original artwork entered the public domain in the UK in 1966 and in the US in 1985, which is why so many reprints and clones exist.
1969 · Ordo Templi Orientis
Thoth
Painted between 1938 and 1943 but not published until 1969, more than two decades after Crowley died. Harris repainted some cards eight times.
Renames several cards — Strength becomes Lust, Judgement becomes the Aeon — so readings written for one deck do not transfer cleanly to the other.
1984 · Comas
Dalí Universal Tarot
Commissioned in 1973 for the James Bond film Live and Let Die. The deal collapsed, Dalí finished it anyway, and it was published a decade later.
Collage rather than drawing: Dalí cut and reassembled classical paintings, putting himself on the Magician.
2004 · Connections
DruidCraft
Deliberately merges two separate traditions — Druidry and Wicca — into one deck, which is unusual: most decks pick a single system and stay inside it.
Keeps the Waite structure, so readings transfer, but renames the suits to wands, cups, swords and pentacles of a seasonal cycle.
2012 · Self-published, later HarperOne
The Wild Unknown
Started as a self-published run and became the defining deck of the 2010s revival — proof that the market had moved to independent artists.
Drops human figures almost entirely in favour of animals and plants, so the court cards read differently from any Waite-based deck.