Tarot cards, in general are a set of cards with images and words on them. Past that, every tarot deck differs. Some decks are very complex and contain many images. Some are very basic and contain only one image, symbol or word.

Whatever the deck, the goal of reading tarot is pretty universal – to tap into information that otherwise, you might not know. Sometimes that information is about the future and somethings it’s about a current situation or a situation in the past.

The symbols on every deck are meant to represent specific concepts. A standard deck uses cups, wands, swords and stones or pentacles. However, a non-standard deck could use just about anything… animals, elements, technology etc.

Those concepts and the symbols chosen to represent them can be very different from deck to deck. For instance, in one deck, the spirit of the horse might be a very important concept that has meaning to the author and the deck’s audience… while that symbol might be meaningless to you or I. Another deck might include the Death card – which has a very specific meaning (not death, usually) and is meaningful to it’s author and audience.

For this reason, watching someone read tarot or having your cards read can seem very mysterious and complex – but in reality, if you have chosen the deck that speaks to you on a symbolic level, it can be really easy to learn.

The deck I use is the Osho Zen Tarot, which is a non-traditional deck. Rather than the usual swords, pentacles, wands and cups, it uses the elements… clouds, rainbows, water and fire. And although it sticks with a more traditional hierarchy in each suite, the images on the cards lean towards creative and richly colorful and seem to speak the actual message of the card more clearly than a traditional deck, to me. My Osho deck has been with me for over 10 years now and it’s a little like having a well worn, much loved favorite pair of jeans.

I am learning to use the The Quest Tarot (Book & Card Pack)but I don’t read tarot very often so practice moves slowly. It also uses very detailed colorful imagery. What makes this deck both unique and super complex is that each card is loaded with not only the creative symbolism of the image but also the more specific symbolism of stones, runes, i-ching, astrological correspondences, yes, no, maybe and a host of other symbolism.