How to Design Your Own Tarot Deck

There are possibly thousands of different commercial tarot decks available on the market; From the beginner's Rider-Waite deck to more mystical varieties such as Crowley's Book of Thoth deck. Sometimes, finding the right deck for you is difficult because you need one that makes you feel the most at ease and open for reading them. One solution to this issue is to design your own tarot deck. When you create your own tarot deck you take control of the imagery and all other aspects of the creation. Designing your own tarot deck is easy, but it requires determination and focus.

Preparation
Before you begin you must acquaint yourself with the basics of a tarot deck. For example, a basic tarot deck contains 78 cards, which are broken up into two families; The Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana contains 22 cards and the Minor Arcana consists of 56 cards.

The Major Arcana makes up perhaps the most important cards in the deck for various reason. For one thing they are intricately designed. Secondly, they are the most symbolic cards in the deck. Major Arcana cards include The Fool, which is labeled as card number 0 in the deck, and others like the Emperor, Empress and Death.

The Minor Arcana comprises of four different suits, much like a deck of poker cards. Depending on the type of deck these suits are labeled differently. Most commonly the suits are Swords, Wands, Pentacles and Cups; However, sometimes the suit names are changed for symbolism's sake. Each suit contains an Ace card, numbered cards two through 10 and three face cards. The face cards are ordinarily noted as King, Queen and Page.

Study the tarot deck, both Arcana families, and memorize the different meanings of each card. For instance, the meaning of The Fool depicts a fresh journey with new beginnings, but it also heralds a warning of caution as the image on the card often shows an oblivious jester walking off a cliff without looking down. Knowing the meanings of the cards and correlating them with the different uses of imagery, helps you come up with your own symbolic designs for your tarot deck.

Artwork
Obtain a sketchbook that contains at least 100 pages. A high quality sketchbook with low-smudging is adequate since you are creating real works of art. The media used to create striking imagery for your tarot deck should include #2 pencils, gum-erasers, colored pencils and markers.

Creating the artwork is a process that takes practice if you don't ordinarily have a flair for drawing. If necessary, obtain drawing resource materials to help guide you in this endeavor.

Start with something small to design, such as the suits of the Minor Arcana. Since there are only four suits, you can create the entire Minor Arcana, saving the hardest part of this project for last. Practice drawing different points-of-view of the suits such as making the swords more ancient-looking or using a low-brow style of art by making them look cartoon-like. The creative possibilities are endless.

Think-up a theme for your deck after observing all of your card designs. If they follow a color theme, you can make the back of all the cards that same color. The same tip goes for a design as well.

Completion
Once you have completed all 78 drawing designs for each card, it's time to scan each and every image onto a disc or your computer. A high-quality scanner is needed to pick up every detail of each design. If necessary, contact a printing shop and see if they can print the cards for you. Each card should measure approximately 6 inches tall by 4 inches wide.

Alternatively, there are occult and spirituality publishers such as Llewellyn Worldwide. You can submit your work to them and have them publish your work if they express interest. Not only do you end up with a print of your designed tarot deck, but you have the potential of making money from your designed deck selling through Lewellyn and their subsidiaries.