Sage

✦ Tarot Decks

Modern Decks

Thousands of decks, every art style imaginable — and almost all of them speak the same language underneath. Once you know that, the tarot wall stops being intimidating and starts being fun.

"RWS-based" — the words that unlock the wall

The vast majority of decks published in the last century are RWS-based: they keep Pamela Colman Smith's scenes and meanings and simply redraw them in a new art style. If a deck's Five of Cups shows a figure mourning spilled cups, it's RWS-based — the art changed, the language didn't. This is the single most useful fact for a new reader: the deck you fall in love with for its art will almost certainly read exactly like Rider-Waite-Smith, which means it reads exactly like Sage. Pick the pictures you want to sit with; keep the common tongue.

A few of the famous modern decks

  • The Wild Unknown — spare, animal-and-nature imagery; hugely popular, RWS-based.
  • The Light Seer's Tarot — warm, contemporary, diverse figures; RWS-based.
  • Modern Witch Tarot — bright, fashion-forward, inclusive; a close RWS clone.
  • The Rider-Waite recolorings — the Radiant, Universal, and Smith-Waite Commemorative are the original, just re-inked.

These are a handful of thousands. The point isn't the list — it's that nearly every one of them is a new coat of paint on the same 1909 structure.

Which deck should you actually get?

The honest, practical answer:

  • Get an RWS-based deck so your deck and every guide you read (Sage included) speak the same language. When in doubt, a classic Rider-Waite recoloring is the safest possible start.
  • Pick the art you genuinely want to look at. You'll spend hundreds of hours with these pictures — the "right" deck is the one you're drawn to open. Beauty is not a frivolous criterion here; it's what keeps you practicing.
  • Make sure the Minors are illustrated. Check the Five of Cups or the Eight of Wands: if there's a scene, it's RWS-based and beginner-friendly. If it's bare pips, it's a Marseille-style deck — a harder first road.
  • Skip Thoth as a first deck. Thoth is stunning but assumes knowledge you're still building; come to it later.

Sage's stance

Sage doesn't care which art you hold — only which language it's drawn in. Read Sage with any RWS-based deck and the card meanings line up perfectly. The deck is yours to love; the tradition underneath is the part that has to match.