 Hi everybody, Lisa Larson here. I know I'm supposed to be talking about animals and I will be doing more of that again soon. But I am teaching a Tarot class soon and Tarot has always been my first love. So I wanted to make this video for my students who are trying to decide which deck to buy, because I require using a Rider Waite Smith deck or a Rider Waite Smith clone. And there are a ton of them out there. I'm going to show you a few here and this is not just for my students, but for anybody who is just thinking about starting to learn Tarot, I really recommend that you start with a Rider Waite Smith deck, because if you start with that deck, if you learn on that deck, you'll be able to read 80% of the decks out there. There's a reason why this deck has become so classic and so well loved. So anyway, I wanted to give you a smattering of some of the decks that you could get, some of the clones that you can get. And first of all, let me just give you a small background, a short background of the Rider Waite deck. The Rider Waite deck was, it's always been known as the Rider Waite, but now people are calling it the Rider Waite Smith deck because it's Pamela Coleman Smith, who, better known by the name of Pixie, who drew all of the pictures. And it's really she who made the deck what it is. And so when I talk about a clone, what that means is that we have the, her pictures, but they may be recolored. And sometimes those recolorings make all the difference in how you relate to the deck. So let's start with what is the yellow box deck. This is, you can see that this is a very old one. This is, I don't know what year this is, but it's been around a while. I actually, somebody even gave this to me. Mine was actually a similar deck to this, but I'm not going to show it to you because it's rare and out of print. Anyway, this is the deck that most people know it's, it's got this, this plaid backing on it, which I'm not really fond of that much. But, you know, it was last year when I, when I taught my true class that I pulled these out and started looking at them again, and they really are beautiful. They really, you know, they're, they don't have a lot of gradients or everything. They're very simple. But it's a straightforward deck. The colors are brighter than some of the ones that I'm going to show you, not as bright as some of the other ones that I'm going to show you, but this is what you would know, what is known as the classic deck. Any, any, when you just, just ask for a writer weight Smith deck or a writer weight deck. This is the one you'll probably get in this yellow box. And this is the one that is been around for a very, very long time. Okay. So that, that's definitely one. And, and that is, you know, it comes with all of these usually come with a little booklet. But as I say, tell, say in my classes, which I, like I said, I'm going to be teaching class in two weeks. It starts on June 22nd. I, I, it's, it's nice to have books for reference, but you want to learn how to use your intuition. Now just for reference too, that you can see that both the, this deck, this writer weight deck comes in different sizes. You can see how well used these cards are. I've had these forever. I actually even used to color, colored part of them myself. Because back then there were no brighter, brighter decks. So I was coloring them myself, but this is a very small deck. I'll show you the differences in the size. There's a, there is a playing card deck size. There is the, the regular deck size. So you can see the difference and these, these playing decks hard size are really nice, very comfortable to use. These are great. You can see how much I've used these little, this little deck. Look at the difference in the size of how, how wide they are. That's not because the card stock is any different. That's just because I've used this deck so much because I used to take this around in my, in my purse everywhere. Everywhere I went. So, you know, it's just a nice little, little deck that's easy to carry around. And again, I don't, I long ago lost the box for that, but don't throw your boxes away. I used to throw my boxes away in the early days. I used to throw my boxes away so I could use them in these bags, but don't do that. Save your boxes because these decks, some of these decks become very valuable. And you just don't know which ones are going to be. So anyway, so those are the, this back and you'll notice too that a lot of, you know, I'm going to show you the backs of all of these. And you'll notice too that one of the reasons is, that's a lot of times how you tell the difference between these decks and people just really like the backs of decks. So, hang on one second. I want to go do one thing. And I'm back. Now, there are other older decks too, that one of the first ones that started to be recolored is called an Albano deck. Again, I don't have the boxes for these. This deck was actually given to me without a box. This is the back of the Albano deck and you can see the difference in the colors. You, there's, there's really a stark difference in the colors from the original, well, the classic deck and the Albano deck. They've got some very, very bright colors to them, very deep colors. So this is usually like a, I think a light blue in the background and here it's purple. They've got some, a lot of purples, a lot of oranges, some orange sky. So you see that there's, there's quite a difference there between those two decks. It's, it's quite, quite a lot. This is the original or the classic. It's, it's quite a bit more, well, some people call it garish. I would not call it garish. I, I, I like this deck for a long time, but it's called the Albano deck. I think you can still get it. Actually, you can still get it on Amazon. I just saw it recently. And again, I don't know if it has a playing deck card size, but this also has a little mini deck. So, and again, very, very well used deck here. You see how, how brilliant the colors are there. Okay. But that is, that is one of the older recolored decks that you can find. And there are a lot, a lot newer ones that it's all the recoloring now when we get, when we start getting to, into. The recoloring of the decks and what, what you choose and what you like. This is what, what we're talking about. Now, one of the, another earlier deck that had some really beautiful pastel coloring was the universal weight. Now I love, love, love this deck. The backs are beautiful. Nice little stars on there. But what I really love about this deck is that there it's, it's just a very beautiful pastel color. Okay. And that gorgeous, those pastel colors there. Very soft. The coloring in this deck. Very soft. They, it also comes with a small, it comes in a smaller deck size, which comes in a really nice little box. You see how some of these boxes start to get really ratty as you, as you use them over time. In fact, I'm going to make this a little bit bigger. So we have a little bit more space to use. Hang on here. You can see how they get kind of ratty, but this box is a nice sturdy box. This is same deck. It does it, you know, sometimes different colorings, different printings don't, don't look exactly the same. It's still very soft. It doesn't, sometimes I don't feel like it's quite as soft as these ones, but this deck, I, this was my go-to deck, this little playing card size deck for so long. Cause again, very, very comfortable. I love the backs. I think these backs are just beautiful. And you can see how, how thick again. I've used both these decks a lot. So you can see that. Now one of the things to remember is that don't get this deck. Universal weight. Confused with the universal to row. Now this, these, these decks are all. From us games. Okay. That's who owns pixie's. Artwork. That's who initially bought pixie pixie's artwork. Universal to row is a low, low Scarborough deck. They make some great, great. Decks and I don't know that there are going to be any that I show you here, but they are some really nice ones, but this is not pixie's artwork. So I wouldn't want this for my class. I would want, you know, the universal weight, but I'll just show you the difference. And it's very, very close, very close. If you learn, if you learn on a writer weight Smith deck, you're certainly going to be able to use these. This is the back. Not bad. But you see, I didn't pull these out so that you can see the difference in side by side, but you can see that this is different artwork. You know, here on the four in pixie's, there's women. I mean, these people are standing, looking at the, the buildings a little farther away. These have really. Define clothes. This is much different. You see on the other card, you see like the side. So these are beautiful cards, but certainly ones that, you know, you might want, but not. You know, you know, you know, you can learn on these cards. I would still go for, if you like that soft look, and it does, these do have that soft coloring as well. Has a little bit more gradient and stuff than the classic deck. But still, you know, if you're going to learn, I would, I would still learn on the universal weight deck. Okay. So those are the ones. So, we can get more and more into. Going from soft recolorings to some pretty vivid recolorings. And one of the most famous decks is the radiant to row. I love this duck as well. I don't use it as much. That is kind of simple. But it's very, very vivid coloring. Very vivid coloring. Turn some of these around. Aren't those beautiful. Now, some people. I don't know if they cut off the borders here or not. I know a lot of people that are really into this, they cut off borders, but. But these are just beautiful. They're very deep, very rich colors. Isn't that pretty? Okay. Again. Comes in a playing card size. In a nice little tin. Again, this, these can get kind of right. This one's not so much because I haven't used this deck that much, but these can get kind of ratty, but these little tins are just wonderful. This is a really nice little deck. This is a really nice little book. Interestingly, those backs are the same. Sometimes they change the backs of the smaller decks. Again, beautiful cards. I don't know how much I like the borders on this on these. I don't really use these this much and I, that much. And I think it's because the borders are a little. But if that doesn't bother you, you know, these are, these are really pretty cards. Isn't that gorgeous? Just gorgeous. And these nice small, and there you can see the difference between that and the other ones. And there's the hermit again. And again, nice, small, easy to shuffle. And then there's the, the card. And then there comes in this nice little small tin. Okay. That's the radiant row. You can see the difference in the card sizes there. Not a lot of different. Well, yeah. Doesn't seem to this way, but it just seems like this way. Okay. So that's the radiant to row. Now. I don't know if these. Cards are. Still available. And then there's the. What are these called? The illuminated to row. Now she sends you these bags. I'm not really fond of these bags. I mean, they're, they're nice looking, but they're just a little awkward to put stuff in and out of the smaller deck came in this. It's kind of hard to put things in and out of. So I just did one that I'm, I made myself. But these are gorgeous, gorgeous cards. They're really high glossy and they're very thin. I suspect that this woman. Makes them and, and cuts them herself. She did a pretty good job. You have to go searching for these. I don't remember. You know, you have to go to her website, but you can see how gorgeous these. These are amazing, amazing colors. In this illuminated to row. And if you really like these bright. Bright looking colors, isn't that gorgeous? If you really like these bright looking colors, this is, this is a wonderful deck. But again, you do have to search for it. You can't just find this on Amazon someplace. You can't find it on Amazon. You can't find it on Amazon. You have to think about that. Okay. Magician. Beautiful sky. Okay. So those and, and these. I think these are the medium sized deck. You can see how big they are in my hand. I think she does a larger size. I only bought this. The medium and the small size. Here's the small size here. Same beautiful artwork. Colourization. You know, the smaller stuff is easier to handle. These are pretty easy to handle. These are just a little hard. They're so slick. You have to kind of. You know, Be careful of them. I'm not real fond of the slick glossy stuff, but you know, I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of coloring. So, um, now I want to go to the. My two favorite, favorite, favorite. Right away. Decks. And that is the first being. The centennial edition or what I usually call this, the commemorative. I got this in a big set. I'll show you. I got it in this. I'm a little close. Which comes with a book and a pictorial key to the. And comes with these cards. Now you can now get these cards just in just the cards themselves. I think through Amazon. As the centennial edition. Borderless ones because they did some weird things. Like they just took out the border and then just. Put extra space on the sides. So there's some weird things that they look like. But anyway. Love these backs. Gorgeous, gorgeous backs. This is Pixie's signature. There's the rose that's on the death card. And what I love about these cards is. This deck was made to. Recreate Pixie's coloring of the decks as closely as possible. So this, this card stock is, is beautiful. Matt card stock. You can see how the difference. How it. How it doesn't shine. You can see the gloss there as opposed to. How this. Glosses. That's just a lot of gloss there. This is more of much more of a matte finish. Gorgeous. If you like the feeling of old world type of thing. These are the cards. These in the next ones that I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you. These are muted colors, but not like the universal weight. Where they're just pastel. These are muted like kind of an old world muted color. Not too bright. Just. Absolutely. Gorgeous duck. I love this duck. I love this duck. And you, and you can certainly see through flip throughs and, you know, I'm going to go down here. So if you want to see this one in the next one, I'm going to show you as, as a comparison. You, you can go on. I did one of those. This one also comes with a. Beautiful. The smaller deck comes in. Wonderful. There's the smaller deck. Again, this has a border. Which I don't, I don't mind. As long as it's not. Good size. You can see the difference in the size here. So this is regular. To row size. Okay. So that is the centennial. Edition. This little bag came with that book that set that I got. And if you are. I don't know, I don't know. There's also these, I'm not sure these are available anymore. You might have to get these from someplace like on eBay. They're probably around because I only got these. I don't know a few months ago, but they're a limited edition. This was limited edition 1000 decks. This was limited edition. Didn't say how many decks. This was 2018. So anyway, this is Pam's vintage to row. But again, it gives you an idea of how many different styles you can get. With getting a rider weight deck. Now this comes with a couple of extra cards that pixie drew. This aren't part of a to row. But this is absolutely gorgeous. It makes it look like an old, old, old time vintage duck. I love this duck. Okay. Again. Comes in a smaller version. And the smaller version comes with a ton of different cards that. Pixie. Just. Other cards that she drew that she painted. But. Again, here's the back. So here's the backs of these. And here's the back. Again, smaller. About playing that card size, but again, having that, that old world feel, which is just absolutely gorgeous. And both of these are on a linen stock. I'm not sure you can tell. Maybe a little bit right there. These are a linen stock. So they have just, they're beautiful. They're beautiful. They're beautiful. They're beautiful cards. You know, what are they going to feel like when you shuffle them and stuff like that? So now the last thing I want to show you is. Don't get confused between. Things like. The. Centennial deck. So I just want to make sure that you know the difference. Where people might call. The centennial deck. Where did I go with that? People might call this deck like an originally colored deck. Or, you know, because they don't know the difference. So I just want to make sure that you. Know the difference. Where people might call. The centennial deck. Where did I go with that? So I just want to make sure that you know, because they. It was supposed to be her original colors. This is called the original. To row. The original rider weight. And that's what their, I think their intent was is to get that coloring, but they really, really, really didn't do it. It just all came out. First of all, these are really shiny. They're really hard to shuffle because they're, they're so shiny. They kind of have this sticky feel to them. Everything is kind of, everything kind of has a green tint to it. All of the skies. Kind of have like a. Crap. All the skies look the same. All the green skies. That's, I'm not even sure what that is. I'm not sure what that is. I think the artwork is just, if you see it, our work is just not that clear. It just. I just do not like this deck at all. Again, somebody gave it to me. I was appreciative of it, but he gave it to me when he was giving me some other stuff. So that I would. I would not unless, you know, maybe there are some people that really like this deck. If you find it, you like it. Great. Okay. So I'm going to go seek out and I just want to make sure that you understand the difference between this one. And this one, because they're trying to do the same thing here. Trying to get her original coloring is what I think that's why they called this the original rider weight because they were trying to color it the same, but they were trying to color it the same way. So I'm going to go ahead and do that here and here. Okay. So there you have it. Yeah. It all really, really just depends. On. You know, what your. What, what appeals to you, you know, maybe you really like the bright things. So you want to think about getting the. The more original kind of look and the more matted look. Then you want to look at this, maybe this centennial. Addition. You can look for, and again, if you, if you like these, I'm not sure these are still available. You might have to get these look for those on eBay and, but those are called. Pam's vintage to row. I don't know if they're going to be putting out another one. And there are other options as well. I mean, there are a lot of other new card decks around. These happen to be the ones that I know of. These happen to be the ones that I have. And I think if you find any of these. Clones. You're going to be fine with them. Because, you know, you're still anything that you find with Kixie's artwork. You're going to be able to learn really well and you'll be able to learn. You know, you'll know most of the decks out there on the market, but learn with this deck and you'll under understand the to row. So again. My class starts in two weeks on June 22nd. 2021. I'll put the link down below. And yes, I will get back to doing some other animal videos soon. But I appreciate you. Bearing with me here because to row really is just a lot of fun. And if you learn to row, especially if you learn interested in learning how to speak with animals, if you learn to row, you learn a lot about symbolism. And I think it's just a lot of fun. Which you use in psychic work, mediumship work, animal communication and all of that other stuff. So I thank you for joining me and go forth and have fun with your to row.