Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

About me and Tarot. Right now, I am a re-beginner. I used to be a very advanced Tarot reader in the mid to late 1960's when Tarot was making resurgence in popularity. I had the gift of being able to get the meanings from the card and tell the story the layout foretold for the questioners and doing it accurately. The deck I used at that time was a standard Rider-Waite and was a decent product for its time. I stopped reading the cards and haven't even thought about them for the past 50 years. My original deck is long gone. For some reason, almost a month ago I decided to start again. A detailed search led me to believe I would be unhappy with the basic Rider-Waite decks of today. I am fussy about the card stock being at least decent and I will not put up with shabby lithography with today's ability to print nice images. In my search, I found this Hanson-Roberts deck geared toward beginners. And here are the meat and potatoes of my review. This is the perfect deck for beginners. The images and colors are clear and crisp and the coloring stays within the lines. Although there is some of the small detail missing, I believe this is actually an advantage to someone just starting to learn. The images are close up and scream their story to the novice reader. As far as someone more advanced, they would work fine as a travel deck or a casual circumstance deck to do a reading. The box they come in is very sturdy and has a magnetic latch. So as the beginner grows and learns, another deck might get chosen later on, but this one will stay in use over time. The artwork is beautiful. The card stock is decent and should last for a long time. The card size is a little smaller than average but that makes shuffling easier. The images are less intense and will not frighten off the questioners you read for in the beginning who might not be all that well aquatinted with Tarot readings. The little book that comes with this deck is made very well. But it is not useful to learn Tarot reading from. You will still need a good teaching book or two. But once in a while, especially at the beginning, the key word approach of the little book can jog you into reading a particular card when you get stuck. As you progress, you will find little use for it. I was surprised how fast my reading abilities came back to me. Now that I have done a few good readings for people with this deck, I still appreciate it's qualities. I still have the gift and the ability to read the cards came flooding back. I still need to practice to get to the level I used to be at, but these particular cards were a great point to start again from. I have no doubt I will still be using them a lot. If you are a beginner looking for a quality product that you can learn to read from, I highly recommend this deck. Even after you learn, you will come back to them again. And again. And Again.