Reddit mentions of The Marseille Tarot Revealed: A Complete Guide to Symbolism, Meanings & Methods

Rider Waite Smith deck

Thoth deck and the Duquette book

Tarot de Marseilles and the Ben Dov book

The 3 most popular Tarot decks are the Marseille Tarot, Waite-Smith Tarot, and Crowley-Harris "Thoth" Tarot. Almost every other deck on the market is some variant of these 'types' of Tarot, just with a different artistic interpretation of the imagery.

This is an awesome Tarot tool and guide

The Marseille Tarot is the classic European deck, it has roots in the early formation of the Tarot in Italy and France during the Renaissance. The symbolism and structure of the 22 Major Arcana, the 16 Court Cards, and the 40 Minor Arcana or Numbered Suits (totaling 78 cards) evolved to an eventual 'standard' form that is best represented in this deck. Most Italian and French decks use the same structure today. My favorite book on interpreting these symbols is The Marseille Tarot Revealed and the matching deck CBD Tarot is amazing. Jodorowsky (yes, the surreal filmmaker) also has a very interesting perspective if you want to go deeper in The Way of Tarot.

The Waite-Smith Tarot is probably the most popular type of deck. The original images were a collaboration between the English magician A.E. Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith. Both were members of the Golden Dawn and incorporated the G∴D∴ symbolic system of Qabalistic correspondences to the Tarot. So things like the Paths of the Tree of Life and Astrology symbols are used in the imagery and structure of the deck. G∴D∴ changed the order of the Major Arcana 8 Justice and 11 Force (Strength), in order to 'fit' the astrological signs for Leo (the Lion in Force) and Libra (the Scales in Justice) with the Qabala correspondence. So now 8 becomes 11.

The other big change made in the Waite-Smith Tarot is the illustration of the numbered suits (Minor Arcana), by using a pictoral scene of human drama, as opposed to just 10 Disks or 5 Swords. This makes the deck a little more user friendly to the oracle, it's less abstract and easier to see the story. This is probably the main reason for its popularity - most modern decks are just redesigns of the art and structure of this deck - but many are highly imaginative and artistic!

Lastly, the Crowley-Harris "Thoth" Tarot brings a new vision and structure from the Magickal system of A∴A∴ and Thelema, and updates the names, symbols, and structure of the deck "for a new aeon". A new collaboration with another English (ex)-Golden Dawn (now A∴A∴/OTO) magician, Aleister Crowley, and artist Lady Freida Harris (also an initiate of A∴A∴) resulted in another magickally powerful and inspirational deck. The biggest change is the restoration of the 8 Justice and 11 Force cards (renamed to 8 Adjustment and 11 Lust), renaming 20 Judgement to 20 The Aeon / 21 The World to 21 The Universe and the reversal of 4 The Emperor and 18 The Star. This is to align with the received wisdom of the Book of the Law:

>All these old letters of my Book are aright; but צ [Tzaddi] is not the Star. This also is secret: my prophet shall reveal it to the wise.--Liber AL vel Legis, I:57

Crowley interpreted this to mean that the order of 18 The Star in the Tarot was mis-aligned. The whole reasoning for the reversal is beyond an ELI5.

So there can be confusion between the 3 systems - but you don't have to use all 3. Find the 1 that appeals to your magical senses.