The Tarot of Ideals

A Nihilist Deck

This is a minimalist deck for when you want to rebel against tradition altogether.  You will need two identical poker decks (I got mine at the Dollar Store) and a fine-point Sharpie (I used two, one red and one black).

The first deck represents (most of) the minor suit cards.  Spades are swords, diamonds are coins, clubs are rods, and hearts are cups.  The Jacks are Pages or Valets.  There are no Knights in a poker deck, so I used the Kings from the second deck, and corrected the name with a Sharpie:

Use the Ace through Ten of the second deck for trump cards 1-10, and simply write the name of each card on it.  I used red for even numbers and black for odd, to make consulting the I Ching easier.  Then use another Ace through Ten for cards 11-20, prepending the digit 1, or changing the 1 to a 2 as the case may be.  A Deuce is converted to 21 for the World card.

And last but not least . . . .

I keep my deck in a Ziploc bag.

If you want to use reversals, you will need to write something on all the minor suit cards, such as the suit name.

Blank playing cards are available from the usual online outlets, but the Dollar Store cards were cheaper and easier.

Card images from Wikimedia Commons.