Buy this deck › — €34.99 to €55.99, in stock, ships from our EU warehouse. UK customers are shown £ at checkout.

Ships to Germany, France, Italy and Spain. This deck is printed and stocked for our European and UK customers. It is not currently sold in the United States or Canada.

A full 78-card deck built on the oldest continuously practised tarot tradition in the world. The Marseille system was codified in France during the 17th and 18th centuries, roughly two centuries before the 1909 English deck, so reading with it means using the same visual framework European readers have relied on for over 300 years.

Tarot de Marseille - Vintage Edition by Dark Forest Tarot Cards

What this deck is

This edition reproduces that heritage with faithful vintage-style artwork on white tarot cardstock with anti-scratch lamination, so the deck survives regular shuffling rather than only looking good on a shelf.

Every set includes the 78 cards and a printed guidebook. The larger sets add a rigid box, a cloth bag or a reading cloth, depending on which you choose.

What makes Marseille different in practice: the numbered suit cards are patterns rather than painted scenes. You read them by number, suit and position instead of by illustration, which is slower to learn and, once learned, far less suggestible — nothing in the picture is telling you what to think. Readers who move to Marseille from an illustrated deck usually say the same thing: the Majors get louder and the Minors stop narrating.

The Majors themselves differ too, and not only in language. Justice and Strength sit at VIII and XI, the reverse of the order the 1909 English deck adopted. The card English readers know as The Hierophant is Le Pape, the Pope; the High Priestess is La Papesse; The Magician is Le Bateleur, a street conjuror rather than a mage; The Tower is La Maison Dieu, the House of God. One Major, the thirteenth, carries no name at all on a traditional Marseille deck — a deliberate silence that English decks filled in with the word Death.

Who it suits. It suits readers who already know an illustrated deck and want to hear the cards without a painter speaking over them. It suits anyone reading in French, Italian or Spanish, where this is the native tradition rather than an import. It suits collectors, because a Marseille deck is a historical object as much as a tool. It does not suit a first deck: without scenes on the numbered cards there is nothing for a beginner guide to describe, which is why almost every English-language tarot book is written around the 1909 pictures instead.

How we print it. White tarot cardstock with anti-scratch lamination, cut to the standard tarot size rather than the narrower playing-card format some reproductions use, so the pip patterns have room to stay legible. We print our own decks, which is why the stock, the lamination and the trim are choices rather than whatever a supplier shipped.

Sets and prices

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Shipping and returns

  • Dispatched from our EU warehouse. We process orders in 1–2 business days; delivery to the UK and EU takes 3–5 business days after dispatch.
  • Shipping is free from €59. Below that it is €4.90 at checkout.
  • 14-day returns from the day the deck reaches you. Return shipping is paid by the buyer unless the deck is faulty or we sent the wrong item.
  • Full terms: shipping policy · refund policy

Frequently asked questions

Is Tarot de Marseille harder for a beginner?

Harder at first, yes: the numbered cards carry no scene to read, so you work from number, suit and position. If you want to start reading on the first evening, an illustrated 1909 deck is the kinder choice — see tarot decks for beginners. If you want the older tradition and are willing to learn its logic, this is the deck.

How is it different from the 1909 English deck?

Two centuries older, French rather than English, and the Minor Arcana are pip patterns rather than painted narratives. Several card names and the order of two Majors differ as well. The long comparison is in our Tarot de Marseille guide.

Can I buy it in the United States?

Not today. This edition is printed and stocked for our European and UK customers; it is not in the US catalogue. The decks we do sell in the US are in all tarot decks.

Why are Justice and Strength the other way round?

Because Marseille keeps the older order: Justice is VIII and Strength XI. The 1909 English deck swapped them for reasons of its own astrological scheme. Neither is a misprint — if you read with both traditions, keep the numbering of whichever deck is on the table.

Are the suit cards illustrated?

No, and that is the point. The numbered cards are pip patterns — four cups, seven coins — so you read them from number, suit and position. If you want painted scenes on every card, you want a 1909-based deck: those are in borderless vintage tarot decks.

Which guidebook do I need?

Every set includes our printed guidebook. Marseille-specific reading is a tradition of its own, and our free Tarot de Marseille guide covers the card names, the numbering and how to read pips without pictures.

What is in each set?

The 78 cards and the printed guidebook in every option. The larger options add a rigid box, a velvet bag or a cotton reading cloth; the list above prices each one, and the same accessories sold separately are in tarot accessories.

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