Everything Under the Moon

I've seen the cards that are normal tarot cards such as 'the warrior' and 'the wizard' and such like that.
I have this deck of cards, that really called out to me when I was younger. I've had them for a very long time.
Now, they're part of a magic set that I bought specifically for the cards inside, so the cards themselves were made so that on the back there was a sign either / \ | or - to reveal what element the card was.
But I was wondering if tarot cards had to be specific, like a smaller deck of cards.
Heres just 4 cards out of the deck i have:


Did you buy your cards, or make your own?

Greetings!

To answer your first question, a "traditional" tarot deck consists of two major elements; the major arcana and the minor arcana. The major arcana is a set of 22 'trump' cards, such as "The Magician" or "The Empress" or something like that. The minor arcana is a set of 56 cards divided into four suits of ace through 10 and court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King), much like a regular playing card deck. This makes for a total of 78 cards within a traditional tarot deck.

The cards that you have appear to be similar to this system in that they have four suits based on the four elements. Not knowing about all the other cards, I'm not sure how else it compares, but honestly it doesn't really matter that much. If you love these cards and are very drawn to them, they will work for you no matter how they are organized. It does not matter that there are identifying symbols on the backs of the cards unless that bothers you. There are thousands of different styles of tarot decks out there these days, and many of them (even really popular ones) will deviate from the traditional system in some way. What matters is how you feel about the cards and your personal ability to interpret them. If you are interested in exploring other tarot decks, feel free, but don't think that you have to because your deck is somehow "wrong" or anything like that.

To answer your final question, I buy all my tarot cards. I have a couple of different decks and I love them. Maybe some day I'll make my own, but for now, I'm enjoying exploring the decks created by others. Hope that helps!

Blessings,
♥ Siv

Thanks, that does help.
I think my deck is missing a couple cards, but the energies surrounding them should cancel out that fact and adjust to it.
I think with my deck I'd just have to think harder about the meaning to each pulled card, they have names more along the lines of "the green castle", "the standing stones", and "the emperor moths".

Using a deck like that is a really good way to learn to read tarot psychically rather than based off of traditional definitions. By observing the symbolism and images in the cards themselves, you can really awaken your psychic intuition and become a skilled reader. I'm working my way through "Psychic Tarot" by Nancy Antenucci and Melanie Howard and it's really helping me practice.