There are plenty of novelty tarot decks that we don’t think of as actually being created for, or appropriate for, conducting serious tarot readings.

My very first tarot deck was a novelty deck. I got “World’s Smallest Tarot Deck” for five dollars from Herman Slater’s Magickal Childe shop in New York City. It was a miniature Waite Rider. I bought it because I felt called to learn tarot but still felt very skeptical about card reading. I simply wasn’t convinced I should invest real money in a proper deck. How silly that seems now!

I soon discovered I couldn’t learn tarot with a miniature deck. I ponied up the money for the standard-sized Rider Waite in the familiar yellow box. This became the first deck I read with professionally eight years later.

I kept the miniature tarot. In fact, I still have it. I used it for tarot magick with good success.

Over the years people have given me novelty tarot sets, many of the miniature. I love to display them in my office and my home.

When preparing to evacuate my home for Hurricane Dorian I snatched Tiny Tarot off the shelf by the door and stuck it in my purse. I was thinking about remedies for boredom during the hurricane and thought that it couldn’t hurt to have a miniature tarot in a little plastic box.

Once I got to the family home further from the flood zone, I had some time on my hands, and started playing with Tiny Tarot for the first time.

I bet you have seen this deck, even if you don’t own one. It is a full Universal Waite in a plastic box with a keychain, measuring all of 1.2” by 1”. It’s published by U.S. Games, Inc.

Here’s what I discovered while playing with Tiny Tarot.

If you really know the card images well, the small cards read every bit as well as normal-sized cards.

You can put the cards in a pouch and reach in and grab the number of cards you want in one hand.

Because you can pull from a pouch you never need to shuffle.

There is something powerful about holding an eleven-card Celtic Cross in your closed fist.

An entire spread fits on a very small surface.

When you come to my office for a reading, I promise I won’t read for you with my Tiny Tarot; I will use normal-sized cards, of course. I also still believe it is very hard to learn tarot with a doll-sized deck.

Yet, doing readings with Tiny Tarot gave this seasoned pro a new perspective on those familiar Universal Waite cards. And new perspective is what tarot is all about, isn’t it?