This deck is perfectly compatible with the ‘standard’ Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (you can use it with a Waite Tarot book). The Minor Arcana series are named: Rods (Wands), Cups, Swords and Pentacles. The Court cards are Page, Knight, Queen and King.

What brought me to buy this deck was, first of all, a little free money. I decided to buy this deck after seeing a few images of the cards online, such as Temperance and Judgement. The cards seemed very alive and having done a little spiritual reading online with this deck, it seemed to come together perfectly and been very straightforward. I admit having jumped the gun with buying this deck and, at first, was very disappointed with it lacking the ability to give of cold, objective messages (which is very important to me because I often ask cold questions about politics, practical matters, etc.). But, with time, I found that it does possess a very interesting accent. These days I use the standard standard Waite deck for “cold” readings but for the rest of them - and especially love and spiritual readings - the Hanson-Roberts really stands out.

One card I find most annoying, however, is the Seven of Rods. I think the imagery on this card is way too positive (the boy is smiling). According to my experience with that card, there is nothing to smile about it. It usually points to Difficulties and Hardships and sometimes even Failure. The artist seemed to design the card according to its (in my experience, secondary) association with Courage and Successful Effort.

One card I think is really well drawn is the Page of Cups. One can really feel the emotional instability through the turbulent waters behind and sense the innocence through the child’s eyes.

In conclusion, this deck is extremely warm and intimate and fun to work with. You can really feel the people and scenes. But in some ways it is also its weak point, as it often lacks objectiveness and is sometimes a little unrealistic.

You can see all the images of the Hanson-Roberts deck at Tarot.com.