Build a Major Arcana comparison notebook
A Major Arcana comparison notebook works best when it starts with one named card in two identified decks. Titles and numbers can vary between editions, and similar images can support different explanations. Begin with the details you can inspect on the cards you actually have.
Choose a comparison that contains a difference
For the first page, select Strength in one deck and a card that appears to correspond to it in another. Copy each printed title and number separately. If either is missing, record the omission. Avoid renaming the second card to make the pair look tidy.
Waite's Strength entry provides a primary example with the number VIII and an author discussing his chosen imagery. That supports a page about this specific presentation. A second deck needs its own image and guidebook evidence. A visually similar card is not sufficient evidence that its author intended every meaning found in Waite.
You can begin with a deck you own and a library book that reproduces another edition. Write the page number and image credit so you can find it again. Access to a photograph does not automatically grant permission to publish it.
Make a page with room for uneven evidence
Divide a notebook page into two broad columns. Put the card identification at the top, then reserve space for visible details and the guidebook's explanation. Leave the comparison itself for the bottom. This keeps the source-specific material from disappearing into an early summary.
One column may remain much shorter. You might have a full guidebook for your own deck and only a catalog image for the other. Say that the second author's interpretation is unavailable. Filling that space with a familiar meaning would conceal the evidence gap.
Record color cautiously when working from reproductions. A screen, scan, or printing can affect the appearance. You can describe the reproduction as it appears while avoiding a claim that the original card had exactly that shade.
Compare a single feature
Choose the relationship between a human figure and an animal, if those are visible in both cards. Describe hand placement and posture. Then consider possible readings: restraint, cooperation, risk, or care. These are proposed responses to the image until a source or the deck's author supplies an interpretation.
Ask what changes if the human looks away, if the animal's mouth is open, or if the setting becomes crowded. You are investigating the effect of a compositional difference. There is no need to claim that the entire meaning of the card changes with one small feature.
A short invented example can help. In a fictional modern deck, the artist shows a handler tending an injured animal. Its fictional guidebook describes patience during recovery. Your notebook should label both details as invented, then explain that applying Waite's wording without checking would miss the new scene's stated emphasis.
Keep history separate from resemblance
A similar gesture can prompt a research question about influence. Establishing influence requires evidence such as an artist's statement or publication history. A comparison notebook can record “similar composition; relationship unverified.” That is enough for the first session.
Avoid a chronological story assembled from card numbers alone. The number printed on a card tells you its place within that deck's ordering. It does not, by itself, tell you when the image was designed or how the artist encountered another deck.
If you later find reliable evidence of an influence, add it with a source and date. Keep your earlier visual comparison intact so you can see which conclusions depended on the new information.
Test a reading question against both versions
Use an ordinary fictional prompt: “What would patience look like while learning to speak in public?” Write two short responses, each using only one deck's scene and stated guidebook meaning. One response may emphasize steady repetition, another listening to feedback. Attribute those choices to your interpretation of each version.
Then identify one sentence that could fit almost any card. “Trust yourself and keep going” adds little to the comparison. Replace it with a detail tied to the pictured action or remove it.
Close the session by choosing what to inspect next: another card by the same artist, the deck's introduction, or a catalog entry about its publication. A useful notebook can contain open questions for months without needing to turn every resemblance into a historical claim.