Rider Waite Tarot Cards

Welcome to “Rider Waite Tarot Cards” where I hope you’ll find all you need to know about this most popular of all the tarot decks. The Rider Waite deck has been around since 1909 but remains as popular as ever.

The Rider-Waite tarot deck is the most popular Tarot deck in use today in the English-speaking world. Over the years it has been known in such various guises as the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith, Waite-Colman Smith or simply the Rider deck.

The images were drawn by artist Pamela Colman Smith, to the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite, and published by the Rider Company. While the images are deceptively simple, almost child-like, the details and backgrounds hold a wealth of symbolism. The subjects remain close to the earliest decks, but usually have added details.

Significantly, Waite had the Christian imagery of older tarot cards toned down—the “Pope” card becoming the “Hierophant”, the “Popess” becoming the “High Priestess”. The minor arcana are also fully illustrated with designs created by Pamela Colman Smith. The chief aesthetic objection to this deck is the crude printing of colours in the original: other decks, such as the Universal Waite deck, simply copy the Smith line drawings, but with more sophisticated coloring.

The cards were originally published in December 1909. In 1910, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite was published, giving readers an overview of the traditions and history behind the cards, as well as critcising various interpretations that had been made previously. He also provided extensive descriptions of their symbols, along with 78 black and white plates of each card in the deck.

Ideal for beginners,the Rider Waite Tarot cards are loved just as much by more experienced and professional tarot card readers. Whether you fall into the beginner category or not, I hope you’ll take the time to look around the site, and discover more about the Rider Waite deck and Tarot in general.

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