Tarot Symbols

The Rider-Waite Tarot deck is considered as the most familiar deck used in reading tarot cards. This tarot card deck is well suited for a beginner, as most books and reading tarot courses use Rider-Waite for illustration. The Rider-Waite tarot is often cloned and has become the basis for tarot cards currently being produced.

The original Rider-Waite tarot deck was drawn by Pamela Colman-Smith, as instructed by the tarot scholar and mystic A. E. Waite. The Rider Company published it in 1909. Ever since, it has been the most popular deck used in reading tarot, by novices and scholars alike. The original version of the Rider-Waite tarot is drawn in both black and white and color. Reading tarot cards is not limited to owning the Rider-Waite deck. Instead, more variants emerge from artists who have added their own style to Rider-Waite tarot cards. Most variants are simply added to a personal collection, as many readers still prefer reading tarot with an original Rider-Waite.

The US Games/AGM Muller owns the copyright to the original version of the Rider-Waite tarot deck. However, this version is also a clone. The print plates of the original version of the Rider-Waite tarot deck were destroyed during the London Blitz. Stuart Kaplan took the black and white line art and had them recolored, following Waite’s personal copy of the deck, which he used when reading tarot. Waite’s daughter gave the company, US Games, the permission to claim the copyrights to the deck. It is still the most accurate reproduction of the Rider-Waite deck available.

Reading tarot with a Rider-Waite deck takes your tarot card experience to a different level of excitement, knowing that you are actually looking at the artwork in its historical context. It gives you an authentic and classic view that you can’t get from a modern-day version of a tarot deck. There is a different feeling of connection in being able to touch an almost exact version of the deck. It is a very intellectual and well-researched deck and A E Waite was a highly acclaimed mystic. US Games first edition includes the restoration of the original reverse design of the Rider-Waite deck, which is composed of imprints of Tudor roses and lilies on pale blue background. The beautiful calligraphy of the Rider-Waite deck increases the experience you have whilst reading tarot cards, whatever language it may be.

The Rider-Waite deck is very similar to the earliest tarot decks used in the medieval times, although a few details were changed. The “Pope” card, for example, has been turned into the “Hierophant”, whilst the “Popess” becomes the “High Priestess.” The 19th century occultist, Eliphas Levi, influenced the changes in symbols. “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot”, by A E Waite, was published to provide an introduction to the symbolisms on the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which is the basis of modern tarot designs and interpretations.