Instruction manual in English included.
With its fully illustrated scenes on every card in both the Major and Minor Arcana, the Rider-Waite Tarot set the standard for hundreds of other tarot decks worldwide. Originally created in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite, its expressive illustrations have a timeless appeal. The deck's enduring popularity is built on the universal symbolism captured in each of its 78 cards.
The Pocket Rider-Waite Tarot includes an instruction booklet with meanings for both upright and reversed cards, keywords, and an introduction by tarot expert Stuart R. Kaplan.
This is a tarot deck appreciated by beginners and experienced tarot readers alike. The Rider-Waite Tarot belongs in every tarot collection.
The cards were illustrated in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite. Smith's colorful drawings transformed the traditional tarot deck.
"A unique feature of the Rider-Waite deck, and one of the main reasons for its enduring popularity, is that all cards, including the Minor Arcana, show complete scenes with figures and symbols. Before the Rider-Waite Tarot, the pip cards in almost all tarot decks were merely marked with arrangements of the suit symbols – swords, wands, cups, and coins or pentacles. The pictorial motifs on all cards make it possible to interpret them without constantly having to consult explanatory texts. The innovative Minor Arcana, along with Pamela Colman Smith's ability to capture the nuances of emotions and experiences, has made the Rider-Waite Tarot a model for the design of many subsequent tarot decks."
— (from The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume III)
The Rider-Waite Tarot was named one of the top ten tarot decks of all time by Aeclectic Tarot.
Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith was born on February 16, 1878, in Middlesex, England, to American parents. Her childhood was spent between London, New York City, and Kingston.
During her teenage years, she traveled throughout England with the theater company led by Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. She then began formal art studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, graduating in 1897.
Smith then returned to England, where she worked as a set designer for miniature theater and as an illustrator, primarily of books, brochures, and posters. Around 1903, she joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
In 1909, under the guidance of Arthur Edward Waite, she created a series of 78 allegorical paintings that Waite described as a reformed tarot deck. The illustrations were published the same year by William Rider & Son and reflect the artist's mysticism, rituals, imagination, perceptiveness, and deep emotional life.
Arthur Edward Waite
Arthur Edward Waite was born in the USA in 1857 but grew up and was educated as a Catholic in England.
From the age of 21, he dedicated himself to research and writing on psychic and esoteric subjects. Shortly after joining the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he became its Grand Master and shifted the order's focus from magic to mysticism.
The Golden Dawn, whose hierarchical structure was based on the Kabbalah, is considered the single greatest influence on 20th-century occultism.
Waite was a very prolific author of occult texts, works on the Holy Grail, and writings on the mystical knowledge that forms the basis of modern tarot. He is best known as the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck and as the author of its companion volume, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, first published in 1910.
SKU: TIKORIWATAROT2
