Released in 1909 by Rider, this deck became popularly known as the Rider-Waite Tarot, despite the fact that the cards were actually created by an artist named Pamela Colman-Smith. Back in the day, it was not commonplace for a commissioned artist to be credited for their work. Modern readers commonly refer to this deck as the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot today, in honor of the deck's artist who unfairly got the shaft (and to make matters worse, didn't even get paid).
The RWS
Tarot is unquestionably the most popular and influential deck in history. In fact, most people consider this one not to be merely a Tarot, but the Tarot. The reason for this is simple. The vast majority of readers begin by learning this deck, which naturally creates a sense of sentimentality.
A.E. Waite designed this deck to sell out occult secrets of the Golden Dawn and to make Tarot accessible to any lay person who was interested. Before the RWS, only privileged occult initiates knew the Tarot's esoteric role as a tool of divination. Waite decided to revolutionize the Tarot by removing the pip cards in favor of picture cards showing easily interpretted scenes. Pip cards containing occult symbolism required far too much study for impatient beginners to learn. Waite wanted to make it as easy as possible for anyone to pick up and learn quickly without the need for anything more than a little handbook.
It is apparent that this was his goal because he also removed the Golden Dawn method of interpretting the cards with regards to elemental dignities, another thing that required much too much practice for beginners to learn quickly. Black and white may be easy for all to see, but it takes a lot more experience to develop an appreciation for subtle nuances of gray. A.E. Waite chose to make things as easy as possible. He adopted the old Etteilla method of reversals in place of elemental dignities, effectively switching the dignification of cards from manual to automatic. He clearly did everything he could to make Tarot accessible to all.
The vast majority of modern Tarot decks have been made in the vein of the RWS style, including the Diary of a Broken Soul by Ash Abdullah. Without the RWS, the Tarot might still be relegated to obscurity. |
