for the past few months I have tried to dive deeper into Waite's original meanings for the RWS Tarot. so, of course, I decided to start by reading the Pictorial Key to the Tarot... however, I soon ran into two obstacles.

first things first, I am not a native English speaker – and Waite's writing style is pretty famous for being complex. so his book is pretty hard to decipher for me in the first place. secondly, I have no knowledge of esoteric subjects such as Kabbalah, astrology, and the like.

these things make it really difficult for me to grasp the contents of the PKT. but I also don't want to give up, which is the reason why I have been re-reading the PKT more carefully, annotating and researching concepts/terms I'm not familiar with as I go.

however, I was wondering: does anyone know if this has been done before? is a commented and/or simplified version of the PKT already available? if not, are there any books that can come in handy as I go about simplifying the PKT?

thank you so much beforehand!

Mine is the high priestess.

I like her mysterious look.

I’d really like to purchase a copy.

best, 

Jay 

- No copyright
- Liveable colors
- Shuffles well
- Doesn't sanitize the details 
- Not a computer typeface
- Pixie's sig present

I can only think of one currently-available (non-vintage) deck that checks each box: The Original Tarot by Da Brigh.

The Centinneal gets a lot of love, but I find the colors too dark, and it has a copyright.

I am currently rocking the Premium Tarot von A.E. Waite from AGM... but it doesn't check box 5: Typeface.

For my reference library, I wanted some great books about the symbolism in RWS, to refer to if I ever need to research symbols. Something more meaty and for reference than books about reading the tarot.

So, do you have a fave or best RWS book like this?

From looking on google, I know there is.....

The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot by Evelin Burger and Johannes Fiebig (this seems to be from a quite Christian perspective according to reviews)

Llewellyn's Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot by Sasha Graham

I don't own any apart from the Pictorial Key in print, so any suggestions / recommendations/ reviews welcome 🙂 

I almost never buy decks - in 40 or so years of reading tarot, I've managed to accumulate six decks in total. For years I read just the Sacred Rose, had a brief foray into the Thoth, but returned to the Rose; and then, three years ago, I bought and fell in love with the Radiant Wise Spirit, which I've been reading ever since. It's a wonderfully vibrant, well-made, sturdy, borderless deck that conveys with very high faithfulness Pamela's original drawings. 

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot, and thought it was beautiful. So, completely on impulse, I bought it, and it arrived today. 

I'll post some photos later. But, right now, sadly, I'm a bit underwhelmed. 

Don't get me wrong: the images on the cards are beautiful, and they're decorated with gold foil, truly stunning. But unfortunately the cards themselves are... well, they're a bit flimsy, the cardstock feels like a deck of cards you'd buy in a corner shop, it's a bit thin, and the colours are a little muted and subtle. The cards themselves are quite narrow, and additionally have a white border, which makes the real estate occupied by the images even smaller. Given those images are effectively RWS clones in an art nouveau style, they need space to breathe, and right now my first impression is that they simply don't stand up to the Radiant Wise Spirit in the slightest. Sure, sometimes the line inking on the RWS is a bit clunky, you lose some of Pamela's stylistic sophistication, but the cards themselves are just so exuberant, larger-than-life, sturdy, things, you really feel like you're handling "an object", which is not currently the vibe I get from the Golden Art Nouveau. 

I'm going to give myself a few days to get used to the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot (GANT?) deck, and see if my initial impressions change. But, right now, compared to the expectations of seeing the artwork online, the physical object is a bit of a letdown, and feels like a lost opportunity. These cards could have been amazing. 

I'll post a proper review later. Right now I just wanted to post my initial take literally 30 minutes after opening the box. 

We'll see!

Blessed be, 

Sarah 

Does anyone use the  Irene Gad  and Jana Riley books

Thank you!

meaning: stealing

my experience: I asked what will my day be like and got 7 of swords, i found out that my sister took the last piece of my chocolate 

2. 3 of cups 

meaning: Having fun, celebrating

my experience: my cousins and I called (and it was the 3 of us) we were having fun and laughing the whole time.

3. the sun

meaning: usually always means positive outcomes 

my experience: I asked if "he" will message me back and got this card along with other cards that i don't remember and he did message me back 

4. The star
meaning: hope, wishful thinking

my experience: I got this card when I asked about what my feelings are for someone and this card popped up and I was wishing that we were on good terms and that there's no tension between us. 

I have more but can't think of any more at the moment

I am creating a guidebook for myself with meanings and keywords.  Another thing I would like to learn is letters that may appear in the shapes on each card.  The psychic I see as well as a workmate practising tarot can both easily see letters in each of the cards.

So for example, on The Fool card, I can see the letter "C" in his right arm and the letter "A" with his legs/the mountain. 

I was wondering if anyone has a list or could help me with finding letters in each of the cards so I can progress to spelling words out when I do my readings. 

Thank you 🙂

I am definitely an RWS Crone.  I know the reasons why. 

*  Started with an RWS deck, so now it's just familiar

*  I'm visual (in other words, I like there are illustrated images that correspond to each card)

*  TdM decks I find BEAUTIFUL, but the pips don't inspire me to read with them

To be honest, I haven't even approached the Thoth, probably for the same reason I didn't pursue the TdM very vigorously.  I'm happy with the RWS decks I have and like reading with them.

KUDOS to all who are "multi-lingual" when it comes to switching effortlessly between RWS, TdM and Thoth.

So...if you are primarily, or only, a reader of RWS decks, WHY? 

I'm a big fan of the art on these cards.

This is an exclusive project for a TV series and is not for sale. I'm curious to know if anyone knows of any similar deck that I can buy.

thanks in advance!

Is there a name for it?

Thanks.

I made a promise to show a pic of the back of the German pressing of the RWS premium edition, and I cannot locate that chat. So Here's a fresh post and I hope

all who desire to see it find the path.

My personal deck is on the left, it is the Centennial edition, standard size. On the right is also a standard, and it is my brand new from across-the-pond A.E. Waite Premium copy, which will be for clients only.

Quite a difference, isn't there?

Which do you prefer?

I’m quite new in tarot world, and I would like to listen to different points of view regarding reading and interpretation of cards.

How would you read in a friendship related question these 3 cards:

First - High Priestess

Middle Page of Pentacles in reverse

Third 4 of wands in reverse

Squeezing their pennies till they gasped, Merrimack condensed Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot into 5 columns of tiny type on 11 inches of folded paper — the LWB is just an unstapled 8 page pamphlet — jammed the Keltic Cross spread into two plain horizontal rows to save space on a divination sheet, and printed up their deck in Hong Kong.

Unsurprisingly the names Rider or Arthur Edward Waite (not to mention Pamela Colman Smith) are nowhere to be found on either box or pamphlet.  This was not the kind of publisher that gave respect to the creators of the product. 

What (besides terrible color separation) makes the Merrimack deck different from the University Books version?  First, the card backs are different. Instead of University Books’ pink ankh, the Merrimack deck sports a brown mosaic tile pattern on the back that's kinda charming.

But more importantly, the face of each card shows keywords from the PKT on the margins. The keywords are ugly and expert Tarot readers probably would not find them in keeping with their dignity, but to the poor novice reader they’re a tremendous advantage. In view of the difficulty of learning how to read Tarot cards in 1961 — even in New York, copies of Waite, Crowley, or P.F. Case’s books can’t have been easy to come by then— putting the keywords on the cards showed real consideration for Merrimack’s potential customers.

What’s funny about the Merrimack keywords is how very strange the ones printed on the Minors seem. The keywords split the deck in two: the Majors are mystic, the Minors pragmatic. When choosing keywords the Merrimack editor evidently skipped PKT pages 1-282 with their involved and verbose interpretations and went for the pithy lists of straightforward meanings in the back of the book.  That is, Part 3 Outer Method of the Oracles, section 3, "Greater Arcana and Their Divinatory Meanings," and section 4, "Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana." Now, Waite’s meanings for the Majors in Section 3 are just what you’d expect. For instance, the Empress is “Activity, Growth, Fertility, Productiveness.” But instead of using Section 4, on the Minors, to make concise restatements of his own interpretations, Waite used it as attic to hold miscellaneous interpretations found in Etteilla, Paul Christian, and others.  They’re old-fashioned, pre-Qabalist, straight from the fortune teller’s lamp: 7 Wands stands for a dark child , Q Swords for a widow, and Q Cups is ‘a woman of uncertain character.’ 3 Pent is ‘Celebrity for a man’s oldest son;’ 4 Pent. is ‘Pleasant news from a lady;’, 3 Swords is ‘Flight of a lady’s lover.’  As a result, doing a reading with these cards can be a real trip if you try to take both Minor and Major keywords equally seriously!

I'm getting it tomorrow, but I won't have the Llewellyn to compare to, so....thoughts?   

A wargame company is using a tarot deck within the miniature game rule set, an occult-infused world war I setting.  This is the deck issued with the book. Here is a pic.

Is this the Tarot Vintage?  or something else?