What is your favorite symbol in the Rider Waite Deck?

[Bodhiseed]

I like how the bottom of the High Priestess's gown looks like rivulets of water.

I also like the crown over the path and between the two mountains on Temperance - it reminds me of the Middle Way. 

[katrinka]

3 hours ago, Barleywine said:

I also like the fish in the Page of Cups, but not for any serious reason. It always makes me think of an imaginary scene from Shakespeare: "Hamlet contemplating the scrod of Yorick."

No Hamlet will ever surpass Jack, and he was a Cups guy in a lot of ways, so it all fits. (The King has a leaping fish, as well.)
 

 

 

As for the cards, being a dog person, I like the canines. The Fool's little yappy one, the dog and Wolf on the Moon, in that odd twilight space when they're indistinguishable. And the two on the 10 of Pents, who are the only ones in the household who recognise Odysseus.

The zodiac signs on the 9S quilt, and the fight scene on the bed. The sphinxes on the Chariot, and the guy's hand on the 10S that's just ambiguous enough that nobody agrees on it. There's a lot of details I like.

 

[JustPeachy]

I adore the Empress and when I first saw this card, I was taken with the symbol on her lower right. It screamed planchette to me from the Ouija board. Little did I know that it was the symbol for Venus, which made me love it all the more!

[Gazelle]

I love Aphrodite’s dove on the Star card, and I love the crayfish (freshwater) or lobster (saltwater) on the Major Arcana Moon card. And I also love the fish in the chalice of the Page Of Cups!!  

[xTheHermitx]

the whole Hermit card has always spoke to me the best...it visually describes me to a T...

I love the way the Light of Ain Soph is depicted in the lantern on the card via the Star of David shape...and how he has a hold of it, but is unaware b/c he is looking down; and how it is still "caged" because the journey is not done yet...

 

[SacredPath]

The lantern the Hermit is holding

[AlbaTross]

I like the symbolism of the stained glass window in the Five of Pentacles.  I like the Biddy interpretation that adds the notion of there being people who can help those struggling out in the cold just on the other side of that wall.  I've come to realize that the material that Arthur Waite's personal interpretation of the card doesn't include that, but it's an intriguing notion nonetheless.  I also really like the symbolism of the spilled cups in the Five of Cups as representing regret.  I like the Ten of Wands for its depiction of an individual carrying a heavy burden on his back, and the much more depressing symbol of the Ten of Swords depicting...ten swords protruding from an individual's back.  

Edited September 4, 2020 by AlbaTross

[Helena]

On 5/9/2018 at 5:29 PM, DanielJUK said:

3. The Moon giving side eye at the person in the Eight of Cups.

Bahahaha...that's what I was going to say! He is so over that guy lol. 

[TheLoracular]

There is so much I love but to pick one?  It would be the lemniscate symbol.  

[WildWoman71]

My favorite card - symbolically - is the Wheel of Fortune...

The four fixed signs, the snake, sphinx and the god of the underworld, the alchemical symbols on the wheel

[katrinka]

The little section of white border that doesn't have a copyright on it on some of my RWS decks. 😁
Of course the old non-USG decks are unblemished. But, oddly, my USG Albano doesn't have it, either. Apparently, whatever agreement was made did not involve Kaplan sticking his copyright on Albano's deck. 😎

[Delta]

On 1/27/2020 at 1:06 AM, SacredPath said:

The lantern the Hermit is holding

I just noticed the star in it the other day. Don't know how I missed it before. It's a lovely card.

 

I think for me it's the Lemniscate symbol on Magician & Strength. Every star and every crescent moon in the deck. I have a thing for celestial bodies 😄

[magicskills36]

I like the infinity symbol in this deck. My favorite card in Rider Waite is the Nine of Cups. 

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[Guest]

Currently studying the Rider-Waite-Smith in great depth and it's the floral and fructal symbolism that I appreciate the most. Lilies, roses, sunflowers, irises, pomegranates, pumpkins(!), grapes, apples, etc.

[gregory]

On 8/17/2021 at 1:18 AM, magicskills36 said:

I like the infinity symbol in this deck. My favorite card in Rider Waite is the Nine of Cups. 

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Something went a bit odd with your spoiler - if you wanted to post the card - here you go !

 

[Mercuria]

What a great thread! 
 

I’ve always liked the single gull flying high above the Queen of Swords, and the wind-blown clouds behind the Knight of Swords. 
 

The collection of knick-knacks in the seven of cups is striking, especially the eerie cloaked figure. 
 

Love the forest where the Queen of Pentacles sits. 

 

 

[nel200586]

My favorite is the Infinity symbol. Infinite opportunity, infinite ability, power, realization, and manifestation. 

[TarotSparks]

Angels (children) carved in stone thrones, symbolizing child-like innocence, but for me, some type of sadness, as these children that are carved there left this world way too early... Butterflies are also interesting to me - symbolizing change, transformation, air, something lightweight, coming so easily and naturally.       

[Misterei]

38 minutes ago, TanjaTheWitch said:

Angels (children) carved in stone thrones, symbolizing child-like innocence, but for me, some type of sadness, as these children that are carved there left this world way too early... Butterflies are also interesting to me - symbolizing change, transformation, air, something lightweight, coming so easily and naturally.       

In the Swords cards, these are cherubs. They're a type of angel that both protects and keeps records. So quite good in Queen of Swords card. Don't know why they look like children. It's odd b/c they have very grown-up jobs.

 

But yes. I love the butterflies. I'm also quite partial to the Zodiac crown of the Empress.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Misterei

[TarotSparks]

21 hours ago, Misterei said:

In the Swords cards, these are cherubs. They're a type of angel that both protects and keeps records. So quite good in Queen of Swords card. Don't know why they look like children. It's odd b/c they have very grown-up jobs.

Interesting! Maybe because children are more tuned in with the Universe compared to adults, more in Alpha and Theta brainwave cycles, which is the same state that a person is in when they are in hypnosis or meditation, they're less limited with the rules of this world.  

[Miemza87]

I love the lion symbols. To me it means strength and passion and emotions that can be controled by us instead of the other way around. 

[Blazer]

The Lantern on The Hermit card. It is a call to separate and come up higher for understand ageless truths. 

[Scandinavianhermit]

The allusion to Rosicrucianism in Two of Wands is pretty neat. Waite used Rosicrucian imagery in the esoteric order he founded, as a splinter group from the Golden Dawn, in 1915, but that order used Waite's other deck in its rituals. Fantasy novelist Charles Williams, horror writer Arthur Machen and the Anglican mystic Evelyn Underhill were members of that order, if I remember correctly.

 

[aetherflow]

It sounds silly and maybe even a bit ''simple'', but I'm very much drawn to The Hermit--particularly his lantern. I feel as though no matter where his journey in self-discovery takes him, he'll never be lost or in the dark. Or he may discover some things about himself he's afraid of but the lantern will help shed some light on as to his discoveries, if that makes sense.

[FindYourSovereignty]

On 3/1/2024 at 9:11 AM, aetherflow said:

It sounds silly and maybe even a bit ''simple'', but I'm very much drawn to The Hermit--particularly his lantern. I feel as though no matter where his journey in self-discovery takes him, he'll never be lost or in the dark. Or he may discover some things about himself he's afraid of but the lantern will help shed some light on as to his discoveries, if that makes sense.

I thought this very same thing yesterday. Even if I am not wanting to declare a favorite, while thinking about the question, this was what came to my mind. I did take it a step further to include that his effort to shine his light welcomes others to shine their own.