Why do you love the RWS Deck?

[Athena1111]

Personally, I love it because its straight forward. It is a great go to deck for quick and general messages. I haven't connected with them just yet but I sort of get them. I'm not sure if that makes 100% sense.

[HOLMES]

I don't know if I "love" it , for if I did,, I would devote all my time to it, and not look at other decks ..

but I got lots of decks,, most of them were waite clones, and waite inspired decks for the most part.

I actually don't have the old rider waite as it used to be called..

I do have the universal waite, universal wiate by lo,  the classic lleweyln,, the pictorial key to the tarot.

 

because it was the one In eden grey books series,, it was the one I gelled with it..

it would of been different I think if eden grey had made her series on thoth, and it was widely available,, and all others versions was a vibrant as the white box 1989 I got in Canada..

[gregory]

I don't terribly love the artwork, but as a start point for the symbolism in so many others, it is invaluable. So yes, what you say makes perfect sense to me, Athena1111.

[TheBabelite]

I'm a fan because it hits the sweet spot. I love the Major Arcana in TDM, but the lack of full illustration for the Minor Arcana make sit tough for me to read. Thoth, on the other hand, feels like too much chaos for me - the images are so explosive that I find it incredibly hard to tune into the symbolism and the energy. The whole deck just feels very overpowering to me. Rider-Waite feels very balanced and good for me as a beginner.

 

Also, it was my first or second deck, so that helps.

[DevonCarter]

I wouldn't say I LOVE it, but I do like it a lot more than I thought I would. I have the centennial version that is a bit less... yellow. I find that since so many books use this deck as an example, and so many of my other decks used it as inspiration, it's invaluable to have it to study. And if I'm not sure which deck I want to use, I tend to reach for that one - it just seems simple and straightforward most of the time. Since my version is in a tin, it's also the deck I have in my purse at the moment.

 

When the average muggle thinks "tarot", the RWS is likely the image that comes to their mind - it's what they've seen on TV or movies most often, and on the covers of tarot books at the bookstore, etc. I think that's valuable on it's own, if you'll be reading for others. Some people will expect to see that deck, and might be a bit discomforted by another deck being used. Just having it as an option might seem more "professional" to some querents.

[Eric13]

I just keep going back to this deck for some reason. And it recently dawned on me why.

But I learned on an Italian style TdM deck, My first purchase of a new deck was a Grimaud TdM, and I would always have an RWS around. (Or, a Pamela Colman Smith) I would sell off or give away the RWS, and recently came to regret it because I had a nice Centennial edition that I wish I had back. 

But it's all about the PIP cards. The minors and the pictures that they bring about in meanings. Its all so obvious, and the more I learn and dig deeper into the real meanings and history of decks and what original went into them, the more fascinated I become of the Minors. They are important with significant meanings. Can't say I really appreciated that in them over the years until recently. Then of course I stumbled into an antique shop that had a number of decks for sale so hey, couldn't resist. I'm sticking with the RWS for now. 

[Barleywine]

I have a love/hate relationship with the RWS deck. I find it extremely easy to read with in public settings where I don't want any dead spots in my narrative while I grope for something to say. But I don't like the Pictorial Key to the Tarot much, preferring Eden Gray's reinterpretations of it, and I don't think Smith's images served Waite's vision all that well in many cases. There are many cards where they dovetailed well, but also quite a few where they seemed miles apart. Although I've been assured by RWS scholars that it wasn't the case, I sometimes think that Pixie's personal slant hijacked the cards' intended focus right out from under Waite.

[Eamane]

I learnt with the RWS and it makes perfect sense to me (I do have problems with some cards though), the story line for each suit is clear and the symbolism is easy to track. I wouldn't say I LOVE it, but it's my go to deck, and for some reason it's the meanings related to that deck the ones that come to my head in different situations.

[Talal]

I'm extremely fond of the Rider-Waite deck, even if I don't think Pamela Colman Smith was that great an artist. Being a gay male, my favorite variant of the Rider-Waite is St. Jinx Arcana. It's pretty terrific. That said the Rider-Waite symbols resonate pretty well with me. I particularly love the lemniscate on both the Magician and the Strength card. This tells us that the Divine is infinite creative power (The Magician) and infinite compassion, beginning with the self (Strength). For me, the human story is about balancing those two divine impulses. I love that the two towers, representing the conscious mind, appear as a destination for the crayfish on the Moon card and that one has passed beyond them to reach Death on the Death card.

 

Gender remains pretty heterosexist, but even then, I find the gender-bender situations in real reading to often be very revealing.

 

I've always found the Rider-Waite system to be a little down on thinking. The suit of Swords clearly distrusts detached thought, making it the root of conflict.  Still, the Rider-Waite type deck to be a useful tool. I enjoy it a great deal.

 

 

[Saturn Celeste]

5 minutes ago, Talal said:

my favorite variant of the Rider-Waite is St. Jinx Arcana. It's pretty terrific.

It's a gorgeous deck!  As much as I would love the uncensored version, I bought the censored because it is for my business.  But the St Jinx came out at a time we really needed a strong male deck.  I use the Zodiac cards in past life readings to check out the sign of the life I'm reading about.  Yup, love the deck!!

[Talal]

I'm so excited that you love this deck, Saturn. It seriously brought my readings into tune! 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Talal

[chongjasmine]

I am a fan of it, because so many books were written, based on it.

I love the facts that it is full of many symbolism and colours.

[Arabella]

On 4/24/2019 at 9:24 PM, DevonCarter said:

When the average muggle thinks "tarot", the RWS is likely the image that comes to their mind - it's what they've seen on TV or movies most often, and on the covers of tarot books at the bookstore, etc. I think that's valuable on it's own, if you'll be reading for others. Some people will expect to see that deck, and might be a bit discomforted by another deck being used. Just having it as an option might seem more "professional" to some querents.

For this reason, it was the first deck I bought - Universal RWS (mainly because I liked the colours better, compared to the original or classic). Whilst not a total "muggle" these were the images I grew up with, the cards that said "Tarot" to me. When ever I talked with family or friends about tarot this was the deck they puled out. I'm glad I chose to study it first and only then branched out to other decks. I found it the perfect foundation for my studies and while I would say I love it as my first love, it has been relegated lately in favour of other decks.

A ❤️  

[DanielJUK]

I did learn first with the RWS, I know some people hate it as soon as they see it and I think that is the same for all decks, you never know what will match you personally! I still recommend buying it as a first deck, you probably will want it in your collection forever more. I am not sure I love it either but I think it's an essential deck to tarot. The symbols read so well in what they are trying to say and it was my first experience of reading symbolism really. It still is my go to deck if I need a good reading, I can rely on it. I like to use a range of decks but always come back to it somehow.

 

I do really like it and it's one of my faves but I don't love it, like so many posts here. I think the associations are a bit odd like Christian themes, Golden Dawn themes, it tries to include a variety of schools of thought in it and I think that is a weakness, it tries to shoehorn it all in. I do love the art style though and some of the pics are strange but now they are used to represent all tarot 😂. Every year I realise something or see something I never saw or knew before about that deck, it's a process of learning from it 🙂

[chongjasmine]

Being a christian, personally, I love the RWS christian themes.

[euripides]

On 6/28/2019 at 11:07 AM, Barleywine said:

... I don't think Smith's images served Waite's vision all that well in many cases. There are many cards where they dovetailed well, but also quite a few where they seemed miles apart. Although I've been assured by RWS scholars that it wasn't the case, I sometimes think that Pixie's personal slant hijacked the cards' intended focus right out from under Waite.

Now, Barleywine (nice to 'see' you again!) ... that's an interesting statement. Would you care to elaborate? Should I be reading the LWB or some other source to look for meaning or detail missing from the images?

 

As for why I love it- there is just so much narrative through the deck, and rich imagery grounded in that thread of Medieval tradition. I tend to prefer decks that are closely informed by the original, most of the time, but I find if they start to depart too far, they often lose something.

[katrinka]

It's a very flawed deck, but I do love it - kind of like the way people love one-eyed cats and deaf dogs. The scenes that make the pips easy for beginners to read actually obscure much of the GD meaning. The window is narrowed significantly, and this was intentional.

But I go way back with this thing. From the beginning, the people in the deck looked like people I knew (other than the tights, armor, etc. lol. ) - everybody has longish, early-70's hair. It was a fun era, the deck has pleasant associations. And I do enjoy the color schemes of the University Books and Frankie Albano decks.

Beyond that, it's just practical considerations like "It's the one everybody knows" and "If it gets ruined I can replace it" -things that, while they're important, aren't really indicators of emotional attachment, which tends to be a lot less rational. You could say the same of the Universal, but I don't like that one.

[Barleywine]

14 hours ago, archimedea said:

Now, Barleywine (nice to 'see' you again!) ... that's an interesting statement. Would you care to elaborate? Should I be reading the LWB or some other source to look for meaning or detail missing from the images?

 

As for why I love it- there is just so much narrative through the deck, and rich imagery grounded in that thread of Medieval tradition. I tend to prefer decks that are closely informed by the original, most of the time, but I find if they start to depart too far, they often lose something.

I would suggest a careful reading of the Pictorial Key to the Tarot while closely examining Smith's images, and then go back and look at the Golden Dawn meanings in Liber T, since the RWS deck is allegedly inspired by Waite's (and Smith's) Golden Dawn roots. Much has been said about Waite intentionally concealing those roots, but it looks to me like Smith - herself an initiate - put her own spin on the source material.

[Barleywine]

I did my own comparison of the RWS minor cards to the Golden Dawn source material, which should get you started.

 

https://parsifalswheeldivination.com/2017/10/15/adherence-of-the-rws-pips-to-their-golden-dawn-roots/

[euripides]

6 hours ago, Barleywine said:

I did my own comparison of the RWS minor cards to the Golden Dawn source material...

Oh, thank you. It is interesting to me how symbolism 'works', not only as something intuitive and ancient but even where we deliberately draw on connections and metaphor to create meaning - that's what poetry is, after all. My impression is that modern textual scholarship tends to disregard authorial intention - relativism being the thing - but to me Waite's intentions have value - clearly he was deeply knowledgeable - and it seems to me that rather than separating the text from its author, there's some value in helping to uncover and propagate the thoughts and processes that led to its creation.

[Barleywine]

On 4/24/2019 at 9:24 AM, DevonCarter said:

When the average muggle thinks "tarot", the RWS is likely the image that comes to their mind - it's what they've seen on TV or movies most often, and on the covers of tarot books at the bookstore, etc. I think that's valuable on it's own, if you'll be reading for others. Some people will expect to see that deck, and might be a bit discomforted by another deck being used. Just having it as an option might seem more "professional" to some querents.

I certainly appreciate the RWS as a working deck for public readings, and usually bring a few randomized decks to walk-in sessions so I don't have to do it on-the-fly between readings. Typically it's the Centennial Edition, the Albano-Waite, the Golden Universal, the Radiant and a couple of clones like the Morgan Greer and the user-friendly Robin Wood or Connolly. But there's always an odd one who wants the Thoth, so I bring that too.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Barleywine

[Barleywine]

13 hours ago, archimedea said:

Oh, thank you. It is interesting to me how symbolism 'works', not only as something intuitive and ancient but even where we deliberately draw on connections and metaphor to create meaning - that's what poetry is, after all. My impression is that modern textual scholarship tends to disregard authorial intention - relativism being the thing - but to me Waite's intentions have value - clearly he was deeply knowledgeable - and it seems to me that rather than separating the text from its author, there's some value in helping to uncover and propagate the thoughts and processes that led to its creation.

It may be a consequence of his Victorian style, but I've always found Waite's writing to be maddeningly indirect, and often difficult to link directly to Smith's images. Honoring his vows of secrecy was also on his mind.

[Emily]

It took me a long time to really appreciate the RWS.  My first Rider Waite was the one with the blue Tudor Rose on the back, the so-called 'Original'.  I liked the back but it was the limited colours on the front that bothered me, green water and skies, the Star covered in little red dots, really heavy black outlining.  But I also had issues with the standard Rider Waite, I hated the yellow colour and it is everywhere on these cards. 

 

So I didn't really take to the deck until re-coloured versions came out.  Not like the Radiant or the Universal but decks that had the same outlining as the first Rider Waites but were just coloured better, the Centennial is one and also Lo Scarabeo brought a first version out, not the cartoony one you can get now, and I love the colours on these - muted but very inkeeping with the Rider Waite.  They also brought a mini Centennial in a tin, I have that one too.  :)

[Aylis]

Emily, I can so completely relate!! 🙂

 

When I first began learning Tarot, I purposefully avoided the RWS deck. I worked with clones instead as I didn't like the thick line work or the color palette.

 

That opinion has changed over the years and one of my biggest learning regrets is not having started with the RWS. I started working regularly with the Radiant RWS many years into my Tarot journey. Ironically, it was during that period that I felt I really grew as a reader and my understanding of the imagery became much deeper and more nuanced. This only makes sense as clones are, by their very nature, derivative.

 

My opinion of the deck has changed dramatically and I own several versions of a deck that I vowed I would never buy! I think what I love about it most is its sheer readability and the ease with which you can spin a cohesive narrative. The artwork is deceptively simple but has so much to offer in terms of thought and study. The art style never seems to get dated, either, as art styles so often do with other decks. 

Edited October 11, 2019 by Aylis

[katrinka]

On 9/1/2019 at 7:06 AM, Barleywine said:

It may be a consequence of his Victorian style, but I've always found Waite's writing to be maddeningly indirect, and often difficult to link directly to Smith's images. Honoring his vows of secrecy was also on his mind.

Hey Barley -
Haven't seen you around for awhile. Hope all is well.