Concordia Style Boutique

The Rider Tarot Deck®

Name: The Rider Tarot Deck®
Brand: Concordia Style Boutique
SKU: 091386613X
Price: 29.76 USD
Availability: InStock

$29.76 USD

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Rider-Waite Tarot has set the standard for hundreds of other tarot decks, which follow the archetypal images created by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909 under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite. This edition includes Smith's original hand-drawn titles."A unique feature of the Rider-Waite deck, and one of the principal reasons for its enduring popularity, is that all of the cards, including the Minor Arcana, depict full scenes with figures and symbols. Prior to the Rider-Waite Tarot, the pip cards of almost all tarot decks were marked only with the arrangement of the suit signs—swords, wands, cups, and coins, or pentacles. The pictorial images on all the cards allow interpretations without the need to repeatedly consult explanatory text. The innovative Minor Arcana and Pamela Colman Smith's ability to capture the subtleties of emotion and experience have made the Rider-Waite Tarot a model for the designs of many tarot packs." (from The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume III) Rider-Waite Tarot was named one of the Top Ten Tarot Decks of All Time by Aeclectic Tarot.Pamela Colman. Smith was born on February 16, 1878, in Middlesex, England to American parents. Smith's childhood years were spent between London, New York, and Kingston, Jamaica. During her teens, she traveled throughout England with the theatre company of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. Thereafter, she began formal art training at the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, graduating in 1897.Smith returned to England, where she became a theatrical designer for miniature theater and an illustrator, mainly of books, pamphlets, and posters. Around 1903, she joined the Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1909, under the guidance of Arthur Edward Waite, she undertook a series of seventy-eight allegorical paintings described by Waite as a rectified tarot pack. The designs, published in the same year by William Rider and Son, exemplify the mysticism, ritual, imagination, fantasy, and deep emotions of the artist. Arthur Edward Waite was born in America in 1857. Waite was raised and educated as a Catholic in England. Beginning at the age of 21, Waite pursued research and writing on psychical and esoteric matters. Soon after joining the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he became the Grand Master and redirected the focus of the order from magic to mysticism. The Golden Order, whose structural hierarchy was based on the Kabbalah, is considered the single greatest 20th-century influence on the occult. Waite was a prolific author of occult texts, works on the Holy Grail, and the body of mystical knowledge that comprises the basis of modern Tarot. He is best known as the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck and author of its companion volume, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, first published in 1910.

Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

The original and only authorized edition of the famous 78-card Waite tarot deck.

Rider-Waite was named one of the Top Ten Tarot Decks of All Time by Aeclectic

— High quality card stock.

— Crisp, clear images.

— Superior varnish ensures durability and ease of shuffling.

In 1909, artist Pamela Colman Smith’s involvement with the Order of the Golden Dawn led to a commission from Arthur Edward Waite to create a 78-card tarot deck. Originally known as the Rider Deck, it was the first to include full pictorial scenes for the Minor Arcana pips. Pamela’s varied mystical influences are evident throughout the deck. Once considered revolutionary, the Rider-Waite deck has set the standard for hundreds of other decks and has inspired a myriad of different versions available from U.S. Games Systems, Inc.