Original Rider-Waite Tarot Set
This edition of the Rider-Waite deck restores the original palette that Pamela Colman Smith used in 1909, before the printing processes of later decades shifted the colors toward the brighter, more saturated tones most readers know today. The differences are subtle but meaningful: the sky of The Star appears as a soft minty green rather than pale blue, and the card backs return to their original Tudor rose and lily design. Liz Greene’s foreword places the deck in historical and cultural context, while an updated edition of Arthur Edward Waite’s The Pictorial Key to the Tarot offers the original author’s own interpretation of every card. A Celtic Cross spread guide is also included.
About the Creators
Pamela Colman Smith was born in London and spent her early life moving between Europe and North America as her father’s work required. After her mother’s death when she was ten, she was taken in by friends who worked in the theater. In 1893 she moved to Brooklyn and enrolled at the Pratt Institute, studying art under Arthur Wesley Dow. She returned to England after graduating and built a career as an illustrator and theatrical designer. In 1909, Arthur Edward Waite commissioned her to illustrate his tarot deck, paying her a flat fee. Waite selected her for the work because of her artistic talent, their shared membership in the Golden Dawn, and his belief that her intuitive gifts would help her convey deeper symbolic meaning. Her name was omitted from the original deck in favor of the publisher’s, an injustice the tarot community has increasingly worked to correct by referring to the deck by the name Rider-Waite-Smith. She died in Bude, Cornwall, on September 18, 1951.
What do the cards have in store for you?
Discover our tarot readingsSimilar Decks
