In 1909, a London publisher released a deck of cards that looked nothing like the tarot people had known for centuries. The pip cards, the twos, threes and fours, showed people in scenes rather than repeating suit symbols. That deck was the Rider-Waite-Smith, and it would become the most influential tarot of the 20th century. Comparing A.E. Waite’s tarot with other decks means understanding how Arthur Edward Waite, working with artist Pamela Colman Smith, broke from the Marseille tradition to create a deck that told a story on every card, not just the trumps.
Definition: What Makes the Waite-Smith Deck Different?
The Waite-Smith tarot, often called the Rider-Waite or Rider-Waite-Smith, is a 78-card deck first published in 1909 by William Rider & Son of London. It is the first deck to illustrate the 56 minor arcana cards with recognizable scenes depicting human figures, actions and landscapes, rather than the abstract patterns of suit symbols used in the Marseille tradition. This innovation made the deck accessible to readers who did not rely on memorized correspondences alone. The deck’s symbolism draws heavily on the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, of which Waite was a member, and on Christian mysticism, Kabbalah and alchemy. The companion book, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, published in 1910, codified the meanings that remain the standard for most English-language tarot reading today.
History and Origins: Why 1909 Mattered
Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942) was a prolific occult writer and a member of the Golden Dawn. He had been dissatisfied with the available tarot decks, which he considered too cryptic and overly dependent on the French tarot tradition. In 1909, he commissioned Pamela Colman Smith, an artist and fellow Golden Dawn member, to produce the artwork. Smith was paid a flat fee of £10 for the entire deck, a fact that still rankles collectors. She completed the 78 paintings in about six months.
The deck was published in November 1909 by William Rider & Son, a publisher of spiritualist and occult texts. The first printing was a small run of about 500 copies. The cards were printed in black and white with hand-colored outlines, a cost-saving measure that gave the deck its distinctive flat, poster-like look. That first edition used the subtitle “Rider’s Tarot” on the box, but the deck quickly became known by the names of its creators.
Waite’s intent was to restore what he saw as the original symbolic system of the tarot, which he believed had been corrupted by French occultists like Eliphas Lévi and by the Marseille tradition. He drew on the Golden Dawn’s complex correspondences of astrology, Hebrew letters and the Tree of Life, but he stripped away the overtly ceremonial elements that made the Thoth deck later so dense. The result was a deck that could be read by anyone with a copy of the companion book.
That break from the Marseille tradition was not just a design choice. It fundamentally changed how the cards were read, and it continues to shape the way most tarot readers work today.
Symbolism and Meaning: A Story on Every Card
The core difference between the Waite-Smith deck and its predecessors lies in the minor arcana. In the traditional Marseille deck, the cards of the suit of Cups, for example, show only the number of cups arranged in a pattern. The Three of Cups would be three cups in a row, with no human figures, no context, no narrative. The reader had to know that this card related to celebration and friendship through a memorized meaning.
Waite and Smith replaced those abstract patterns with scenes. The Three of Cups shows three women in a circle, raising cups in a toast, with fruit and flowers around them. The imagery itself tells the meaning: joy, community, harvest. The Five of Cups shows a figure in a black cloak, head bowed over three spilled cups, with two cups still standing behind. The emotional weight is immediate. The reader does not need to consult a book to sense the loss and regret.
The major arcana was also reworked, though less radically. The Fool, which in the Marseille deck shows a jester walking with a bundle, becomes a young man on a cliff edge, a small dog barking at his heels, a white rose in his left hand. The symbolism of the rose (innocence, purity), the cliff (risk, leap of faith), the dog (instinct, loyalty) all come from Waite’s interpretation of the Fool as the initiate beginning a spiritual journey. The Tower shows a lightning bolt striking a crown atop a tower, figures falling. The Star shows a woman pouring water from two jars into a pool and onto the land, a large star above her, seven smaller stars around it. These images are not arbitrary; each element was chosen by Waite to encode a specific meaning from the Golden Dawn’s correspondences.
The influence of Christian mysticism is evident in the deck. The Hierophant, the Pope in Marseille decks, becomes a figure with a triple cross and two keys, representing the keys of St. Peter. The Last Judgment card shows an angel blowing a trumpet, the dead rising from graves, a clear reference to the Book of Revelation. Waite was a devout Christian esotericist, and he saw the tarot as a vehicle for spiritual truth, not just a tool for fortune-telling.
Practices and Traditions: How the Deck Changed Reading
The Waite-Smith deck did not just change the images; it changed the way people read. Before 1909, most tarot readers in the English-speaking world relied on the French divinatory meanings of Etteilla, which were complex and often arbitrary. The Marseille readers used a system of “number and suit” combined with the positions of the cards in the spread. The Waite-Smith deck made the imagery itself the primary source of meaning.
The standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck also came with a booklet, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, which gave meanings for each card upright and reversed, plus a few spreads. That booklet became the default reference for the “Waite system” of tarot reading. It is still the most common system taught in English-language tarot classes and books today.
The deck’s popularity also fueled the explosion of tarot publishing in the later 20th century. Most modern decks, from the Wild Unknown to the Thoth-influenced decks, either copy the Waite-Smith imagery directly or reinterpret it. The deck is the baseline. When a publisher says “based on the Rider-Waite system,” they mean the cards have illustrated scenes on the minors, and the meanings follow Waite’s Pictorial Key.
Comparisons: Waite-Smith vs. Marseille vs. Thoth
The Marseille tarot is the oldest surviving standard deck, with the earliest known example dating to the 15th century, though the name “Marseille” comes from the 18th-century French printing tradition. The deck has 22 trump cards and 56 pip cards with abstract suit symbols. The art is simple, almost folk-art. The meanings are not in the images but in the tradition of reading. A Marseille reader might look at the Ten of Swords and see ten swords arranged in a pattern, not a man lying on the ground with swords in his back. The Marseille deck demands a more intellectual, memorization-based approach.
The Thoth deck, created by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris between 1938 and 1943, is the most complex of the three. The Thoth deck also uses illustrated scenes on the minors, but the imagery is dense with astrology, alchemy, Egyptian mythology and Crowley’s own Thelemic philosophy. The colors are bold, the figures are often abstract or grotesque. The Thoth deck does not have a single “Pictorial Key” that is as widely used as Waite’s; Crowley’s The Book of Thoth is a dense philosophical treatise. The Thoth deck is more suited to advanced readers who want to integrate multiple systems of correspondences.
The Visconti-Sforza decks from the 15th century are the oldest known tarot cards, created for the Milanese aristocracy. They have no numbered minors, only the trumps and court cards, and the imagery is Renaissance courtly. They are historical artifacts, not practical reading tools.
The Waite-Smith deck sits between the Marseille and the Thoth in terms of complexity. It is accessible enough for a beginner but deep enough for a lifetime of study. The images are simple enough to read intuitively, but the symbolism is layered enough to support esoteric exegesis.
Common Misconceptions
The deck is often called “Rider-Waite,” but that omits the artist. The correct and respectful name is Rider-Waite-Smith. Pamela Colman Smith was not simply a hireling; she made artistic decisions that shaped the deck’s enduring appeal. Her style, a blend of Art Nouveau, Japanese woodblock prints and theatrical illustration, gives the deck its emotional warmth.
Another misconception is that the deck is purely Christian. Waite was a Christian mystic, but he also drew on Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy and astrology. The Sun card shows a child on a white horse, not a Christian sun-god. The World card shows a dancing figure with a wreath, not a resurrection scene. The deck is a synthesis of Western esotericism, not a catechism.
Some believe that the Waite-Smith deck is the “original” tarot. It is not. The Marseille tradition is older by centuries. The Waite-Smith deck is a radical reinterpretation, not a restoration.
FAQ
Is the Rider-Waite-Smith deck the same as the Marseille deck?
No. The Marseille deck uses abstract suit symbols on the minor arcana, while the RWS deck shows narrative scenes. They belong to different traditions.
Which deck is better for beginners, RWS or Thoth?
The RWS deck is generally easier for beginners because the imagery is intuitive and the companion book is straightforward. The Thoth deck requires more study of esoteric correspondences.
Why does the Waite-Smith deck have different names?
The deck is called Rider-Waite after the publisher and the author, but many now add Smith to credit the artist. The official title is Rider-Waite-Smith.
Can I use the same meanings for all decks?
Meanings can vary. The Marseille deck relies on a different system, and the Thoth deck has its own set of keywords. The RWS meanings are the most common in English-language tarot books.
Closing
The Waite-Smith deck is not the only tarot. It is, however, the one that made the minor arcana visible. For readers who want to understand how the images themselves carry meaning, the RWS deck is an essential starting point. The deck’s influence can be seen in nearly every modern tarot publication. To explore the deeper structures of the tarot, see our tarot guide for a full overview of systems and traditions. For a deeper look at the symbolism of the major arcana, visit our glossary of tarot symbols. And if you wish to compare the Waite-Smith deck directly with the Thoth tradition, our detailed comparison guide covers the differences in practice and philosophy.