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A scholar in a London library in 1909, Arthur Edward Waite, sat with a deck of cards that had not changed its core images in over two centuries. He decided to change them. A.E. Waite’s tarot compares to other historical tarot figures primarily through his radical decision to illustrate every pip card with a narrative scene, breaking a 200-year tradition of abstract geometric patterns. No tarot designer before him had done this. No designer after him has escaped his shadow.

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck (published 1910, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith under Waite’s direction) is the single most influential tarot deck in the English-speaking world. Understanding how Waite compares to his predecessors and successors is understanding how modern tarot reading itself was invented.

What Exactly Did Waite Change That No One Else Had?

What Exactly Did Waite Change That No One Else Had

Before Waite, tarot decks followed a visual logic established in 15th-century Italy. The 22 Major Arcana cards (the Trumps) carried elaborate allegorical scenes: The Fool, The Magician, The Empress. But the 56 Minor Arcana cards (the pips) showed only the number of cups, wands, swords, or pentacles arranged in patterns. A reader had to memorize meanings or consult a booklet. The cards themselves told no story.

Waite, working with Smith, gave every pip card a full illustration. The Five of Cups shows a figure in a black cloak staring at three spilled cups while two remain upright behind him. The Ten of Swords shows a man pinned to the ground with ten swords in his back, a black sky above, a red dawn on the horizon. These images did not exist in any tarot deck before 1910.

This was not a minor design choice. It was a philosophical break from every tarot tradition that preceded it.

The Historical Tarot Figures Waite Stood Against

The Historical Tarot Figures Waite Stood Against

The Visconti-Sforza Decks (c. 1450)

The oldest surviving tarot decks were painted for the Visconti and Sforza families of Milan. These were hand-painted luxury objects, not reading tools. The pip cards showed gold-leafed geometric arrangements of cups and swords. The Trumps depicted figures from classical allegory and courtly life: a chariot, a hermit, a wheel.

Waite’s difference: Where the Visconti-Sforza decks were aristocratic and opaque, Waite’s was democratic and readable. A peasant could look at the Rider-Waite-Smith Ten of Wands and see a man carrying a heavy burden. The Visconti-Sforza Ten of Wands showed ten sticks. That was the entire image.

The Marseilles Tarot (c. 1650-1800)

The Tarot de Marseilles became the standard European deck by the 18th century. Its pip cards used simple, stylized patterns: cups arranged in symmetrical rows, swords crossing each other. The Trumps were bold but static: a figure in a hat, a skeleton with a scythe. The Marseilles deck was designed for playing games (tarocchi) and for the emerging practice of cartomancy, but its images gave the reader almost no narrative help.

Waite’s difference: Waite kept the Marseilles structure (78 cards, same suits, same Major Arcana sequence) but replaced abstraction with psychology. His Fool is not a generic wandering figure. He is a young man at a cliff’s edge, a small dog at his heels, a white rose in his hand. The image tells a story of innocence about to become experience. The Marseilles Fool is a man with a feather in his cap. That is all.

Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738-1791)

Etteilla was the first professional tarot reader and the first to publish a dedicated divinatory tarot deck (1789). He reversed the order of the Major Arcana, assigned astrological correspondences to every card, and wrote extensive manuals. His deck included illustrated pips, but they were crude and literal: the Ace of Cups showed a cup with water pouring out, the Two of Cups showed two cups.

Waite’s difference: Etteilla’s pips were illustrated but schematic. Waite’s were symbolic narratives. The Rider-Waite-Smith Two of Cups shows a man and a woman exchanging cups, a caduceus between them, a lion’s head above. It is not two cups. It is a relationship. Etteilla told you what a card meant. Waite showed you.

The Golden Dawn System (1888-1900s)

Waite was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and his deck is unthinkable without it. The Golden Dawn’s secret teachings assigned elaborate astrological, numerological, and qabalistic correspondences to every card. They created a system of “paths” connecting the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life.

Waite’s difference: The Golden Dawn’s own tarot (the “Book T” system) was a theoretical framework, not a published deck. Waite took their esoteric structure and made it public, visible, and usable. He stripped the secret society’s jargon and replaced it with images that a non-initiate could read. The Golden Dawn’s High Priestess is a complex qabalistic diagram. Waite’s High Priestess sits between two pillars, a scroll in her lap, a pomegranate curtain behind her. The esoteric meaning is still there. But you can see it.

What Waite Borrowed and What He Invented

Waite was not an original thinker in the way Etteilla or Crowley were. He was a compiler and a synthesizer. His genius was selection.

Borrowed: The Marseilles structure. The Golden Dawn’s astrological and qabalistic attributions. Etteilla’s idea of illustrated pips. The medieval allegorical tradition of the Trumps.

Invented: The narrative pip. The psychological reading. The deck that teaches you how to read it just by looking at it. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is the first tarot that a beginner could pick up and start reading without a manual, because every card tells a story.

How Waite Compares to Crowley and the Thoth Deck

Aleister Crowley, another Golden Dawn member, published his Thoth Tarot in 1944 (painted by Lady Frieda Harris). Crowley despised Waite. He called the Rider-Waite-Smith deck “a pack of cards for children.”

The comparison is revealing. Crowley’s Thoth deck is denser, more abstract, and more deliberately obscure. The Thoth Two of Cups shows a lotus, a rose, and a chalice with a scorpion, all arranged according to Crowley’s Thelemic cosmology. It requires study. Waite’s Two of Cups shows two people in love. It requires looking.

Crowley’s deck is for the initiate who has read his books. Waite’s deck is for anyone who has ever felt something. That is not a criticism of Crowley. It is a description of two different philosophies of esoteric transmission. Crowley believed knowledge should be earned. Waite believed it should be shared.

The Aleister Crowley Comparison, Extended

Crowley’s Thoth deck (1944) is the only other tarot that rivals Waite’s in influence. The two men were contemporaries in the Golden Dawn, and they despised each other. Crowley called Waite a “pompous fraud.” Waite called Crowley a “black magician.”

The decks reflect this rivalry. Crowley’s pip cards are almost as abstract as the Marseilles. The Thoth Five of Cups shows a geometric arrangement of cups with a lotus, not a grieving figure. Crowley’s Trumps are dense with Egyptian, astrological, and alchemical symbols. Waite’s Trumps are human.

Which is better for reading? It depends on what you want. Waite gives you immediate emotional access. Crowley gives you a system to study for years. Most modern readers use Waite. Most collectors own Crowley. The two decks represent the two poles of esoteric tarot: accessibility versus depth.

The Modern Legacy: Every Deck After Waite

Every tarot deck published after 1910 is a response to Waite. Some copy him directly (the Universal Waite, the Radiant Rider-Waite). Some rebel against him (the Thoth, the Tarot of the Witches). Some translate his system into other cultures (the Tarot of the Spirit, the African American Tarot). Some deconstruct him (the Wild Unknown, the Fountain Tarot).

The key fact: No deck has replaced the Rider-Waite-Smith as the standard. It remains the most printed, most studied, and most used tarot deck in the world. The Marseille decks are for historians. The Thoth is for initiates. The Waite is for everyone.

Common Misconceptions About Waite’s Tarot

“Waite designed the deck himself.” He did not. Pamela Colman Smith drew every card under his direction. Waite wrote the meanings. Smith created the images. She was a working artist, a stage designer, and a member of the Golden Dawn. She died in poverty in 1951. Her name is finally being restored to the deck’s title.

“The deck is called the Rider-Waite.” The full title is the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Rider was the publisher. Waite was the scholar. Smith was the artist. The omission of Smith’s name is a historical injustice that the tarot community is slowly correcting.

“Waite invented tarot reading.” He did not. Cartomancy existed for centuries before him. Etteilla published a full divinatory system in 1789. What Waite invented was the illustrated pip that made tarot reading accessible to anyone who could look at a picture.

“The deck is Christian.” Waite was a Christian mystic, and the deck contains Christian symbolism (the Pope, the Last Judgment). But the deck draws equally from Kabbalah, astrology, alchemy, and medieval allegory. It is syncretic, not sectarian.

FAQ

Did Waite believe in the supernatural power of tarot? He was ambivalent. He wrote extensively on tarot as a system of symbolic wisdom but distanced himself from fortune-telling. He saw the deck as a tool for spiritual reflection, not prediction.

Why is the deck called Rider-Waite instead of Waite-Smith? The publisher William Rider owned the copyright. Smith’s name was omitted from the original publication. Modern editions increasingly credit her.

Is the Rider-Waite-Smith deck still in print? Yes. It has never gone out of print since 1910. It is available from multiple publishers in multiple editions.

How does Waite’s deck compare to the Marseille for reading? The Marseille requires memorized meanings or a guidebook. The Waite-Smith can be read intuitively by looking at the images. Most modern readers prefer the Waite-Smith for this reason.

The Man Who Made Tarot Modern

Waite was not the most original thinker in tarot history. Etteilla was more innovative. Crowley was more systematic. The Golden Dawn was more esoteric. But Waite did something none of them did: he made tarot readable. He took a system that had been the property of aristocrats, occultists, and scholars and gave it to anyone with eyes.

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is not the most accurate tarot. It is not the most esoteric. It is not the most beautiful. It is the most human. And that is why it has survived every trend, every competitor, and every critic for over a century.

For a deeper look at how the tarot system works, explore our complete guide to tarot. For the specific symbolism Waite used, see our glossary of tarot symbols. And for a comparison of reading methods across decks, read our guide to tarot reading techniques.