Learn Tarot Online with Amanda Goldston

Posted By Amanda on December 20, 2009

December 2009 marks the Centenary of the first edition the Rider Waite deck of Tarot cards, which was created by the mysticist and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Arthur E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith.

US Games have produced a centenary edition of the cards, which include copies of some of Pamela Coleman Smith’s original drawings. The set looks gorgeous and I can’t wait to get hold of my copy.

Here is the flyer for the Book and Card deck set.

You can buy the set from Amazon.

That deck of cards has had a huge impact on the Tarot world and has been the benchmark for most of the huge plethora of tarot cards that have been designed and used since then.

The deck was revolutionary in its day because it was the first time that all of the cards, including those of the Minor Arcana, had been represented by different and distinct images, instead of by what were referred to as “pips”, which were symbols that in many ways were more reminiscent of playing cards.

I started out with a Rider -Waite-Smith deck in 1993. It was lovely, as it had beautiful gold edges around it. It eventually got so worn that I could no longer see the images, so I use the Universal deck now. This has softer, more pastel images, and has really lost some of the more striking colours of the Original deck.

For someone who had so much amazing talent, Pamela Coleman Smith really was not recognised in her own day and died penniless in 1951 in Cornwall (UK).  This may have been partly due to the lack of value placed on women in the Arts world in her era or a more profound unhappiness with herself.

I have been reading about her life and works and she was a fascinating person. According to one article I read, she had the ability to draw as a picture what she could hear in Music.

It appears that she may have had some considerable input from Arthur Waite into the design of the Major Arcana, however it would seem that she had a fairly free reign in designing the cards of the Minor Arcana. It also appears that the whole project was completed in the space of about 7 months in 1909.

Here are a couple of resources you might like:

Interviews with Tarot Authors about Pamela Coleman Smith

FREE Screensaver using some original 1910 Tarot Cards

Please enjoy.

With abundant blessings.

Amanda Goldston

Tarot Author and Coach

Categories: Tarot, learn tarot
Tags: amanda goldston, centenary smith, goldston, learn tarot, pamela coleman smith, read tarot cards, rider waite, rws tarot deck, tarot deck