One Spirit Ministries

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life!

Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

The Rider-Waite Tarot deck is probably the most popular tarot deck in use today in the United States. It was first published in 1910 by Rider & Company, a London publisher. Arthur Edward Waite designed the deck in collaboration with Pamela Colman Smith, an American artist. Waite was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, an occult society of the time. Waite considered symbolism of prime importance, so the cards of the Rider-Waite deck were created to communicate esoteric principles through symbols. Waite describes his interpretations in his book The Key to the Tarot, sometimes published with pictures as The Pictorial Key to the Tarot.

Waite made several changes from the tarot deck traditions of the time when he designed his deck. He switched the Strength and Justice cards so that Strength became card 8 and Justice card 11. He and Smith also created full pictorial scenes for the minor arcana numbered suit cards. Before this time, these cards usually showed only the suit symbols as in the Tarot of Marseilles.

The Rider-Waite tarot deck is the model for many modern tarot decks and also has several variants. It is available in 4 sizes (miniature, pocket, regular and giant) and four language styles (spanish, french, german, and five-language). The Rider-Waite illustrates the on-line version of Learning the Tarot.

Rider-Waite Version Number of Cards Size Copyright Order Code Price
Regular 78
22 major/56 minor 2 3/4" x 4 3/4" 1971 0-913866-13-X $15.00 (US)
Miniature " " 1 3/4" x 2 7/8" " " 0-913866-59-8 $10.00 (US)
Pocket " " 2 1/4" x 3 1/2" " " 0-88079-346-5 $12.00 (US)
Giant " " 4" x 6 1/2" " " 0-88079-474-7 $24.00 (US)
Spanish " " 2 3/4" x 4 3/4" " " 1-57281-170-6 $15.00 (US)
French " " 2 3/4" x 4 3/4" " " 0-88079-095-4 $14.00 (US)
German " " 2 3/4" x 4 3/4" " " 0-88079-096-2 $14.00 (US)
Five-Language
Dutch, English, French
German, Italian " " 2 3/4" x 4 3/4" " " 0-88079-304-X $14.00 (US)
Also available - Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Waite - 340 pages - $6.95 (US)
How to Order

[picture of back design]

Back Design: See right

Language of Card Titles:
English (but also see above)

Style of Suit Cards (2-10): Story Pictures

Also Included: instruction booklet, blank card and promotion card

Major Arcana:
Fool, Magician, High Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers,
Chariot, Strength, Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Hanged Man,
Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement, World

Suit Names: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles

Court Cards: King, Queen, Knight, Page

Links to Other Sites:
Wicce review of different Waite decks

SAMPLE CARD IMAGES:

[picture of Queen of Swords] [picture of 6 of Pentacles] [picture of 2 of Wands]

Text based on instruction booklet, U. S. Games Catalog #49 and The Encyclopedia of Tarot: Volume 3 by Stuart Kaplan, pg 272-273.

DECKS

[ Order ] [ Main ] [ Lessons ] [ Cards ] [ Spreads ]

Created 6-4-95 by One Spirit Ministries aka God's Church , Rev. H. Heinz © Copyright , All Rights Reserved, December 26, 1995 by God's Church. Last updated 06/15/2006. We are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) church. We are also affiliated with the World Federation of Practical Christianity (aka World Federation of Independent Unity Churches), Association of Inner and Interfaith Ministries, and friends with Association of Unity Churches, and other New Thought and Religious Science Churches, and other Metaphysics Ministries.