Tarot Deck

The most well known and widely used tarot deck is the Rider-Waite deck. This deck was conceived by Arthur Edward Waite and was originally distributed in 1910 by the London publishing house Rider & Company. The American artist, Pamela Coleman Smith, is responsible for the artwork. The Rider-Waite is the deck that all modern tarot decks are based on. The artwork is also the most familiar and most recognized by the average person.

Arthur Edward Waite also wrote an accompanying book that explained and introduced this tarot deck called The Key to the Tarot. His deck and book were very different from the traditional tarot decks and explanations of the period, but became so popular that they completely overshadowed previous decks.

There are hundreds of other tarot decks in existence. Many, like the Aquatic Tarot deck, are simply artistic updates of the original Rider-Waite. The Aquatic Tarot is nicely done in watercolor. The Coleman Smith Tarot deck uses the original Rider-Waite deck drawings, but has updated the colors to be more vibrant and varied.

Many decks are different in symbolism, design, and focus from the Rider-Waite. The Voodoo Tarot of New Orleans deck combines African and Catholic images to create a deck that is most commonly used for questions about anger and happiness in everyday life. The Golden Tarot deck uses images from medieval Christian artwork. This deck is said to be favored by academics because of its beautiful and complicated images. The Lovecraft Tarot, The Benedetti Tarot, and The Russian Tarot of Saint Petersburg are also popular decks.