1909 · The standard tradition
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
First published in 1909 by the Rider company, with artwork by Pamela Colman Smith and guidance from occultist A.E. Waite, this deck did something earlier tarot decks generally hadn't: it gave every one of the 56 Minor Arcana cards a full illustrated scene, not just a pattern of cups, wands, swords, or coins. That single choice is why it became the standard reference point for most tarot published since — the imagery itself teaches the meaning, which is exactly why TarotCards24 (and most beginner-facing tarot sites) is built on it.
Every card page on this site — all 78 of them — follows Rider-Waite-Smith's structure and imagery: 22 Major Arcana, and 56 Minor Arcana across four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles).
Frequently asked
Why does this site use Rider-Waite-Smith?
It's the most widely recognised tradition, and the Minor Arcana are fully illustrated with scenes rather than just suit symbols — which makes them far easier to learn from than Marseille-style pip cards.
Is Rider-Waite-Smith artwork copyrighted?
The original 1909 deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, is in the public domain in the US, the EU, and most countries (the artist died in 1951, and copyright terms have expired). Modern re-colored or re-illustrated editions can carry their own separate copyright.
Who was A.E. Waite, and why is his name on the deck?
Arthur Edward Waite was a British occultist and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn who designed the deck's structure and wrote its accompanying guidebook, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. He directed the deck's content; Pamela Colman Smith illustrated it.
Did Pamela Colman Smith get proper credit for her work at the time?
Not as much as she deserved — for decades the deck was commonly called simply "the Waite deck," crediting the man who wrote the guidebook over the artist who illustrated all 78 cards. Modern references, including this site, use "Rider-Waite-Smith" specifically to include her name.
What makes the Minor Arcana in this deck different from earlier tarot?
Every Minor Arcana card shows a full illustrated scene — a person doing something, in a setting — rather than just a repeated pattern of the suit symbol. That was unusual for a mass-published deck in 1909 and is the main reason beginners find it easier to learn from.
Does "Rider-Waite-Smith" refer to one specific print edition?
It refers to the original 1909 artwork and structure, which has since been reprinted, recolored, and resized by multiple publishers. Different editions (borderless, centennial, pocket-sized) share the same underlying images but aren't identical physical products.
Is Rider-Waite-Smith considered the "correct" or "official" tarot?
No single tradition holds that status — RWS is simply the most widely used and taught today, largely because of how learnable its illustrated Minor Arcana are, not because of any formal authority over what tarot "should" be.
Can I read a physical Rider-Waite-Smith deck using this site's meanings?
Yes — the card meanings on this site follow the same structure, imagery, and traditional symbolism as the standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck, so they apply directly to a physical copy of the same tradition.
Why do some RWS-based decks look different from each other?
Because publishers have released many recolored or restyled editions of the same original 1909 artwork over the decades — different border, palette, or paper size, but the same underlying scenes and structure.
Is Universal Waite the same tradition as Rider-Waite-Smith?
Yes — Universal Waite is a well-known recoloring of the same 1909 imagery by artist Mary Hanson-Roberts. It's a different edition of the same tradition, not a separate system.