Welcome to Llewellyn’s Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. The RWS deck (as I will refer to it through the book) is the most used, shuffled, and read tarot deck of all time. This guide is an attempt to understand exactly what its creators, Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, were doing when they made it over one hundred years ago. What was their intention? What were they trying to accomplish? Why did they think it was important to create a tarot deck? Illustrator Pamela Colman Smith and author Arthur Edward Waite are my main sources of information for this book. We will return to their words and ideas again and again.
Moving past the initial reasons as to why Pamela and Waite created the deck are more evocative questions. What does tarot mean for you? How can you use tarot? How does tarot help you understand the world? What does tarot represent? Why do people come to tarot? What lies beneath the cards’ images? What does tarot teach us? Where can tarot bring us? What does tarot reveal? How does tarot evolve?
The chapters in this book align with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is a mystical representation of how reality takes shape and form in the material world. Occultists call the material world’s unfolding or emerging process the Journey of Emergence. In this book we will work our way down through the tree and the tarot to understand how the RWS deck emerged. The tree will give context and history. The deck’s magical underlying principles will unfold before you. The book culminates in grounded instructions on how to use the cards. Seventy-eight tarot spreads are included, each one based on a specific tarot card.
Occultists are explorers by nature. They venture into realms of sacred imagination, scout inner landscapes, and walk between worlds. Occultists use symbol, ritual, and ancient knowledge to traverse into magic, mysticism, and the meaning of life and death. Once the occultist witnesses the journey of emergence via the tree, they find themselves in the middle of the material world. The only option is to turn around and work their way back up. They go up the tree ready to greet divinity on its own terms. This is called the Journey of Return. Initiates, occultists, and seers travel their path alone. Their experiences are as different as the people who have them. I do hope you make an attempt to reach the summit. Treasures, gifts, and uncanny possibilities await.
Tarot’s gift is that all cultural and spiritual or nonspiritual beliefs, ideas, and dogmas may be placed on top of it. Llewellyn’s Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot does not preach, proselytize, or promote any particular worldview. Arthur Waite, author of the deck, was a Christian mystic. Although he was a practicing occultist, he was raised in a Catholic household. Catholicism informed his spiritual life even as it intertwined with alchemy, Freemasonry, and magic. As such, the RWS deck contains multiple Christian allegories, as does his accompanying text.
Wherever you find the word “Divine” or “God,” feel free to insert your own meaning: Goddess, God, Zeus, Buddha, Yahweh, Allah, Pan, Puck, Ryan Gosling, Elmer Fudd, Chocolate Cake, or Nothingness—whatever you like; whatever makes sense to you. You can use this book with any deck of cards. Tarot decks are like people: it’s what’s inside that counts. The inner landscape of tarot is where its meat and bones lie. That’s the juicy stuff you’ll want to get to. And this book brings you straight to the main course. It doesn’t matter if you don’t use the RWS deck or if it is not your favorite deck. The RWS’s impact is so great, the deck you are using is likely a derivative of it. The archetypes inside tarot remain the same, regardless of what the cards look like.
Pamela Colman Smith is referred to as “Pamela” throughout the book. Arthur Waite is commonly referred to as “Waite” by cartomancers and tarotists. I have stuck with this tradition. Pamela is also known as “Pixie” in the tarot world. This is due to the affinity we all have for her remarkable illustrations. Pamela’s images have found a permanent residency inside the psyche of tarotists. We find a comfortable, intimate, and familiar relationship with her images. They offer solace and understanding. Pamela offers a sacred space for us to work out our issues and even test our psychic and intuitive abilities.
Research for this book was done in conjunction with the New York Public Library, specifically the Berg Collection, the Art and Architecture Division, and the General Research Division. U.S. Games Systems, Inc., and Stuart Kaplan gifted me immense guidance, as did the work, research, and support of Mary Greer. Practical tarot matters stemmed from my years of professional tarot education reading and writing in New York City.
Tarot is a doorway or one might say seventy-eight gates. It is a threshold into other planes of existence. Anything can act as a portal: people, art, architecture, nature, etc. Tarot is a logical tool because it is described as magical, mysterious, and powerful. These words are associated with the deck, and people project these associations to the cards, thus echoing the power of words. Tarot operates on a symbolic level. It moves past linguistics. Like love and compassion, tarot’s symbolism—all symbolism—speaks directly to the soul. The most profound knowledge in the world is usually felt and seen rather than articulated. Conversations around tarot and the supernatural induce words like intense, knowing, and uncanny. You’ll laugh the day you realize every word anyone has ever used to describe the tarot—words like magical, mysterious, and powerful—also describes you. You hold the magic and the knowledge; tarot simply reflects it.
It was my absolute pleasure to make this book for you. I hope you find it useful in your journey. You will likely discover surprising personal insights as you unravel the story and structure of the RWS deck. Tarot has a funny way of doing that. We think we are reading for others, and we wind up reading for ourselves. We think we are asking about the future, and the cards point us toward our past and inform our present. We encounter the unexpected, the uncanny, every time we turn a card. This is what makes tarot exciting every time we sit down to read.
So take my hand. Let’s venture into the Rider-Waite-Smith deck together. I promise you’ll enjoy it. And when we reach the threshold where you continue forth without me, venture wisely. Let the torchlight of authenticity and grace light your way. Shed light where others find darkness. Use your guts, intuitions, and cards to propel you. You will discover the magic you were searching for was inside you all along. Welcome home.
Believing in you always,
Sasha Graham
new york city, 2017
