Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

Sinderella's note

The deck I learned on, sinner. The art's a little stiff and the colors are loud and that's exactly why it works — every line means something, every color is doing a job. Every book about tarot is written assuming you have this one in front of you. If you only ever own one deck, own this one. Saint Anthony for the things you've forgotten you knew.

The long version

The Rider-Waite-Smith was published in 1909, and ninety-some years later it is still the deck every other deck is *responding to.* Pamela Colman Smith painted all 78 cards. The Major Arcana figures are stiff because they are *iconic* — they're meant to be read like Catholic prayer cards, not gazed at. Every line of every card is a symbol that means something specific. Every astrology book that mentions tarot, every YouTube tarot reader, every Instagram pull — they are all writing in dialogue with this deck. If you're going to learn tarot, learn it on Pamela's. The library of secondary writing is *enormous.* Mary K. Greer's *Tarot for Yourself* assumes Rider-Waite. Rachel Pollack's *Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom* assumes Rider-Waite. The cards are square, the borders are thick, the colors look painted by hand because they were. Sinderella keeps the original yellow-box edition at the folding table even when she's pulling from another deck — for *reference,* the way a mechanic keeps the manual on the bench. Saint Anthony for the things you've forgotten you knew. Saint Pamela for the woman who painted them and got paid in flat fees and never lived to see them become canon.