RIDER WAITE® TAROT DECK

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Based upon the original and only

authorized edition of the famous
78-card Rider-Waite® Tarot Deck
-------------
Original drawings by Pamela Colman Smith®
under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite

U.S. GAMES SYSTEMS, INC.

Stamford, CT 06902 USA
www.usgamesinc.com
 Instructions excerpted from
THE KEY TO THE TAROT
by Arthur Edward Waite
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Illustrations from
the Rider Tarot Deck®,
also known as the Rider-Waite Tarot
and the Waite Tarot, are copyright ©1971, 1991
U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

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Further reproduction prohibited.
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The Rider Tarot Deck®, also known as the
Rider-Waite Tarot Deck®, Waite Tarot Deck®,
and Pamela Colman Smith Tarot Deck®
are registered trademarks of
U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
Stamford, CT 06902 USA

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 INTRODUCTION
by Stuart R. Kaplan

r. Arthur Edward Waite (1857-1942) was a

D genuine scholar of occultism whose published
works include The Holy Kabbalah and The Key to
the Tarot first issued in England in 1910. Waite uti-
lized symbolism as the key to the Tarot pack. In The
Key to the Tarot he writes: “The true tarot is sym-
bolism; it speaks no other language and offers no
other signs.” What are the Tarot cards about which
Waite so skillfully writes? What is the message of
each card and when and where did these fascinat-
ing cardboard symbols first originate?

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The precise origin of Tarot cards in antiquity
remains obscure. Court de Gebelin writing in Le
Monde Primitif in 1781 advances the theory that
Tarot cards derived from an ancient Egyptian book,
The Book of Thoth. Thoth was the Egyptian
Mercury, said to be one of the early Kings and the
inventor of the hieroglyphic system. Gebelin asserts
that it is from the Egyptians and Gypsies that Tarot
cards were dispersed throughout Europe.
The emergence of Tarot cards in Europe predates
by over five centuries the work of Waite. A German
monk, Johannes, describes a game called Ludas
Cartarum played in the year 1377. Covelluzzo, a fif-
teenth-century chronicler, relates the introduction
into Viterbo of the game of cards in the year 1379.

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In the year 1369 playing cards are not mentioned in
a decree issued by Charles VI of France against var-
ious forms of gambling; however, 28 years later, the
Prevot of Paris, in an ordinance dated January 22,
1397, forbids working people from playing tennis,
ball, cards, or ninepins excepting only on holidays.
It is generally accepted that playing cards emerged
in Europe in the latter half of the fourteenth century,
probably first in Italy as a complete 78-card deck—
or some inventive genius subsequently combined
the common 56 cards known as the Minor Arcana
with the 22 esoteric and emblematic Tarot cards
known as the Major Arcana to form the 78-card
pack.
During the fifteenth century Tarot cards were

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generally drawn or hand painted for the princely
houses of Northern Italy and France. Subsequently,
the card packs became more numerous because
they were reproduced by techniques using wood-
cuts, stencils and copper engraving. By the six-
teenth century a modified Tarot pack called the
Tarot of Marseilles gained popularity.
There exists today, in the archives of the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, 17 Major Arcana
cards generally believed, probably erroneously, to
have been hand painted about the year 1392 by
Jacquemin Gringonneur for Charles VI of France.
These cards are likely of later Venetian origin, possibly
mid-fifteenth-century Tarocchi of Venice cards.
The Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City

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possesses 35 cards from a 78-card Tarot deck dating
from circa 1484 and believed to be the work of
either Bonifacio Bembo or Antonio Cicognara.
This deck apparently belonged to Cardinal Ascanio
Maria Sforza (1445-l505) or to his mother Bianca
Visconti Sforza and was probably not intended for
actual play but, instead, may have been merely a
pictorial representation of the times.
Other early European cards related to the Tarot
pack include:
• Tarocchi of Mantegna deck comprising of 50
instructive cards in five series of ten cards each;
• Tarocchi of Venice or Lombardi deck comprising
of 78 cards including 22 Major Arcana and 56 Lesser
Arcana cards;

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• Tarocchino of Bologna deck comprising of 62
cards, believed to have been invented by Francois
Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, and containing 22 Major
Arcana and only 40 numeral suit cards;
• Minchiate of Florence deck similar to the regu-
lar 78-card Tarot deck but enlarged to 97 cards by
the addition of the signs of the zodiac, the four ele-
ments and three cardinal virtues.
Tarot fortune-telling readings generally take
into account not only the individual divinatory
meaning of a card but also the proximity between
two or more cards and whether the card is upside
down (which weakens, delays and even reverses the
meaning). The brief descriptive title on each of the
22 Major Arcana cards serves as a catalyst toward a

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broader and deeper meaning which the diviner
seeks to express.
Tarot decks contain 78 cards divided into two
major groups:
• 22 Major Arcana Cards
• 56 Lesser Arcana Cards
The 22 Major Arcana or emblematic cards com-
prise of 21 cards numbered from XXI to I (21 to 1)
plus an unnumbered card known as The Fool (Le Mat
and Le Fou in French). The 22 Major Arcana are also
referred to as trumps (atouts in French, atutti or trion-
fi in Italian) signifying “above all.”
The 56 Lesser Arcana cards contain four suits
including the usual court cards; King, Queen, Jack
(Valet, Page) plus a fourth card, the Cavalier

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(Knight, Knave) which is placed between the
Queen and the Jack. The suits are generally swords
(spades), batons or wands (clubs), cups (hearts),
and coins or pentacles (diamonds). Suit origins are
believed to represent the four estates of life during
medieval times: nobility or persons who held their
rank by military service were symbolized by
swords; peasants or working class people by clubs;
clergymen and statesmen by cups; and tradesmen
and the industrial class by coins.
Today’s ordinary decks of playing cards seemingly
descend from the medieval Tarot decks. As card play-
ing increased in popularity the Major Arcana cards
were dropped (except for The Fool which was retained
as the Joker) and the Cavalier and Page were combined

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into today’s Jack, thus giving us the standard deck of
fifty-two cards plus Joker.
During the past two centuries various impor-
tant works have appeared on different aspects of
Tarot cards authored by Gebelin (1781), Etteilla
(1783), Levi (1854), Vaillant (1857), Mathers
(1888), Papus (1889), Falconnier (1896), Wirth,
Waite (1910), Thierens, Case, Crowley (1944), Gray
(1960), Knight (1965), Moakley (1966), Doane
(1967), and Kaplan (1970).
Under the initiative and supervision of Waite, a
unique 78-card Tarot pack known as “Rider Deck”
was drawn by Miss Pamela Colman Smith, an
American girl who was a fellow member of The
Order of the Golden Dawn.

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Miss Smith was brought up in Jamaica and dur-
ing her early teens traveled with the stage acting
partnership of Terry and Henry Irving. By the age of
twenty-one Miss Smith was established in England
as a theatrical designer and illustrator. Her interest in
the theatre led to her collaboration with William
Butler Yeats on stage designs. Subsequently, she
worked with his brother Jack Yeats on the illustration
and publication of a small magazine entitled The
Broad Sheet before bringing out her own The Green
Sheaf, which was filled with ballads, pictures, folk
tales, and verses.
The outstanding feature of the Rider Deck is
that all of the cards, including the forty pip cards
(numeral cards Ace to 10 in each of four suits) are

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presented in emblematic designs, which are readily
suitable for divination. This is in contrast to the
rigid forms of swords, batons, cups, and coins pre-
viously used in Tarot decks. Waite also believed that
The Fool, being unnumbered and representing 0,
should not be placed between cards 20 and 21, and
that its more natural sequence fell in front of The
Magician in attribution to the first letter of the
Hebrew Alphabet, Aleph.
Waite transposed the numbers of two Major
Arcana cards: Strength (Force, Fortitude) more fre-
quently shown in other Tarot decks—in particular
Muller’s 1JJ deck and Grimaud’s Tarot of Marseilles
version—as XI, is instead shown in the Rider Deck as
VIII. Justice, more generally shown as VIII, is desig-

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nated by Waite as bearing number XI.
There is currently a phenomenal interest in Tarot
fortune-telling cards. The serious investigator seeks to
employ the cards as a means of placing the past into
more meaningful perspective, understanding the pres-
ent, and revealing the alternatives that exist in the
future. Those less acquainted with Tarot cards are con-
tent to use them as a game and to indulge in readings
at parties or in small private groups. From the collec-
tor’s standpoint, Tarot cards are both colorful and
interesting.
Tarot decks are currently sought by teenagers,
students, homemakers, businessmen, professional
people, collectors—indeed, persons from all walks
of life. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and televi-

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sion frequently comment on the Tarot vogue.
Teenagers enjoy Tarot parties. Adults attend Tarot
luncheons, charitable benefits, and Tarot picnics at
which card readings are performed. Hollywood has
even indulged in the growing trend with “popular”
Tarot readers being present at parties to service the
well-known guests.
One of the fascinating aspects about Tarot cards
is their personal affect upon the individual who
uses them. Waite successfully presents a new
dimension to their meaning in The Key to the Tarot.
Any Tarot reader, be they a serious scholar or a per-
son dabbling in the occult, will benefit from Waite’s
insight and keen perception.
U.S. Games Systems, Inc. is pleased to publish

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the Universal Waite Pocket Tarot Deck, based upon
the authentic reproduction of the original “Rider
Pack”.

— Stuart R. Kaplan
Stamford, CT 06902
Revised February 2004

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 U.S. Games Systems, Inc. offers an exciting
and diverse range of tarot and new age
decks, books, and deck/book sets.

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U.S. GAMES SYSTEMS, INC.
179 Ludlow Street • Stamford, CT 06902 USA
203-353-8400
Order Desk 800-544-2637 • FAX 203-353-8431
www.usgamesinc.com

©1991, 2007 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

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Booklet revised 2004 • Printed in Belgium