Introduction
The Waite-Smith family of playing cards encompasses the original tarot deck designed by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, as well as the vast array of decks directly derived from it. The Waite-Smith Tarot (often colloquially referred to as the Rider-Waite) stands as one of the most imitated and influential patterns in the history of cartomancy. The “family” classification includes not only direct facsimiles but also hundreds of distinct re-interpretations that adhere to the specific symbolic and structural template established by its creators in 1909 [1] .
History
Origins in the Golden Dawn
The genesis of the Waite-Smith lineage is inextricably linked to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a British occult society founded in 1887 devoted to the study and practice of the esoteric arts. Tarot was central to the Order’s curriculum, viewed not merely as a game but as a repository of hermetic wisdom (Decker and Dummett 2002, chap. 4).
Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942), an American-born poet and scholarly mystic who spent the majority of his life in Britain, was a prominent member of the Order. Seeking to create a deck that encapsulated his specific esoteric theories, he commissioned fellow member Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951) in 1909 to execute the artwork. Smith, an artist known for her rapid execution and intuitive style, completed the 78-card deck by December of that year (Decker and Dummett 2002, chap. 8).
The cards, accompanied by Waite’s guide, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, were published by the London firm William Rider & Son in 1910. This partnership between creator and publisher is why the deck was historically known as the “Rider-Waite,” though modern historians prefer “Waite-Smith” to properly credit the artist (Waite 1910; Jensen 2006).
Artistic Composition and Innovation
The structural foundation of the Waite-Smith deck was the Tarot de Marseille, the standard French pattern that had evolved since the late 16th century. Like the Marseille pattern, Waite’s deck consisted of 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana (allegorical trumps), 40 pip cards (numbered 1–10 in four suits), and 16 court cards [2] . Waite maintained the general arrangement and symbolism of the Marseille Major Arcana [3] .
However, the Waite-Smith deck introduced a revolutionary change in the Minor Arcana. Traditional tarot decks, like standard playing cards today, utilized pips—abstract arrangements of suit symbols (e.g., ten swords arranged geometrically). Smith, likely influenced by the 15th-century Sola Busca Tarot she had viewed at the British Museum, illustrated every pip card with a full scenic vignette featuring human figures and action [4] .
[Editor’s Note: While Waite provided the symbolic instructions for the Major Arcana, historians generally agree that the scenic invention of the Minor Arcana was largely the domain of Smith’s own artistic intuition.]
This shift from abstract pips to narrative scenes democratized tarot reading, allowing users to rely on visual storytelling rather than rote memorization of numerology.
Expansion and the “Clone” Phenomenon
Following its initial run (1910–1939), the deck remained a staple of the Anglophone occult world, though tarot had not yet achieved mass-market popularity [5] .
By the 1950s, the Waite-Smith imagery began to serve as a template for new designs. Roland Berrill, the founder of the high-IQ society MENSA, designed the Royal Fez Moroccan Tarot during this period. While thematically distinct, aiming for a Moroccan aesthetic, the deck’s lineage is undeniably Waite-Smith (Kaplan 1978, 274–275; Somerville 2023).
Insert Image: A side-by-side comparison of the Chariot card from the Waite-Smith deck and the Royal Fez Moroccan Tarot.
Caption: The Chariot from the original Waite-Smith Tarot (left) and the Royal Fez Moroccan Tarot (right). Note the retention of the driver’s posture and the sphinxes, despite the Royal Fez version adopting a minimalist white background and removing the card title.
In the late 1960s, the counterculture and New Age movements sparked a global explosion of interest in tarot. Stuart Kaplan, founder of U.S. Games Systems, acquired the publishing rights from Rider & Son and began distributing the authoritative edition in 1971 [5] . This widely available edition fueled a new wave of creativity, leading to hundreds of “clones”—decks that reskin Smith’s composition with new artistic styles (e.g., cats, sci-fi, distinct cultural motifs) while retaining the core symbolism [1] .
Modern Variants
The family now includes decks ranging from the deeply esoteric to the novel.
- Esoteric Reconstruction: The Tarot of the Sephiroth (1999), created by Dan Staroff, utilizes the Waite-Smith template but modifies the imagery to emphasize Qabalistic concepts, aiming to “break through the veils” of traditional symbolism [1] .
- Novelty: The Glow in the Dark Tarot (1999) retains the classic line art but prints it in phosphorescent ink, marketing the deck with the tagline, “Now tarot doesn’t have to end when the lights go out!” [1] .
Foundation Holdings
The Etteilla Foundation maintains a conservation-grade collection of key artifacts in this lineage:
- Pam-A Edition (1910): A rare copy of the original printing overseen by Pamela Colman Smith.
- U.S. Games Systems Edition (1971): The pivotal edition responsible for the North American tarot revival.
- Royal Fez Moroccan Tarot: An early example of the “Waite-Smith Clone” phenomenon.