Preview

What is a workshop about the Tarot Cards without a brief history filling you in on how it all began? Come along with me as I digress and discuss the wherefores and whenfores of the Tarot Deck.

According to Stuart R. Kaplan (The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume 1) it is difficult to know the precise time era that the Tarot Deck came to be. He goes into great detail, citing various peoples, individuals and philosophies which had connections to the Tarot, or Tarocchic Cards as he refers to them.

The Rider Waite deck was first published in 1910 by Rider & Company, a London publisher. Arthur Edward Waite
designed the deck in collaboration with Pamela Colman Smith, an American artist. Waite was a member of the Order of the
Golden Dawn, an occult society of the time. Waite considered symbolism of prime importance, so the cards of the Rider-Waite deck were created to communicate esoteric principles through symbols. Waite describes his interpretations in his book The Key to the Tarot, sometimes published with pictures as The Pictorial Key to the Tarot.

Waite made several changes from the tarot deck traditions of the time when he designed his deck. He switched the Strength and Justice cards so that Strength became card 8 and Justice Card 11. He and Smith also created full pictorial scenes for the minor Arcana numbered suit cards.

There were great influences from different civilisations which affected the Tarot Cards along the way. It is believed that the original Tarot cards had only the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana. While the 22 cards of the Major Arcana were included from the influences of The Kabbalah and The Tree of Life.

My own memories of learning to read the tarot cards. As it was explained to me by a magikal old crone who was very bent over and used a big heavy wooden staff to keep her apprentices inline.

Imagine, if you will, the earth being flat. Visualise the four corners of the earth being a kingdom in its own right. Name each
kingdom Cups * Wands * Pentacles * Swords. In each kingdom there is a traditional hierarchy beginning with the King, down to the lowliest of servants – the Ace. Each kingdom represents a different season and element as well as emotion.

In the middle of the four kingdoms is another hierarchy called the Major Arcana. This group is situated high above the mountains so that the four kingdoms must raise their eyes to see them. Within this group, are the archetypes such as Emperor, Magician, Temperance etc. And so this is how the world is made of the five communities.

An easy way to remember them all is by associating them with the playing cards.
 Cups = Hearts
 Wands = Spades
 Pentacles = Diamonds
 Swords = Clubs

Lesson tags: cartomacy, history of tarot cards, stuart kaplan, the kabbahah, tree of life

Back to: Tarot Reading with Rider Waite > Inroduction to The Rider Waite Tarot Deck