"The Rider-Waite tarot deck, originally published 1909, is the most popular tarot deck for tarot card reading. Other names for this deck include the Waite-Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith, or Rider tarot deck. The cards were drawn by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith from the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite and were originally published by the Rider Company. The deck has been published in numerous editions and inspired a wide array of variants. While the images are simple, the details and backgrounds feature
abundant symbolism. Some imagery remains similar to that found in
earlier decks, but overall the Waite-Smith card designs represent a
substantial departure from their predecessors. ..." W - Rider-Waite tarot deck, W - Major Arcana, W - Minor Arcana, The Deck of Cards That Made Tarot A Global Phenomenon, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite, Illustrations By Pamela Colman Smith.[1911]
Tarot of Marseilles
"The Tarot of Marseilles or Tarot of Marseille, also widely known by the French designation
Tarot de Marseille, is one of the standard patterns for the design of
tarot cards. It is a pattern from which many subsequent tarot decks derive.
Michael Dummett's
research led him to conclude that (based on the lack of earlier
documentary evidence) the Tarot deck was probably invented in northern
Italy in the 15th century and introduced into southern France when the French conquered
Milan and the
Piedmont
in 1499. The antecedents of the Tarot de Marseille would then have been
introduced into southern France at around that time. The 78-card
version of the
game of Tarot died out in Italy but survived in France and
Switzerland.
When the game was reintroduced into northern Italy, the Marseilles
designs of the cards were reintroduced with it. ..."
W - Tarot de Marseille,
Marseille Tarot of Lando 1832
Tarot Mythology: The Surprising Origins of the World's Most Misunderstood Cards
"The Empress. The Hanged Man. The Chariot. Judgment.
With their centuries-old iconography blending a mix of ancient symbols,
religious allegories, and historic events, tarot cards can seem
purposefully opaque. To outsiders and skeptics, occult practices like
card reading have little relevance in our modern world. But a closer
look at these miniature masterpieces reveals that the power of these
cards isn’t endowed from some mystical source—it comes from the ability
of their small, static images to illuminate our most complex dilemmas
and desires. Contrary to what the uninitiated might think, the meaning of
divination cards changes over time, shaped by each era’s culture and the
needs of individual users. ..."
Collectors Weekly
Behold the Sola-Busca Tarot Deck, the Earliest Complete Set of Tarot Cards (1490)
"Whatever you think of the predictive power of tarot cards, the story of
how humanity has produced them and put them to use provides a
fascinating cultural history of the last 500 years or so. We've featured
a variety of tarot decks here on Open Culture, mostly from the past
century: decks designed by Aleister Crowley, Salvador DalÃ, and H.R. Giger, as well as one featuring the characters from Twin Peaks.
But today we give you the oldest extant example, and a highly
distinctive one for reasons not just historical but aesthetic: the
Sola-Busca tarot deck, dating from the early 1490s, which L'Italo Americano's Francesca Bezzone describes
as '78, beautifully illustrated cards, 22 major arcana and 56 minor
arcana, engraved on cardboard and hand painted with tempera colors and
gold.' ..." Open Culture, W - Sola Busca tarot, Sola-Busca & Waite-Smith Tarot amazon: The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot, The Original Rider-Waite Tarot Set, Sola Busca Tarot: Museum Quality Kit, Marseille Tarot Professional Edition, Golden Tarot of Marseille
