The Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack

The Original Rider Waite Tarot is the most popular and widely used tarot card deck in the world.

First issued in 1910, each card is rich in symbolism and striking in its design. The deck is accompanied by an invaluable instructional book, The Key to the Tarot explaining the history and usage of the tarot cards, of which there are 78 divided into the Major and Minor Arcanas.

The book can be used in conjunction with any set of tarot cards, but it was written in particular to accompany the 78-card Rider Waite tarot deck which was designed by Pamela Colman Smith in accordance with A. E. Waite's instructions.

The Key to the Tarot explains the history and symbolism of the cards and gives instructions on how to use them for purposes of divination. This edition includes a specially commissioned foreword by Liz Greene.

Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942), commonly known as A. E. Waite, was an American-born British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer R. A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion."

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Photo by unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.