I love Tarot decks. The art is beautiful, the imagery is often emotionally evocative. I believe strongly that creating a new tarot deck can at times lead to high levels of meditation and creativity – and other times gives us a fresh perspective.
As a reader, I get asked often: Which deck do you read with? With the hundreds (Thousands?) of decks to pick from, people seem expectant: As someone with experience, they believe I will choose some specialized or highly esoteric deck. But I don’t. I always answer that for readings and study both, above all others, I greatly prefer the classic and oft maligned Rider Waite deck of cards. I like to call it the Rider Waite Smith/RWS, or Waite Smith deck, to honor the artist who made possible this unique, first-of-its-kind deck.
To help me respond to those who really hate the RWS cards (Of whom I’ve met many), I’ve developed a spiel. I understand how much some people dislike the art or simply never got into it when there are so many ‘cooler’ decks out there, so I promise that this is in the positive for my deck of choice rather than a degradation of the many many decks out there – I myself have a modest collection, particularly for study. That said, and to celebrate the deck’s 100th year, I present my own reasons that the Waite-Smith cards are my all time favorite.