Waite, Smith and Levi in the Rider-Waite Deck

Waite and Smith

I have always thought the images were simple, even child-like,yet I have found a wealth of symbolism in background, as will you when you look closely at each card.

"Waite had the Christian imagery of older tarot decks' cards toned down—the "Pope" card became the "Hierophant", the "Papess" became the "High Priestess". The Minor Arcana are also, as in the earlier Sola Busca Tarot, fully illustrated with designs created by Smith." (wikipedia) I have used them because they are tradiona (cards published 1909) in many aspects and the imaginary has always been very effective and accurate for me. I have stayed away from decks with dragons, or fairies for hard core psychic readings. The symbols, influenced by the 19th century magician and occultist Eliphas Levi.

I myself don't care for Levi for he turned perverted and went into the dark. He used Tarot cards in his magical system, and as a result many magicians use them as well. Levi had a deep impact on the magic of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later on the ex-Golden Dawn member Aleister Crowley.(another whom has given Wicca, tarot reading a bad name.

It is interesting to note however that he is attributed to declaring that a pentagram or five-pointed star with one point down and two points up represents "bad", while a pentagram with one point up and two points down is "good". It was largely through the occultists inspired by him that Lévi is remembered as one of the key founders of the twentieth century revival of magic, many who are practicing black magic.

Please be aware of the up side down star , it is important that you use it upright and beware of those who revert it, it is meant to mean evil. Here is the star that was designed by Levi

Eliphas Levi's Tetragrammaton pentagram,

which he considered to be a symbol

of the microcosm, or human being

As seen in these two cards, both 10's, the one on the right the 10 of swords can be understood by even a child, backstabbing, not a 'GOOD' card, while the other , the 10 of cups (love) is clearly a HAPPY card, and in fact it is, a pleasant marriage, with the possibility of children and a golden future. There are more complex meanings, of coarse, which mostly depend on the placement of the cards, but the Rider-Waite decks imagery is archetypical.

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