A brief history of the Rider Waite Smith deck.

Before the Rider Waite Smith deck emerged, the world of Tarot was somewhat different. Early decks, like the Tarot of Marseilles, featured beautifully illustrated Major Arcana, rich with allegorical scenes and characters. However, the Minor Arcana, or the 'pip' cards (Ace through Ten of each suit), were often much simpler, depicting only the number of suit symbols arranged in geometric patterns, much like modern playing cards. While these older decks held significant esoteric meaning, their visual narrative was largely confined to the Major Arcana.

This limited visual language in the Minor Arcana meant that interpreting these cards often relied heavily on memorized keywords or complex numerological and elemental associations. For many readers, particularly beginners, this could feel like learning a code rather than engaging with a story. The cards lacked the immediate visual cues that could spark intuition and provide layers of nuanced meaning.