What does RWS mean in tarot?

Today I want to talk to you a little bit more about what it means when you say “RWS” or hear “Rider-Waite-Smith.” What does that mean? “RWS” stands for “Rider-Waite-Smith.” Arthur Waite was a member of the of the Golden Dawn which was a secret society that practiced the occult. Pamela Coleman Smith was an artist who was also a member of the Golden Dawn. Arthur Waite reached out to Pamela Smith to create a version of each of the 78 cards in what we’ve come to call a standard tarot deck. She painted the images.

Example of Pamela Coleman Smith’s tarot cards.

Arthur Waite is the one who asked Pamela Smith to draw the cards and gave her the specifics of what he would like to see in the drawings. These cards were printed in the early 1900s by the Rider Company. When someone is talking about Rider-Waite-Smith, they’re talking about the original images that Pamela Smith painted. Above you’ll see the cards that are considered the “Major Arcana” that tend to be the weightier cards that might come up in a reading. Below you’ll see the four suits of cards that are also a part of this original deck.

There are many different versions of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck. Some of the versions that I’m going to talk about today are the Universal Waite Tarot Deck, the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck Borderless Edition, The Smith-Waite Tarot Deck Centennial Edition (mini) in the tin, and the Radiant Rider Waite full size tarot deck.

There are several versions of Rider-Waite-Smith. I'm going to walk through what some of those versions look like. I’ve got (from left to right above) the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck Centennial Edition (mini) in the Tin, Smith-Waite Tarot Deck Borderless Edition, Universal Waite Tarot Deck, and the Radiant Rider Waite. Basically all of these are the exact same images but they are just colored a little differently. The yellow in these cards is all very similar but the color in the Radiant Rider Waite on the far right pops a little more and the Borderless Edition (2nd from left) looks tea-stained. These differences may seem trivial but they can make someone fall in love with or hate a particular version.

In this next set of images you’ll see the color variations are much more significant. The Universal Waite in the middle is the version that I notice that most Rider-Waite-Smith decks resemble. I do think the Borderless Edition on the left is easier on the eyes and this is what draws me to use this version sometimes. However, the version I reach for the most often is the Radiant Rider Waite on the far right. The brighter colors add a lot of energy to readings that I do with this deck and I prefer that.

Now let’s talk about Rider-Waite-Smith clones and Rider-Waite-Smith “based” decks. A Rider-Waite-Smith “clone” is an updated version of the same drawings. A Rider-Waite-Smith “based” deck would include some of the same elements of the original drawings but are drawn very differently. Someone familiar with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck could easily read from an RWS clone or RWS-based deck. Above and to the right you can see pictures of the Universal Waite deck (white borders), Everyday Witch Tarot Deck (yellow label), and the Llewellyn’s Classic Tarot Deck (blue along bottom).

I would consider Llewllyn’s Classic Tarot Deck to be a Rider-Waite-Smith clone. If you look at the surrounding images (above and to right) you can see that the Llewellyn deck very closely resembles the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. On the other hand, the Everyday Witch deck is very similar in some of the images but not in others. If you look at the 10 of Cups, the Everyday Witch deck has the same elements, like the 10 cups and the family, but the setting is very different. Whereas with the 10 of Wands all the cards are very similar. In the 7 of Cups you’ll find that the setting is very different again for the Everyday Witch but it is recognizably similar to the other two decks.

I highly recommend to beginners that they start with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck or they get to know it because it will help them with so many other tarot decks that they may like. Now, if you hate the images in it and you don’t feel any attachment at all, I encourage you to listen to your gut. You want to go with a deck that you love, that speaks to you, but you will find that the majority of tarot decks are based on the original Rider-Waite-Smith. If you learn that tarot system it will make it a lot easier for you to read those other decks that you love.

I hope that this was helpful to you. Do you have a burning question about tarot? Leave a question in the comments below and I’ll use that information to make a future post. Thanks for stopping by!