RWS-like decks?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 10 May 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

mostly water	10 May 2003
Is there anywhere online where I can see a list of decks that follow the RWS symbolism? on this site, i've only found a list of actual RWS *clones*, which isn't what I want. thanks!

HudsonGray	10 May 2003
I think the only ones that would truly follow the symbolism are the actual ones called Rider Waite, for instance the Illuminated RW, the Classical RW, etc., oh--as well as the Hanson Roberts Tarot (a RW with the people redone.) There are at least 4 or 5 different RW decks, varying in size & coloring choices. Once you get into the 'clones' a lot of what's on the card changes so you'd drop some of the symbolism on decks like the Aquarian, the Robin Wood, etc. Unless someone else knows of any?

mostly water	10 May 2003
ah, thank you. i know it seems stupid, but i am just beginning and my books use RWS. *but* i'm an artist, images are sooo important to me, and i HATE the RWS pictures. so i want the same scenes, but redrawn maybe? i also don't like fluffiness. or pastels. \ i'm so difficult! :P

HudsonGray	10 May 2003
Well, if you don't like 'fluffy' that kills any hope of you getting the Mary Hanson Roberts deck. Hmm...........the RW are so clinical, I fully understand the distancing on those. Have you looked at the Aquarian & Connolly. The RW clones aren't bad at all, actually. Not ALL the symbology will be there, but enough to connect. The pastels sort of knock out the Art Noveau deck also. You can, of course, always redraw them yourself if you want to give that a try--end up making your own deck. Say, did you look through the decks up on the main Aeclectic board? There's images shown for each deck, you might luck out. I clicked on every one of them one afternoon & it only took 2 1/2 hours...split it up & only do one or two alphabet letters at a time to break it down in manageable chunks. They have reviews too, if you like the look of the deck. Or here--try this link, it's about Rider-Waite clones & similarities. http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/tarotrwsclone.htm Something there might ring a bell?

Cerulean	10 May 2003
1. Universal Tarot by De Angelis, published by Lo Scarabeo has redrawn majors and minors, somewhat different angle or coloring. 2. I believe there is upcoming in June or July, one being Tarot of the New Vision by Lo Scarabeo that has the same symbolism but totally different perspectives on the familiar images. Maybe too much of a variation...You can check out both at Tarotgarden.com upcoming releases page. I don't know if you can do sorts on Rider Waite Smith at Tarotgarden.com, but their database is excellent as a resources to look through decks. Mari H.

Emily	10 May 2003
What about clone decks like the Universal Waite, its a straight clone just re-coloured, I prefer this one to the original colouring of the Rider Waite and it does give the deck a different feel and the Morgan Greer, again very close to Rider Waite just re-drawn. The Morgan Greer, although its one clone I don't have, seems to have a very old fashioned appeal about it, think its how the colours appear on the scans. :)

Rusty Neon	10 May 2003
A unique feature of the Rider-Waite deck (including the various RW decks that use Smith's line drawings but change the colours or fill-in, e.g., Universal Waite, Albano, etc.) is that, even though Waite never expressly said so, the deck's small cards (Two to Ten of each suit) illustrate divinatory meanings drawn from Golden Dawn, from Etteilla and from certain schools of Continental European cartomancy. However, in his book _Pictorial Key to the Tarot_, Waite encourages people to also draw other meanings intuitively from the card illustrations. To the extent that a given small card from the Rider-Waite appears vague or ambiguous, this often facilitates the card being able to illustrate _different_ DMs from those various different sources. This vagueness or ambiguity is often the root cause of card-specific posts on this forum. What the various decks that don't use Smith's line drawn but are still inspired to a greater or lesser extent by the Rider-Waite deck do is illustrate some (but not all) of the possible meanings from the Rider-Waite deck. (Thus, to the extent that you are interested in a RW-type deck, there is some lost content.) On the other hand, these variant decks often also _add_ symbolism to fit a theme or the author/artist's tarot philosophy. However, not to step on anyone's toes, this is not to say that these variant decks are not useful and worthwhile as tarot decks.

Keslynn	10 May 2003
If you want something that looks great but still stays along fairly traditional lines, you might want to check out the World Spirit tarot. It's a gorgeous deck with lots of vibrant colors. The ideas of the cards are very similar to RWS but the symbolism isn't always exactly the same. I also highly recommend the Spiral deck for the same reasons. Beautiful art, and it's got the most expressive court cards of any deck I've ever seen. However, if you want to work directly with RWS symbolism, then like the others, I recommend Hanson-Roberts, Universal Waite or Robin Wood. I also like Morgan-Greer quite a bit. That's the deck I learned on.

Sulis	10 May 2003
I used the New Pallandini to learn with, it`s based on the Rider-Waite deck but the artwork is much nicer, like you I just didn`t like the artwork of the Rider deck. I`d like to echo Keslynn`s recommendations, the World Spirit is lovely, it`s made with linoleum block printing and is one of those decks that just keeps coming up with suprises, you notice new things every time you use it. The Morgan Greer is also strongly based on Rider-Waite, it has a sort of retro 70`s look to it and a lot of the images are in close-up. Good luck with the search, beware though, this may just lead to tarothollism *LOL* Love and light Crystalmynx xx

sunflowr	10 May 2003
This link is perfect for you :) http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/decks/browsedecks.php?newdeck=24 There are aLOT of decks there and you can see every card. :) Me, I am using the Hanson Roberts. I needed a RW type deck but, like you, am not crazy about the RW. I love the whimsy of the Hanson Roberts so this is my deck of choice to learn on for me. Hope you find the one that fits you. :) Quote: Originally posted by mostly water Is there anywhere online where I can see a list of decks that follow the RWS symbolism? on this site, i've only found a list of actual RWS *clones*, which isn't what I want. thanks!

The RWS-like decks? thread was originally posted on 10 May 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.