Birthday Of Pamela Colman Smith

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 15 Feb 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	15 Feb 2003
Let's celebrate the life of Pamela Colman Smith who entered this life on 16 February 1878. Pamela Colman Smith was the artist of the Rider-Waite deck which somewhat changed the face of Tarot in the 20th Century. She seems to have been an impoverished artist who saw visions when she listened to sacred music. And she apparently lies in an unknown grave, There is surely much more to her life...... I would love to know more about her so if anyone knows more please post to this thread in tribute. We discuss her work so often in these pages. It would be fitting for her to be remembered at place like Aeclectic in this way. Thanks for the life and work of Pamela Colman Smith! Moongold

MeeWah	15 Feb 2003
Moongold: What a wonderful idea & a fitting tribute to an extraordinary individual who in her lifetime did not receive the recognition & respect she so rightly deserved! The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume III by Stuart R. Kaplan begins with a comprehensive biography of the life & work of the artist of the deck known as the Rider-Waite. The in-depth article includes numerous samplings of her artwork in drawings, paintings & watercolours. The deck bears the name of the original publisher & of Arthur Edward Waite, a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn who commissioned Smith in 1909 for the deck. Were it not for the consciousness & vision of Smith who was also a long-time member of the Golden Dawn (& a practising Roman Catholic), the deck may not have imbued with the mystical qualities that characterize it & have fascinated its later audience. In life, Smith struggled to pursue her artwork & to survive with inadequate material returns. She was apparently not moved by material concerns but by her spirituality. She died in poverty with her meager assets sold to settle her accumulated debts that resulted from a lack of income. Her instructions that a companion be provided for could not be fulfilled. It was not until well after her death that there has been acknowledgement of her valuable contributions to the world of Tarot through the Rider-Waite.

Woof	15 Feb 2003
I have so often heard her (and Waite's) deck criticized on this forum (I know, it's just so vanilla compared with all the other decks out there!) that I'd like to note here that every time I buy another deck I always come back to my (Universal) Smith-Waite. There just is something about P.C. Smith's artwork and ease of interpretation (for me) that will always make it the definitive deck. Many thanks to Pamela Colman Smith for her intuition, vision and talent in creating this superb deck. I hope she somehow knows of the accolades that she has earned, albeit in retrospect. Woof

Dark Inquisitor	15 Feb 2003
I seem to remember reading in the book Women of the Golden Dawn , that after finishing the tarot illustrations, she told someone she had just finished a very big project for very little money. Let's hope she is getting her well-deserved royalties astrally somehow !! Tarotphelia

jmd	15 Feb 2003
I may have numerous minor criticisms of the RWCS deck, but that doesn't take away from the recognition of the incredible gift Pamela Colman Smith and Arthur Waite have given the world of Tarot. In many ways, it is through her artisitc creation that Tarot has managed to become so well known and popular internationally. Her artistic creations remain embedded with rich details which can provide any esoterically interested seeker with a lifetime of food! A thankyou for the gift of the 20th century! Another site of interest for Colman Smith is Holly's.

rota	15 Feb 2003
Thanks, Moongold, for bringing this up in such a timely manner! Pam got so little respect when she was around the last time, so it's only appropriate that she does get some now in a group like this one. She still takes a lot of crap, even here. People complain about her medievalism, which may very likely be one of the qualities that recommended her for the tarot job at the time. People complain about the muddy colors of the cards, when that may well have been out of her hands: Waite would have had final say anyway, and then there are the limitations of the printing process in the early part of the last century. I have a lot of affection for her work, tho I'll be the first to say that a good part of it is simply that the RWS was my first sight of the tarot, in this life anyway. Some part of me still figures that her tarot IS tarot, even tho I know intellectually that's not defensible. But as an artist myself, I can admire the sheer doggedness of plowing through so many (very deep) images. Also as an artist I have a perverse affection for her many instances of not-quite-right perspective and not-quite-accurate anatomy. I let those things slide because the things she's illustrating are not of physical reality... they're things of the spirit. Anyway, thanks again for the chance to talk about 'Pixie'. Where did this 'Pixie' designation come from, anyway?

Moongold	15 Feb 2003
I went looking for more material on the Rider Waite Smith Tarot yesterday after reading the light- hearted discussion on the meaning of 4 Swords currently running on the forum. It was then that I discovered that it is Pamela Colman Smith's birthday today. Following MeeWah's post I've become more interested and have been searching all morning. Information about Pamela Colman Snith is elusive but there is a link to an interview with Stuart Kaplan (referred to by MeeWah above) here:http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/1999/June/699-02.htm which contains some fascinating perspectives. Kaplan believes that Pamela Colman Smith developed the RWS imagery purely intuitively against the background of her interest in spirituality and esoterica. He seems to say that her influence on the RWS images was predominent, not Waite's You are undoubtedly correct, Rota, when you observe that she made the best of the artistic tools available to her at the time. What amazing vision she had! It's interesting to compare the RWS images with some of her other work and to think about the styles of the times as well. Perhaps I am idealising her but she seems to have been one of those exceptionally gifted women whose work definitely now has immortality however nostalgic it sometimes seems to us in this relatively Tarot friendly world. Knowing a little bit more about the artist' her vision and her times has certainly given me new respect for this deck. Moongold

DeLani	15 Feb 2003
I agree completely. She revolutionized Tarot (before her, no-one illustrated the minors, now almost all decks do, and they seem to copy her symbology closely). Like most women, she got very little credit for such an incredible achievement. It's really too bad that she's in some unknown grave. Is there any way to find out where it is? Maybe through the miracle of internet communications, her final resting place could be found, and made into a shrine by devoted tarophiles like myself. What a cool pilgrammage - to go to Jamaica (I'm assuming) to see P.C. Smith's final resting place! On a side note, the Seer of Cups in the World Spirit deck is a rendition of her. Blessings!

Moongold	18 Feb 2003
Here is a great photograph of Pamela Colman Smith, http://www.facade.com/celebrity/Pamela_Colman_Smith/ I've been trying to find out why she was called "Pixie". She certainly looks like I would imagine a Pixie to look like. I wondered also if it wasn't something to do with her initials "PCS". Will keep looking but if anyone knows it would be great if you could let us know. Moongold

Francesca	18 Feb 2003
This from the lwb of my Universal Waite deck: "She never married. She had no known heirs except for an elderly female companion who shared her flat." I believe I recoginize this pair--Pamela was gay.

rota	18 Feb 2003
"She never married. She had no known heirs except for an elderly female companion who shared her flat." +++++++ It seems possible she was gay. It would have been a scandal at the time, probably. I wonder who this lady was, and if she left any recollections of PCS? I'd be very interested to hear a third party's assessment of her.

Dark Inquisitor	18 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Francesca "She never married. She had no known heirs except for an elderly female companion who shared her flat." I believe I recoginize this pair--Pamela was gay. [/b] Without more definitive evidence, it is not possible to say with certainty that she was gay. We see with modern eyes layered with the moral colors of the late 20th century . Things were very different back then , and just living with a friend was not an automatic gay label. For unmarried women, it was probably a normal circumstance & would be regarded as completely innocent. Women who married compromised most of their freedom & autonomy , and independent-minded women often had to choose between 2 unsatisfactory extremes. Tarotphelia

Francesca	19 Feb 2003
Generally speaking when you hear of two Victoarian women who do not marry--pretty much the only way for a woman to make a living--and live together, they were in love. Perhaps I should have said that Pamela must have been in love with her 'companion'. Much easier to swallow. Of course in those days is was not an automatic gay label because you could not be open about it and most biographers do their best to gloss over it when it comes up in a subject's life. However, if Pamela and her companion were part of a circle of artists and thespians as she seems to have been, then their cohorts would not have cared so much. Now, if that companion were a man with whom she lived but never married then it would be an automatic straight label. As they say, it takes one to know one. Francesca

Moongold	19 Feb 2003
When I read the little information available about her life and saw the reference to the female companion, I wondered but there isn't a lot of evidence about it. The question as to why Pamela never married is interesting. Was she simply an independent soul, were her preferences for women, or was there another explanation? Here is an interview with Stuart Kaplan. I think it is slightly different form the one I posted earlier. http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/1999/June/699-02.htm I've also found a few more references to Pixie in other academic publications but these are not available on the net and I'm going to have to get them some other way. Moongold

wavebreaker	19 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by MeeWah The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume III by Stuart R. Kaplan begins with a comprehensive biography of the life & work of the artist of the deck known as the Rider-Waite. The in-depth article includes numerous samplings of her artwork in drawings, paintings & watercolours. I happened to receive my copy of the Encyclopedia today and immediately read the biography. Some of the watercolours included are absolutely wonderful!! I wish I could see them in colour (they are all printed in B/W)...

HOLMES	19 Feb 2003
it is quite normal to live in a place with a buddy and not be gay , i know for i lived with my half brother, a roomie who need help, and i am not gay :) in fact it would of been ok to do it at that time to save money, like me and my buddy did while i went to college. i wonder what she would of done if she was recairnated. .. be cool to think she recairnated to come back and relovutionized the the tarot scene once more, the new tarot for the aquarian age. edited to add. just saw the mention she was the first.. to put pictures on the minors, actually she wans't there was a picture minors done centuries earlier and some of the pictures looked quite similar to coleman artwork. i think it is because at the time it was orginaly done. 1. we weren't ready for it. 2. it wasnt' widely distributed, 3. maybe only a few copies were made. ? yet she is an orginal , for elvis took the medely to aura lee and gave us love me tender, and bluemoonkentucky and change the rhytm that bill munroe sang it that way afterwards as he liked it better.

Moongold	19 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by HOLMES it is quite normal to live in a place with a buddy and not be gay , i know for i lived with my half brother, a roomie who need help, and i am not gay :) Sure Holmes, and everyone, My interest in PixieColman is not about her personal life in that respect, although if one is interested historically in a person one can't dismiss all aspects of the personal life. She'll be remembered for her art more than anything else and her interpretation of the Tarot. I think that is what she'd prefer. Moongold

DeLani	19 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by HOLMES just saw the mention she was the first.. to put pictures on the minors, actually she wans't there was a picture minors done centuries earlier and some of the pictures looked quite similar to coleman artwork. i think it is because at the time it was orginaly done. 1. we weren't ready for it. 2. it wasnt' widely distributed, 3. maybe only a few copies were made. ? Wow - I did not know this. I suppose I have been teaching my students wrong. What is the name of this deck, and are there any pics of the minors to look at? Thanks, DeLani

jmd	19 Feb 2003
There are two decks known. The first, which Waite and Colman Smith had access to, is the 78 card non-Tarot Sola Busca (some images are virtual copies). The other, though having no apparent similarity, is the Vachette.

HOLMES	19 Feb 2003
hehe i didn't know about the vachette, :O)

Francesca	20 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by HOLMES it is quite normal to live in a place with a buddy and not be gay , i know for i lived with my half brother, a roomie who need help, and i am not gay :) It is quite normal NOW to have a roommate. But for Pamela it would have been quite normal for her to marry and live with her husband or, if she remained unmarried, to continue to live with her family. If she were straight her personal life would be up for discussion without any question. But since the "one true friend" was a woman, it is now private. One of the reasons that I always perfer Pamela's decks is because the figures are so androgynous. Any figure could apply to just about any querent. Even the nude ones, while anatomically correct, have an androgynous quality to them. While a straight artist is certainly capable of drawing androgynous figures, when I read that bit about the female companion, it all came together. It's okay for the people you admire to be gay. It doesn't mean you are. Francesca

Dark Inquisitor	20 Feb 2003
[quote]Originally posted by Francesca *But for Pamela it would have been quite normal for her to marry and live with her husband or, if she remained unmarried, to continue to live with her family. __People have falling outs with their families, move away, or when they get old, their family is dead. *If she were straight her personal life would be up for discussion without any question. But since the "one true friend" was a woman, it is now private. __The balance of the discussion was that her sexual preference was open to question & unverifiable at this point. Also irrelevant , really. It was you who began making assumptions & pronouncements as to the definitive answer.That is the source of the argument, not her sexuality. * One of the reasons that I always perfer Pamela's decks is because the figures are so androgynous. Any figure could apply to just about any querent. Even the nude ones, while anatomically correct, have an androgynous quality to them. __ I am a sculptor, and they never struck me as androgynous - but then , I am not looking for androgyny. They look to me like figures based on classical art. But , to each his own. *While a straight artist is certainly capable of drawing androgynous figures, when I read that bit about the female companion, it all came together. __It came together for you, in your own mind- with your own set of filters & viewpoints. Others may withold judgement, or think objective proof is necessary. *It's okay for the people you admire to be gay. It doesn't mean you are. __I think we know that already, Francesca. It may be that she was gay , or it may not. I can't decide that 100% about her any more than I can decide absolutely that 2 people I see walking together on the street are having an affair. The point was just a footnote until you declared yourself the absolute authority based on your subjective reasoning. Obviously you are the one who is fixated on whether or not PC Smith was gay. I don't really think the rest of us care- we just admire her accomplishment. Tarotphelia

Aoife	20 Feb 2003
To throw in another aspect of this debate - Edwardian England was [and arguably still is] a class-ridden society. It's my understanding that whilst unmarried women would have been expected to continue living with a male family member there might have been exceptions or additional opportunities for 'middle' class women, possibly because of a better education. Class had little to do with money [although reading between the lines i think pamela may have made an adequate living during her youth]. I suspect that more importantly, women such as she would have been perceived as "artistic", bohemian..... and there certainly were other literary and artistic women of this period who struck out alone [of course, none immediately come to mind!]. These women of course were the precursors of a very large number of single women [as a result of the massive male death toll from wwi and ii]. I was educated largely by single women teachers and I can remember that many of them lived together. A PS on the subject of the name Pixie - whilst it seems an entirely appropriate nickname on the basis of her initials - and her demeanour in that wonderful photograph. I also wonder whether she had connections with Cornwall prior to her move there in later life. Pixies are Cornish fae folk!

HOLMES	20 Feb 2003
there is no problem that she was gay , but i want proof, not hearsay, or speculation. otherwise that don't slander her memory. and frankly i found it insulting what you said, for i have lots of hereos, queen, richard simmons, getting to like elton john music even, a memory just came to my mind of a get smart espiode, where max was argueing with interior decorator who was very effemiante then threw max down i think and started to talk like a tough guy "hey buddy what is your problem" and he said he had to talk like that to get a job, so the sterotypes can work both ways i for one am just happy she made helped made the rider waite deck, and please don't slander her memory unless you have 100 definitve proof.

Moongold	20 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Francesca If she were straight her personal life would be up for discussion without any question. But since the "one true friend" was a woman, it is now private. Hi Francesca, As a gay woman myself, I actually don't think we know enough to be able to speculate and I don't think it is relevant in this particular discussion. Because of the issues around identity and acceptance I was delighted as a young woman (and still am) to discover that well known people were gay or bi-sexual e.g. Gertrude Stein, Vita Sackville West, Virginia Woolf, Freda Kahlo (sp?) et cetera but there was generally conclusive information about those people and there simply isn't about Pixie Colman. It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where it didn't really matter and the questions just didn't occur, but we don't, and I'd prefer to go with what we know. One of the poignant aspects of Pixie's life is that no-one knows much about any of it. She was clearly an exceptional woman who has had a major impact on the history of Tarot. All of us have been affected really because who doesn't know about the RWS tarot? I was so moved by her story on the anniversary of her birth that I did a reading and posted in another section of Aeclectic. One of the things that came through to me most strongly during that reading was the feeling that somehow Pixie Colman had, though her illustrations and the promotion of the Tarot, opened up another framework through which women and men can understand their lives. The Empress, the High Priestess, the Fool, the Magician, the Hierophant are archetypes which have universal application, though they seem initially to be gender related. The same principle applies throughout the minor arcana, I think. The Tarot provides another lens through which we can understand ourselves differently, no matter who we are. It is that aspect of her vision which reaches out to me. Pixie's imagination, use of symbolism, knowledge of the occult and so on are also extraordinary. The poignancy of the lack of recognition and her death in poverty is still felt by many people. There are some who have gone out of their way to address that - Stuart Kaplan for example. I hope this makes sense. I haven't seen too many of your posts before because Aeclectic is so big now but I hope you continue to contribute to these pages with your own experience and knowledge of Tarot. There is a lot of good will and acceptance here as well as some hot debates on occasion. Most of us are quite passionate and committed people. Blessings Moongold

Francesca	20 Feb 2003
[q the point was just a footnote until you declared yourself the absolute authority based on your subjective reasoning. tarotphelia [/b][/quote] My goodness, I didn't think I did that. It's true that I don't put qualifiers such as "THis is only my guess" etc around everything, but perhaps you would point out exactly where I did that in previous posts. HOlmes wrote: but i want proof, not hearsay, or speculation. otherwise that don't slander her memory. there is no problem that she was gay , If suggesting that someone is gay is slander, then there must be a problem with it. If you call someone straight, is that slander? No. Nor is suggesting that they may be gay. Okay, I am guessing that Pamela was gay or at any rate had a loverly relationship with the woman who lived with her when she died. I base this guess on what was written in the biography that came with my Universal Waite deck. THe way that information was presented (" She never married. SHe had no known heirs except for an elderly female companion who shared her flat.") is similar to the way gay women of her class and era and in this sort of relationship are presented. Also, I'm sure that there are public records on her life. Surely there is at least a birth certificate to tell us who her parents are. A lease perhaps to tell us the name of this companion? A will to tell us who the heirs of this companion was? A skilled geneologist based in England could surely scare up these documents. I think the reason we know so little about the facts of her life is that no one has seen fit or been able to dedicate themselves to the legwork. ANy professional biographers out there?

wavebreaker	20 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Francesca I think the reason we know so little about the facts of her life is that no one has seen fit or been able to dedicate themselves to the legwork. ANy professional biographers out there? As has been mentioned before: volume III of The Encyclopedia of Tarot contains a biography of Pixie Smith. It's 45 pages and for a great part based on the research performed by art historian Melinda Boyd Parsons, who wrote a thesis on Pixie titled "The Rediscovery of Pamela Colman Smith". Both sources will give you lots of information. According to the biography, her parents are Charles Edward Smith, an American merchant, and Corinne Colman Smith, who were believed to be from Brooklyn. On her death, the biography says: Pamela Colman Smith died at age 73 on September 18, 1951, at 2 Bencoolen House in Bude. Present at the time of her death was Mrs. Elsie T. Bates, a friend who occasionally cleaned her flat. Smith's will, dated February 23, 1951, left her entire estate "to my friend Nora Lake".

HOLMES	20 Feb 2003
i think the tragic, and most endurin thing is , she was a relative obscure artist, who died penniless (least that is what the books i have read said in tidbits, doesn't have the great detail enclopedia 3 has eheh) . yet now almost a 100 years after her death those who learn about the tarot learn she did the rider tarot, and didn't sign the fool card as she didn't agree with the placement of it in the tree of life. does the bio in that book agree with that statement or is that legend as to why the fool isn't signed tarot?

Cerulean	27 Feb 2003
Melinda Boyd Parson has a small text note here with Pamela Colman Smith's name mentioned---I counted two paragraphs of text on Pamela Colman Smith after going scrolling through about 44 paragraphs from the top on modern art discussion: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~lsherrll/parsonstext.html I believe Pamela Colman Smith is noted as African American rather than as a Jamacian-born Englishwoman, as I had assumed previously. Her work in both art and stagework seemed to have been done from a very young age. Her visionary work for Yeats, Waite, Francis Farr, Ellen Terry and others transcended the small island cultures that she was from... but perhaps in her time period, the early part of the 20th century, it may have been that her cross-cultural boundaries may have limited her acceptance in English-speaking areas such as the U.S. In Mary Greer's recent lecture in February 2003*, the reference to Pixie was said to be because Pixie was a visionary artist who saw the art that others described to her. So Yeats might envision a story or scene and she would sketch it and those such as Yeats would marvel that her work would look exactly like what was in their heads. As part of this talent, she could paint scenes to music as she heard it and she did believe she saw pixies and fairies...I'm still researching what I can. I hope that Melinda Boyd Parson's book on Pamela Colman Smith comes out before the 100th anniversary of the 1909 Rider Waite deck... Best wishes and hope this helps. Mari Hoshizaki *The incomparable JMD kindly pointed out the date error--Mary Greer spoke on Pamela Colman Smith in 2003. Some of my printed resources have written Pixie Smith's middle name without the e in Colman---I'm a little uncertain right now which spelling to use. Thanks for error checks...MH.

Cerulean	27 Feb 2003
...Other artists at the turn of the century focused on religion to combat materialism. Some, like the African-American painter Henry Tanner, revived traditional Christian imagery but rendered it in a moody, "expressive-realist" style that made it come alive. Others took a more mystical and occultist direction, such as the French painters of the Nabi Brotherhood, another artists' commune whose members tried to synthesize all religions into a' unified mystical reality. Similarly, the African-American artist Pamela Colman Smith joined an occult group in London called the "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn." The teachings of the group sparked Smith's mysterious visions to music, which subsequently became the subject matter of her art. When she had her first show in New York, the socialist critic Benjamin de Casseres interpreted her art as an unequivocal rejection of capitalism and materialism. In his words: "Also is Pamela Colman Smith the evocatrice of wonder To such minds what is practical is vulgar, what is utilitarian is ugly..., for art takes the infinite as its theme; [and] Pamela Colman Smith has in this manner challenged the world around her. So let the scavengers scrape the gutters.for coppers and duck in the cesspools of practical life for the rolling dollar. They are the Captains of Industry--the grimy, smutty captains of the market, and their industry is a grimy, smutty, lurid hell of lies. They and all their works shall go in the winds; and the turrets and spires and bridges of our civilization shall long be gangrened in the muds of Oblivion when dreamers like Miss Smith shall still with potent rod smite the souls of generations yet unborn; and from these, as from us, shall burst the fountains of exalted wonder." But the horrors of the First World War soon drew many people away from mysticism and toward a more directly political focus. Thus in the late 1920s and 1930s, artists generally addressed social rather than transcendent realities in their work. Many of the same artists also joined the American Communist Party, whose theories of the equality of all workers seemed more humanistic at the time than the theories underlying capitalism. This political radicalism was often expressed in art as well, as, for example, in the murals of Diego Rivera or the prints and paintings of the Social Realist, Ben Shahn....

Dark Inquisitor	27 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Mari_Hoshizaki They are the Captains of Industry--the grimy, smutty captains of the market, and their industry is a grimy, smutty, lurid hell of lies. They and all their works shall go in the winds; and the turrets and spires and bridges of our civilization shall long be gangrened in the muds of Oblivion when dreamers like Miss Smith shall still with potent rod smite the souls of generations yet unborn; and from these, as from us, shall burst the fountains of exalted wonder." Sounds like a hell of a good spell to me! And kind of a neat prediction too. Tarotphelia

Moongold	28 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Mari_Hoshizaki I hope that Melinda Boyd Parson's book on Pamela Colman Smith comes out before the 100th anniversary of the 1909 Rider Waite deck... Best wishes and hope this helps. Mari Hoshizaki Mari, Thank you very much for these pieces. There has been a PhD. thesis written as well but I can't find the internet reference to it now. I will keep looking. I'm looking forward to Melinda Boyd Parson's book. Was that developed from a PhD? Appreciatively, Moongold

The Birthday Of Pamela Colman Smith thread was originally posted on 15 Feb 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.