The more I see it, the less I like it.

SO TRUE, LRichard!

I am putting some of the PCS pix from the set under the glass, on my black breakfast table . I got a couple sets so I could cut pix from one of the books. So many lovely drawings one can frame or use in various ways!

This has been my go to deck since I got it.

Teheuti said:

Because PCS said almost nothing about the deck and never refers to Tarot elsewhere, it is easy for people to make up what she thought and did. Place is not an expert on this deck, nor on Waite, and himself has many errors in his discussion of the deck - including the method of printing, which is totally wrong. The rest of Place's book is excellent, but please don't use it as a guide to the Waite-Smith deck. Most of his insights on the cards can be found in earlier books.

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Thank you Teheuti for putting me straight on this, point taken

Edit to add: Just remembered you mentioned Paul Foster Case to me in another thread here. I forgot about it (tut tut!) so just been online and ordered it. Hopefully this will be helpful to me in my progression with the RW deck. If you have any other recommendations would be very grateful. I will also keep an eye out for the Marcus Katz book.

The exact opposite with me.
The more decks I have, the more I need my RWS (I like the retro style of the Blue Box and the Commemorative deck).
The more I learn about Pixie, the more I love her.

I dont really like the original Rider Waite, colors are flat and lifeless, but I love the radiant rider waite, looks awesome!

With all due respect, I have to disagree with the OP. I think the classic deck is fantastic and to my surprise (even though I am not a beginner tarot reader anymore) was the only deck that actually clicked with me. I have tried to use other decks but I simply couldn't connect with them even though they had more beautiful designs (take for example Ciro Marchetti tarot decks).
Pamela Colman Smith was a great illustrator and I love what she has done for this tarot deck.

As a tarot reader I have learned one important lesson: you don't choose your tarot deck, the deck chooses you. It's like magic.

PS: I like and feel like I can connect with one deck that is out of the "league" and that is Deviant Moon. I plan to buy it soon.

I own the commemorative version of this deck and I really like it. RWS is a deck I can always come back to and feel right at home. Also, I love the "flat" colours and the artwork of PCS, I find those highly evocative. That sense of magic is lost in every clone version of the deck, in my opinion. With the exception of Albano-Waite.

The Albano really saved me from abandoning Waite completely. Understanding colour scales and the BOTA deck made the Albano explode for me in an entirely new dimension.

But in terms of "normal" colouring, the RWS is just too flat and lifeless to me. No shading, no depth, no tone, no dimension. I find it really hard to be inspired unless they're re-coloured.

The PCS Commemorative just makes me think, "Whadaya know, they finally got it right!"

danielnogo said:

I dont really like the original Rider Waite, colors are flat and lifeless, but I love the radiant rider waite, looks awesome!

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One must see the early versions of the Waite-Smith by appreciating the cultural and technological realities. Artists followed a popular style or developed their own. Reproduction was done using lithography stones, a seriously complicated, hands-on method that had certain limitations.

I'm happy enough with the deck, but found the Waite book just so offputting: all he seems to do is refute others even in the definitions, so I would never use that for anything other than historical reference. I decided not to let it make me feel like the deck I just got has cooties, just because the book turns me off.