The Major Arcana

Tarot is a very old art form, originally created as a game, but based on the symbols, plants, animals, colors, stories, and elements that have influenced us for as long as we have been building cultures and societies. This history and imbedded culture is what allows us to look at the cards and how they interact and see stories and meaning from them.

Tarot has gone through many forms, but the structure and images we often associate with tarot now is based on the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck (which is heavily influenced by the Tarot de Marsaille, an Italian deck from the 15th century). Published in 1909 by Rider & Co. the Rider-Waite-Smith deck was written by A.E. Waite with images by Pamela Coleman Smith (who is often uncredited).  Waite and Smith were both prominent members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (a secret society dedicated to studying metaphysical systems and beliefs) which influenced their work greatly.

In working with tarot, it has been important to me to remember that there are traditions and symbols embedded in the Rider Waite deck from Jewish Kabbalah and Egyptian traditions as well as the European ones.  Many of these traditions were not ancestral to the people writing the deck and are often uncredited. It is important to reacknowledge these when we find them and consider interpretations both through the lens of the groups they originate with, and also how the members of the Golden Dawn used and interpreted them.