Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite Tarot Deck and The Wave

Narrator: The artist Pamela Colman Smith illustrated these Tarot cards in 1909. Today, it is the most popular deck used, with an estimated one hundred million copies in circulation. Tarot cards contain archetypal symbols, and are divided between the major arcana and minor arcana—arcana meaning “secrets.” The major arcana includes characters like the Fool, the Magician, and the Devil, as well as forces such as the Wheel of Fortune. The minor arcana are numbered, and are divided into Wands, Pentangles, Cups, and Swords. They’re meant to be shuffled and read as a form of divination, depending on which cards are drawn. For many people, though, they simply offer an opportunity for psychological reflection. 

Melissa Staiger: Hi, I'm Melissa Staiger. I co-curated an art exhibit about Pamela Colman Smith at the Pratt Library in 2019 with Colleen Lynch. 

Each of these cards has so many details. I actually don't know how she did this deck in such a short time. It's like a genius quality to symbolically place all these small little details on the cards. I'm always learning something new off her deck.

Narrator: These details guide readers in interpreting the cards’ narrative. As an artist, Smith was well-suited to being in the role of a storyteller. She was heavily involved in theater, including costume and set design. She also staged her own performances of folktales from Jamaica, where she had grown up. Like many artists around the turn of the century, she became interested in mysticism, and developed a personal form of spirituality. Her otherworldly approach is also reflected in a watercolor called The Wave, on view nearby. Grieving figures rise up out of the ocean, their robes seeming to trail into the waves. 

Melissa Staiger: In her works, we start to see figures becoming elements like mountains here. We see them as water. When I'm thinking of the symbols in the tarot, you know, they're elemental.