A huge welcome to the Knight-Waite Tarot deck.
I often say I was born with a deck of Tarot in my hands. My mother was a psychic Tarot reader, so they were my childhood playthings. The Tarot was my constant companion, my guide, my life-long savior, and without a doubt the compass I used to create my future. Of all the decks, the Rider-Waite-Smith has always been my most beloved. I see the Knight- Waite Tarot as a re-imagining of this iconic deck and my love letter to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, specifically to Pamela Colman-Smith, the illustrator.
The fabulous maverick Pamela Colman-Smith was an all-around remarkable soul: half Jamaican, queer, a suffragette, and an artist who was way ahead of her time. Perhaps the reason why the Rider-Waite- Smith is the most popular Tarot deck of all time is because Pamela hid her magic in plain sight?
I wanted to do this project because although I have the most profound respect for the Rider-Waite-Smith and other original Tarot cards, I’ve also felt genuine frustration with their lack of diversity. Because the original decks were created in a time of even deeper oppression, they don’t honor different sexualities, gender expressions, and are generally white-centric. I think Pamela would’ve approved of a more inclusive vision, which is what led me on the journey to create this deck and to carry her vision on into a new, more inclusive age.
Pamela gave this essential advice on how to approach a Tarot reading, advice which has stood the test of time and remains one of the best approaches to accessing the full wisdom of the Tarot:
‘After you have found how to tell a simple story, put in more details. . . Learn from everything, see everything, and above all feel everything! . . . Find eyes within, look for the door into the unknown country.’
