Your thirst for occult knowledge you a rebel—in the best way. There’s a lot to learn here, and a lot to discover about yourself. Let’s keep this short; nobody likes long-winded intros.

Welcome! If this is your first time with tarot, good morning—this is your awakening. Whether it’s this book or another, you’ve started the wheel of fate. What might look like a party trick or hobby can actually reveal truths about yourself and the universe you never imagined. With these cards, the universe starts to unfold, and your own trials and triumphs will come into focus.

Tarot has been around since before the 1400s, but much of its knowledge has been lost. Over the centuries, rulers, religious groups, and conquerors destroyed the work of those they opposed. During the 18th and 19th centuries, science, medicine, and the occult were sometimes illegal. Scholars, scientists, and ordinary people labeled witches were tortured, executed, and had their work burned before them.

This book combines what we know about tarot with exercises to help you discover your own truths.

The Tarot Oracle

“An epigraph about deep wisdom through spiritual expression” – by some asshole who’s more enlightened than you

The Waite Deck 

The Rider–Waite Tarot, first published in 1909, was created through the collaboration of Arthur Edward Waite, a mystic and scholar, and Pamela Colman Smith, an artist and occultist. Commissioned by the London publisher William Rider & Son, the deck was designed to modernize tarot and make its symbolism more accessible to both students and casual readers.

Waite was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secretive esoteric society that blended mysticism, astrology, Kabbalah, alchemy, and ceremonial magic. While tarot already existed in earlier forms—most notably the Tarot de Marseille—Waite sought to embed deeper esoteric meaning into the imagery, especially within the Minor Arcana, which had traditionally been illustrated only with suit symbols. Smith’s fully illustrated scenes transformed tarot reading by allowing intuitive interpretation rather than reliance solely on memorized meanings.

Pamela Colman Smith drew heavily from Golden Dawn teachings, theatrical storytelling, Christian mysticism, folklore, and symbolism, though she was never fully credited during her lifetime. The deck was named after its publisher rather than its creators, a common practice at the time.

Today, the Rider–Waite Tarot (often called Rider–Waite–Smith) is the foundation of most modern tarot decks, shaping how tarot is taught, read, and understood worldwide.

Symbolism in the cards 

There are many hidden and esoteric Layers to the symbology of the Ryder Waite tarot deck. The symbolism runs so deep, famous psychologist Carl Jung validated the art of reading tarot as a psychological act.

Below are some of the symbolism you can speculate from the tarot.

Numerology: Each number carries consistent meaning across suits

Astrology: Planetary and zodiac correspondences

Kabbalah: Paths on the Tree of Life

Alchemy: Transformation through stages (solve et coagula)

Waite intentionally concealed some Golden Dawn teachings, meaning not all symbolism is explicit—intuition is part of the system.

Why the RWS Symbolism Matters

The Rider–Waite–Smith deck works because: the images, colors, and all the information the card provides can stir the intuition, allowing the user to pull information from the collective unconscious. The meanings of the cards over time will become a source simply by looking at them.

This makes Tarot more than a divination tool. The deck tells a story, and if you read it keenly enough and pay attention, you can see all the cycle of the human existence within them. They cover the complete spectrum of our existence; in combination with one another they can relate a pretty compelling story to almost anyone.

Next, lets go over the cards and what each of them mean.