German Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

Review by for Miniature Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
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This is one of my favorite Tarot decks because of its portability. It is the miniature version of the Waite deck, and it roughly fits in the palm of my hand, which makes it very easy to shuffle. However, I just want to share a few praises and pointers that I’ve run across while using these cards.On the positive side, these cards are beautiful with hints of classical and medieval themes, which makes these cards feel nostalgic and unique. Another great aspect is that there are many “Learn How to…” tarot books on the market that use this deck in their lessons. An additional asset is this deck’s portability. It’s truly fantastic. This deck is great for travel and it’s discrete. Let’s face it, how many of us want to explain why we’re toting tarot decks? Unfortunately, mysticism, esoterica and tarots are still frowned upon by many. On the challenging side, I find the very Judeo Christian imagery limiting because it’s so emphatically chivalric in tone, and few modern people achieve this state. Additionally, the suit of wands–which generally symbolizes elemental passion, the ego and desire–hardly conveyed anything I would associate with these themes. Also, the gender divide is a bit awkward. We have two male archetypes, which are the King and the Night. The female archetype is the queen. Last, we have an androgynous page, which can be male, female or epicene. What this gender arrangement translates to is an older gentleman (King), a young man (knight), androgynous individual (page), and a female (Queen). So where is the maiden? How is it that all women are lumped summed under a queen? Many readers use the pages to represent young women, but I find this troubling, since the page can be a young woman, an adolescent male or female, an epicene, a child etc, and when it shows up in the answer, who do we point to? I feel that this kind of gender schema leads to confusion and makes this deck a bit dated. My last concern is that the Rider Waite tends to veil the darker and more shadowy sides of human nature and our complexities, which makes readings a bit harder to interpret because results tends to be resoundingly “good and moral,” or “bad and duplicitous,” and few people are so extreme. Hence, a more realistic tone would be nice, but I realize that this kind of tone would directly conflict with its medieval and chivalric picture schema.All in all, once you get used to the pictures and its antiquated themes, you’ll find this deck enchanting because it’s so lovely and convenient. Other decks are about that have more modern pictorial representations for the Major and Minor Arcana–which incorporates a broader religious spectrum, which is nice–but this is still the handiest deck to tote around, and you can do it discretely.

Review by OAKSHAMAN for Miniature Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
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I retired my full sized Rider Waite deck a few years ago in favor of this half size version. It fits my hands perfectly. In fact, in my humble opinion this should be the “standard size” of the deck. You can clearly make out all of the rich, symbolic, detail of the larger decks. As for the Waite Rider in general- Arthur Edward Waite was one of the greatest experts on spiritual and metaphysical teachings and symbolism that ever lived. He was a mage and theurgist that was truly touched by the divine. Unlike some other well-known figures from the same period, I have never found deliberately misleading or false information in any of his published works. He may leave deeper meanings up to your own meditation on the matter, but he never intentionally obscures or misleads. By the way, an excellent companion reference is Eden Gray’s _A Complete Guide to the Tarot_, though Waite’s own _The Pictorial Key to the Tarot_ is the gold standard. I’ll close this by saying that I do not regard these cards as mere artifacts, but as trusted friends.