RWS: Colour coding ?

samantha

Just a thought. Is there any reason why the background colour of the cards are presented the way that they are ? For the most
part realistic colours are used (blue/sky) , so why the inclusion of yellow ??! Did the artist just get bored , or is there another reason ? As they come from across the board I can't see any
obvious pattern , tho ' there are fewer of them.
 

Kirali

I'm not really sure but I believe that the publisher or printer Rider colored the cards that way and not Pixie Smith. Someone else help me out! hehe
 

Richard1

My understanding is that all the colors are important, if you're into the Kabbalistic and astrological meaning behind the cards. (I am, which is why I don't have, say, the Universal Waite, even though I think it's much prettier over all).
The only example I can think of offhand, however, is the yellow sky behind the Fool and the Magician, which represents the element of air (Crowley's Fool also has a yellow background).
Ultimately, I think its a personal choice. If you're into the esoteric symbolism, the color is important. If you couldn't give a Sephirah about it, it's not.
 

Mysti

Synchronistic!

I asked this question myself yesterday... well not a question really.. but a comment that I really was not attracted to the yellows in the RWS deck.

The reply I got was "Have you ever seen the paintings?" I have not. The story, as I understand it, is that the paintings of the cards with the yellow skies were sunsets, painted in varying tints of yellows and pinks, etc. The presses, at that time, could not accomodate the various colorations, and the publishers chose the yellow skies.

That response makes a good bit of sense to me.

Love and peace,
Mysti
 

rota

I think a person could make a good argument for saying that the various colors in a deck (including the RWS) could and should have meaning in and of themselves.

The color yellow is associated with intelligence and insight, or so say the writers of works on the human aura. Various shades of yellow can mean different types of intellligence: a muddy brown can mean selfish cunning, for instance, whereas a clear, pure tulip yellow means transcendent spiritual understanding.

Green, the central color of the spectrum as we know it, is associated with adaptability, poise, judgement. This would make it a good main color for a Justice card, and indeed in the RWS our androgynous Justice figure wears a green mantle over a red cloak.

Red is associated with passion. In its clearest purest roselike state it's supposed to denote impersonal capital-L love; in a darkened state, it could represent a sort of jealous rage.

And on and on. It's a worthwhile study, and I'll bet that the Waite/Smith conception of the RWS deck included proper color correspondences.
 

Mysti

rota said:
I think a person could make a good argument for saying that the various colors in a deck (including the RWS) could and should have meaning in and of themselves.


I agree! That was also part of the response to me in a way. The person posting to me reminded me that the bright yellow used in the backgrounds also had significant meanings in the OGD rituals at that time.

I would love to see the original paintings, or at least a reasonable facsimile. It would be quite expansive I think.

Love and peace,

Mysti
 

Rusty Neon

Mysti said:

I would love to see the original paintings, or at least a reasonable facsimile. It would be quite expansive I think.
Actually, there were no original paintings for the RWS deck (unlike the Thoth deck, where there were original paintings) -- just black and white sketches. See Waite's _Pictorial Key to the Tarot_ for the B+W sketches.
 

HappyHardy

Rusty Neon said:
Actually, there were no original paintings for the RWS deck (unlike the Thoth deck, where there were original paintings) -- just black and white sketches. See Waite's _Pictorial Key to the Tarot_ for the B+W sketches.

Can you give the source for your information? According to Kaplan's The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume III, Page 1, "...The cards were drawn in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith, who was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Smith painted the deck under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite, also a member of the order..."

On page 35, “…the colours of blue, yellow, orange-red, grey and green predominate.”

Tom Tadfor Little has this to say:

"... is the artwork of Pamela Coleman Smith, who drew and colored the cards. Her figures often appear frozen in time, caught in the moment of motion...”

http://www.telp.com/tarot/waite.htm

I have been privileged to overhear at least two conversations by tarot authors in which they described the original paintings, the original set of cards, at length. I apologize for not having the information readily at hand as to where the originals are at this time.

It's in the cards! HH
 

HappyHardy

Rusty Neon said:
Hi HappyHardy, if the tarot historians say that Smith coloured the cards, then indeed I stand corrected. However, Waite doesn't mention any card colours in his _Pictorial Key to the Tarot_.


In the INTRODUCTION of the _PKT_ Waite says, "...have dealt with the symbolism according to some of its higher aspects, and this also serves to introduce the complete and rectified Tarot, which is available separately, in the form of coloured cards, the designs of which are added to the present text in black and white. They have been prepared under my supervision-in respect of the attributions and meanings-by a lady who has high claims as an artist...I have given prominence to one method of working that has not been published previously; having the merit of simplicity, while it is also of universal application, it may be held to replace the cumbrous and involved systems of the larger hand-books."

Unless I have totally misread Waite (a not uncommon occurrence), the "attributions and meanings" he refers contain the colours (among other correspondences) as prescribed by the OGD.

It's in the cards! HH