Is the Universal a Rider Waite Deck?

I don't currently own a Rider Waite deck, and I saw the Golden Universal Deck and was very attracted to it.

Is that considered a Rider Waite deck, or is it just Rider Waite inspired?

All replies appreciated!

It's not a Rider Waite, but it is very close! I'd say almost a clone. It's a lovely quirky deck IMO, though I've never read with mine.

It's not a true Rider Waite clone, in that it doesn't reproduce the Arts & Crafts style line drawings of the original RWS cards. It's a facelift of the same Rider characters with different dimensions in a new style, like the Classic Tarot. But I'd hardly say you can't use it as your first Rider Waite; many people just don't like Smith's original artwork but want the same familiar Rider characters.

I have the Golden Universal, and it is one of my favorite decks! It is actually a gold-stamped version of another Lo Scarabeo deck - the Universal Tarot - which is of course by de Angelis too. I believe that LS created these to be able to use the Rider Waite Smith images that has been imprinted in the popular imagination without starting a copyright war with US Games Inc., which owns the rights to the actual RWS. As such, it may skirt close to the images of the RWS without fully copying it if they wish to avoid legal headaches so that while it is in essence almost similar to the RWS, comparing the images to each other they are pictorially different decks. I would say that the Universal (not to be confused with the Universal Waite which is by USG) and the Golden Universal are RWS reinterpretations, and not pure RWS. I think Llewellyn also performed a similar feat through the Llewellyn Classic Tarot, whose images were also used in their books such as Llewellyn's Complete Book of Tarot by Anthony Louis and Your Tarot, Your Way by Barbara Moore in much the same way as the Universal Tarot was used by Lo Scarabeo in their publications such as the magisterial Tarot Fundamentals and Tarot Experience, with another book coming to complete the trilogy.

Btw I think that if you are truly enamored of the Golden Universal, you should go for it. When I started studying the RWS I never had much problems with it as the images are similar enough to the RWS that the meanings attributed to the latter can easily be applied to the former. Most beginner Tarot books use the RWS in their discussions, so I was able to use them in a general study of the RWS (which at that time simply complemented my Thoth phase).

But if you go into an in depth study of the RWS are keen on its symbolism, which the most instructive (for me) Tarot tomes describe in great detail, then you may long for a real RWS clone. The birds flying in the distance, the background and scenery, the color schema used, and even the direction the central figure is leaning towards mean something, and these may be missing or altered in the GU vis-a-vis the real RWS. But of course it would depend on the book you will use, if you are dogmatic when it comes to the cards' symbolism or if you're more flexible with them, if you even use books or if you're the intuitive sort, your deep delight of the Golden Universal weighed against your possible disconnect with the actual RWS, etc. In the end, of course it's your choice to make.

Lol (just reading through the detailed and informative passion of EmpyreanKnight).

I have a Golden Universal and find that the gold-stamping just adds a little giggly oomph for me. .

I've never loved Pamela's art - but if I go to a Tarot MeetUp - I'll invariably use either my Golden Universal or the Centennial RWS for the workshop parts of the MeetUp, because it's easier for newbies who've come to learn - than if I decide to use one of my more modern decks.