What "qualifies" as a RWS?

rwcarter

Anrath Tarot

Zephyros and I have have discussed it and since it's primarily Pam's art, the Anrath can be discussed here in RWS.
 

Yelell

Zephyros and I have have discussed it and since it's primarily Pam's art, the Anrath can be discussed here in RWS.

Thanks for the answer. :) I didn't realize there were actual specific guidelines.

There already is gender balance in the RWS court cards. Knights are male of 40 years or older. Queens are female in the same age bracket. Kings are male under 40, and Pages are female under 40. (PKT Part III § 7) Thus there are 8 men and 8 women represented in the courts. In actual use, any court card can be either male or female of any age. (Personally, I think of Pages as tomboys.)

Not wanting to deviate too radically from the historical decks, Waite had the Pages depicted as male (or androgynous), like the Valets in the TdM.

I'm not sure that's from Waite himself. The section before that he says he's offering a process which has been used for years in England/Scotland/Ireland -- then gives the description of the celtic cross where those age/gender divisions are used to choose a significator.

When the pages are discussed in the text they are usually a young man, sometimes a youth or child, a soldier. The closest he came to female was "somewhat effeminate" which is not really the same.

Not that I'm one to restrict a card based on sex, not at all. But he also says:

"...there is no method of interpreting Tarot cards which is not applicable to ordinary playing-cards, but the additional court cards, and above all the Trumps Major, are held to increase the elements and values of the oracles."

So, why not even more court cards? :D

I really did ask about the deck a bit sarcastically, but I'm thinking, like the Visconti deck it might be on to something after all...
 

Zephyros

Thanks for the answer. :) I didn't realize there were actual specific guidelines

The general guideline is that threads go where they belong, this makes it easier for people to find their way and for searches, and this specific forum is dedicated to the RWS. Generally this would indicate PCS's line art, and the mod team discusses all requests anyway. This specific deck is all RWS, only added to, so it makes sense that it would be discussed here.

Like rwcarter said, the question of what constitutes an RWS is an intellectual one, we're just here to keep things in order. If a deck veers too far away from the original, it is best discussed in other appropriate forums.
 

Yelell

That's what post 8 was about.

Yes, I did see that too. Thank you. I was simply surprised the answer was so specific. My initial question was along the lines of how far away a variation can go before it's really a different deck, but I do now understand the wish to keep thing organized for searching and ... law and order :)
 

rwcarter

Yes, I did see that too. Thank you. I was simply surprised the answer was so specific. My initial question was along the lines of how far away a variation can go before it's really a different deck, but I do now understand the wish to keep thing organized for searching and ... law and order :)
As I tried to say, people are welcome to come up with a personal definition of what constitutes a RWS deck to them. But for the purposes of this forum, the deck has to have the line art from one of the early printings of the deck (i.e., Pam A/B/C/D).