The Rider Waite Tarot Before, After, and all Shuffled Up (Part I)

I have several Tarots that put a twist on the Rider Waite deck. The Before Tarot is a deck featuring snapshots of the characters in each card the moment before the classic Rider Waite image, and the After Tarot, you guessed it, is the moment right after. Recently I have also acquired versions A and B of the “Shuffle Tarot” decks, which feature the characters from the Rider Waite deck in different cards and engaging in different activities.

I love the thoughtful and imaginative ideas that are present in these decks, and they make the Rider Waite figures seem more alive and personable. If you work with the Rider Waite a lot, and it feels a bit stale, or if you just can’t quite warm up to the deck and wish that you could, these “backstory” decks add a lot to working with the classic deck.

Today I want to provide a little bit of information about the structure of the Shuffle Tarots since they are the newest of the bunch, and share some fun exercises that you can do when combining the Before, After, and Shuffle Tarots with the Rider Waite. In a later post I hope to explore some reading techniques.

In Shuffle Tarot A and B the 40 pip cards are the same. The consistent feature of the “shuffle” is that the character/s remain with their associated card number. For example, the 2 of Wands features the characters from the 2 of Cups. The 7 of Wands illustration shows the character from the 7 of Swords. The 4 of Cups pictures the figure from the 4 of Coins.

In Shuffle Tarot A the court cards have features that are shuffled from one suit to another. For example, the queen from the Rider Waite Queen of Cups is still labeled as the Queen of Cups, but she is in the pose and environment of the Queen of Swords. In Shuffle Tarot B the court cards are inhabited by characters from the trumps, such as Death being the Knight of Swords. (Yes, this does mean some characters from the trumps appear twice in this deck).

The trump cards in versions A and B are not the same, though they both feature characters from one trump shuffled into another. In Shuffle Tarot A the characters falling from the Tower can be found in the Strength card, while in B’s Strength card you will find the Empress with characters from the Wheel of Fortune.

I enjoy both decks and would say that if you only wish to purchase one of the two, the deciding factor would be to determine which version of court card shuffling you prefer. The duplication of some trump characters can be interesting, especially if the same character appears twice in one reading, but technically you lose 16 characters from the deck as well.

The Shuffle Tarots are excellent working decks, especially if you are already well acquainted with the classic Rider Waite imagery. The changes will automatically prompt you to draw comparisons and contrasts. The decks also lend themselves to fun exercises, especially when combined with the Rider Waite and other “twist” decks like the Before and After Tarots. Here are a few ideas with sample prompts/questions to get you started:

Number Clusters. Pull out the pip cards of a number and suit of your choosing. For example, grab the 7 of Wands from your Rider Waite Tarot and whichever “twist” decks you have. If you want to add trump 7, The Chariot, that would be interesting as well. (Adding cards from the Shuffle Tarot(s) that feature the characters from the Chariot could also be a fun tangent). You can expand on this exercise by pulling all of the 7’s from each deck. Seeing where the “7” characters ended up in the Shuffle Tarot alone is an interesting exercise in itself!

~ How do the alternate characters and/or reimagined illustrations affect your impressions of the pips?

~ Make a systems-based analysis if you have the Shuffle Tarot in your lineup. Elements, for example, are mixing in new ways. How does this transform the energy of the card? The 7 of Wands features the character from the 7 of Swords. A sly and devious air-based character meets the fiery Wands suit. What does it mean when those details come together, especially when the character is posed like the ever-patient soul in the 7 of Coins (earth)?

Character Clusters. Gather every card that features a certain character, such as the Fool. (If you have the Rider Waite, Shuffle Tarots A and B, and the Before and After Tarots you will have a total of 6 “Fool” cards.)

~ Compare the cards visually. When you look at the grouping of cards, what are your immediate reactions to the different snapshots of this character? How do these cards describe the character? How do the different portrayals complement the character’s traditional associations and personality? Do you think one or more of the card depictions is out of character? How is the temperament of the character expressed (or not) in the Rider Waite alternates?

~ Compare correspondences (if using a Shuffle Tarot). Take any systems of correspondences that you incorporate into a reading and draw comparisons between the ones associated with the “base” RWS card (the Fool) and the correspondences for the cards in which the Fool appears in the Shuffle Tarot (The Devil, The Emperor, and the Page of Swords). What happens when these qualities mix? Do they yield any particularly useful or interesting connections or insights?

~ What new dimensions do the “twist” decks add to your interpretations of the classic characters? For example, the Fool as the Devil puts a new spin on the type of person the Fool can potentially be. Is his carefree nature dangerous and destructive to himself or others? Is he more reckless than naive?

Card Title Clusters. Select a card by title rather than by character or number. Let’s use the Fool as an example again. This time we are looking for Fool cards, not the Fool character. (This means you will use the same RWS, Before, and After Tarot cards and the Fool cards from the Shuffle Tarots.) This exercise is similar to the number cluster exercise above. First we see a single character at 3 different points in time (Before, RWS, and After). Then we have “actors” or “imposters” in the Shuffle Tarots. In the case of the Fool we have the Empress as an actor/imposter and the Hierophant. If you utilize a court card for this prompt, you will have one actor/imposter card and one card that features the character in a different setting. For example, the Knight of Wands is in the setting and pose of the Knight of Swords in Shuffle deck A, and the Magician is the actor/imposter in place of the traditional Knight of Wands in Shuffle Tarot B.

~Any personal or intuitive insights from the grouping should be noted, as well as important visual themes. Does the cluster bolster your previous impressions and deepen your understanding of the title card’s concepts? What does it mean for the Hierophant – a teacher or religious leader – to be the Fool? Open mindedness and continuing education? Does it portray the moment one discovers that their studying reveals how little they truly know?

~ Actor vs. Imposter. Do you think the shuffled character, like the Magician in place of the Knight of Wands, is an “actor” mimicking the Knight while his actual personality is dissimilar? Or is the Magician more of an “imposter” who could easily dupe someone into believing he is the Knight of Wands? Why? What about the Empress? Is she an actress playing homage to the Fool, or is she an imposter who has stolen his identity?

~ As with the previous exercises, a systems-based analysis is an excellent way to draw comparisons. Since we are looking at the same card from each deck, this time the systems-based variations lie with the actor/imposter characters that appear (you will need Shuffle deck B in order to do this analysis on courts). The Hierophant is an actor/imposter for the Fool card, therefore the correspondences that you compare would be the ones for the Fool and the Hierophant.

I have touched just briefly on a few of the comparisons and prompts that you can use with character, number, or title groupings from these decks. I’m sure you can come up with even more ways to compare and contrast the cards and use them to further your studies. Please feel free to share your ideas! I hope to put together a post about reading techniques with these decks in the near future.

Happy Shuffling!