Sometimes, in the helter skelter, or rush into the future, various important knowledge about the actions or contributions of others to our material culture can be neglected or forgotten, and other times it might, in fact be deliberately obscured, or considered insignificant; so often we have found that this has occurred with “marginalized” populations, or with the applied arts, as they are not as important as “fine art.”
Initiatives to rectify such omissions, so often categorized as DEI, have been slashed by the current administration in brutal, petty ways. Consider the character Andy in The Devil Wears Prada being dismissive of the labors of all in the fashion business, or Katherine Johnson being told that a calculator was not allowed to be a cited author of a technical paper at NASA. We are all guilty of this, in an online world, where we consume information and images that are not necessarily attributed to those who produced the material.
All of these tendencies of human nature have acted to obscure the credit that should be given to the creator being honored in this column, Pamela Colman Smith, nicknamed ”Pixie.” You could be forgiven if you do not recognize her name, but she was one of the most important yet unrecognized individuals in the pagan and occult revival of the 20th century.
Smith was an Aquarius, born in Britain on Feb. 16, 1878. Her mother was Jamaican, her father a white American. Born in England, she came to New York and studied at Pratt Institute, her family having roots in Brooklyn; her father having business in Jamaica, she lived there for years, and those locales can all lay claim to her artistic development.
Having been trained as a visual artist and illustrator, I am embarrassed to admit that I have worked with her artwork for decades, having purchased my first deck of this tarot in Greenwich Village a long time ago, and was completely oblivious to that fact that if you utilized the Rider/Waite tarot deck, you have entered the world she created.
Establishing an art studio in London, she was an early member of the Golden Dawn, thanks to her association with William Butler Yeats. When the Golden Dawn splintered due to personality conflicts, Smith moved with A.E. Waite to the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn (or Holy Order of the Golden Dawn). In 1909, Waite commissioned Smith to collaborate with him on the creation of a new tarot deck. Smith completed the art for the deck in the six months between April and October 1909, which was published originally by Rider.
In her own right, she was a successful book illustrator, penned two books of Jamaican folklore, ran a small press which was supportive of female authors, and was an active suffragette, involved intimately with the artistic and theatrical worlds.
The deck bearing Smith’s illustrations, first published in England by Rider in December 1909, were simply labeled Tarot Cards and accompanied by The Key to the Tarot guide by Waite. His guide was updated the following year with Smith’s black-and-white drawings, and republished as The Pictorial Guide to the Tarot.
Alas, she died in poverty, in 1951, and her estate and its contents were sold off to pay bills.
U.S. Games acquired the rights to publish the deck in 1971, released variously as the Rider/Rider Waite; and they only now acknowledge her contribution in a short biography on their website.
The most aggravating fact is that this talented and multifaceted individual’s work has never truly been acknowledged for the depth of the symbolism and its visual impact, for which Waite could have no responsibility. American photographer Alfred Stieglitz was intrigued by Smith’s synesthetic approach to painting and illustrating, having hosted a gallery show of her paintings.
Many of us had the opportunity to employ her image dream in their occult explorations by hoisting a glass of cheer in her honor on Feb. 16. When working with this tarot deck think about Smith and pass along and resurrect the memory of this artist!
