The Pixie and the Sorcerers

An investigation into the unsung tarot deck artist and creator of the Rider Waite Smith deck, Pamela Colman Smith, and her relationship with the secret society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The Pixie and the Sorcerers is an in-depth look at the art and artist of the ubiquitous Rider Waite Smith tarot deck.

Using the deck’s Major Arcana, The Pixie and the Sorcerers follows the Fool’s Journey through Pamela Colman Smith's career, the rise and fall of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the birth and legacy of the world’s most popular tarot deck.

A member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn alongside people like W.B. Yeats and Maud Gonne, Smith was hired by A.E. Waite to illustrate a new deck of cards of the medieval Italian parlour game tarocchi. Paid a pittance for her work and never properly credited, this book seeks to give her the attention she deserves while situating her life and work in the context of the Order and the tarot cards themselves.