Pamela Colman Smith
British artist and illustratorWikipedia
73
MENTIONS
23
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21
PODCASTS
Search complete. 73 mentions across 23 episodes found for "Pamela Colman Smith".
Oct 28, 2026
SteffiHOST
But also, I want to talk about a woman who is behind tarot deck that so many of us may know or may not know, and she deserves a lot more recognition.
SteffiHOST
Her name was Pamela Coleman Smith, and people knew her as Pixie.
SteffiHOST
If you've ever picked up a Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, which I'm literally looking at right now, it's my tried and true, and you have definitely seen her work because she was an artist born in 1878.
SteffiHOST
She lived in several places during her life, including Jamaica, United States, England, and her artistic work was influenced by a wide range of visual tradition and experiences.
Steven J. RolfesGUEST
And any celebrities, notable people who had attended that night, they would be invited backstage and have a steak dinner, brandy and cigars, and a night of thrilling conversation.
Steven J. RolfesGUEST
And some of the people that were... invited back there were members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, such as Samuel Little Mathers, who was like the head honcho there, the great author Arthur Macon, M-A-C-A-G-N, and if you love scary stories, I highly recommend them, the poet W.B. Yeats, But most importantly, and one person who had a great deal of influence on Stoker was a woman named Pamela Coleman Smith.
Steven J. RolfesGUEST
She was an artist and a mystic and a clairvoyant.
Steven J. RolfesGUEST
And she was the person who put together the images for what has been called the Rider-Waite tarot.
Mari AweidahHOST
So I think it's really cool to see the connection between that and tarot.
Mari AweidahHOST
And honestly, I mean, so did Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith, who made the Rider Waite Smith deck.
Mari AweidahHOST
I mean, they saw that, too, and they put little sprinkles of Egyptian symbolism in there.
Mari AweidahHOST
It's not in every card or anything, but, you know, they put it in there, too.
Rocio del AlbaGUEST
1870s and 80s.
LindsayHOST
It was basically, it was when like Pamela Coleman Smith was born, essentially.
LindsayHOST
So when that crop of those people who were doing it that time around, they all have that, they basically have Neptune and Pisces in their charts.
Rocio del AlbaGUEST
Okay.
Rocio del AlbaGUEST
But that's how you start, like,
LindsayHOST
getting crazy or that's for me that's how i can start
Rocio del AlbaGUEST
to spin out as i say um so with tarot and numerology though i really like that pamela coleman smith uh i mean i know that She really should get the bulk of the credit for the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, in my opinion.
Rocio del AlbaGUEST
But I really like that she seems to have studied...
Theresa ReedGUEST
So they're quite stunning and whimsical.
Theresa ReedGUEST
But the other reason why I really support a deck like that is the artistry.
Theresa ReedGUEST
And in this day and age when AI is invading everything, I love to support artists.
Theresa ReedGUEST
Yeah.
13 MINS LATER
Theresa ReedGUEST
I'm a maximalist.
Theresa ReedGUEST
I like decks with lots of details.
Theresa ReedGUEST
Again, my favorite deck of all time, the Baroque Bohemian Cats Tarot because it is so cute and the artistry is amazing.
Theresa ReedGUEST
I could not have that deck.
Jenna DayleHOST
Okay, we see death on the high horse.
Jenna DayleHOST
And by the way, I am using the Pamela Coleman Smith deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck for this, but I love to get on Pinterest if you are the same.
Jenna DayleHOST
Let me know if you're the same.
Jenna DayleHOST
And just look at different card images.
Courtney WeberGUEST
And that is something that actually is a little, that concept's a little bit older than Wicca.
Courtney WeberGUEST
I think from it, AE Wade and Pamela Coleman Smith.
Courtney WeberGUEST
I'm drawing a blank on which tradition that they were part of.
Courtney WeberGUEST
They might've been OTO or they might've been a different one.
Mari AweidahHOST
So what a cool progression going from blue to red to yellow.
Mari AweidahHOST
And I think that's, you know, no mistake by Pamela Coleman Smith.
Mari AweidahHOST
Another little observation that I had was that there are these cute little mermaids on the queen's chair.
Mari AweidahHOST
Mermaids, of course, are half human, half fish.
Mari AweidahHOST
So, you know, it's a crustacean.
Mari AweidahHOST
So I would probably lump it more in with like cancer as far as an astrological association.
Mari AweidahHOST
But honestly, I think that Pamela Coleman Smith was just trying to get across the creepy, bizarre, you know, wild world of the moon.
Mari AweidahHOST
It's coming out of the water.
Dacre StokerHOST
So there's lots of these things that were percolating in Bram's life.
Dacre StokerHOST
He was very close friends with Pamela Coleman Smith, who was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Jay Brody Innes.
Dacre StokerHOST
But Tyler, I want to throw this back at you.
Dacre StokerHOST
If that's going on in Bram Stoker's head, and there's not a whole lot of it in his notes, let's talk about the powers of darkness and that incredibly cool scene.
Kellye GarrettGUEST
And I just think, I just love how, how creative and modern it is.
Kellye GarrettGUEST
Um, You know, there's another deck that I love that is called the Mahogany Tarot World Edition, and it is the traditional Pamela Coleman-Smith imagery, but it's actually diverse in terms of being very accurate, cultural, different ethnicities, different cultures.
Kellye GarrettGUEST
You know, a lot of times people might take like that RWS, Pamela Coleman-Smith, traditional imagery like make might make person their skin a little darker but they won't change any other elements you know but um this deck you know has people in their cultural accurately outfits and things like that and so i kind of love that too because i love inclusive decks too and so that's like my deck when i read for other people i use that deck so
Isolde TrachtenbergHOST
Yeah, that's a, that is a great, that is a great thing when people don't just change a color or a thing.
Isolde TrachtenbergHOST
I remember I was talking to the guy who created.
13 more episodes mention Pamela Colman Smith.
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