{"id":9627,"date":"2018-06-26T09:08:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T15:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9627"},"modified":"2018-06-26T09:43:38","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T15:43:38","slug":"there-was-more-to-pixie-than-tarot-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9627","title":{"rendered":"There Was More to “Pixie” than Tarot Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Pamela Coleman Smith, about 1912.<\/p><\/div>\n

At Spiral Nature<\/em> you can read a long review of a new book about Pamela Coleman Smith<\/a> (Pixie to her friends), best known for designing probably the most popular Tarot deck of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Corinne Pamela Colman Smith, who went by the nickname \u201cPixie,\u201d\u00a0defied so many social norms, it\u2019s hard to keep count. The more you read about her, the more impressed you get.<\/p>\n

Those who left written comments about their impressions of her confess how hard it was to place her within the gender, class, and racial categories of her time. W. B. Yeats, for instance, wrote that she looked \u201cexactly like a Japanese. Nannie says this Japanese appearance comes from constantly drinking iced water.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The book has four contributors: Elizabeth Foley O\u2019Connor, currently at work on her own full biography of the artist; Stuart Kaplan’s (the Tarot publisher) section “is just the most incredible and comprehensive collection of Smith\u2019s works to date, and maybe ever”; Melinda Boyd Parsons covers Smith’s experiences with the theatre and ceremonial magick worlds; and Mary K. Greer discusses her work in the context of Tarot history.<\/p>\n

Read the whole thing.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Spiral Nature you can read a long review of a new book about Pamela Coleman Smith (Pixie to her friends), best known for designing probably the most popular Tarot deck of the twentieth century. Corinne Pamela Colman Smith, who went by the nickname \u201cPixie,\u201d\u00a0defied so many social norms, it\u2019s hard to keep count. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,159],"class_list":["post-9627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-tarot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2vh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8581,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8581","url_meta":{"origin":9627,"position":0},"title":"A Haitian Take on the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Members of a Haitian artists' group are re-creating the Tarot designs of Pamela Coleman Smith, otherwise known as the Rider-Waite Deck. Photographed by Alice Smeets, they are calling it the Ghetto Tarot. They have lots of machetes to substitute for swords. Information on crowd-funding and purchase here.","rel":"","context":"In \"Haiti\"","block_context":{"text":"Haiti","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=haiti"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/nine_of_cups_tarot_465_465_353_int-300x228.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12961,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12961","url_meta":{"origin":9627,"position":1},"title":"The Woman Who Invented the Minor Arcana","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading a new article on Pamela Coleman Smith, the artist responsible for what is often called the \"Waite deck\" among Tarot users, this popped out at me: Tarot has been around since early 15th-century Italy , spun off from traditional playing cards. The 78 cards are split into two groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/two-of-swords-176x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3251,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3251","url_meta":{"origin":9627,"position":2},"title":"A Different A.E. Waite Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Mary K. Greer discusses a forgotten Tarot deck designed by ceremonial magician A.E. Waite, whose collaboration with artist Pamela Coleman Smith produced the Tarot deck probably most commonly used in the past fifty years, at least in the Anglosphere. A new publication with commentary is planned. The commentary will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"magick\"","block_context":{"text":"magick","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=magick"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11873,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11873","url_meta":{"origin":9627,"position":3},"title":"How Makers and Creators Might Price Their Work","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I graduated from college, I owned three Tarot decks: the Rider-Waite\/Pamela Coleman Smith deck (of course), the Marseilles deck (for history), and David Palladini's Aquarian Tarot (well, it fit my personal aesthetic at the time). This is fun, I thought, I should collect more Tarot decks. And then the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"King of Cups Tarot Card","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Palladini-King-of-Cups.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8366","url_meta":{"origin":9627,"position":4},"title":"Thinking How the Tarot Smuggled Paganism to the Present","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my twenties, the Tarot was about the most \"occult\" thing around that I could bring out in public settings. I learned to read the cards semi-competently and had some adventures thereby. When I made it through an evening of reading for casual strangers in a nightclub, I figured that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0715645722","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14029,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14029","url_meta":{"origin":9627,"position":5},"title":"Tarot Thoughts — And Eden Gray’s Surprising Story","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I decided to get more serious about Tarot after all these years. Maybe some day people will see me as a wise old man, but I will need some props \u2013\u00a078 of them, to be precise. I actually learned to use the I Ching in a superficial bohemian way before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Tarot\"","block_context":{"text":"Tarot","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=tarot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eden-gray-doctor-x.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9627"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9633,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627\/revisions\/9633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}