Tarot Fellow
Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot — Fiebig & Burger
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Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot by Johannes Fiebig and Evelin Burger is an exhaustive reference book covering all 78 cards of the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Detailed interpretations, spreads, and historical context make this an essential companion for anyone using RWS as their primary deck — from beginners to advanced practitioners.
Description:Quick Specs
- Authors: Johannes Fiebig and Evelin Burger
- Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
- Pages: 216
- Best for: Intermediate to advanced Rider-Waite tarot readers
What Makes This a Rider-Waite Reference, Not a Beginner's Guide
Johannes Fiebig and Evelin Burger are European tarot authorities whose combined work spans more than twenty books and has sold over two million copies across dozens of language editions. Their approach to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is symbol-centered and psychological rather than keyword-based: instead of listing a card's meanings as a flat list, they identify the ten most important symbols on each card and examine how those symbols function as a system. That structural approach is what sets this book apart from the dozens of RWS introductions aimed at beginners.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck, originally published by the Rider Company in 1909 with art by Pamela Colman Smith and concept direction by Arthur Edward Waite, is the most reproduced and studied tarot deck in the world. Most modern tarot books use it as their template. This guide goes back to the specific visual language Smith embedded in the cards, treating each image as a deliberate composition with layers of Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and Golden Dawn symbolism that reward sustained study.
Structure of the Book and How to Use It
Each of the 78 cards receives a two-page spread. One page features an illustration with the ten key symbols numbered and identified. The facing page provides brief interpretations by topic: primary meaning, prognosis or tendency, spiritual meaning, love and relationship meaning, daily meaning, and success and happiness meaning. This multi-track format allows a reader to quickly locate the most relevant angle for a specific spread position without having to read an entire essay on a card.
The book also includes a section on the top ten spread layouts, rules for interpretation, and a cross-referencing of the tarot with astrology. It is designed for quick consultation during live readings rather than extended study sessions, which makes it a practical desk companion rather than a cover-to-cover read. Readers who already know their cards and want to deepen their understanding of symbol systems will get the most out of it. Browse my tarot and divination book collection to find beginner titles if you are just starting out.
How to Use The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot
Three ways to get the most out of this comprehensive Rider-Waite reference book.
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Use It as a Reading Companion
Keep this book beside you during readings. After drawing a card, open to its two-page spread to check the symbol breakdown. This habit deepens your visual literacy and surfaces details in the imagery you may have been overlooking in daily practice.
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Study the Symbol Cross-References
Use the numbered symbol keys on each card page to cross-reference recurring symbols across multiple cards. The Fool, the World, and the Wheel of Fortune share symbols; tracing those threads reveals how Waite and Smith built a coherent visual system.
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Apply the Multi-Track Interpretations
When a spread position calls for a love reading, use the love and relationship track for that card. When a question is practical and daily, use that track instead. The book's multi-track format saves time in readings by pre-sorting by context.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock this title because Fiebig and Burger bring something genuinely different to Rider-Waite scholarship: a European academic rigor applied to a deck that most English-language books treat as a beginner's tool. Their symbol-first method trains you to see the cards rather than just remember keywords, which is the difference between surface literacy and actual reading fluency. This is a book I recommend to anyone who has been reading for at least a year and feels ready to go deeper. For a broader look at what I carry, see my full books and journals collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
This book suits intermediate or advanced readers. It assumes familiarity with the RWS deck and dives into symbol analysis rather than basics. Beginners will find a foundational guide covering tarot history and card meanings more useful.
This book covers the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot exclusively. It is most useful if you own and read with an RWS deck or a close clone. The symbol-by-symbol analysis is tied directly to Pamela Colman Smith's original illustrations from the 1909 deck.
Most RWS guides offer keyword lists and brief meanings. Fiebig and Burger identify the ten most important symbols on each card and explain how they function. This symbol-centered method builds genuine visual fluency rather than keyword memorization.
The book's system does not rely heavily on reversals. Instead it uses a multi-track format with separate meanings for love, daily use, spiritual questions, and prognosis, allowing context-driven interpretation without depending on card orientation.
