Hi! What is the difference in the original RW deck and the Universal? I have just ordered one of each, after using solely the Druid Animal Oracle, and have not received them yet. The Rider Waite deck was recommended to me, as being one of the most important of the Tarot decks to learn.
                   Thank you,
                   Lisa

Hi Catia, welcome to MB

The Rider Waite is said to be one of the most influential decks, that and perhaps the Crowley Thoth?  Most tarotists are split between Waite or Crowly as 'masters' f tarot.

Rider is the publisher and Waite the creator, with Universal it is Universal who are the publisher and Waite the designer. But the Rider Waite is more correctly called the Rider Waite Smith. Pamela Colman Smith was the artist used for that deck. The pictures have an eery old quality, they look like they have been copied by hand hundreds of times over and over, so they are not as clear as the Universal printing which is also much more modern bright and colourful and goes into more detail.

Either one is in my opinion brilliant as a starter deck. Many tarotists do not even go any  further after that deck, others move on through vastly different ones and explore the Egyptian lines and the Gypsy and French Marseilles heritage lines.

You will love them both, but differently, In fact you may only actually need to have one of them....

Thank you! This deck was suggested by John Edward. He suggests getting two decks, one to be used for readings, the other for study. He also feels like a text by Eden Gray is one of the best learning tools. I'm giving it a try. Thank you for your reply!
                          Lisa

A lot of people use two decks, one for themselves that no-one else touches and one for giving readings that they allow the querent to touch and shuffle.

Some people find that the Eden Gray books are quite hard to understand and quite complicated too. You could always join our free Learn Tarot classes here... Its fun to learn with other people and get real input and feedback

Thank you for letting me in on the possible difficulty. I will definitely explore the boards here. I already know I will have many questions, I am a VERY visual person, lots of text does nothing for me. I hope her book is full of illustrations, lol...
                           Lisa