The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, being fragments of a secret tradition under the veil of Divination

by Arthur Edward Waite

Paperback, 1959

Status

Available

Call number

133

Genres

General Nonfiction

Religion & Spirituality

All Topics

Nonfiction

Collection

Rowan

Publication

Citadel Press (1979), Edition: 1st

Description

Long used in telling fortunes and popular today among New Agers, Tarot cards are regarded by many as "the training wheels" on the bicycle of psychic development. Centuries of scientific progress have not diminished the irresistible attraction of gazing at picture cards to see the future and determine one's fate. This book by Arthur Edward Waite, the designer of the most widely known Tarot deck and distinguished scholar of the Kabbalah, is the essential Tarot reference. The pictorial key contains a detailed description of each card in the celebrated 78-card Rider-Waite Tarot deck, along with regular and reversed meanings. Contents describe symbols and secret tradition; the four suits of Tarot, including wands, cups, swords, and pentacles; the recurrence of cards in dealing; an ancient Celtic method of divination; as well as wonderful illustrations of Tarot cards. While the perfect complement to old-style fortune telling, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot also serves to make the Tarot entirely accessible to modern-day readers. It is also the classic guide to the Rider-Waite deck and to Tarot symbolism in general.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Anituel

I know that it isn't popular to like A. E. Waite in modern occultism, but I really do appreciate him. While some of his sincerest opinions are a bit ridiculous, most of his research is sound and he was clearly speaking from experience on a number of important points. His insight into the Tarot is

second to none, though it should be noted that as a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he was oathbound not to reveal certain secrets. Hence, some of his interpretations of the Minor Arcana are purposefully flip-flopped and some of the symbolism of the Major Arcana is incomplete. Those knowledgeable in the Tarot will find a lot of gold here, while those who are just beginning had best look elsewhere.

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LibraryThing member Tullius22

It should be noted that Waite considers the actual divinatory uses of his subject with some aversion. He prefers the 'higher' realms of thought and he seems to fancy-flowery rosy-intellectual philosophical sorts of sentences...

For all that, though, I think the boy has won his spurs more, or, at

least, *at least as much* by what he has *permitted*, than by what he has thought or written or decided. It is clear to me, at least, and I think it's proven, even, that certain bits of it, say, Part III, Section 4, "Some Additional Meanings Of The Lesser Arcana", were actually written by certain others, which is really--if you think about it, right!--a rather shocking concession for a man like M. Waite, I mean, such a thing to *do*, after all, he protested so much, and so *earnestly* that it was really "the doctrine behind the veil" and not "the outer method of the oracles" which drew him, all the way back in distant 1909 or 1910 or 1911 or whenever this thing hit the presses of M. Rider for the first time.

And of course, you have to ask yourself, if he really loved the philosophical sort of esotericism as exclusively as he would have you believe if you actually believed some of the things he wrote--though that's really just words, and any student of myth ought to know what lies words are--well, if all that's so, why would he go out of his way to unveil what's now the most famous Tarot spread of them all, which even a newbie (and a boy!) like me now knows, I mean, what a thing to *do*, if he really scorned the oracles as much he said he did, back when the sun never set on the British Empire, and Queen Victoria wasn't even dead ten years yet, hell, she was hardly even cold, back then...

And the cards themselves are good.

(9/10)

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LibraryThing member marc_beherec

Waite is interesting, both because of his broad reading of all things occult and because of the contempt with which he holds most occultists. It's difficult to tell how much he believes anything. The Key is primarily a description of the tarot deck Waite designed. I was a little disappointed in

that it doesn't discuss divination by tarot more; he doesn't seem to feel there's any validity to it, which of course is quite odd for someone who bothered to write a book on tarot. Waite draws on other tarot decks to a limited extent, but doesn't describe why he chooses particular symbols rather than others well enough, in my opinion. I think I would have preferred if he'd presented various old cards and then explained why he chose particular designs over others. But I suppose that would be outside the scope of the book, and would cost more to produce than he could have charged for such a popular work.

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LibraryThing member lonorising

Lousy book. Near total rip-off. Quality & quantity of info contained within totally lacking. Buy almost any other commentary on the tarot and you will be better off.

LibraryThing member pinkozcat

The book was part of a Commemorative Set featuring the Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition deck, books, postcards and a small drawstring bag for the cards .

LibraryThing member jarvenpa

Good, basic, very early tarot learning based on the Rider/Waite deck, which is kind of the King James Version of Tarot (learn it, and you know the basics and can go on to other stuff).

This also happens to be the only book I ever in my life shoplifted. I took it from a mega bookstore at which I was

working when the managers instituted a search everyone on entry and exit policy. Little paperback, 1.95 at the time. No, they didn't discover it in the extremely thorough search of my nice 20 something self. And I kept it. But I still feel a frisson of guilt. (it no longer exists, the stolen book; rain and mice got to it years ago).

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LibraryThing member macoram

"... the rectified and perfected tarot which accompanies this work." (page 33) says much about its author, Edward Waite. A self-proclaimed "master" of arcane knowledge who pretentiously imposed his miscellanic multi-sourced esoteric constructs, creating a distorted and childishly obvious beginner's

pack of cards explicitly intended for the lowly divinatory use he explicitly (and paradoxically) scorned.
He wasn't even original, copying most of the restricted (and sometimes aleatory) Alliette's (18th century "Book of Toth") card divinatory meanings and inspiring himself on the imagery of the "Sola busca" Italian tarot of the Renaissance. Even the artist Pamela Smith seems to have been underpaid for her hard work (from her own account) all for the glory of Waite.
A controversial pack of cards (and this accompanying book) which irremediably "polluted" the last century of the (already more than five centuries old) tarot tradition.

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