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The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite (1910)
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite (1910)
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
by A.E. Waite (1910)
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Introduction
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Being fragments of a Secret Tradition under the Veil of
Divination
Arthur Edward Waite
Originally published in 1910
Preface
IT seems rather of necessity than predilection in the sense of apologia that I should put on record
in the first place a plain statement of my personal position, as one who for many years of literary
life has been, subject to his spiritual and other limitations, an exponent of the higher mystic
schools. It will be thought that I am acting strangely in concerning myself at this day with what
appears at first sight and simply a well-known method of fortune-telling. Now, the opinions of Mr.
Smith, even in the literary reviews, are of no importance unless they happen to agree with our
own, but in order to sanctify this doctrine we must take care that our opinions, and the subjects out
of which they arise, are concerned only with the highest. Yet it is just this which may seem
doubtful, in the present instance, not only to Mr. Smith, whom I respect within the proper
measures of detachment, but to some of more real consequence, seeing that their dedications are
mine. To these and to any I would say that after the most illuminated Frater Christian Rosy Cross
had beheld the Chemical Marriage in the Secret Palace of Transmutation, his story breaks off
abruptly, with an intimation that he expected next morning to be door-keeper. After the same
manner, it happens more often than might seem likely that those who have seen the King of
Heaven through the most clearest veils of the sacraments are those who assume thereafter the
humblest offices of all about the House of God. By such simple devices also are the Adepts and
Great Masters in the secret orders distinguished from the cohort of Neophytes as servi servorum
mysterii . So also, or in a way which is not entirely unlike, we meet with the Tarot cards at the
outermost gates--amidst the fritterings and débris of the so-called occult arts, about which no one
in their senses has suffered the smallest deception; and yet these cards belong in themselves to
another region, for they contain a very high symbolism, which is interpreted according to the Laws
of Grace rather than by the pretexts and intuitions of that which passes for divination. The fact that
the wisdom of God is foolishness with men does not create a presumption that the foolishness of
this world makes in any sense for Divine Wisdom; so neither the scholars in the ordinary classes
nor the pedagogues in the seats of the mighty will be quick to perceive the likelihood or even the
possibility of this proposition. The subject has been in the hands of cartomancists as part of the
stock-in-trade of their industry; I do not seek to persuade any one outside my own circles that this
is of much or of no consequence; but on the historical and interpretative sides it has not fared
better; it has been there in the hands of exponents who have brought it into utter contempt for
those people who possess philosophical insight or faculties for the appreciation of evidence. It is
time that it should be rescued, and this I propose to undertake once and for all, that I may have
done with the side issues which distract from the term. As poetry is the most beautiful expression
of the things that are of all most beautiful, so is symbolism the most catholic expression in
concealment of things that are most profound in the Sanctuary and that have not been declared
outside it with the same fulness by means of the spoken word. The justification of the rule of
silence is no part of my present concern, but I have put on record elsewhere, and quite recently,
what it is possible to say on this subject.
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Introduction
The little treatise which follows is divided into three parts, in the first of which I have dealt with
the antiquities of the subject and a few things that arise from and connect therewith. It should be
understood that it is not put forward as a contribution to the history of playing cards, about which I
know and care nothing; it is a consideration dedicated and addressed to a certain school of
occultism, more especially in France, as to the source and centre of all the phantasmagoria which
has entered into expression during the last fifty years under the pretence of considering Tarot cards
historically. In the second part, I have dealt with the symbolism according to some of its higher
aspects, and this also serves to introduce the complete and rectified Tarot, which is available
separately, in the form of coloured cards, the designs of which are added to the present text in
black and white. They have been prepared under my supervision-in respect of the attributions and
meanings-by a lady who has high claims as an artist. Regarding the divinatory part, by which my
thesis is terminated, I consider it personally as a fact in the history of the Tarot - as such, I have
drawn, from all published sources, a harmony of the meanings which have been attached to the
various cards, and I have given prominence to one method of working that has not been published
previously; having the merit of simplicity, while it is also of universal application, it may be held
to replace the cumbrous and involved systems of the larger hand-books.
The Contents
PREFACE
An explanation of the personal kind--An illustration from mystic literature--A subject which calls
to be rescued--Limits and intention of the work.
PART I
THE VEIL AND ITS SYMBOLS
§ 1.--Introductory and General.
§ 2.--Class I. The Trumps Major, otherwise Greater Arcana.
§ 3.--Class II. The Four Suits, otherwise Lesser Arcana.
§ 4.--The Tarot in History.
PART II
THE DOCTRINE BEHIND THE VEIL
§ 1.--The Tarot and Secret Tradition.
§ 2.-The Trumps Major and their Inner Symbolism.
§ 3. Conclusion as to the Greater Keys.
PART III
THE OUTER METHOD OF THE ORACLES.
§ 1.--Distinction between the Greater and Lesser Arcana.
§ 2.--The Lesser Arcana, otherwise, the Four Suits of Tarot Cards
The Suit of Wands.
The Suit of Cups.
The Suit of Swords.
The Suit of Pentacles.
§ 3.--The Greater Arcana and their Divinatory Meanings.
§ 4.--Some additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana.
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