Waite, Arthur Edward
From Tarotpedia
Contents |
[edit] Tarot contribution
Waite is best known as the co-creator of the popular and widely used Waite-Smith (also known as the 'Waite-Colman Smith' and 'Rider-Waite') Tarot deck and author of its companion volume, Pictorial Key to the Tarot. This was notable for being one of the first decks to illustrate all 78 cards fully, not just the 22 major arcana and 16 court figures. Golden Dawn member Pamela Colman Smith illustrated the cards, and they were first published in 1910.
Following the end of World War One, Waite also worked or commissioned a second Tarot deck with or from John Brahms Trinick. The deck remains unpublished.
[edit] Views on Tarot
His earlier books, papers and tarot deck appear to display his early acceptance of Golden Dawn correlations, including Hebrew letter correlations. By 1923, however, he may have either abandoned or in other ways modified his views, with a comment in the introduction he wrote for Stenring's Sefer Yetzirah, in which he states that:
- I am not to be included included among those who are satistfied that there are valid correspondences between Hebrew letters and Tarot Trump symbols
This may simply show that, with his increasingly mystical, rather than magico-literal, involvement, he considered Hebrew letter correlations to have more 'spiritual' connections intrinsic to neither Tarot nor Hebrew letters.
[edit] Biography
Arthur Edward Waite (October 2, 1857 - May 19, 1942) was an Freemason with occultist or esoteric leanings and co-creator of the Waite-Smith Tarot deck.
Born in America, and raised in England, A.E. Waite joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891 and also entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. With the advent of internal frictions and fissures within the Golden Dawn, Waite effectively became head of a splinter group in 1903, modifying its name to the Holy Order the Golden Dawn (or, possibly, the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn). Other members disagreed with his focus on mysticism over magic, and rival groups, such as the Stella Matutina (Morning Star), also emerged (this latter with the Golden Dawn member poet William Butler Yeats). The Golden Dawn was torn by further internal problems. A year after Waite's departure from the Golden Dawn in 1914, he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. By that time there existed some half-dozen offshoots from the original Golden Dawn, some still in existence or having given rise to other daughter organisations.
Waite was a prolific author of occult texts on subjects including divination, Rosicrucianism, freemasonry, ceremonial magic, Kabbalism and alchemy; he also translated and reissued several important mystical and alchemical works. His works on the Holy Grail, influnced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, were particularly notable. A number of his volumes remain in print, the Book of Ceremonial Magic, The Holy Kabbalah, and New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry having seen reprints in recent years.
[edit] Publications
[edit] decks
- Waite-Smith Tarot (aka Rider Tarot, Rider-Waite; Waite-Colman Smith)
- Waite-Pippet-Trinick unpublished plates
[edit] books
- Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Original publisher: Rider and sons, Current publisher: U.S. Games Systems, Inc. ISBN 0913866083
- Manual of Cartomancy and Occult Divination, 1889
- Secret Tradition in Alchemy, ISBN 0922802831
[edit] papers
- 'The Great Symbols of the Tarot', Occult Review January 1926: pp11-19
[edit] Website
[edit] Books on this author
[in some cases, especially for earlier writers or influential ones, books may have been written on this author - please delete this section if not appropriate]
