Llewellyn's 2006 Tarot Reader: Mary Greer on RWS

Teheuti said:

I'd like to direct those who are really interested in Waite's involvement in this deck to my article in Llewellyn's 2006 Tarot Reader where I show the exact stories that Waite used to delineate each of the four suits in the Minor Arcana. Someone touched on this when they asked earlier in this thread about what books Waite was working on at the time that he and Smith did the deck.

In _The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal_, which was published the same year as the Tarot deck (duh!!!), Waite pointed out that the sacred objects or symbols of Celtic lore mirror the four symbols sacred to Christ’s Passion and are central to the Grail legend. He declared that the “Hallows, under a slight modification, . . . are in the antecedents of our playing cards—that is to say, in the old Talismans of the Tarot.” These are, of course, the Minor Arcana.

The Minors are undeniably based on the Grail myths as Waite tells us when he says the Ace of Cups is “an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana,” and later tells us that the Knight of Swords is Galahad.

The suit of Cups is based on Robert De Borron’s _Metrical Romance of Joseph of Arimathea_, in which Joseph carries the Graal Vessel and “knowledge of the Secret Words” out of Israel.

The suit of Wands is based on the _Longer Prose Perceval_ first told by Chrétien de Troyes, the second of the great Grail narrators, and completed by a variety of authors. Waite tells us that the tale has “the touch of Nature [the sprouting wands?] which takes us at once into its kinship.”

The suit of Swords is based on Malory's _Galahad Quest_, with additional references to the general loss of the deeper meaning of the mysteries within the traditions that were meant to carry it forth.

The suit of Pentacles tells the story of the erection of an external building veiling a divine mystery. In _The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry_ and _The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry_, Waite describes how “the degrees of Craft Masonry have as a main object the building up of the Candidate into a House or Temple of Life.” When the Master Builder of the Temple of Jerusalem perished, the plans for an externalization of doctrine in the world was lost. Waite believed that Masonry was one of the last remaining places where the true symbolism was still maintained (though losing ground daily).

I think I prove all this rather conclusively in my article - although more work can certainly be done on the subject (heh, I can only read so much Waite before getting totally burned out!).

This is not to denigrate Pamela Colman Smith's role in the creation of the deck. She was trained as a book illustrator (that is, to accurately illustrate someone else's story) and did an amazing job of integrating many contradictory sources that Waite wanted subtly depicted in each card -
1) the speciific scene in that suit's Grail legend
2) Etteilla's meanings
3) traditional playing card meanings
3) Golden Dawn/astrological/Kabbalistic references

This was a heroic task that, to my mind, no one else could have accomplished nearly so well. It was precisely the coming together of these two people that created such an extraordinary deck!

Mary K. Greer

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Fulgour said:

Thanks rachelcat! And I am glad to see
there's been a lot of views on the thread!

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