Swords and Pentacles are the most specifically Masonic suits with Swords being the Hiram Abif story (3rd Degree Masonry) and Pentacles following his outline of the role of the Initiate that he gives in Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. Three illustrations from the the Hiram Abif ritual carry elements that appear in the cards. Wands and Cups are more Grail, with Cups being the most literal illustration of a story: the Joseph of Arimathea story in The Metrical Romance of Robert de Borron (as Waite retold it in his book on The Holy Grail, published the same year as the deck). The 2006 Llewellyn's Tarot Reader was a much earlier report on my research and has been superceded by new findings.
Thanks, but still in the dark a bit (must be that blindfold) ... is what you outline above incorporating the 'new findings' ?
So if I get a copy of 2006 its dated, so I probably wont do that. Thanks for the above info but its a very brief outline... and I am still unclear - it reads like;
+ swords outline the story of Hiram Abif (which 3rd degree is based on) but not the ritual itself ... just the story ?
+ Pentacles follow an outline of the role of the initiate, according to Waite, that was written in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and not the initiations or ceremony itself ?
+ Three illustrations from the the Hiram Abif ritual carry elements that appear in the cards ? To me that seems to mean that ' the Hiram Abif ritual' (and there I assume you mean 3rd degree)in printed forms has illustrations within it ( from Waite's Encyclopedia ? ) and three of those illustrations have things in them that also appear in some sword cards (or pentacle cards? ) ?
Sorry, it just seems a round about way of saying or hinting at things. If , for example, one said, 'In Waite's Freemasonic Encyclopaedia, the 3rd degree ritual illustration shows a compass being .... and in the X of swords or discs shows a compass being .....
Then I could easily understand where its coming from. ... But no one has ever done that and I dont have the Tarot reader and its superseded anyway.
Would you detail it more here or are you saving it for publication?