Teheuti
It helps to read the entire title of Waite's Tarot book:
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition under the Veil of Divination
Waite wrote umpteen books on "The Secret Tradition" which was the basis of his own mystical philosophy that he espoused throughout his life - in all of his personal writings. The RWS deck was a pictorial expression of some aspects of his version of the Secret Tradition "under the veil of divination," and it was also informed by the Golden Dawn. Knowledge of the Golden Dawn system was unnecessary to using the deck or getting meaning from the symbols, but a GD inner order initiate could apply this deck to the GD system. It was a multi-purpose deck!
Similarly, chess and checkers are played on the same board and players know what to do whether multi-purpose boards are colored black-and-white or red-and-black.
Waite was one of the few people (if not the only person) who had read all the known works on Tarot and cartomancy in French and English, translated several of them, and researched Tarot's true historical background (in addition to the fanciful myths). Plus, he was deeply knowledgeable about occult orders in Europe and England and knew the esoteric symbology of the Grail, Rosicrucians, Martinists, alchemists, astrologers, Kabbalah, Masons, etc. - writing books on the Secret Tradition in all of them except astrology. For him, mystical Christianity was only a more recent and perhaps ideal expression of a far older "Secret Tradition."
The Secret Tradition was syncretic; the RWS Tarot deck is syncretic. It attempts to speak to both the most knowledgeable and to those without any special knowledge. I believe that Pixie Smith's art, under his direction, being thus syncretic in its execution, fulfills his syncretic intention perfectly.
According to Waite, the Secret Tradition is Knowledge - which is hidden science - handed down from remote ages, concerning the relations between God, man and the universe, or the way of union between man and God. It is not confined to one country, people, single religion or single cycle in literature. There are alleged traces of its existence in far-off times among many nations, through all the chief religions. Waite, The Holy Kabbalah, p. 24-25.
It contains:
• accounts of a loss which has befallen humanity [the Lesser Arcana].
• records of a restitution of that which was lost and a Path of Ascent [the Greater Arcana].
It has been perpetuated in secret by means of Instituted Mysteries [the Mystery Schools & Occult Orders], and cryptic literature [like Alchemy].
It is what he called the "the Soul’s Progress" or "the Soul's Quest” [A term, like Eden Gray’s Fool’s Journey, that Waite used both for the Greater Arcana and the Path of Ascent in the Secret Tradition].
It is:
• a non canonical (unlegislated) transmission from generation to generation through myth and legend.
• the seat [temple] of Eternal Wisdom, built in the heart.
• the prevailing spirit of esoteric, withdrawn power [the Shekinah].
The Tradition contains the Doctrine [teachings and principles] of the “union of an immortal Soul with God and of living in harmony with the Eternal Will,” and a “deeper mystery of love behind the world of grace.”
It culminates in what Waite called the "Mystery of Sex"—the sacred marriage or union of the Shekinah [High Priestess] and the Hierophant in the secret temple in the heart and the birth of the Divine Child within.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition under the Veil of Divination
Waite wrote umpteen books on "The Secret Tradition" which was the basis of his own mystical philosophy that he espoused throughout his life - in all of his personal writings. The RWS deck was a pictorial expression of some aspects of his version of the Secret Tradition "under the veil of divination," and it was also informed by the Golden Dawn. Knowledge of the Golden Dawn system was unnecessary to using the deck or getting meaning from the symbols, but a GD inner order initiate could apply this deck to the GD system. It was a multi-purpose deck!
Similarly, chess and checkers are played on the same board and players know what to do whether multi-purpose boards are colored black-and-white or red-and-black.
Waite was one of the few people (if not the only person) who had read all the known works on Tarot and cartomancy in French and English, translated several of them, and researched Tarot's true historical background (in addition to the fanciful myths). Plus, he was deeply knowledgeable about occult orders in Europe and England and knew the esoteric symbology of the Grail, Rosicrucians, Martinists, alchemists, astrologers, Kabbalah, Masons, etc. - writing books on the Secret Tradition in all of them except astrology. For him, mystical Christianity was only a more recent and perhaps ideal expression of a far older "Secret Tradition."
The Secret Tradition was syncretic; the RWS Tarot deck is syncretic. It attempts to speak to both the most knowledgeable and to those without any special knowledge. I believe that Pixie Smith's art, under his direction, being thus syncretic in its execution, fulfills his syncretic intention perfectly.
According to Waite, the Secret Tradition is Knowledge - which is hidden science - handed down from remote ages, concerning the relations between God, man and the universe, or the way of union between man and God. It is not confined to one country, people, single religion or single cycle in literature. There are alleged traces of its existence in far-off times among many nations, through all the chief religions. Waite, The Holy Kabbalah, p. 24-25.
It contains:
• accounts of a loss which has befallen humanity [the Lesser Arcana].
• records of a restitution of that which was lost and a Path of Ascent [the Greater Arcana].
It has been perpetuated in secret by means of Instituted Mysteries [the Mystery Schools & Occult Orders], and cryptic literature [like Alchemy].
It is what he called the "the Soul’s Progress" or "the Soul's Quest” [A term, like Eden Gray’s Fool’s Journey, that Waite used both for the Greater Arcana and the Path of Ascent in the Secret Tradition].
It is:
• a non canonical (unlegislated) transmission from generation to generation through myth and legend.
• the seat [temple] of Eternal Wisdom, built in the heart.
• the prevailing spirit of esoteric, withdrawn power [the Shekinah].
The Tradition contains the Doctrine [teachings and principles] of the “union of an immortal Soul with God and of living in harmony with the Eternal Will,” and a “deeper mystery of love behind the world of grace.”
It culminates in what Waite called the "Mystery of Sex"—the sacred marriage or union of the Shekinah [High Priestess] and the Hierophant in the secret temple in the heart and the birth of the Divine Child within.