Key To The Tarot: Question/Text of What Became the Celtic Cross

The earliest copy I have of text for the "Key to the Tarot" by A.E. Waite evolved later to become "Pictorial Key to the Tarot".

It has some differences in it's text. Frank Jensen wrote in "The Waite-Smith Tarot" that A.E. Waite continued to revise the text over time.

The short, 'original' explanation of a layout down in Post #2 below is what later became known as the "Celtic Cross"

When I read the later version in the Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the additional explanation, the way Waite changed his numbering to make it clear it is a ten card spread, and the addition of the picture layout seems much clearer than the "original" short text below.

Although calling out 'what is behind you,' or 'what is beneath you' has a quaint phrasing that I seem to like and am glad that was kept in the versions of the text...

I was hoping people who have older "Key to the Tarot" historic set might comment if their text--originally published in a small blue book of 194 pages, as far as I know--if their copy of the text was closer to this version typed below.

And anyone who wants to read a more modern version:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pkt0307.htm

I am also curious if the difference in the early text and the later text has any impact in the way you do your "Celtic Cross"? Is the text similar enough in both versions (old and new) that you would lay out your cards the same?

I seem to be struck by the differences at the moment. I don't know if you guys see any real differences in the way it is written...maybe the latest version is much better?

Thanks.

Cerulean

Divinatory Tarot Text

THE ART of TAROT DIVINATION


excerpt by A.E. Waite


Cups are assumed to represent people with light brown hair and of fair complexion ; Wands hose having yellow or red hair and blue eyes ; Swords correspond to persons with dark brown hair and possibly grey, hazel or even blue eyes ; Pentaclse answer to very dark people. The procedure is as follows :--


Select the Significator of the person or thing about whom or which the inquiry is made ; it is that card which, in the operator's judgement or experience, is the mot representative, and is not, therefore, of necessity the Magician or High Priestess mentioned in the official divinatory meanings. Place the Significator in the middle. Let the operator and Querent shuffle and cut three times each.


Turn up the FIRST CARD ; cover the Significator therewith and say : That covers him. This the person or things' general environment at the time, the influence with which he is actuated all through.


Turn up the SECOND CARD : put it across him horizontally and say : This is his obstacles. If it is a favourable card, it will be something good in itself, but not productive of good in the particular connexion.


Turn up the THIRD CARD : place it above the head of the Significator and say: This crowns him. It represents (a) the best that he can arrive at, or (b) his ideal in the matter ; (c) what he wants to make his own ; (d) butit is not his own at present.


Turn up the FOURTH CARD : place it below the feet of the Significator, and say : this is beneath him. It is his own__that which he has to work with and can use.


Turn up the FIFTH CARD : place it on the side that the Significator is looking away from and say : This is behind him. It is the current from which he is passing away, and it may be the past of the matter.


Turn up the SIXTH CARD : place it on the side that the Significator is facing and say: This is before him. It is the current that is coming into action and will operate in the specific matter.


Your cards are now disposed in the form of a cross. The next four are turned up in succession and placed on your right hand underneath one another.


The FIRST signifies himiself, his attitude, and relation to the matter.


The SECOND signifies his home, his environment, in the affair ; the influence, people and events about him.


The THIRD signifies his hopes and fears.


The FOURTH represents what will come.


It is on this card that you concentrate your intuitive powers, your experience and your memory in respect of the official divinatory meanings attached thereto. It should include whosoever you may have divined from the other cards on the table including the Significator itself and concerning him or it, not excepting such light upon higher significance as might fall like sparks from heaven if the card which serves for the oracle, the card for reading, should happen to be a Trump Major.


Thus basing your calculations, if you obtain a decisive judgment the operation is over and you have only to formulate the result.


But it may so happen that you do not derive a full light and result in certitude. There is then another process. Take this last card to serve as the new Significator, repeat the whole operation, when all the card dealt and arranged round it are read to develop an explanation.


In conclusion, as regards the question of complexions, their allocation to the Suits need not be taken conventionally. You can go by the temperment of the a person ; one who is exceedingly dark may be very energetic, and would be better represented by a Sword card than a Pentacle. On the other hand, a very fair person who was indolent and lethargic should be allocated to Cups rather than Wands.



Great facility may be obtained by this method in a comparatively short time, allowance being always made for the gifts of the operator__that is to say, his facility of insight, latent or developed__and it has the special advantage of being free from all complications.

From the "New edition"

of _The Key to the Tarot_:

Having selected the Significator, place it on the table, face upwards. Then shuffle the rest of the pack three times, keeping the faces of the cards downwards.

Turn up the top or FIRST CARD of the pack: cover the Significator with it and say: This covers him. This card gives the influence which is affecting the person or matter of inquiry generally, the atmosphere of it in which the other currents work.

Turn up the SECOND CARD and lay it across the First, saying: This crosses him. It shows the nature of the obstacles in the matter. If it is a favorable card, the opposing forces will not be serious, or it may indicate that something good in itself will not be productive of good in the particular connexion (sp).

Turn up the THIRD CARD; place it above the Significator, and say: This crowns him. It represents (a) the Querent’s aim or ideal in the matter; (b) the best that can be achieved under the circumstances, but that which has not yet been made actual.

Turn up the FOURTH CARD; place it below the Significator, and say: This is beneath him. It shows the foundation or basis of the matter, that which has already passed into actuality and which the Significator has made his own.

Turn up the FIFTH CARD; place it on the side of the Significator from which he is looking, and say: This is behind him. It gives the influence that is just passed or is now passing away.

Turn up the SIXTH CARD; place it on the side that the Significator is facing, and say: This is before him. It shows the influence that is coming into action and will operate in the near future.

The cards are now disposed in the form of a cross, the Significator—covered by the First Card—being in the center.

The next four cards are turned up in succession and placed one above the other in a line, on the right of the cross.

The first of these, or the SEVENTH CARD of the operation, signifies himself—that is, the Significator—whether person or thing—and shows its position or attitude in the circumstances.

The EIGHTH CARD signifies his house, that is, his environment and the tendencies at work therein which have an effect on the matter—for instance, his position in life, the influence of immediate friends, and so forth.

The NINTH CARD gives his hopes or fears in the matter.

The TENTH is what will come, the final result, the culmination which is brought about by the influences shown by the other cards that have been turned up in the divination.
It is on this card that the Diviner should especially concentrate his intuitive faculties and his memory in respect of the official divinatory meanings attached thereto. It should embody whatsoever you may have divined from the other cards on the table, including the Significator itself and concerning him or it, not excepting such lights upon higher significance as might fall like sparks from heaven if the card which serves for the oracle, the card for reading, should happen to be a Trump Major.

[It goes on to explain what process should be done in case the final card is “of a dubious nature, from which no final decision can be drawn, or which does not appear to indicate the ultimate conclusion of the affair”.]

My book is blue, with 212 pages, no date. There is some revision in the new edition, and the additional steps to do if the outcome card is "dubious". Very interesting!

We were planning to post Roger's notes about this on the "W.B. Yeats Created the Celtic Cross" thread but the third Waite version of the Celtic Cross should obviously be posted here as well.
It's in The Holy Kabbalah,p.181,(1929)where it is used as a magical formula and equates each step of numbers FIVE to TEN only with a three letter permutation of the Lord's name
Personally we feel this constitutes taking the Lord's name in vain so we are not going to print it verbatim. Waite does not mention that he has illustrated the same technique in his Tarot book.
He equates cards FIVE through NINE with Yetzirah and TEN with Assiah.The capitals are his and he likewise prints SEPHIRA the same way.So he probably means they apply from Geburah to Malkuth.
He keeps repeating "seal" "sealed with which" , "contemplation".
FIVE" is above him" =Heights
SIX "below him"=Deeps.Huh? Deeps mean that Waite is placing it at the center?
SEVEN "when before him" = East
EIGHT "when behind him"= West
NINE "when on his right" =North
TEN "when on his left" =South.

Yeats critics never mention this but WBY used the Celtic Cross invocation in his play
"The Cat and the Moon".Roger was credited adviser to the well-known James Flannery
series of Yeats one acters which played Dublin back in the mid-seventies and they played it as a Tarot Dance play.But hardly anyone except Anne Yeats and the original Irish
theosophists ever caught on to it and as far as he knows no one had played it that way again.

It just occurs to us that if the ten cards equal the ten Sephiroth the covered card must represent Daath, the eleventh Septhira, as the real center of the operation.

Charles Darnay said:

SIX "below him"=Deeps.Huh? Deeps mean that Waite is placing it at the center?

Click to expand...

I think he just means it in the sense of opposite to heights (the mountain heights above, the valley deeps below), so no, not in the centre, but 'below/beneath' (just as he states).

'Depths' is used somewhat differently in the SY, where the infinite depths are 'sealed' by the divine name (a similar text may be found in gnostic texts in which Jesus seals the directions with the three letters of the name IAO - a gnostic version of the Hebrew JHV as a name of vowels instead of consonants).

Charles Darnay said:

It's in The Holy Kabbalah,p.181,(1929)where it is used as a magical formula and equates each step of numbers FIVE to TEN only with a three letter permutation of the Lord's name
Personally we feel this constitutes taking the Lord's name in vain so we are not going to print it verbatim. Waite does not mention that he has illustrated the same technique in his Tarot book.

Click to expand...

Personally I find taking the name of God in vain is most a typically a 'sin' of the 'righteous' who use it to justify their own positions, judgments, hateful prejudices and morally dubious actions. Permutations of divine names is part of the kabbalistic tradition and can be found among its most fundamental texts, such as the Sefer Yetzirah:

quote:

1:5 Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their measure is ten which have no end. A depth of beginning, a depth of end; a depth of good, a depth of evil; a depth of above, a depth below; a depth east, a depth west; a depth north, a depth south. The singular Master, God faithful King, dominates them all from His holy dwelling until eternity of eternities.

...


1:13 Five: With three of the simple letters seal "above". Choose three and place them in His great Name: YHV. With them seal the six extremities.
Face upward and seal it with YHV.
Six: Seal "below". Face downward and seal it with YHV.
Seven: Seal "east". Face straight ahead and seal it with HYV.
Eight: Seal "west". Face backward and seal it with HVY
Nine: Seal "south". Face to the right and seal it withn VYH.
Ten: Seal "north". Face to the left and seal it with VHY.

1:14 These are the Ten Sefirot of Nothingness. One is the Breath of the Living God. Breath [from Breath], Fire [from water, and the extremities], up, down, east, west, north and south.

end quote

Sefer Yetzirah, Short Version, trans. Aryeh Kaplan

Charles Darnay said:

... the third Waite version of the Celtic Cross ... It's in The Holy Kabbalah,p.181,(1929)where it is used as a magical formula and equates each step of numbers FIVE to TEN only with a three letter permutation of the Lord's name
... Waite does not mention that he has illustrated the same technique in his Tarot book.

Click to expand...

So you're saying that the 'celtic' cross is actually a misnomer for the 'kabbalistic' cross... and as such as much an order (Golden Dawn) method as the ritual of the pentagram to which we may clearly relate it... whose origin is not to be found in any out of the order folklore/celtic interests of its members, but in the orders kabbalistic appropriations... ???

Kwaw
ps: there are classical variations of how the permutations of the divine name are related to the directions - I have given the two most prominent with an explanation of how they are worked out elsewhere. I am not sure which Waite gives as I am currently in Turkey and my copy of his book is back in England.

We don't generally talk to Crowley people but you are at least in the right place to track his utterly twisted root matter.Happy hunting!
Do you know the Donmeh (who gave Jacob Frank the counter-initiation which eventually got passed on to copycat Crowley) control the Turkish barbers union? Turkish barber shops used to be great for picking up this kind of stuff.We hope no one is sending them dvd's of "Sweeney Todd".
Roger thinks anything Crowley could do Waite could do bigger and better.But we have no intention of aiding or abetting either one of them.
Actually Waite describes the Mithraic Bull Sacrifice as the "deep below the deeps".(En. of FM) And Waite's former pupil,Charles Williams("War in Heaven") chimes in with "there were deeps even beneath those deeps." Which is probably why Yeats referred to Waite in his only public reference as "The one deep student known to me".
There is used to be a British Egyptologist in the L'll Abner comic strip ,which American kids still love to pass around, named Sir Cedric Cesspool."He's very deep,you know."

Based on the Sepher Yetzirah and other works, the GD devised the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram:

Touching the forehead, say Atay.
Touching the genitals, say Malkuth.
Touching the right shoulder, say ve-Geburah.
Touching the left shoulder, say ve-Gedulah.
Place the two palms of the hands together upon the breast, and say le-Olahm, Amen.

Advance to the East, trace the Pentagram with the proper weapon. Say (i.e., vibrate) IHVH.
Turning to the South, the same, but say ADNI.
Turning to the West, the same, but say AHIH.
Turning to the North, the same, but say AGLA.
Return to the East, completing the Circle.

Extend the arms in the form of a Cross, and say:
Before me Raphael;
Behind me Gabriel;
On my right, Michael;
On my left, Auriel;
For around me flames the Pentagram,
And above me shines the Six-rayed Star.

Repeat the initial Kabbalistic Cross.

The same? I notice it every time I do the Pentagram ritual and call on the archangels.

Certainly the so-called 'Celtic' Cross can be seen as this basic and very archetypal alignment of the self with the directions.

Furthermore the path or ladder up the side can be seen as the four suits (starting with the bottom card):
7 - Self - Wands
8 - Home - Cups
9 - Fears & Hopes - Swords
10 - Final Result - Pentacles

or you can read it as:
7 - Self (Physical Body) - Pentacles
8 - Others (Communications) - Swords
9 - Hopes & Fears (Emotions) - Cups
10 - What Emerges (Old>New) - Wands

Marcus Katz has written about the Celtic Cross Spread in Tarosophy International and reproduces a pre-Waite version of it from the GD notebook of F.L. Gardner entitled "A Gypsy Method of Divination by Cards." At the end of Gardner's typed instructions he writes: "Fortune Telling by Cards. Non Order Method."

John-Brodie Innes wrote in The Occult Review that this spread was taught to him by Florence Farr as a "Non Order Method" long before Waite published his deck. Farr called herself a gypsy, claiming that descent, and she taught the GD class on tarot.

Cerulean said:

I was hoping people who have older "Key to the Tarot" historic set might comment if their text--originally published in a small blue book of 194 pages, as far as I know--if their copy of the text was closer to this version typed below.

Click to expand...

I don't have the cards & book set, but I have an original little blue book with gold leaf title on spine, dated 1910. The text is exactly as you transcribed it.

Ucundan azıcık*

Charles Darnay said:

Do you know the Donmeh (who gave Jacob Frank the counter-initiation which eventually got passed on to copycat Crowley) ...

Click to expand...

Of course - and some personally.

Charles Darnay said:

... control the Turkish barbers union? Turkish barber shops used to be great for picking up this kind of stuff.

Click to expand...

I was with my barber yesterday: Encased within the barber's cape my eyes fell heavy beneath the soothing stroke of brush and fingers and I was immersed in the vibrations of the buzzing clippers, the swift snip and snap of scissors tap-tapping against the teeth of comb, the puppetry of hand and head he shaped for the scrape of the razor, the intimate trimming of eyebrows, ears and nose. A flick of flame and smell of burning hair lifted me out of my submersion. "Tamam?" he asked. "Çok iyi" I replied, "çok iyi".

clipped peeks
of the barber's bum
in the mirror

The subject of the dönmeh however, did not arise. Atatürk's opponents on the religious right have always made the (false) claim that he was a dönmeh in an effort to discredit him: it is possible Crowley believed the story, he did after all name his son after him.

Kwaw
*Ucundan azıcık - lit. 'a little from the tip' : At the barber's "just a trim'.

BEWARE: Outside of the barbershop the phrase may cause some hilarity, not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with circumcision.