RWS; remind me why it's so great.

Richard

Trying to analyze all the little squiggles and artistic mannerisms is entertaining for awhile, but a game of solitaire may be a more exciting way to pass the time.

Queen of Disks

LRichard said:
The real depth of the RWS Majors is found in Waite's discussion of them in PKT. For example, the section on Trump VI begins with a rather conventional description of the image. The real fireworks start in the final paragraph, in which Waite reveals that he holds a Gnostic view of the Fall of Man, which is totally heretical from the perspective of conventional Bible-based religions. Similarly, in the Trump XX section, he explains that, to him, the card is not really about the Biblical Judgement Day, but rather about an inward mystical experience (presumably gnosis). Concerning Trump 0 he states: "He [The Fool] is a prince of the other world......He is the spirit in search of experience." This is an accurate description of the main character in the hauntingly beautiful Gnostic poem, The Hymn of the Pearl.

Anyhow, a careful study of the RWS, with help from PKT, can lead to the world of Gnostic literature, and a fresh interpretation of familiar Biblical topics. There is practically an inexhaustible amount of material relevant to the deck. What I've mentioned barely scratches the surface.

*nods* Exactly! There are many levels of awesome going on in the RWS, but most people write it off as "oh, THAT again.."

Richard

Queen of Disks said:
*nods* Exactly! There are many levels of awesome going on in the RWS, but most people write it off as "oh, THAT again.."

Thanks for the post, Q/D, it made my day! I suppose people don't really want to know why it's so great, but rather why it's so popular. *sigh*

Richard

Le Fanu said:
I read time and time again how fans of the RWS love it because even after studying it for ten, twenty, twenty-five years or more, people still discover new things, surprises and concealed symbols in its images...........But I can never spot new things in it. Please come forward and treat me to a celebration of why the RWS never ceases to surprise...

I've been guilty of interpreting the squiggles meself (like the supposed Hebrew letter Tzaddi on the Magician's wand, which probably is merely an ordinary twig). I think such activity is primarily just a pastime. Some people enjoy that sort of thing, others don't. However, there's no denying that Waite was a voluminous writer and deep thinker. I really think that Waite's ideas and Smith's pictures have provided us with a Tarot that generously repays philosophical investigation. It has been shortchanged in that respect, even by knowledgeable writers, such as Robert Wang, who (perhaps ulteriorily motivated) dismissed it as an "exoteric" deck (in contrast to the, guess what, Wang-Regardie deck :!:

). For a deeper investigation of esoteric Tarot, people hop over the RWS to the seemingly more spookily mysterious Thoth, which in reality is far more closely related to RWS than is commonly thought.

The initial popularity was probably due to Smith's suggestive illustrations, and its popularity snowballed like crazy amoung fortune-tellers because it provides a wonderful playground for Rorschach-type, free-associative, "intuitive" readings (for which no painful esoteric book-learning is needed). It is only natural that a deck so widely used would eventually give rise to speculation about artistic squiggles.