RWS books

Maria Tarot

Hi,
Is there any RWS book you would recommend?
Thank you all
 

3ill.yazi

Books about the specific history of the deck, or about divination methods specific to the deck, or ... ? Many or most intro books about tarot use this deck, from what I've seen. What's your particular interest?
 

Maria Tarot

Books about the specific history of the deck, or about divination methods specific to the deck, or ... ? Many or most intro books about tarot use this deck, from what I've seen. What's your particular interest?

Thank you :)
I've a lots of interest in the origin origin of the simbolism used in the cards. Their meaning.
Thank you
 

Abrac

It depends on what you're looking for. If you want something that's easy to digest and understand there are innumerable commentaries out there. The only problem is virtually all of them are shallow and miss the mark most of the time.

To get a better understanding of the symbolism, I'd forget about everything that's already been written and start reading Waite. It's a slower path but the rewards are more satisfying. A good place to start imo, is A.E. Waite, Magician of Many Parts by R.A. Gilbert. It's not by Waite, but it's loaded with quotes from his autobiography. If you have trouble finding Waite's books, or they're too expensive, try a library. The interlibrary loan can sometimes be very fruitful. :)
 

Richard

......To get a better understanding of the symbolism, I'd forget about everything that's already been written and start reading Waite......
For once I agree 100% with Abrac. :) Some of Waite's books are available for free (or inexpensively) online as ebooks. There are those who claim that Waite is too hard to read, but the insight gained thereby is proportional to the time and effort put into it.

Don't waste your money on books that claim to tell you all you ever wanted to know about the Waite deck. Such hype is designed to sucker the instant gratification crowd.
 

Maria Tarot

It depends on what you're looking for. If you want something that's easy to digest and understand there are innumerable commentaries out there. The only problem is virtually all of them are shallow and miss the mark most of the time.

To get a better understanding of the symbolism, I'd forget about everything that's already been written and start reading Waite. It's a slower path but the rewards are more satisfying. A good place to start imo, is A.E. Waite, Magician of Many Parts by R.A. Gilbert. It's not by Waite, but it's loaded with quotes from his autobiography. If you have trouble finding Waite's books, or they're too expensive, try a library. The interlibrary loan can sometimes be very fruitful. :)

Thank you
I will google for the books you recommend.
I feel some kind of disconfort learning a card meaning just because .
I want to try to understand the reason of meanings.
Thank you very much
 

Maria Tarot

For once I agree 100% with Abrac. :) Some of Waite's books are available for free (or inexpensively) online as ebooks. There are those who claim that Waite is too hard to read, but the insight gained thereby is proportional to the time and effort put into it.

Don't waste your money on books that claim to tell you all you ever wanted to know about the Waite deck. Such hype is designed to sucker the instant gratification crowd.

Thank you
I've buyed some books and I didn't like them.
Next weekend I will try to google and download the books you two recommended.
Thank you very much
 

Abrac

If it's the reasoning behind the divinatory meanings you're after, I can offer a couple of ideas.

In Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot, in the first part before he gets to the card descriptions, he shares quite a bit about his philosophy of divinatory meanings.

He wasn't big on using the majors for divination. He saw them more as meditative tools, or for pathworking (on the Tree of Life). In his book there aren't any divinatory meanings given for the majors.

Regarding the minors, from what he says in the PKT, he has drawn on many different sources and distilled them into the most common meanings. He mentions in one place that part of it has to do with the card number and its suit.

"So also the smaller cards, which—until now—have never been issued pictorially in these our modem days, depend on the particular meaning attaching to their numbers in connexion with the particular suit."

I suspect he's also drawn on the Golden Dawn's Book-T.pdf document, but this seems hit and miss.

**EDIT** I just noticed there are some divinatory meanings for the majors toward the end of the book, but it's clear from Waite's quote at the end how he feels about them.

"It will be seen that, except where there is an irresistible suggestion conveyed by the surface meaning, that which is extracted from the Trumps Major by the divinatory art is at once artificial and arbitrary, as it seems to me, in the highest degree. But of one order are the mysteries of light and of another are those of fantasy. The allocation of a fortune-telling aspect to these cards is the story of a prolonged impertinence."
 

Maria Tarot

If it's the reasoning behind the divinatory meanings you're after, I can offer a couple of ideas.

In Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot, in the first part before he gets to the card descriptions, he shares quite a bit about his philosophy of divinatory meanings.

He wasn't big on using the majors for divination. He saw them more as meditative tools, or for pathworking (on the Tree of Life). In his book there aren't any divinatory meanings given for the majors.

I read all of the time that majors indicate great changes...

Regarding the minors, from what he says in the PKT, he has drawn on many different sources and distilled them into the most common meanings. He mentions in one place that part of it has to do with the card number and its suit.

"So also the smaller cards, which—until now—have never been issued pictorially in these our modem days, depend on the particular meaning attaching to their numbers in connexion with the particular suit."

When you talk about numbers is numerology?

I suspect he's also drawn on the Golden Dawn's Book-T.pdf document, but this seems hit and miss.

**EDIT** I just noticed there are some divinatory meanings for the majors toward the end of the book, but it's clear from Waite's quote at the end how he feels about them.

"It will be seen that, except where there is an irresistible suggestion conveyed by the surface meaning, that which is extracted from the Trumps Major by the divinatory art is at once artificial and arbitrary, as it seems to me, in the highest degree. But of one order are the mysteries of light and of another are those of fantasy. The allocation of a fortune-telling aspect to these cards is the story of a prolonged impertinence."

Thank you very much :)
I will now to the link
 

Abrac

The symbolism of the majors mainly represents Waite's mystic philosophy. It's hard to pinpoint one source and say "this is it." Clues can be found in the descriptions in the PKT, but the answers are scattered all throughout Waite's writings and can only be discovered by simply reading and discovering. As I mentioned before, their placement on the paths of the Tree of Life was important for Waite.

The minors on the other hand are a little simpler. Waite states that the divinatory meanings for the minors are a distillation of many sources. They came from all over including divinatory meanings for playing cards. In the PKT he gives the following correspondences of tarot suits to playing cards:

Wands = Diamonds
Cups = Hearts
Swords = Clubs
Pents. = Spades

However, I believe this is a misprint because in two other sources (Hidden Church of the Holy Graal and Manual of Cartomancy.pdf [written under the alias "Grand Orient"]) he gives the following:

Wands = Diamonds
Cups = Hearts
Swords = Spades
Pents. = Clubs

By "numbers" I think he could mean numerology or the 10 Sephiroth on the Tree of Life, but I think he also refers to the cartomantic meanings which have traditionally been based on certain numbers and suits. For example, the 3 of Spades (Waite's 3 of Swords) has a long history in cartomancy of meaning "a departure, absence, rupture disruptions, infidelity, quarreling, etc." This is reflected in the 3 of Swords.

In the PKT, Waite writes:

"In the rectified Tarot which illustrates the present handbook, all numbered cards of the Lesser Arcana—the Aces only excepted—are furnished with figures or pictures to illustrate—but without exhausting—the divinatory meanings attached thereto.

Some who are gifted with reflective and discerning faculties in more than the ordinary sense—I am not speaking of clairvoyance—may observe that in many of the Lesser Arcana there are vague intimations conveyed by the designs which seem to exceed the stated divinatory values. It is desirable to avoid misconception by specifying definitely that, except in rare instances—and then only by accident—the variations are not to be regarded as suggestions of higher and extradivinatory symbolism. I have said that these Lesser Arcana have not been translated into a language which transcends that of fortune telling. I should not indeed be disposed to regard them as belonging in their existing forms to another realm than this; but the field of divinatory possibilities is inexhaustible, by the hypothesis of the art, and the combined systems of cartomancy have indicated only the bare heads of significance attaching to the emblems in use.

When the pictures in the present case go beyond the conventional meanings they should be taken as hints of possible developments along the same lines; and this is one of the reasons why the pictorial devices here attached to the four denaries will prove a great help to intuition. The mere numerical powers and bare words of the meanings are insufficient by themselves; but the pictures are like doors which open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn in the open road with a wide prospect beyond."

This is a mouthful, but from it we find several important points:

1. The combined systems of cartomancy provide the foundation for the illustrations. The illustrations are based firstly on that.

2. The pictures aren't intended to represent a "higher or extradivinatory symbolism."

3. The pictures can hint at or suggest an innumerable number of divinatory meanings but nothing beyond that of fortune-telling.

Some might say Waite is employing reverse psychology, that is, saying the minors don't represent anything transcendent when they really do. I tend to believe him though, with the exception of the Aces.