LRichard said:
Waite was an American who lived in England for most of his life, at a time when almost everybody was a Christian, so he left in some of the Christian symbolism of the traditional Tarot decks. He obviously knew that people would tend to view the images literally, but the Golden Dawn initiates, for whom he created the deck, knew the inner, spiritual significance of the symbolism.
I'm trying not to be picky but the above information, while not actually incorrect, could lead to false assumptions.
Waite was born in Brooklyn, the (probably) illegitimate son of an English mother and American, sea-captain father. His father died at sea when he was a year old, three days before the birth of his sister (who was born on Waite's first birthday). They moved to England when he was two and there's no indication of his ever returning to America. His uncle-by-marriage was the brother of Charles Dickens but, in general, the relatives on both sides had little to do with Waite or his mother, so he grew up in somewhat-genteel poverty. To say that he was an American is therefore stretching things since he had essentially no first hand experience of America and was raised totally as a Brit.
He clearly identified himself as a Christian mystic but he disliked organized religion, and so all of his Christian imagery is really mystical in nature. It was about what we can gain by following the symbolic way of the sacrificed god (son of the Goddess Sophia/Shekinah/Isis/Mary) that he saw as reaching its epitome in Jesus Christ.
It's not clear that he created the deck for Golden Dawn initiates, per se, although I'm sure he would have been delighted to have them use it, and they would have been familiar with most of the symbolism. I think he really created it for a much greater audience in hopes that the symbolism would speak to people who knew nothing of the Golden Dawn but enough about esotericism (the Ageless Wisdom Tradition) to be intrigued by its message that he named the 'Secret Tradition.' Afterall, there's no indication that his many books with 'the Secret Tradition' in their titles were written specifically for GD initiates, either.
He create a separate Major Arcana deck that was used exclusively by members of his Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, which was specifically a Christian mystical Order (founded, 1915; Trinick deck created circa 1922).
