KingofCups
Abrac said:I would say the use of the Tora here is a reference to Kabalah, but Waite was very vocal about his view that the Tarot has nothing to do with Kabalah.
The thing is, you can't take much of what any of the Golden Dawn people say about the tarot in a public forum at face value (especially Crowley) because they were actively trying to conceal what it was they were doing with it. Paul Foster Case came the closest to letting the cat out of the bag and revealed some important blinds, and for that, he was expelled from the order.
Waite himself put enough Tree of Life diagrams into his own deck that it should be obvious that he did think there was a connection. These can be found on the curtains behind the High Priestess, the King of Swords, and the Queen of Wands, and most overtly of all on the ten of Pentacles.