Reading Waite-The Doctrine Behind the Veil

[Teheuti]

3 rows of 7

Regarding the 3 rows of 7: Although I can't find any evidence so far that Waite used this pattern for exploring the cards, it is one of the richest ways of exploring the Majors. Rachel Pollack uses it in 78 Degrees of Wisdom. At the time she thought she was the first to use the pattern (not being familiar with PF Case). My book, _Tarot for Your Self_, uses a different Major Arcana pattern to open most of the chapters - as I've always found so many insights in each pattern. Isn't it amazing, for instance, that the 3 named virtues in the deck are at the beginning, middle and end of the second row in the 3 rows of 7?

 

[preacher37]

And then, why was Strength left out of the list of cards with "deeper meanings"?

His first list enumerates the cards that demonstrate that meanings for some cards are real rather than imputed. Strength is not on the list because the deeper meaning is imputed.
The second list is of the cards that are 'the legend of the soul', the others (which includes Strength) are details (and accidents) of that legend.

Some folks might argue that Strength typifies the first real mystical attainment in the series.

 

[preacher37]

Regarding the 3 rows of 7: Although I can't find any evidence so far that Waite used this pattern for exploring the cards, it is one of the richest ways of exploring the Majors.

If I am recalling correctly, Waite once wrote that you could drop the cards from the top of a stepladder and find some meaning in the order of their landing.

 

[preacher37]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosanne
I wonder why he commissioned the 78 Cards -did he think it would be used mainly for 'prayerful search for light' or did he expect it to be used in a mundane way normaly?

Originally Posted by Teheuti
Why not both? He over and over again talks about the "marriage of the two," which in one place he terms the "superior and inferior worlds." The rest of this section goes into this further - so why don't we leave this very pertinent question open so that each person can decide for themselves upon reading the rest of Waite's text.

Waite always had another objective also- to make a buck!

 

[preacher37]

I should have stated what I believe the 'Great Secret' is. I think it is the Journey of return to the creator, depicted by those eight cards Mentioned, excluding those Waite saw as 'accidents'.

That is certainly the "Great Secret'. But note that Waite is using accident in the sense of non-essential. The other cards are not excluded from representing the path, but simply may not be the great way points on the journey.

 

[Rosanne]

Ahah preacher37, thank you. I have said before that I find Waite convoluted and obscure in his language. Now I am clear on the Way Stations!!(points) I was trying to read his 'Book of Spells' and I fired it at the wall in fury- it all seems psuedo catholic- like a wannabe Priest and the rest seems gobblygook to me. I really like the idea of way stations it appeals to the traveller in me. Also I realised in hindsight he was after a buck as well, for the Victorians were really prepared to spend money on the occult practises.Thanks~Rosanne

 

[Teheuti]

Sentences 32

Sentence 32: "Such cards testify concerning themselves after another manner; and although the state in which I have left the Tarot in respect of its historical side is so much the more difficult as it is so much the more open, they indicate the real subject matter with which we are concerned."

Sorry to have left this for so long. Anyone want to give a try at an explanatory paraphrase of this sentence? He seems to be comparing the difficulty of understanding what is known historically with the difficulty of understanding the "real subject matter" [i.e., Secret Tradition].

Mary

 

[Teheuti]

Sentences 33 - 35

Sentence 33:
"The methods shew also that the Trumps Major at least have been adapted to fortune-telling rather than belong thereto.

Sentence 34:
"The common divinatory meanings which will be given in the third part are largely arbittrary attributions, or the product of secondary and uninstructed intuition; or, at the very most, they belong to the subject on a lower plane, apart from the original intention.

Sentence 35:
"If the Tarot were of fortune-telling in the root-matter thereof, we should have to look in very strange places for the motive which devised it--to Witchcraft and the Black Sabbath, rather than any Secret Doctrine."

According to Waite, the Major Arcana did not originate with fortune-telling.

The "third part" begins on page 283 (of my edition) with "The Greater Arcana and Their Divinatory Meanings." Waite ends this section saying:

"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 another are those of fantasy. The allocation of a fortune-telling aspect to these cards is the story of a prolonged impertinence."

You'll find that many of the meanings in this section derive from Etteilla whose associations do, often, seem arbitrary. Compare at
http://www.villarevak.org/td/td_3.htm

 

[RViewer]

Tolerance and Intuition.

At some point in his life he seemed to become more open as to what version of "dogma" may exist as the one "Real" secret tradition.

"The Less dogmatic one is with regard to the process of divination and its interpretation the greater the chance of being truly "illuminated” by insight or vision. These cards have to be taken as "signs of the Heavens" and in order to understand what Heaven has to communicate, man has to eliminate, wholly and without consideration, his own as well as other people's prejudices and preferences, bigotry and illusions." - A.E. Waite

I do believe however that he also had some pretty strong ideas as to what the mystery meant for him and the lines of research he pursued. I just think he softened up on the idea that the intuition of the people can lead in many useful directions.

 

[preacher37]

At some point in his life he seemed to become more open as to what version of "dogma" may exist as the one "Real" secret tradition.

I don't think he ever thought of the efforts to find a way back to God as seperable into real or not. More like effective and ineffective. The drive some have to amass wealth, for example, is/was, for Waite, a misguided (or ineffective) attempt to fill the void left by seperation from God. He felt that sooner or later (in this manifestation or the next) one gets over such efforts and moves to something more effective.

And he saw dogma in all its forms as a polutant.

I do believe however that he also had some pretty strong ideas as to what the mystery meant for him and the lines of research he pursued. I just think he softened up on the idea that the intuition of the people can lead in many useful directions.

Waite described existance as a wheel in the sense that all spokes lead to the center. He believed that it did not matter what course was chosen, we all end up in the same place. He was a Universalist, believeing that everyone makes it through eventually. In his 'Way of Divine Union' he even describes the day when Lucifer is welcomed back into paradise.