Reading Waite-The Doctrine Behind the Veil

[preacher37]

To my knowledge there really aren't as many red herrings and misinformation as it seems at first.

There are, in fact, none.
I would like to invite anyone who believes they can indicate anywhere in any of Waite's writings where he deliberately mislead or misdirected his readers to please do so here. I am of the belief that literally all such identifications are actually misunderstandings of Waite's thick, convoluted, sub-referencing writing style and would like to see an actual instance of that for which he is so often accused.

Waite wanted a deck that could be used by the masses for intuitive divination. He also wanted to integrate several different Tarot traditions (of which the GD was only one) into a deck that transcended them all (esp. the Majors).

Waite was not at all interested in 'intuitive divination'. He believed that divination was only possible by a true psychic. The cards are didactic and meditational tools and just as alchemical writings convey the Secret Tradition masked in the chemistry of metallic transmutation, the Graal cycles convey the Secret Tradition masked in the history of the Cup, Freemasonry conveys the Secret Tradition in the story of Hiram and Rosicrucianism conveys the Secret Tradition in the story of Christian R., his cards convey the Secret Tradition in the Pictoral symbols that secondarily happen to constitute the Majors of the Tarot.

He honored his oaths--breaking them wasn't necessary to fulfill his purpose.

The book, which so many find so difficult, was written as an "introductory handbook", an effort to interest the uninitiated general population and do it in a way that might draw them into further study (and make a few bucks while at it). As you say, his oaths were never an issue. Had the book deliniated all the details protected by every oath he ever took it would not have mattered to his target audience- they would have had no clue, not having anything like the backgroud to understand "God Forms" or the "The Magic of Light".

Yet he wanted to leave a trail of crumbs (references to other works) for those few who were willing to do their homework.
--snip--
Have you tried reading a technical book on physics without ever having studied psychics? Or how about a medical journal without being healing professional? Every field has areas that require background, vocabulary, study and often practice.

You hit it exactly on the head. And what makes the book so difficult to understand is that he was so dismally horrible at just that. The PKT is only penatrable after reading nearly all of Waite's other books and they are themselves nearly inpenatrable. Very few have ever even attempted such a daunting task and fewer still have accomplished it.

I hope I got these quote thingies right- this is my first attempt to post here.

 

[preacher37]

I believe that Waite's quote was stating that the occult is real and can be experienced. He's basically saying that symbols can unlock these universal ideas as they are contained in consciousness and we all have access to them.

Waite is saying that God is real and can be experienced. He called the occult 'a montebank' and its practitioners akin to 'quack doctors'.

 

[Teheuti]

Adepti.com

A good many of Waite's articles have been transcribed and are available at
http://www.adepti.com/ . Here you'll find the major material you'll need to further understand Waite and his tarot theories.

As we get into the next set of sentences there is a reference to an Occult Review article (actually there were two of them):
"The Hermetic and Rosicrucian Mystery"
"The Pictorial Symbols of Alchemy"
These are found by clicking on PDF Documents at the adepti site.

Don't miss the articles under the "Original Site" designation, which also includes quite a few pictures of Waite.

Earlier I mentioned "The Cloud of Unknowing." That was a mistake on my part (that's been haunting me). The actual reference should have been to Eckartshausen's "The Cloud upon the Sanctuary" translated by Isabel de Steiger, which was probably the work that most influenced Waite.

This is what the creator of adepti.com had to say about it:
"Born in 1875 of Plymouth Brethren stock, Aleister Crowley had read, while still an undergraduate at Cambridge, a book by A. E. Waite and, inspired by some dark hints given in the introduction to this book, had written to Waite asking if there was a 'Secret Sanctuary' to which he could gain admittance. Waite had sent a kindly, if a little unhelpful, reply, urging the young aspirant to read Madame de Steiger's translation of an eighteenth-century mystical work The Cloud on the Sanctuary.
Crowley did this..." (King, Modern Ritual Magic)
"Unknown to herself, translating Eckartshausen was the single most significant act of her occult life, for this was the book used by A. E. Waite to persuade Aleister Crowley to take the path that led to the Golden Dawn." (Gilbert, Golden Dawn, Twilight of the Magicians )

Mary

 

[Cerulean]

By the way, as Madame Blavatsky is frequently referenced

This seems to be a listing archive that I have not seen referenced yet--I may have missed anyone posting:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/onlinematerial.htm

It had a wide range of links and I notice they encourage one to buy the titles--but perhaps there also useful excerpts and commentary.

Thanks for the discussion so far, which I'm still trying to sort out. The denseness of Waite's writing and knowing the context does take time for me.

Cerulean

 

[Teheuti]

I would like to invite anyone who believes they can indicate anywhere in any of Waite's writings where he deliberately mislead or misdirected his readers to please do so here.

Oh, an interesting challenge. It seems to me that at times Waite excessively denigrates other authors who he is, in fact, indebted to - like Etteilla's contribution to Waite's divinatory meanings. However, I'll keep my eyes out for anything in particular as we go through this section.

I am of the belief that literally all such identifications are actually misunderstandings of Waite's thick, convoluted, sub-referencing writing style

I agree in general. We'll have to see about the "all" part of it. I'm so glad you're here, though, to clarify what we'll be reading.

Waite was not at all interested in 'intuitive divination'. He believed that divination was only possible by a true psychic.

And, he didn't believe himself to be so gifted. However, I wouldn't characterize him as having a black-and-white attitude towards this, but rather one of degree: “The pictorial devices . . .will prove a great help to intuition." And, “In proportion as this gift [of intuition] is present in a particular case, the specific meanings recorded by past cartomancists will be disregarded in favour of the personal appreciation of card values.”

I look forward to your contributions. Thanks for joining in.

Mary

 

[preacher37]

Waite was fully committed to the Christian path - no doubt about it. But he didn't eliminate the possiblity of Divine union being achieved by other paths. And, personally, I don't hold it against him.

"Despite the acrimony of theological discussion, the corruptions of ecclesiastical institutions, and even the virus of the sectarian spirit, the best of us are content at the end to die in the faith of our fathers." (Steps to the Crown)

Waite felt that religion was what man did to try to repair his connection to God. The religion itself was no matter. Waite was a (nominal) Christian and most often wrote using Christain symbols and references because it was what was most familiar to his audience in England of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Roman Catholic, actually. He was in love with the ritual ceremony of the Mass and felt that the Eucharist was the best symbolic, ceremonial representation of the Quest going on. He devised his own Mass as a ritual for use by advanced adepti of the FRC, complete with the breaking, elevation and consecration of the host and the sharing of the elements among the participants. Of course, his ritual reflected his appreciation of Union, containing such declarations as 'I am God' and 'You are God'. Not exactly mainstream Christian fare...

 

[Teheuti]

Sentences 11 - 15 [Book of Lambspring]

Sentences 11 - 15, including references to the _Book of Lambspring_

11. "The spiritual side of Alchemy is set forth in the much stranger emblems of the _Book of Lambspring_, and of this I have already given a preliminary interpretation, to which the reader may be referred.
[go to: http://www.adepti.com/docs/ps2.pdf . The text includes the original pictures from the work.]
12. "The tract contains the mystery of what is called the mystical or arch-natural elixir, being the marriage of the soul and the spirit in the body of the adept philosopher and the transmutation of the body as the physical result of this marriage.
13. "I have never met with more curious intimations than in this one little work.
14. "It may be mentioned as a point of fact that both tracts are very much later in time than the latest date that could be assigned to the general distribution of Tarot cards in Europe by the most drastic form of criticism.
15. "They belong respectively to the end of the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries."

Note: "Arch-natural" was a term used by Thomas Lake Harris (1823-1906) to signify divine qualities versus "natural"/earthly ones: "The Lord answered, "You are outwardly in the natural degree; but I am outwardly in the arch-natural, and thence I descend into the natural. Talk to Me, therefore, from the wisdom that you have in the natural."

Mary

 

[Rima]

Waite

Waite is saying that God is real and can be experienced. He called the occult 'a montebank' and its practitioners akin to 'quack doctors'.

Of course, Waite was a mystic, a Christian mystic and so the word he would choose for the occult or that which is hidden would be God. Mystics do believe that God can be experienced. But although I agree with you, since I believe that all things come from God or that all *is* God, then when you study or seek to experience that which is occult, you are seeking to experience that which is hidden or behind the veil.....God; consciousness; eternity; creation........

If you only associate the occult with "occultists" (and those during Waite's time), you might easily understand his prejudices towards the occultists. However, whether one goes inside seeking God or oneself; power or enlightenment, they're still exploring the inner worlds that are shrouded or behind the veil.

Rima

 

[Lorraine]

"

Waite felt that religion was what man did to try to repair his connection to God. The religion itself was no matter. Waite was a (nominal) Christian and most often wrote using Christain symbols and references because it was what was most familiar to his audience in England of the late 19th and early 20th century....

If one understands that Waite distinguishes between universal (catholic) church and Roman Catholic church the project in reading Waite becomes simpler. The "blinds" if they exist are merely demonstrations of fundamental mechanisms of the human mind used rhetorically. We are given a use of symbolism much in the same way as being given demonstrations in perception pscyhology. We are supposed to figure out that human mind does not percieve reality but instead receives signals from the environment through our senses which we organize into guesses so fast that we do not see ourselves guessing. (see Quantum Psychology, Anton Wilson, describing hypnosis by words..."Words do not equal in space-time the things or event they denote, yet people react to a choice between words as if making a choice between "real" things or events in the existential world.") I am suggesting here that the reader is well advised to ask, when reading Waite, whether it is orthopraxis or orthodoxy which controls the context.

 

[Sophie]

Of course, his ritual reflected his appreciation of Union, containing such declarations as 'I am God' and 'You are God'. Not exactly mainstream Christian fare...

Not mainstream Christian (either Church of England or Roman Catholic), but familiar to Kabbalists: since God is One, One being all-encompassing, God is I and God is You; and including the Christian Cabala, which Waite seems to have plumbed for that very reason. That idea of Union is also familiar to those who had read mystical Christian literature (Mary mentioned The Cloud of Unknowing - in which we find that notion of Union with the Divine, whereby "I am God" & "You are God".)