Teheuti
I agree with you. It's what I've been saying all along. Although it's not beside Waite to have left it open for other references to be valid at the same time. However, all the alternates could be still subsumed under Mystery.
Upside-down M solved [maybe]
Abrac
Mary, if I understand what you've said before on this, your view is "that which lies behind the Lesser Arcana" is a reference to the Graal Hallows. Do you still see it that way, and what do you think of the idea that it refers to a "hidden dimension" behind the Lesser Aracana?
Abrac
I just had a crazy idea. The M might not stand for anything. Waite could've simply been illustrating a principle. The "W" is the outer veil, or illusion that conceals the hidden truth, M. M is the only letter that can be used to pull off such a sleight of hand effectively, so it could've been chosen for that reason alone; the "W" would be equally as coincidental. As luck would have it, W has a couple of immediate associations (Waite or Water for example) that would only reinforce the illusion. 
Teheuti
I was referring to the upside-down M. See my post in this thread (#2) where I said: "I personally think Waite intended the word Mystery by that M." I've posted about this in both this thread and others.
I think the Ace of Cups, as a whole, refers to the Graal, as in his book written the same year as the Tarot: The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal. The material in HCHG on Tarot, for instance, refers entirely to the Minor Arcana. See Chapter 9: “The Hallows of the Graal Mystery Rediscovered in the Talismans of the Tarot.” He says: “the correspondence of certain Tarot symbols with those of the Holy Graal . . . [have a] consequence," although he declines to go into much detail - just vague hints.
And the Graal/Grail refers to Mystery. It is a specific example of the Secret Tradition with parallels in other expressions of that Secret Tradition (see Waite's other books). Note the similarity to Joseph Campbell's monomyth concept.
The suit of Cups is almost an exact illustration of Waite's retelling of de Boron's "The Metrical Romance of Joseph of Arimathea" recounted twice by Waite in HCHG and sometimes using the same wording found in the Cups section of PKT. Waite makes clear that this is a very important piece, being that it was the first work to connect the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper with earlier Arthurian myths—establishing the whole tradition of the Holy Grail and its journey to Avalon. (We now know that Cretien de Troyes' first Grail work might have been slightly earlier.)
The Minors are in a style that clearly fits in with other British illustrations of the Grail/Arthurian myths from this period - whereas the Majors are not in this style. See The Camelot Project: http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/artists (click on "works").
When Waite revised HCHG in 1933 he turned part of his chapter on the Minor Arcana into its own section called "The Ritual Hypothesis." Here Waite speculates on the Grail myths as the basis for ritual pageants that he says he is well-qualified to devise. As a pageant is “a public entertainment consisting of a procession of people in elaborate, colorful costumes, or an outdoor performance of a historical scene,” I think Waite envisioned the Minor Arcana as a quaternity of ritual pageants. This is also suggested by the number of Minor Arcana scenes that appear to be set on a stage or platform. Here is Waite’s description from HCHG of such a pageant in an early Grail romance that obviously showcases the Court Cards:
In an article, “The Tarot and the Secret Tradition,” in The Occult Review Vol. XXIX, No. 3; March, 1919, Waite wrote:
Waite’s central contention, to paraphrase what he tells us in The Holy Grail, is:
The Cup corresponds to the spiritual life. It receives the graces from above and communicates them to that which is below. But the meaning behind the Grail has lost its sacred significance in the external world. Like the Grail knight, Perceval, we have failed to ask ‘one little question’—“Whom does the Grail serve?” As a result, we are spiritually isolated and conscious of our loss. We are haunted by a voice that says the question and answer lie within. All creatures wait for us to be unspelled. This secret can only be obtained by being divinely guided to a concealed sanctuary, a “Third Heaven,” that is only known through vision. It opens one to what lies behind definitions and expressions that satisfy the mind. The same story of loss is told everywhere, though never in the same way. But a story also continues, from age to age, that somewhere, sometime, the missing Word, the key to our Existence, will be restored. Christian mystics say it is here and now, while the Hermetic Mystery says, ‘In the place of wisdom there is still the Stone of the Wise.’
So, while the Minor Arcana is the story of Loss (from four different perspectives), it is in the Major Arcana that we find what Waite called “the Path of Attainment.”
Abrac
Thanks for the reply and for sharing your thoughts. I understand you place a great deal of importance on the HCHG because it happened to be written at the same time the W-S Tarot was being created. I can see Graal symbolism in the Ace for sure (as for the rest of the minors I haven't really thought about it), but I see a lot of other symbolism as well so I don't place as much emphasis on the HCHG. My view is Waite wrote a lot of other books before the HCHG and he probably drew on information from them as much as from the HCHG. I think it's also possible he had things stored away in his mind, or in notes, that hadn't made it to publication in 1910 and he drew on some of that as well. As always though, I'm open to changing my mind. 
Teheuti
As a writer I know that things I am working on at the same time do influence each other. This is not to preclude influences from other times and works but I think we can see, when reading a great deal of Waite's works that he had a single purpose through his writing life (except for a few hack books) - and that is the import of the Secret Tradition and how it operated in many different areas: the Grail, Masonry, Alchemy, Occult Mysticism, Tarot, and aspects of magic and the Pagan Mysteries.
In what other book (besides PKT) does Waite talk about specifically about the Minor Arcana of the Tarot? Two works in the same year that definitively deal with the Minor Arcana - no relevance???? I am not suggesting that HCHG is the only work by Waite that is relevant (where did you ever get that idea?).
To discount the evidence I presented as pure happenstance seems a little short-sighted - similar to those who in previous years discounted my theory that the upside-down M represented Mystery. It doesn't matter what evidence I present if it is immediately discounted as irrelevant without even being examined.
Waite says the suit of Cups is the Grail - how is this irrelevant?!
I repeat another supposedly irrelevant passage by Waite referring to the Tarot, the Grail and HCHG: "I have said, now long ago, (1) that there are vague rumours concerning a higher meaning in the minor cards but (2) they have never yet been translated into another language than that of fortune- telling. . . . In any case, the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles have two strange connexions in folk-lore, to one of which I drew attention briefly in The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal."
Abrac
I never said you thought the HCHG was the only of Waite's works that was relevant (where did you get that idea? ). I said you place a lot of importance on it.
If you bothered to read my earlier post you'd know I've thrown the whole thing out the window. I don't believe M, or W for that matter, stand for anything in the final analysis.
I try to keep an open mid. I find it's easier to stumble upon truth in this way. No need to defend entrenched positions or disparage those who disagree with them.
I think we're done here. (Looking for iggy button).
). I said you place a lot of importance on it.If you bothered to read my earlier post you'd know I've thrown the whole thing out the window. I don't believe M, or W for that matter, stand for anything in the final analysis.
I try to keep an open mid. I find it's easier to stumble upon truth in this way. No need to defend entrenched positions or disparage those who disagree with them.
I think we're done here. (Looking for iggy button).
Richard
I still think the M has something to do with the Hebrew letter [size=+1] ה [/size] on the Golden Dawn Ace of Cups. At the very least, the GD usage may have inspired Waite to include the letter in the RWS. I hope my humble opinion does not inspire anyone to be rude enough to "iggy button" me.
Abrac
Sometimes you have to chuck it all and start fresh to get to the bottom of things. It occured to me that the M may not be entirely irrelevant as a symbol, but I approach this new theory with cautious optimism.
First, if the Lesser Arcana are to be seen as representative of the Lesser Hallows, it has to be understood how Waite viewed the Lesser Hallows. From The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal:
By “accidents” Waite refers to something external only and nothing of deeper symbolic significance (see #14 at this Wiktionary Page). The Cup holds all the symbolic signifiance and the other Hallows can be understood by an understanding of it.
So what is the significance of the Cup? In the Ace of Cups it represents the Eucahrist by all outward appearances; but the bread and wine are only veils, the truth lays hidden behind them. Behind the veil means the world within, that of the soul; so that which is behind the veil is that which is within. And what is it within which the bread and wine symbolize?
In 1891, Waite attempted to form the Order of the Spiritual Temple and had a prospectus drawn up which is included in R.A. Gilbert's Magician of Many Parts:
It can be seen from this that as early as 1891 Waite viewed the inner significance of the Eucharist as a Mystic Marriage (communication with Deity), that is, the reuniting of soul with the Divine within (the Christ). On the Ace this is symbolized by the marriage of the wafer (spirit) with the cup (soul). But these are veils of the true marriage within.
Also, from Waite's Fellowship of the rosy Cross "Return in Light" ritual, 1924:
Everything about the imagery is a veil hiding an inner truth, and one has to suppose this is true of the letters as well, the "W" being a veil concealing the M. It may symbolize the Mystic Marriage or just Marriage; but I’m not convinced of this and will have to withhold an opinion for now, but it does seem to fit. If one assumes M stands for Mystery, the "Mystery of Christ" would here seem like a good candidate, probably better than Marriage actually.
So how do the other Hallows fit into this picture? It's as Waite said in the previous quote:
He uses the metaphor of a body, the higher part of which is the Cup. That which lies behind the Lesser Arcana generally is that which, more specifically, lies behind the Cup.
First, if the Lesser Arcana are to be seen as representative of the Lesser Hallows, it has to be understood how Waite viewed the Lesser Hallows. From The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal:
“The Hallows of the Graal legend are the beginning of its wonders and of its meanings only; but, as I have intimated already, the greater includes the lesser, and that which is of all the highest has assumed from the beginning in its symbolism the things by which it is surrounded. As it is in the light of man’s higher part that we are able to interpret the lower, as the body is explained by the soul, so even the Castle of the Graal and the great Temple, with all their allusions and all their sacred things, are resolved into the mystery of the Cup, because there is a cloud of witnesses but one true voice which is the spokesman of all. There is obviously no need in this place—as we are concerned with the greater subjects—to lay stress upon the subsidiary Hallows as if they were an integral portion of the Holy Graal regarded symbolically. They are of the accidents only, and as such they are not vital."
By “accidents” Waite refers to something external only and nothing of deeper symbolic significance (see #14 at this Wiktionary Page). The Cup holds all the symbolic signifiance and the other Hallows can be understood by an understanding of it.
So what is the significance of the Cup? In the Ace of Cups it represents the Eucahrist by all outward appearances; but the bread and wine are only veils, the truth lays hidden behind them. Behind the veil means the world within, that of the soul; so that which is behind the veil is that which is within. And what is it within which the bread and wine symbolize?
In 1891, Waite attempted to form the Order of the Spiritual Temple and had a prospectus drawn up which is included in R.A. Gilbert's Magician of Many Parts:
“There are also four chief processes in Mysticism – Regeneration, Illumination, Dedication, and the Mystic Marriage, or communication with Deity. These will be represented in the four divisions of the service – Regeneration through Aspiration by an opening aspirational rite, Illumination by the instruction of lessons and discourses, Dedication by a sacrificial service, the Mystic Marriage by a Eucharistic rite."
It can be seen from this that as early as 1891 Waite viewed the inner significance of the Eucharist as a Mystic Marriage (communication with Deity), that is, the reuniting of soul with the Divine within (the Christ). On the Ace this is symbolized by the marriage of the wafer (spirit) with the cup (soul). But these are veils of the true marriage within.
Also, from Waite's Fellowship of the rosy Cross "Return in Light" ritual, 1924:
"The sacrament of the Eucharist is the sacrament of that reception, the significance of which is that the Spirit dwells within. And this is the Christ Spirit. The secret tradition hereof is a great memorial concerning a great experience. The macrocosm is the body of Christ, the microcosmic soul of man is in the image and likeness hereof; there is union between Christ in the macrocosm and Christ in the soul of Man."
Everything about the imagery is a veil hiding an inner truth, and one has to suppose this is true of the letters as well, the "W" being a veil concealing the M. It may symbolize the Mystic Marriage or just Marriage; but I’m not convinced of this and will have to withhold an opinion for now, but it does seem to fit. If one assumes M stands for Mystery, the "Mystery of Christ" would here seem like a good candidate, probably better than Marriage actually.
So how do the other Hallows fit into this picture? It's as Waite said in the previous quote:
"As it is in the light of man’s higher part that we are able to interpret the lower, as the body is explained by the soul, so even the Castle of the Graal and the great Temple, with all their allusions and all their sacred things, are resolved into the mystery of the Cup. . ."
He uses the metaphor of a body, the higher part of which is the Cup. That which lies behind the Lesser Arcana generally is that which, more specifically, lies behind the Cup.
Teheuti
The Hebrew letter 'Heh' on the GD Ace of Cups is simply to indicate that that Cups corresponds to the second letter of the Tetragrammaton (and, likewise, the suit of Water - W). Such simple explanations stand, of course, for a a whole range of further implications.
