Crowley V. Waite
One way may to compare him with his peers. His and Waites deck are among the 'top ten' of popular tarot decks. How does Crowley compare with Waite?
Both were members of the Golden Dawn, both translated Levi, both worked with a female member of their order to create a tarot deck, both thought that the 'secret' of kabbalah was the sacrament of sex. Both hated, or at least, denigrated each other. Waite admired Levi but criticised from a scholarly standpoint everything he had to say; Crowley admired him so much he claimed him as one of his previous incarnations.
What about the tarot? How did Waite feel about Pamela and she about him? She wrote she had been given a poorly paid commision, he that he withdrew so as not to inlfuence her intuition, and that he was only involved in five cards whose symbolism he thought important; her work involves little but that of a commercial artist tracing previous examples. Waite in his LWB gives nothing but a list of DMs he has accumulated from a variety of sources, suggesting one may be better than another according to secret doctrines he cannot reveal; but indicating in light of his further works a total confusion based upon scholarship but lacking in revelation, inspiration and the conviction that comes with such. Where did his and Pamela's [the simple, uninspired person uncapable of understanding symbolism, according to Waite] go? Nowhere, it was a commercial enterprise that inspired no originality. Where was she, what contact did they have after he had used her? None.
Compare with Crowley and Harris, letters for seven years, before and after the tarot project, examining the detail of every card, rejecting several. She was there at his death, down to her we know Symonds lied or fictionalised when he said Crowley's last word were 'I am perplexed', as she was there and knew it a lie. And after his death helped for his son to go to America and supported him. Maybe she was wrong in her admiration and support of Crowley, but at least he inspired a contiuning admiration.
The tracings of Pamela dictacted by confused, dry and purposely unrevealing scholarship of Waite, or the originality of Harris by the revelation of Crowley, which do you prefer? Compare Waite's LWB the PKT, a compilation of DM's to which he gives no clue to his own opinion except to say they are fortune tellers meanings he holds in contempt with no relevance to a secret doctrine of which he is obliged to say nothing, and Crowleys BoT in which is reproduced extracts of his magical diaries recording personal dreams and visions.
Kwaw