by nagasiva yronwode
Arthur Edward Waite's "Pictorial Key to the Tarot" (1910) is the companion volume to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the most widely reproduced Tarot deck in the English-speaking world. Waite wrote it partly to conceal and partly to reveal: the book is organized around a central concealment — the "Secret Doctrine Behind the Veil" — which only adepts were meant to perceive in the symbolic imagery he and artist Pamela Colman Smith devised. For decades, most practitioners consulted the book piecemeal, flipping to its divinatory meanings tables without engaging the work's deeper architecture.
nagasiva yronwode (writing as "nagasiva," one of many handles) was one of alt.pagan.magick and alt.magick's most prolific and rigorous contributors through the 1990s and 2000s — a practitioner and archivist of remarkable breadth. In January 2004, having completed a close reading of the PKT, he posted this reference document to the group: an enhanced table of contents with section descriptions, a hand-compiled index of non-divinatory concepts and card cross-references, an analysis of the book's hidden tripartite structure, and a list of factual errors. It is a scholar's guide to a scholar's guide.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot was first published by William Rider and Son in London in 1910. The original text is in the public domain. nagasiva's annotations, index, and structural analysis — the substance of this post — are his own original work.
The Book's Hidden Architecture
The designer of a deck is usually the first one should consult as regards its intended meaning. Having completed a fairly detailed review of this book, nagasiva offers below an enhanced Table of Contents and preliminary Index for the purpose of those seeking to use the book as some kind of reference, rather than reading it straight through.
For years that's precisely how he consulted it: just referring to its expression on cards, flipping through to see what was said about the Majors or Minors as they entered into a reading. Now more interested in the details beyond the deck, he notes that Waite has here, perhaps supplementing his text in "Tarot of the Bohemians" by Papus, or in his "Manual of Cartomancy" under the name of 'Grand Orient' (to which he refers many times, never revealing that it was actually he that wrote it), put into words what he thought essential about Tarot.
The Secret Doctrine
By virtue of Waite's Preface and the content of this book in its portions, it is easily possible to derive greater meaning from its particulars, implying the means by which the Secret Doctrine might be obtained, and how the Tarot itself constitutes a Key to an encounter with this Doctrine Behind the Veil.
Parts I, II, and III are the three parts of the PKT, beginning with the historic cards from games to today, moving on to the Secret Doctrine behind the Veil expressed within his deck with Pamela Colman Smith, and proceeding to the divinatory meanings Waite supposedly found so distasteful.
Within Part II, therefore, we may find the explanation as to what the Secret Doctrine consists and how it relates to the rest of the cosmos. Waite describes therein qualities which may be attributed to the Secret Doctrine, in that it:
- is universal
- has always existed
- was perpetually secret
- was recorded in secret literatures (particularly: Alchemy, esp. its emblematic pictures; Kabalism; Rosicrucian Mysteries; and Craft Masonry)
He states further:
Behind the Secret Doctrine it is held that there is an experience or practice by which the Doctrine is justified.
And:
...it is the presentation of universal ideas [of which Tarot is a particular emblematic presentation] by means of universal types [of presentation, exemplified by Alchemy, Kabalism, Astrology, or Ceremonial Magic] and it is in the combination of these types — if anywhere — that it presents Secret Doctrine.
— "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot," A.E. Waite, U.S. Games, Inc., 1971; pages 60, 62.
Expanded Table of Contents
Preface
An explanation of the personal kind; An illustration from mystic literature; A subject which calls to be rescued; Limits and intention of the work.
Part I — The Veil and Its Symbols
The antiquities of the subject and a few things that arise from and connect therewith.
Chapter 1 — Introductory and General.
Chapter 2 — Class I. The Trumps Major, otherwise Greater Arcana.
Chapter 3 — Class II. The Four Suits, otherwise Lesser Arcana.
Chapter 4 — The Tarot in History.
Section A. The Cards in Their History:
Introduction; Baldini (Pseudo-Mantegna); Gringonneur; Minchiate; Bolognese; Sources; Conclusion.
Section B. The Speculative Aspects:
Court de Gebelin; Alliette; Eliphas Levi; Conclusion.
Part II — The Doctrine Behind the Veil
The symbolism according to its higher aspects and introduction to the complete and rectified Tarot.
Chapter 1 — The Tarot and Secret Tradition.
Chapter 2 — The Trumps Major and their Inner Symbolism.
Chapter 3 — Conclusions as to the Greater Keys.
Part III — The Outer Method of the Oracles
A harmony of the meanings which have been attached to the various cards, and one method of working that has not been published previously.
Chapter 1 — Distinction between the Greater and Lesser Arcana.
Chapter 2 — The Lesser Arcana, otherwise, the Four Suits of Tarot Cards. (Suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.)
Chapter 3 — The Greater Arcana and their Divinatory Meanings.
Chapter 4 — Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana.
Chapter 5 — The Recurrence of Cards in Dealing.
Chapter 6 — The Art of Tarot Divination.
Chapter 7 — An Ancient Celtic Method of Divination.
Chapter 8 — An Alternative Method of Reading the Tarot Cards.
Chapter 9 — The Method of Reading by Means of Thirty-five Cards.
Bibliography
Index of Non-Divinatory Concepts
Being a list of references not contained in the relevant section above and constituting additional reference. Page numbers refer to the U.S. Games 1971 edition.
Ace of Cups (card) 9. Albigensians 8–11. Alphabets 29. Aroux (Eugene) 8. Astraea 21. Baldini (deck) 35, 37. Bayley (Harold) 8. Boiteau (B.R.P. d'Ambly) 52. Book of Lambspring 61. Book of Thoth (Tarot; an emblematic device) 60. Bourgeat (M.) 28. Burns (Robert) 68. Card Symbolism (general) vi, vii, 4, 5. Cartomancy vii. Charlatanism 7, 53. Chatto (W.A.) 51, 67. Chemical Marriage vi. Christian (Paul) 31. Cooper-Oakley 8. Crown 23. Cupid 15, 22. De Gebelin (A.C.) 9, 16, 22, 26, 27, 29, 43ff. Divination vii, ix, 17, 42, 44, 64, 294. Divine Law 13. Divine Unity 12. Divine World 63. Duchesne 51. Elixir 61. Emperor (trump) 13, 45. Etteilla (Alliette) 9, 27, 28, 30, 48, 49. Fortune-Telling v, 5, 12, 17, 20, 23, 44, 50, 65, 66, 167, 294. Gipsies 52, 54–5. Gnosis 13. Gnosticism (Christian) 10. Graal (Holy) 10. Greater Symbols (trumps) 6, 9, 17. Hermanubis 21. Hierophant (Pope, trump) 8, 31. High Priestess (trump) 8, 14, 44, 45–6. House of God vi, 26. House of Gold 18. Isis 27. Justice (trump) 16, 18. King 15, 24, 31. King of Heaven vi. Lamp 22. Laws of Grace vi. Lenormand (Mlle.) 48. Levi (Eliphas) 12, 17, 23, 25, 28, 30, 31. Light of Occult Science 17. Mangetus 60. Manichaeanism 11. Mantegna (Andrea) 35–7. Manual of Cartomancy (by AEW) 20, 64, 155. Marseille (deck) 9. Masonry 21. Mathers (S.L.M.) 62–3. Merlin (Romain) 37, 54. Microcosm/Macrocosm 63–4. Minor Arcana (general) 69. Moon (trump) 45. Mutus Liber 60. Mysteries (The) 4, 5, 13, 21, 61. Mystic Quest 67. Mystic Schools v. New Light on the Renaissance (by Bayley) 8, 10. Occult Arts vi, 3. Occultism Schools viii, 34, 44. Orsini (Julia, "The Queen of Cups") 48. Osiris 16. Papus 25, 28, 31, 49, 63, 71. Peter 31. Playing Cards viii. Pope (Hierophant, trump) 8, 31. Rescuing Tarot vii. Rosetti (Gabriele) 8. Rule of Silence viii. Sceptre 25. Secret Orders vi, 6. Secret Place of Transmutation vi. Secret Science of Symbolism 12. Secret Tradition 5, 6, 13, 68. Sequence (trumps) 65. Shekinah 13. Singer (Samuel Weller) 51. Sirius (Dog Star) 27. Smith (Pamela Colman) 67. Solomon's Temple 26. Sons of the Doctrine 5. Sphinx 21. Star (trump) 45. Tarot (word) 46. Tarot History viii, 7, 11. Tarot of the Bohemians (by Papus) 6, 24, 34, 43, 63, 166, 298. Tarot Origins 7. Tower (trump) 8, 18, 27. Trappola (deck) 51. Typhon 21. Vaillant (J.A.) 54. Wand 17, 21, 30. Wisdom of God vii.
Major Errors in the Text
(Page numbers refer to the U.S. Games 1971 edition.)
Page 32 — The historical suit correlates are incorrect; they should be: Wands → Clubs; Cups → Hearts; Swords → Spades; Pentacles → Diamonds.
Page 36 — "conditions of life" should read "System of the Heavens."
Colophon
Posted to alt.divination and alt.pagan.magick by nagasiva yronwode on January 4, 2004. nagasiva was one of the most prolific and rigorous contributors to the alt.magick constellation of newsgroups throughout the 1990s and 2000s, posting under numerous handles (333, lorax666, xiwangmu, blackman99, tyaginator, and others) from his base at luckymojo.com and yronwode.com. This post represents a scholar's guide to a scholar's book: a hand-compiled index and structural analysis of Waite's foundational Tarot text, produced after a close reading and offered freely to the group. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) is public domain; this index and analysis are nagasiva's original work.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
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