The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

Common card · No. 369842

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot is a divinatory tarot guide, with text by A. E. Waite and illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. Published in conjunction with the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck, the pictorial version (released 1910, dated 1911) followed the success of the deck and Waite's (unillustrated 1909) text The Key to the Tarot. Both Waite and Smith were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Waite was very concerned with the accuracy of the symbols used for the deck, and he did much research into the traditions, interpretations, and history behind the cards. The book (which Waite himself called "a monograph") consists of three parts. Part I, "The Veil and Its Symbols", is a short overview of the traditional symbols associated with each card, followed by a history of the Tarot. Waite dismissed as baseless the belief that the Tarot was Egyptian in origin, and noted that no evidence of the cards exists prior to the 15th century. Part II, "The Doctrine of the Veil", contains...

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