Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters and is most famous as being the co-creator of the well-known Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith or Waite–Smith deck). As his biographer R. A. Gilbert described him, “Waite’s name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of protoscience or as the pathology of religion.”

He spent most of his life in or near London, connected to various publishing houses and editing a magazine, The Unknown World.

History

Waite joined the Outer Order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E.W. Berridge. In 1893 he withdrew from the Golden Dawn, the rejoined in 1896. In 1899 he entered the Second order of the Golden Dawn. He became a Freemason in 1901, and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902.

Waite was interested in the higher grades of Freemasonry and saw initiation into Craft Masonry as a way to gain access to these rites. After joining the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Knights Templar, Waite traveled to Switzerland in 1903 to receive the Regime Ecossais et Rectifie or the Rectified Scottish Rite and its grade of Chevalier Bienfaisant de la Cite Sainte (C.B.C.S.). Waite believed that the Rectified Scottish Rite, more than any other Masonic Rite, represented the “Secret Tradition” of mystical spiritual illumination.

In 1903 Waite founded the Independent and Rectified Order R. R. et A. C. which disbanded in 1914. Waite also left the Golden Dawn again in 1914 over internal feuding. He then formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross in 1915

Writer and scholar

Waite was an author and many of his works were well received in the esoteric circles of his time, but his lack of academic training is visible in his limitations as a historian and in his belittling of other authors.

Waite wrote texts on subjects including divination, esotericism, freemasonry, and ceremonial magic, Kabbalah, and alchemy; he also translated and reissued several mystical works. Many of his books remain in print, including The Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911), The Holy Kabbalah (1929), A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1921), and his edited translation of Eliphas Levi’s 1896 Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual (1910), among others.

Tarot Deck

Waite is best known for his involvement with the Rider–Waite tarot deck, first published in 1910, with illustrations by fellow Golden Dawn member Pamela Colman Smith. Waite authored the deck’s companion volume, the Key to the Tarot, republished in expanded form in 1911 as the Pictorial Key to the Tarot, a guide to tarot reading. The Rider–Waite tarot was notable for illustrating all 78 cards fully, at a time when only the 22 Major Arcana cards were typically illustrated, with the Sola Busca tarot, 1491, being a notable historical exception. Prior to the publication of this deck, many esoteric tarot readers used the Tarot de Marseille playing card deck. The Rider-Waite deck has gone on to have a large influence on contemporary occult tarot, and is often the first deck purchased by new readers.

Works

• Waite, A. E. (1886a). Israfel: Letters, Visions and Poems. London: Allen.
• Waite, A. E. (1886b). The Mysteries of Magic: A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi. London: George Redway.
• Waite, A. E. (1887). The Real History of the Rosicrucians. London.
• Waite, A. E. (1888a). Alchemists Through the Ages.
• Waite, A. E. (1888b). Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers. London: George Redway.
• Waite, A. E. (1888c). Songs and Poems of Fairyland: An Anthology of English Fairy Poetry. London.
• Waite, A. E. (1891). The Occult Sciences: A Compendium of Transcendental Doctrine and Experiment. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.
• Waite, A. E. (1893). The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly. London.
• Waite, A. E. (1896). Devil-Worship in France. London: George Redway.
• Waite, A. E. (1898). The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts.
• Waite, A. E. (1909). The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail.
• Waite, A. E. (1910). Steps to the Crown.
• Waite, A. E. (1911a). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: William Ryder & Son, Ltd.
• Waite, A. E. (1911b). The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry. London: Rebman. Two volumes.
• Waite, A. E. (1912). The Book of Destiny and The Art of Reading Therein. London: William Rider & Son Ltd.
• Waite, A. E. (1913). The Book of Ceremonial Magic. London.
• Waite, A. E. (1913). The Secret Doctrine in Israel A Study of the Zohar and Its Connections. London: William Rider & Son Limited.
• Waite, A. E. (1914). The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite, in two volumes. London: William Rider & Son Ltd.
• Waite, A. E. (1916). The Unknown Philosopher The Life of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and the Substance of His Transcendental Doctrine. London.
• Waite, A. E. (1921). A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.
• Waite, A. E. (1922). Saint-Martin: The French Mystic and the Story of Modern Martinism.
• Waite, A. E. (1924). The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross: Being Records of the House of the Holy Spirit in its Inward and Outward History. London: William Rider & Son Ltd.
• Waite, A. E. (1925). Emblematic Freemasonry and the Evolution of its Deeper Issues. London: William Rider & Son Limited.
• Waite, A. E. (1926). The Secret Tradition in Alchemy: Its Development and Records. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Waite, A. E. (1929). The Holy Kabbalah.
• Waite, A. E. (1933). The Holy Grail, Its Legends and Symbolism. Rider & Co, Ltd.
• Waite, A. E. (1938). Shadows of Life and Thought: A Retrospective Review in the Form of Memoirs. London: Selwyn and Blount.

Translations

• Jennis, Lucas (1893) [1625]. Musaeum Hermeticum [The Hermetic Museum]. Translated by A. E. Waite. London. Two volumes.
• Anonymous (1894) [c. 900]. Turba Philosophorum [Assembly of the Philosophers]. Translated by A. E. Waite.
• Petrus Bonus (1894) [c. 1330-1339]. Margarita Preciosa Novella [New Pearl of Great Price]. Translated by A. E. Waite. James Elliott and Co.
• Papus (1958). The Tarot of the Bohemians. Translated by A. E. Waite.