Teheuti
I write on my blog about Waite's tarot chapter from The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail and how in his revised The Holy Grail most of it ended up in a chapter 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. I think Waite envisioned the Minor Arcana as a quaternity of these ritual pageants. This is further substantiated by the Minor Arcana scenes that appear to be set on a stage or platform. Here is Waite’s description from HCHG of such a pageant taken from an early Grail romance. It obviously showcases the Court Cards:
“When the questing knight pays his first visit. . . . The procession enters the hall in single file, and consists in succession of a page, or squire, who carries the mysterious Sword which will break in one danger only, of another squire who bears the Sacred Lance from which the blood issues, and then of two squires together, each supporting a ten-branched candlestick. Between these there walks the gentle and beautiful maiden who lifts up the Holy Graal in her two hands; she is followed by another maiden, who carries the Silver Dish. The procession passes twice before the couch on which the King of the Castle reclines.” HCHG, p. 139.
http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/the-grail-and-the-minor-arcana-the-evidence/
“When the questing knight pays his first visit. . . . The procession enters the hall in single file, and consists in succession of a page, or squire, who carries the mysterious Sword which will break in one danger only, of another squire who bears the Sacred Lance from which the blood issues, and then of two squires together, each supporting a ten-branched candlestick. Between these there walks the gentle and beautiful maiden who lifts up the Holy Graal in her two hands; she is followed by another maiden, who carries the Silver Dish. The procession passes twice before the couch on which the King of the Castle reclines.” HCHG, p. 139.
http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/the-grail-and-the-minor-arcana-the-evidence/