Question re something Kaplan wrote in his Encyclopedia about Waite

Abrac

In Kaplan’s Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. 3, p. 29, he quotes Waite’s Shadows of Life and Thought where Waite describes how he came to recruit PCS to do the art for the Waite-Smith tarot. Right after that, Kaplan writes, “Waite instructed Pamela to create images that ‘follow very carefully the astrological significance of each suit as it is influenced by different astrological signs.’ ” He gives no reference for this quote, but as it follows directly after his long quote from Shadows, it looks like that may be the source. My question is, has anyone read Waite’s bio and know if this is actually the case? If this truly is something Waite wrote, it seems like an important bit of information about how closely Waite was following the GD decan system.
 

Zephyros

In my opinion the deck itself shows adherence to the decans in the progression of the suits, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he instructed Smith in them. The Two of Swords is among the most blatantly decanic images and one can infer from it that it is Moon in Libra, even if the attribution isn't specified. The "fuzziness" of the images suggests rather that he instructed her as to the general "energies" of the cards, an interpretation of the decan, rather than adherence to something like the Picatrix.
 

Abrac

Well I broke down a bought a copy of Waite's autobiography and that quote's not in the chapter "The Great Symbols of the Tarot," the same chapter from which Kaplan gets his longer quote. It could still be in the book, but there are no other references to PCS in the Index except for that chapter, and I'm starting to suspects it's probably not to be found.

The authors of Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot say: "It is most likely Waite presented Pamela a list of keywords and concepts taken from Book T." p. 83. The following three pages show tables that Pamela might have theoretically worked from, having headings—Card, Lord of, Decan (Planet), and In (Astrological sign)—from Book T. There's no authority given so it remains in the realm of speculation.

So still no smoking gun. Since neither of the above sources give any specific references one has to assume, for now at least, they don't exist.

As an aside, Waite's autobiography looks very interesting indeed. :)