I am of the opposite opinion. So, it's my opinion versus your opinion. Surely we need something more than simply personal opinions to go on? Where is Pixie's occult knowledge demonstrated? Soon after creating the deck she became a Roman Catholic and cut off ties with her occult friends (according to at least one of her friends). The claim at the time was that she found rituals fun. Her Jamaican stories have nothing occult about them, although she seemed to weave a spell in the telling. There are articles and letters written about her at the time that strongly suggest she had psychic abilities, but nothing to suggest any deep knowledge of the occult.
Most of the Golden Dawn members took their vows very seriously. When Crowley began publishing GD papers, MacGregor Mathers initiated a law suit.
Waite's other books (over a hundred books and articles) are filled with allusions to the symbols that appear in the Major Arcana, where they form part of the core of his mystical philosophy. Nothing else that Smith created refers in any way to Tarot or to the Major Arcana symbols.
Waite's other books (over a hundred books and articles) are filled with allusions to the symbols that appear in the Major Arcana, where they form part of the core of his mystical philosophy. Nothing else that Smith created refers in any way to Tarot or to the Major Arcana symbols.
Hi, Mary!
My comment pertains only to minor arcana and whether PCS developed that imagery with or without Waite's involvement, considering what is known about PCS, what other resources PCS had access to, and Waite's alleged/reported lack of interest in the pips.
While members of the Golden Dawn did not freely discuss things with outsiders, it seems that they were quite open amongst themselves and didn't always agree regarding who should have access to which level of secret knowledge. There seems to have been a fair number of creative differences among them, asking people to leave/resign, and going out on their own to start a "new" movement. That's the sort of thing I refer to when I mention telling tales out of school.
My opinion is just my opinion. When working with an illustrator, if the illustrator is indeed wholly unfamiliar with the subject matter, an author should be prepared to "spoon feed" said illustrator rather than complain about it (as connoted by the choice of the term "spoon feed").
If there's a "story" in the suits, and the author was truly uninterested in that aspect of the endeavor, then I'd posit that it's more likely because an illustrator who was an accomplished storyteller--on stage, in print and via set & costume design as well as graphic illustration--put it there.
While RWS is the first tarot deck to illustrate the pip cards in the manner PCS used, one can see within a few hours' independent research at the British Museum website that there exist not just one or two isolated instances, but centuries' worth of examples of earlier decks of cards of all sorts in which pip and court cards are illustrated to varying degrees--some a little, others quite heavily.
The British Museum is very generous in sharing online examples from its collection of printed ephemera; I'm excited for when other museums follow suit. From accessing that resource alone, one can see that neither Waite nor PCS was not the first person to have the idea to illustrate pip cards. Nor did PCS live in a vacuum.
Consider the various "fortune telling" decks from the 18th and 19th centuries, which seem to have been more social diversion rather than serious divination; the history decks; the cambio, whist, and other playing card decks. Also consider what have come to be known as the Lenormand decks. Among tarot decks, the Vacchetta tarot, which predates RWS by some 15-20 years comes to mind, particularly the court cards and the suit of wands.
However it came about--an idea inspired by other types of cards, a flight of fancy, storylines based on Masonic ritual and Grail lore as retold to PCS by Waite, inspired by psychic intuition, her own knowledge/interest--in order to produce that amount of work in so short a period of time, use of theme would have considerably aided PCS's creative process...especially if, as has been argued, Waite left the minors up to her.
And it definitely gives us something to ponder and debate!