Grail Mystery Rediscovered in Tarot

Teheuti

HOLMES said:
I thought that waite had very little to do with the actual illustration of the minor arcana as his main focus was on the major arcana.
Certainly his main focus was on the Major Arcana - no doubt about it. But I believe he gave Pixie some materials - his writings on the Minor Arcana as Grand Orient plus a few other notes, including the GD keywords and, perhaps, the decanate correspondences. And, I think he either told her or showed her drafts of some of the Grail stories. Then he let her go to do with this range of material as she would. I think that with a few exceptions, the illustration details are her own. We can see how she drew from the GD/Westcott Court Cards to make her own.

http://www.magusbooks.com/product/Golden-Dawn-Court-Cards/Holmes-Publishing-Group
http://www.llewellynjournal.com/article/387
 

Rosanne

Teheuti said:
There's much more to Waite's mystical philosophy than just that. In essence he was looking for the thread that ran through all the Mystery Traditions, looking for the most complete and transcendent attainment story.
So the Grail Legends and the Treasures of the Grail Hallows-
(Sword/Lance/Cup/Dish) is the most complete story in his view? ~Rosanne
 

Teheuti

Rosanne said:
So the Grail Legends and the Treasures of the Grail Hallows-
(Sword/Lance/Cup/Dish) is the most complete story in his view?
Nope - the Grail leaves humanity with a sense of loss (as do the Minors). He doesn't find any of the Mystery Schools complete - though in Chapter 9 he says:

"It is only the higher side of alchemy which, without faltering, has continued to point the path of attainment, speaking of no change, no substitution therein--telling us of the one matter, the one vessel, the one way of perfection, yet also saying that except the Divine Guidance lead us in the path of illumination, no man shall acquire the most hidden of all secrets without a Master."

Waite talks about alchemy, especially the Mutus Liber and The Book of Lambspring in PKT--mostly hints as to its significance in regards to the Majors through the death/rebirth theme and the sacred marriage/union.
 

Rosanne

firemaiden said:
Is there any support for the graal connection going back further than the RWS?
I was reading once more the Kaplan Vol 1 and 11 about the various Visconti decks and the Visconti Sforza history. In it it gives the drawings of a hand illustrated manuscript dated 1446. The style and aesthetics are similar in many ways to the art in the Visconti cards. The manuscript is popularly called 'The story of Lancelot of the Lake' Codex Palatino 556. It is thought the artist maybe Bonifacio Bembo. It is noted that there are many similarities between the codex and and the illustrations of the cards. Lancelot and Tristan, Gwain and Perserval are all seemingly portrayed in the deck- Lancelot as the Page of Cups in the Cary-Yale. The Hermit and the Fool seem also to be there. Whether there is direct portrayal of the story or just the style of the characters does not seem to be known. According to Kaplan, the codex features Court life, nobility, tournaments, hunting scenes, battle scenes, alcoves and gardens all Italian but depicting King Arthur's Court.
To answer your question...possibly.
~Rosanne
 

Teheuti

Rosanne said:
The manuscript is popularly called 'The story of Lancelot of the Lake' Codex Palatino 556.
Rosanne - Thanks for bringing this to our attention. How wonderful. Of course, the main difference for Waite is that he associated the Grail stories with the Minors, based on the suit markers. Your find is an important branch of the tree.
 

firemaiden

Rosanne said:
I was reading once more the Kaplan Vol 1 and 11 about the various Visconti decks and the Visconti Sforza history. In it it gives the drawings of a hand illustrated manuscript dated 1446. The style and aesthetics are similar in many ways to the art in the Visconti cards. The manuscript is popularly called 'The story of Lancelot of the Lake' Codex Palatino 556. It is thought the artist maybe Bonifacio Bembo. It is noted that there are many similarities between the codex and and the illustrations of the cards. Lancelot and Tristan, Gwain and Perserval are all seemingly portrayed in the deck- Lancelot as the Page of Cups in the Cary-Yale. The Hermit and the Fool seem also to be there. Whether there is direct portrayal of the story or just the style of the characters does not seem to be known. According to Kaplan, the codex features Court life, nobility, tournaments, hunting scenes, battle scenes, alcoves and gardens all Italian but depicting King Arthur's Court.
To answer your question...possibly.
~Rosanne


Very interesting Rosanne. I know I have a book somewhere by Jean-Michel Mathonière on the subject : Graal et Tarot - I'll have another look for it.
 

The crowned one

As I posted earlier there are many examples of the grail story in early tarot decks, particularly French if I recall correctly.( the Paris pattern ?)

Look up the nine worthies as a starting place ;) This is more for the courts then the minors, like Mary is talking about, of course.
 

Teheuti

The crowned one said:
As I posted earlier there are many examples of the grail story in early tarot decks, particularly French if I recall correctly.
I only found one reference when researching the Court Card book among the 15th century French attributions to the Court Cards (of ordinary playing cards):

Knave of Wands = Lancelot (later Arthur or Judas Maccabee)

There's more references to Troy than to the Arthurian/Grail tradition.

Boiardo's Tarot-like deck (Italian, 1460) Court Card attributions focus on the Roman Gods and Troy.
 

Teheuti

Here's my summary of the the next couple of paragraphs of Waite's Chapter 9 (see first section here - http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1645719&postcount=4 ):

"There is another school,(1) besides historical scholarship and foolish speculation, that’s worth attention, if I could only tell you (but I can’t).

a) I can’t fully develop the correspondence between Tarot symbols and the Graal Hallows here.

b) The Tarot Talismans are part of that third school’s(1) system of symbolism that exists secretly in Europe. I can’t speak of it, nor would it be useful without training in their school of thought. Some find it important but don’t really understand the term(2) since it is hidden in the occult orders. But you can get the jist of it by consulting The Tarot of the Bohemians by a French Martinist.(3) This and other occult schools are wrong. Excepting scholarly history, this is the best we have. While [Papus’s] book lacks the sacred significance, you can easily master some entertaining fortune-telling material.

Tarot consists of 78 cards of which 56 are ordinary playing-cards, plus 4 knights, and 22 symbolic pictorial keys depicting conventional allegories. Based on the pictures, these keys have been allocated to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet by divergent schools, each with their own analogies to Kabalism. Especially remarkable are the Sephirotic attributions.(4) Certain secret schools have developed the scheme of symbolic interpretation to a high point, not otherwise known.(5)

My next point is that the four palmary(6) symbols of the Tarot are:
1. The Cup, corresponding to Hearts
2. The Wand, corresponding to Diamonds
3. The Sword, corresponding to Spades
4. The Pentacle, corresponding to Clubs
The Wand is sometimes a scepter, but in the Grail symbolism, a spear or lance, the Diamond being obviously the head of a weapon. The Pentacle, mis-described because of its five angles or flanges, depicts a dish shaped like a four-leafed shamrock or a circle. On making these reasonable modifications, the Tarot suits are actually the Graal Hallows."

Notes to the summary above:
(1) This “third school” is broadly known as the “Secret Tradition” (see Christine Payne-Towler's Underground Stream for an overview of what magical orders and ancient mystery traditions are covered by this.

(2) term = end or endpoint, goal; also, duration; boundary or limit of time.

(3) The author was Papus, founder and head of a Martinist organization in Paris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papus

(4) In mentioning the sephiroth and not the paths, Waite is singling out the number cards that are associated with them.

(5) While Waite disparages the Continental systems, he maintains his vow not to reveal the GD Tarot correspondences, including correspondences to the Minor Arcana (the decanates, etc.).

(6) palmary = having or deserving to have the palm of victory or success; praiseworthy.
 

Teheuti

What happens in the remainder of Chapter 9 (following the first part that I've summarized above) is really strange and enlightening. The remainder of the chapter disappears in Waite's 1933 revision, The Holy Grail. Instead, the remainder of Chapter 9 becomes the core of a whole new 60 page section of the revised work called, Book XI: "Further Critical Apparatus: The Ritual Hypothesis."

This section includes the chapters:
Ch. 1: "The Grail and Eleusis"
Ch. 2: "The Grail and the Mysteries of Adonis"
Ch. 3: "The Grail as a Mystery of Initiation"
Ch. 4: "Israel and Its Holy Assembly"
Ch. 5: "Of Spiritual Alchemy"
Ch. 6: "Analogies of Quest in Masonry"
Ch. 7: "The Secret Church of Eckartshausen"
Ch. 8: "Summary"

It is in the Summary chapter that we find the majority of the excised text from Chapter 9, although bits of it are found, and are repeated, in the other chapters.

It seems clear that these new 60 pages explain more deeply what was on Waite's mind when he was writing about the Tarot and the Grail.