Waite's Autobiography - Anyone read it?

I was wondering if anyone has read Waite’s autobiography, Shadows of Life and Thought: A Retrospective Review in the Form of Memoirs. It was originally published in London by Selwyn and Blount in 1938, and was recently republished by Kessenger in 1997, ISBN 1564592421.

One section of the book is called “Great Symbols of the Tarot” which I though could shed additional light on the deck he helped create.

Sentient said:

I was wondering if anyone has read Waite’s autobiography, Shadows of Life and Thought: A Retrospective Review in the Form of Memoirs. It was originally published in London by Selwyn and Blount in 1938, and was recently republished by Kessenger in 1997, ISBN 1564592421.

One section of the book is called “Great Symbols of the Tarot” which I though could shed additional light on the deck he helped create.

Click to expand...

When I saw this post, I got so excited, as I really believe I'm missing something puffickly-HA-YOOOG (as Stephen King would put it) in my Universal Waite. Then I though, hang on, exactly how much of the preface and the introduction . . . and the rest . . . of the PKT did you understand, Kat? (Yes, I often hold conversations with myself). The answer is, so far, maybe a word, or two, in isolation. And I can understand Shakespeare without batting an eyelid.

So how is the . . . uh, prose . . . in the autobio?

Curious, \m/ Kat

"Then I though, hang on, exactly how much of the preface and the introduction . . . and the rest . . . of the PKT did you understand, Kat? (Yes, I often hold conversations with myself). The answer is, so far, maybe a word, or two, in isolation. And I can understand Shakespeare without batting an eyelid." (originally posted by thorhammer )

Heh, and i thought at first i don't get it because of my poor English...
I actually took the English-Serbian dictionary and checked all the words i didn't know, but it didn't better my understending;
than i thought " hang on, Lena... (yes, i also hold conversatons with myself lol) you are simply too stupid for this!
I feel relieved after reading your post, Kat
Jokes aside, i did think it was too deep for me to comprehend in a foreign language... but than i rememebered "i can understand Shakespeare" and at the end of things i red couple of posts here at AT (other than thorhammer's) which made me... feel better about my English

Moderdayruth, I really think that it's a combination of the time he was writing in, his extreme esoteric training, and a severe case of pretentiousness! I still haven't got anything out of the PKT. I expected it to flesh the LWB out much more than it does - the pages are more than half empty! I bid like crazy on ebay to get it and now regret it horribly. But I'll persevere.

*grunts irritably*

\m/ Kat

No question - the PKT is a difficult read.

What sometimes helps is to go through it slowly, line by line. Teheuti started a wonderful thread back on 1oct05 entitled "Reading Waite - The Doctrine Behind the Veil."

www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=48440

Good food for thought there plus some reassurance that one can make sense of old Arthur.

Sentient, thank you for the link to"Reading Waite - The Doctrine Behind the Veil."
I found some amazing insights in PKT, like the connection between The Lovers and Shabbat (the day of rest in Jewish tradition) and corelation of The Star and Sfira of Binah, IMO it was well worth reading it just for those two, if nothing else
I must confess i gave up after reading the intro and the majors, but i bookmarked the link in case i change my mind
Love,
Lena