Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Katz & Goodwin?

Babalon Jones

I actually am quite excited about this book as it sounds like it has the potential to be very interesting. i just wish the "look inside this book" feature was activated. On the Facebook page I could not see much as far as previews, but maybe it is because I am not on FB. I am hoping that it has more esoteric and Masonic info, and not so much of a guide on reading the cards. Plus of course the unknown history bits of Waite and Smith should be fun to read. Maybe uic uic can chime in as to content.
 

Laura Borealis

Hopefully this will be better then their Abiding the Sanctuary book. You could drive a truck between the line spacing they used to make the book the 100 pages it was. All the text would have fitted on about 10 pages in a regular 10-11pt font

I found it interesting that after all the hoopla before the book was published, hardly anyone talked about it after.

I have one of their books that was a free e-book download. I thought it was terrible - I couldn't read past the first few pages.
 

lark

Did anyone read it? What did you think?
 

TaliTarot

Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot

Hello All

Thank you so much for your interest in the book. We have spent several years researching it and invested several thousand pounds in acquiring licenses to publish new photographs of Pamela, her life, work and the sources of many of her tarot images.

The research took place in archives, private collections and museums worldwide, with site visits and new discoveries on the design and intent of the whole deck. Without giving too much away, I think we demonstrate clearly and without question, to put the whole matter to rest, that Pamela designed the Minors by herself at the very least.

We also draw on unpublished writings by Waite on Tarot that we discovered when working on "Abiding in the Sanctuary".

As we have mentioned on Facebook, during the course of this recent research, 40 new illustrations and poetry by Pamela were discovered, and the archive involved have been in recent discussions with an Art Historian as to how best to present that work.

Our book contains 106 photographs and images that support our research and we do hope to demonstrate that the "secrets" in the title are indeed totally new facts which will change the way everyone sees this most iconic of decks.

Those who have seen our presentations (and kept the 'secrets') at TAROTCON events over the last year have agreed that they will never see that deck in the same way again.

We also include a "How to Read Tarot" section as it is a practical book also, and sections on how we imagine Pamela might have read the cards (she likely didn't) and how Waite read the tarot amongst other divination tools, with examples of his reading style.

The whole book is new material, such as a chapter on Waite's work with the Faerie tradition and how that is based on the Tarot in a surprising fashion. It also allowed us to reverse-engineer some of his writings to provide a new "Waite Faery Oracle" system that may take readers by surprise - Waite was a lush romantic at heart!

We will be launching a new Waite-Smith website very shortly (which is presently in development) that will include much of the material we have been teasing for a year on Facebook, for those who are not on that social platform.

So far, only a few people have seen the whole of the new book, one of whom is Mary K. Greer, who writes, ""Astonishing revelations of Pixie Smith's contributions to the Tarot! A truly fresh perspective on the iconic Waite-Smith Tarot based on outstanding new research. Masterful, and not to be missed."

With regard to our prior book, "Abiding in the Sanctuary", there has been a lot of discussion of its enigmatic and astonishing images, just not so much in the public domain.

The "Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot" book has one more teaser to be released, the website, and by then it will be published by Llewellyn Worldwide on April 8th 2015.

Both Marcus Katz and myself hope that it of interest to everyone who cares about the life and work of both Pamela and Waite, in whose life we have been living during the summer of 1909 for the past few years.

Tali
 

uic_uic

I actually am quite excited about this book as it sounds like it has the potential to be very interesting. i just wish the "look inside this book" feature was activated. On the Facebook page I could not see much as far as previews, but maybe it is because I am not on FB. I am hoping that it has more esoteric and Masonic info, and not so much of a guide on reading the cards. Plus of course the unknown history bits of Waite and Smith should be fun to read. Maybe uic uic can chime in as to content.

Do not have it myself...But I think it is open for the crowd, so don't worry, we have seen it all. I think TaliTarot summed it pretty well, and now I am pretty sure what to expect. Historical background to the cards...with plenty of new information, so I look forward to it. As someone said earlier...Tarot books can be boring, and even the authors of this one (as I don't possess any of their books), if not given the best critics on their previous work, I think, will get the recognition for this one. Heheh...

Anyway, I don't think this will ''change the archetypes'' in a way that as we know them, they will abandon their previous meanings and we will be left with new meanings and the task to dechipher the cards once again, but rather that we will get the bigger picture behind the creative process of Pamela and Waite, which, again, I find very exciting! I love historical stories...and I especially love my Tarot deck! So yeah...I'm looking forward...
 

Shade

So far, only a few people have seen the whole of the new book, one of whom is Mary K. Greer, who writes, ""Astonishing revelations of Pixie Smith's contributions to the Tarot! A truly fresh perspective on the iconic Waite-Smith Tarot based on outstanding new research. Masterful, and not to be missed."

And that's all I need to hear, if consummate researcher Mary likes it then I am sold.

As to the title - I do like a bit of mystery with my history so I'm a fan.
 

Babalon Jones

Thanks for the summary, Tali, it sounds really interesting. I am definitely planning on reading it now. I do hope the section on "how to" focuses more on the speculations on how Waite and Smith may have read, or is based on the new info somehow, rather than a rehash of how to read the RWS and cards in general, or is just a small part of what is on offer. Because my guess is the audience for this book doesn't need another general how to guide so much. But that is just me, and it sounds like there is enough there otherwise to be a good read. And new pictures! In a way that is the best part, I love when books about historical characters have lots of pictures! So, another reason to long for spring. (As if I needed another, winter is long here!) When the new website is up, post a link to hold us over...
 

starlightexp

Thanks for the summary, Tali, it sounds really interesting. I am definitely planning on reading it now. I do hope the section on "how to" focuses more on the speculations on how Waite and Smith may have read, or is based on the new info somehow, rather than a rehash of how to read the RWS and cards in general, or is just a small part of what is on offer. Because my guess is the audience for this book doesn't need another general how to guide so much. But that is just me, and it sounds like there is enough there otherwise to be a good read. And new pictures! In a way that is the best part, I love when books about historical characters have lots of pictures! So, another reason to long for spring. (As if I needed another, winter is long here!) When the new website is up, post a link to hold us over...

I'm with you. I never fell out of love with my RWS but any more reason to love it more is good for me
 

Chrystella

I've been taking the 4-week course around this book with Marcus and Tali and it's delightful. It's been adding to my understanding and affection for this deck and, especially, its creators, not in a huge, mystical, mind-blowing way, but rather in a real human way that makes me nod and smile and go, "Oh hey, well, will you look at that?!" I'm looking forward to the book.

:thumbsup:
 

kalopaidi

I've just finished their 4 week course on the Secrets of the Waite-Smith and I am very much looking forward to the book now.
You could call them secrets, you could call them new facts...whichever word you like, I was definitely blown away by some of the information we already got in the course. Not only do I have a new appreciation of my Original RWS, I definitely have added layers to some of the meanings as well. (I would guess that is where the practicality comes in).