Just thought you'all would be interested in this little essay I've just written. Would love to hear comments.
"The Secret: Tarot & the New Thought Movement"
by Mary K. Greer
If you want to understand what motivates the “secret teachings of the Tarot” as characterized by the mid-to-late-20th century approach to the RWS Tarot deck, it helps to look not only at the Anglo-American creators of that deck (Waite & Smith) but also at the hugh, but unacknowledged, influence of the uniquely-American New Thought movement and particularly William Walker Atkinson.
Those who have watched the video “The Secret” or read any of the works on the “Law of Attraction” by Abraham/Hicks and many, many others, may not be aware that this “Think-and-Grown-Rich” concept is a direct descendant (with relatively little updating) of the 19th century American New Thought movement. It began, some say, with Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866), a practitioner of mesmerism or mental healing, and forms the basic tenets of the Unity Church and the Church of Religious Science. One of its branches drew heavily upon Theosophy and helped popularize Hindu yogic practices in the U.S.
One of the most prolific authors in the New Thought movement was William Walker Atkinson, editor of _New Thought_ magazine, and author of _Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World_ (1906) in which can be found the basic tenets found in _The Secret_, including the use of positive thinking and affirmations. Atkinson used many pseudonyms, including Yogi Ramacharaka whose work _Mystic Christianity_ features a chapter on “The Secret Doctrine” in which he quotes from Eliphas Levi and A.E. Waite. Here he reveals the mystical side of the “Secret”--that there is an Inner Teaching--from which organized religion has departed. This hidden spiritual message is “the constant Mystic Message regarding the existence of the Spirit within the soul of each individual--that Something Within, to which all can turn, in time of pain and trouble--that Guide and Monitor which stands ever-ready to counsel, advise and direct if one opens himself to the Voice.”
Atkinson, through his hundreds of books and articles, taught that the “Key to the Mysteries” were methods to be used to listen to the still, silent voice within. He believed that “The Truth is the same, no matter under what name it is taught or who teaches it." So, under his various pseudonyms, he presented it in the form of mystic christianity, hindu yogic practices, and hermetic wisdom, culminating in a book called _The Kybalion_ by “Three Initiates,” outlining the seven Hermetic principles making up the “Law of Attraction."
What’s interesting to us as tarot readers is the close ties that Atkinson’s brand of New Thought has to Tarot. The trail actually begins with Quimby’s belief in mesmerism, something in which Antoine Court de Gébelin also firmly believed (dying during a treatment by Mesmer himself). Then there is the obvious influence that Eliphas Lévi and A.E. Waite had on Atkinson who began as a mental healer and ended up as a promulgator of Hermetic and Rosicrucian Wisdom. Atkinson was also “Magus Incognito” who wrote _The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians_, which includes a set of “seven cosmic principles” almost identical to those in _The Kybalion_. (Under the names Swami Bhakta Vishita and Swami Panchadasi, he wrote extensively on “seership.”)
A couple of people found themselves drawn to Atkinson through their shared interests, culminating in several works. Both L.W. de Laurence (best remembered for plagarizing Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot and the RWS deck) and Paul Foster Case moved to Chicago and collaborated with Atkinson (_Psychomancy and Crystal Gazing_ was written with de Laurence). A well-established rumor has it that Case was one of the “Three Initiates” who wrote _The Kybalion_, using its principles as the basis of his Tarot correspondence course. Those who look for New Thought methods in this course will find them aplenty.
The whole concept of Vibration, made popular (if hackneyed) through the Hippie term “vibes,” is descriptive of the mental resonance experienced by those who use the Tarot, and especially by those who see the Tarot as a tool for deliberately making one’s life better rather than simply mirroring or predicting character and events. A reading of the above mentioned works will convince anyone of the direct connection between the modern American approach to Tarot and the New Thought movement.
Atkinson's _Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World_ is available at:
http://gitacademy.tripod.com/GodsInTraining/ThoughtVibration.htm
Mary K. Greer
I special ordered many of his books & pamphlets. 