Arthur Edward Waite 
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot 

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot Arthur Edward Waite – The Pictorial Key to the Tarot is A. E. Waite’s guide to divinatory tarot, published in conjunction with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Waite was very concerned with the accuracy of the symbols he used for his deck, and he did much research into the traditions, interpretations, and history behind the cards.Two different versions of the book were published. The first, published in 1909, was called The Key to the Tarot.The second, published in 1910, added illustrations of the tarot cards by Pamela Colman Smith and was called The Pictorial Key to the Tarot.

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Arthur Edward Waite was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A. Gilbert described him, 'Waite’s name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultismviewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion.’