- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

The Rider Waite Smith tarot deck defines the imagery of Tarot, as reflected in a thousand clones. Arthur Edward Waite was the mastermind behind it (although Pamela Coleman Smith seems to have had a free hand on the artwork of the pip cards). There is some Victorian mystery mongering but also a lot of interesting nuggets.It begins with a sensible review of past theories of the Tarot's origin. It drops hints about deeper meanings behind the images. Then it proceeds with the famous trumps (which are fanciful versions of the Tarot de Marseille given a heavy layer of occult paint). There is some worthwhile reading about descriptions and meanings, and the cards are reproduced in black-and-white. PCS's artwork is evocative. As far as interpretations go, you could do worse for starters. and reversals are included. The "Ancient Celtic Method of Divination" (otherwise known as the Celtic Cross, without explanation what Celts were doing with cards from Italy and the south of France) is included, plus another, complicated spread. My point is that this is a HUGE part of what we have as the Tarot today, for better or worse. Overall it is sensible and interesting.It should be noted that the Tarot de Marseille that formed the basis for the trumps does not have the forced "occult" symbolism of the RWS deck. Le Bateleur probably went on to invent three card monte to fleece the fair-goers. Or maybe he is an adept, as Waite portrayed him. You see, it all depends. Depends on what? Yes. If you want to go back further into the history of Tarot and explore a bit more intuitive form of reading, you might consider checking them out sometime.

This is an amazing companion book for anyone who wants to learn the history of the Waite-Rider deck. Waite was an initiate of the Golden Dawn when he created this deck. For those who are not familiar with western esotericism and occult symbology, this may be a difficult read for some. Although Waite may appear to be vague in many of his descriptions, he is being purposefully vague as only "those with eyes to see and ears to hear" were considered worthy of that knowledge based upon that time period. In today's world of instant knowledge via the internet, a lot of these "secrets" and "allusions" have been removed; however, it takes a true initiate into those occult mysteries to have a more complete and tangible understanding of the imagery as Waite understood them to be. All in all, it's a great book to have for the collection but I would not recommend this for someone who is trying to learn how to read the tarot for divination purposes.

Great deck only deck I would use

A couple of words about where I am coming from in this review: I have been studying the Tarot and doing readings for over 25 years. It is important to note that the Tarot is, for me, a never-ending study. As such I always have a few decks and a couple of books with me. With the Kindle app on my phone, I always have "The Pictorial Guide to the Tarot" with me.While Waite's own words are really where most of the more recent works on the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot have their roots, many others have surpassed this work in several ways.First, I will say that I do believe that  The Pictorial Key To The Tarot (Illustrated)  should be a part of every Tarot student's library. He is the creator of one of the most popular Tarot decks available today (if not THE most popular when you count in the many reworkings of the original images, such as the Centennial, Radiant, Universal, etc). In fact, a search of the "most popular Tarot decks" returns list after list, almost all of which will put the RWS, if not first, then within the top three. The RWS or one of it's direct variants, is the deck I most often recommend to anyone who wishes to start learning the Tarot. This is because of the availability of the deck as well as tons of resources for learning the deck. It is because of this popularity that I do recommend Waite's "Pictorial Key" as a part of a person's Tarot library.Now, having said that. I do NOT recommend this book as a first reference for someone beginning their Tarot studies. A. E. Waite's "Pictorial Key" was kind of directed at people who were already members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and thus, already had some mystical training and some understanding of the Tarot. As such, this book may address topics in a way that expects the reader to already have some prior grasp of certain aspects of the material. In fact, Tarot divination was one of the topics taught to initiates of the order. So, Waite had an expectation that a person reading "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot" would have that basic understanding.I do believe, though, that "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot" should be a part of every student's study because it is the initial reference to the RWS Tarot. If you have begun to study Tarot and have, perhaps, worked through the "Little White Book" ("LWB") or other very basic book or pamphlet, and you want to know what some of the symbols used in the images might mean, then this is a good, basic reference. Waite does not give a full in-depth explanation for every single symbol used, but he does explain many which can give us a guide to interpreting many aspects of a card we might not see otherwise.But there are gaps as well. A famous example of a "gap" is Waite's famous statement on putting "Strength" at VIII and "Justice" at XI; "For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation." In other places he just does not explain things which would be helpful to some. An example of this would be on Trump XX "Judgement", where we see tall, snow-capped peaks in the background - we know they are symbolic of something (almost everything in every image is), but he does not mention them.Still, it is good to read Waite's own words on the meanings and symbolism of the cards he designed along with Pamela Coleman Smith. Seeing his own vision can help to give us deeper understanding of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. But I do find that it is best used as an addition to the other sources I'm using for my continuing studies. When I combine it with works by Rachel Pollack, Mary K. Greer and Eden Gray, it helps to answer questions I might have as well as adding further dimensions to my understanding of the Tarot.Some further notes on the Kindle edition; I purchased the Kindle edition of "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot" for the convenience of always having a Tarot reference with me. The ease of searching for terms, as well as having the interactive table of contents available at a touch is invaluable when using it during my studies. Of course, with the Kindle app, it is also very easy to highlight a word, phrase or passage in the book as well as being able to add brief notes along with those highlights. This particular Kindle edition does have color images of the cards in the appropriate section, so that's another plus. Although those images are fairly small on my cell phone.Overall, I really do love the Kindle edition of this book. I love the convenience of having it to hand any time that I need to look something up. The things that bring this down from 5-stars for me is the small card images, but it does at least have the images. Then too, just the work itself - Many of Waite's write-ups on the cards are a little hard to follow, plus you have to look at three separate sections of the book to see everything about each card. But, it is still an excellent resource and a good look at how Waite worked with each card.

This is a must have if you have the Rider Wade Smith tarot deck. It helped me familiarize with the deck a lot easier than the little thing that comes with the deck. Explains a lot more about the cards and then you can infer more of a deeper meaning of them. Which helps you relate them more to your life.

Yet another edition of this old and beloved classic. Ideal for anyone who is ready to get serious about doing the work of learning the cards.

This is a simple book for quickly looking up basic information about cards while trying out spreads and learning the Tarot. Nothing fancy, just to the point. Perfect.

The cards arrived on time and are excellent quality

Exelente material del libro práctico legible al leer buen precio y llego en tiempo y forma muy Recomendado

Very well explained