Major Arcana

Minor Arcana

	W	C	S	P
Ace
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Court Cards

	W	C	S	P
Page
Knight
Queen
King

THE PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT;

BEING FRAGMENTS OF A SECRET TRADITION UNDER THE VEIL OF DIVINATION.

By Arthur Edward Waite

[b. 1857 d. 1942]

WITH 78 PLATES, ILLUSTRATING THE GREATER AND LESSER ARCANA, FROM DESIGNS

By Pamela Colman Smith.

[b. 1878 d. 1951]

London, W. Rider

[1911]

Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com, September, 2000 and June, 2003 by John Bruno Hare. This text and the accompanying illustrations are in the public domain in the United States of America because they were published prior to 1923.

The Contents

PREFACE

An explanation of the personal kind–An illustration from mystic literature–A subject which calls to be rescued–Limits and intention of the work.

PART I

THE VEIL AND ITS SYMBOLS

§ 1.–Introductory and General.
§ 2.–Class I. The Trumps Major, otherwise Greater Arcana.
§ 3.–Class II. The Four Suits, otherwise Lesser Arcana.
§ 4.–The Tarot in History.

PART II

THE DOCTRINE BEHIND THE VEIL

§ 1.–The Tarot and Secret Tradition.
§ 2.–The Trumps Major and their Inner Symbolism.
§ 3.–Conclusion as to the Greater Keys.

PART III

THE OUTER METHOD OF THE ORACLES.

§ 1.–Distinction between the Greater and Lesser Arcana.
§ 2.–The Lesser Arcana, otherwise, the Four Suits of Tarot Cards
       The Suit of Wands.
       The Suit of Cups.
       The Suit of Swords.
       The Suit of Pentacles.
§ 3.–The Greater Arcana and their Divinatory Meanings.
§ 4.–Some additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana.
§ 5.–The Recurrence of Cards in Dealing.
§ 6.–The Art of Tarot Divination.
§ 7.–An Ancient Celtic Method of Divination.
§ 8.–An Alternative Method of Reading the Tarot Cards.
§ 9.–The Method of Reading by Means of Thirty-five Cards.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CHIEF WORKS DEALING WITH THE TAROT AND ITS CONNEXIONS

next:  Introduction

Rider-Waite by A.E. Waite & Pamela Colman-Smith. Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite