Arthur Edward Waite (1857 - 1943)[i] was a mystic, an occultist, and an enthusiastic Freemason. Bro. Waite was also a prolific author in each of these subject areas, and was the founder of numerous mystic organizations[ii], some for which Masonic Membership was a prerequisite, and others which were loosely based upon the tenets of Freemasonry. Of all of Waite’s lifetime accomplishments, the one for which he is best remembered is his publication (1910) of a unique set of Tarot cards, which came to be known as the Rider-Waite Deck, or the RWD. This deck was unique because it was the first modern deck in which the cards of the Minor Arcana were illustrated and not just those of the Major Arcana (the creator of the Sola Busca Deck did this earlier[iii] - i.e. the late 15^th Century).

Waite bundled an explanatory pamphlet with this deck called The Key to the Tarot[iv]. Bro. Waite also later produced an illustrated book[v] which offered a detailed explanation of the meaning of each of the 72 cards which comprise his deck, along with a discussion of the history of the Tarot. This interesting book is “classic Waite” complete with stilted language and attacks upon his ideological rivals. It is also one of the premiere texts dealing with the interpretation of the Tarot used to this day.  Earlier Tarot Authors such as Jean-Baptiste Alliette, (aka Etteilla, 1738 – 1791) and S.L Mathers (1854-1918), both Freemasons, were believed to have heavily influenced Waite’s Tarot Interpretations and the images or illustrations he used. When the Tarot interpretations of A.E. Waite were studied[vi] using a statistical analysis of carefully selected keywords describing the meanings of the Major and Minor Arcana, it was found that more than 48% of the keywords were statistically congruent.  Tarot scholar and researcher R.V. O’Neil[vii] reports that in an article in the Occult Review[viii],” Waite stated that as he and Pamela Colman Smith designed the deck, “we have had other help from one who is deeply versed in the subject.” O’Neil further states that “Roger Parisius (Figures in a Dance: W. B. Yeats and the Waite-Ride Tarot) suggested that this help came from W.B. Yeats”. W.B. Yeats, the famous Irish poet was a member of the Golden Dawn, an organization with which Waite was prominently associated.  Waite was also involved with Gérard-Anaclet-Vincent Encausse (aka Papus, 1865-1916)[ix] who asserted Egyptian origins for the Tarot. Papus was a key member of the gnostic Martinist Order. Waite incidentally wrote the preface to Papus’ Tarot of the Bohemians[x].

 Thus Arthur Edward Waite provides the most modern, and authoritative interpretation of the Major Arcana of the Tarot by a well-known Freemason, whose sources are incorporated into his own work, and who there-by provides a continuum of the tradition of Tarot dating more than 100 Years. Though Bro. Manly P. Hall (1901- 1990) [xi], also published interpretations of the Tarot (1925) these pre-dated his Masonic affiliation (1954) and are sufficiently different from those of Waite as to indicate that they do not represent this tradition.

This paper will explore the interpretations given by Bro. Waite in his illustrated textbook[xii] for those cards in the Rider-Waite Deck which make up the Major Arcana, as conceived by Waite and artistically rendered by Pamela Colman Smith (aka “Pixie”). It will examine his cards, illustrations, and interpretations for evidence of Masonic allusion and symbolism. Many others have also produced interpretative texts of the Tarot. Where appropriate or when interesting, the interpretations of others will be mentioned. For my purposes I will consider that Waite’s interpretation includes both the figurative symbolism presented by the illustration in its parts and in whole, as well as the more subtle over-all impression conveyed by the translation. The below discussion will serve to clarify my meaning.

The Tarot

It is not within the scope of this article to offer anything other than a very brief description of the Tarot, its history, its variants, or its application. Suffice it to say that Tarot is a means of Divination referred to as Cartomancy in which a series of illustrated cards are used to render an impression to the reader of various circumstances which may influence or may have influenced the path in life taken by the person for whom the reading is being performed (called the Querent), along with events which may come to pass. From this, the Querent is guided to a better understanding of his or her life, and to consider how a positive future outcome may be achieved.  The Tarot does not assume that a person’s fate is fixed, but rather that an individual can affect one’s fate by making wise (or poor) choices in the present. In this process, the Diviner (reader) follows generally accepted interpretations of the rich symbolism given for the Major Arcana, while the Minor Arcana are treated somewhat more mechanical and contain more rigid meanings. I would hasten to add that the above is my own interpretation of the use of the Tarot, and may differ from the way others see it.

It is often stated that each of the cards in a Tarot deck (especially the Major Arcana)  portrays a compelling image of one or more aspect of the human condition, and that taken together a Tarot deck represents the vast majority of all possible human experiences (referred to as Universal archetypes). This is what makes the Tarot so evocative (or expressive), and why the Tarot deck is said to create such empathy between a gifted reader and a Querent. There is in fact a well known Author[xiii] who wrote a tale about a number of Tarot Adepts who were traveling through an enchanted forest and lost their voices. The Adepts in the tale continued through the forest telling their own entire life stories by displaying Tarot cards to one another. This tale is of course an invention; the power of the images contained within a Tarot deck is however quite effectively revealed through this fable.

If my description of the use of the Tarot sounds vaguely psycho-analytical, I should mention that Carl Gustav Jung, the pioneering Psychoanalyst, was a Tarot adept, and studied the Tarot for use as a tool in his practice[xiv]. Jung’s published works on the Tarot are in fact some of the best available in terms of rendering an objective account of the amazing subtleties by which the human psyche perceives the meanings and messages of the cards. In his work[xv], Jung produced a graphical plot of the four functions of consciousness, with "Thinking" and "Feeling" on the X-axis (called the "Rational Axis") and with "Intuition" and "Sensation” on the Y-Axis (called the "Irrational Axis").  In Jung’s analysis, intuition and sensation are considered as tools to "investigate" reality but not to make decisions. On the other hand "emotions" and "thinking" are involved in the decision making process (rational.) In Jung’s theory, the two aspects of self converge through various techniques (dreaming, meditation, and tarot cards) at the intersection of the X and Y Axis. Universal archetypes (i.e. tarot card illustrations) are the symbols employed in these processes.  Accordingly, the "total self" is simultaneously the investigator (using intuition and sensation) and the decision-maker (using thought and emotion). Jung’s theory considered that the Tarot facilitates convergence and opens us to our total selves.

The Tarot cards themselves are divided into two separate groups called the Major Arcana (A term which Waite popularized[xvi]) and the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana contains 56 cards divided into 4 suits. The suits in the Rider-Waite Deck are called Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. These 4 suits correspond to the "standard" modern playing card deck suits of Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds (Waite in fact wrote[xvii] a short piece on a method for divination using standard playing cards). It is conventionally considered that the suits also represent the four basic elements Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. The Major Arcana contains 22 cards, the images of which, according to Manly P. Hall[xviii] represent the 22 chapters of the Book of Revelations. Waite makes no reference whatsoever to this concept, but rather echoes the view proposed by Jung. Others have maintained that the Major Arcana represent the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, a concept which Waite rejects[xix]. He (Waite) considers the Major Arcana as richly symbolic, but treats the Minor Arcana as “fortune telling” devices. Having said this, nowhere does he insinuate that they are in any way ineffective in this role, merely that they lend themselves less to intuitive considerations. Because the interpretations of the Minor Arcana are considered by Waite to be more-or-less fixed, I have chosen not to include them in this paper which is aimed at discovering Masonic allusion in the RWD.

Each of the 78 cards of the Major and Minor Arcana in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck bear an illustration. The Major Arcana however are not associated with a suit. One basic technique for using the Tarot deck, called the Celtic Cross[xx] and detailed in Waite’s text, requires that a total of six (6) cards be dealt face down and arranged in a particular cross-like pattern, with four (4) additional cards dealt and arranged vertically in a column beside the cross. The cards are then turned up one at a time and interpreted first individually, and then as a whole. The cards meaning and its relative position in the “cross” or “column” both figure into the translation. For an effective Tarot reading (using the Rider-Waite Deck) all of the cards are considered both individually and together to arrive at a net impression. For a more detailed description of the Tarot, and the Celtic Cross in particular, I refer the reader to Waite’s illustrated text, The Pictorial Guide to the Tarot.

Masonic Association with Tarot

            In spite of the fact that Tarot Decks have recently been produced with the purposeful (and sometimes superficial) addition of Masonic themes and symbols (i.e. The Masonic Tarot, the Square and Compasses Tarot), there is no historical precedence for such a deck. Tarot itself, is considered by Waite[xxi] to have originated from sources in Southern France during the 13^th or 14^th Century A.D. (at the earliest). Albert Pike, in his Morals and Dogma in 1874 cryptically mentions the Tarot during his discussion of the Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept[xxii] in which he states that Tarot contains the Kabalistic Alphabet. Other associations of the Tarot with Freemasonry are largely speculative and reliable information is difficult to find. It is this writer’s belief that the primary associations of the Tarot with Freemasonry may be related to their supposed link to the Kabala, the link of Tarot Card illustrations to Hermetic symbolism, and to the fact that numerous designers of Tarot Decks and Tarot Interpreters have coincidentally been Freemasons. As Freemasonry has evolved through the Centuries, so have our rituals; rites and orders have come and gone; and it is entirely possible that past associations with the Tarot may have vanished as well. Many of the Occult and Mystic organizations founded or lead by Waite (notably including the Builders the Adytum or BOTA, Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia or SRIA, and the Order of the Golden Dawn) have certainly used the Tarot extensively. The Tarot, like Freemasonry itself has a somewhat muddled past and much of its true history has been lost to us. Bear in mind, that the lack of a clear Masonic association does not necessarily imply a lack of Masonic significance.

            Interestingly, Waite himself had a very definite position on the relationship between the Tarot and Freemasonry. In his book The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal[xxiii], which discusses the Grail Legend and which was published (1909) about one year prior to the date of the publication of his Deck, Waite includes a chapter (IX) entitled “The Hallows of the Graal Mystery Rediscovered in the Talismans of the Tarot”.  In this Chapter he presents his conclusive view that the Tarot is the “canonical Hallows of the Graal legend”. This is a telling statement since in his previous Chapter (VIII) “The Analogy of Masonry” he draws the parallel between the Graal Legend and Freemasonry, comparing the character Percival to the Master Mason in search of light. The obvious logic follows that the Tarot and Freemasonry are considered to be closely intertwined in Waite’s view.

Analysis of Waite’s Interpretations

            I would first like to mention that an incredibly detailed analysis of the illustrations of the RWD Major Arcana has been performed by O’Neil and Gardner using a method known as Quantitative Iconography[xxiv]. This analysis provides an intricate breakdown of the details of each image along with a tabulation of Tarot decks which pre-date the RWD and which use identical imagery. I have taken the liberty here of adopting a very useful tool devised by O’Neil/Gardner in their work on Quantitative Iconography in my own analysis; specifically I have incorporated the tabular breakdown of the card images they have provided, and have evaluated each detail of the card image in terms of its Masonic Symbolism as opposed to its source as the Authors did. 

In order to also include Waite’s descriptive interpretation as a part of this analysis, I needed some method for distilling the often verbose explanations of the cards meanings.  During my research I discovered a distillation of such keywords in the form of a “.pdf” file[xxv] at an eclectic website called “Wizard & Witch”. This file provides both Waite’s original interpretation as well as a list of keywords extracted from his interpretations of the Major Arcana, which I carefully examined and found to be absolutely relevant. This list of keywords was also compared to that produced by S. L. MacGregor Mathers in his work The Tarot[xxvi] and was found substantially in agreement with this source, which was influential in the design of Waite’s deck. Keywords (in some cases with minor modifications by yours truly) from this list were accordingly incorporated into the O’Neil/Gardner table creating a composite table which could be used for my purposes.

I have also used both volumes of The Lost Language of Symbolism[xxvii] by Howard Bayley as reference materials for my analysis, along with the many reference sources for images of Masonic Symbols found at Paul Bessel’s website[xxviii] (Thank you Paul).  This analysis is of course, based upon my own direct examination of card images and examination of the corresponding interpretation provided by Waite. Where a literal Masonic association is insinuated I have summarized what I believe that association to be as a table note. In order to avoid presenting an exhaustive list in which many card image details have no probable Masonic theme, I have edited the table to show only those cards having literal symbolism or interpretations (based upon keywords)  which I believe to actually bear Masonic allusion. This is provided below as Table 1. 
The complete unexpurgated worksheet used in this effort is attached as Appendix 1.

 I recognize that my methodology is fairly subjective and is limited by my own knowledge and recognition of Masonic symbolism and allusion. I point out that any errors or shortcomings found in this analysis are strictly my own.  I would invite the reader at this point to download a free online copy of Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot at the Lodgeroom International Download Center[xxix], and to compare my analysis his own.

 I remind the reader that Table 1 identifies only details in symbols or keyword allusions which are literal or overt in terms of Masonic reference. In some instances these references were somewhat tenuous, but were included in the table for more detailed investigation.