FREE: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by Arthur Edward Waite

The listing, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by Arthur Edward Waite has ended.

Paperback, Good condition, Harper and Row, 1971
5.0 out of 5 stars Not For Beginners but Useful to Serious Students, April 12, 2011
Amazon Review By Wanderer (Bend, OR & Greenville, SC)
To understand the importance of this book you have to understand that it was originally published as a companion to a NEW deck of Tarot cards, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. That deck has, since 1910, become one of the most widely accepted and used decks of Tarot cards. The clarity and simplicity of this book accounts for much of that popularity.
This Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by Arthur Waite of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, was conceived to explain the complex symbolism in the pictures on that deck drawn by Pamela Coleman-Smith under Waite's direction and then published by Rider. In 1910, Waite's interest was standardizing the Tarot deck, justifying his scholarship, and explaining the symbolism for Tarot readers whom, he would assume, already broadly understood the cards' meanings. His assumption is that the (new or newly pictured) symbols rise from the meaning of the cards and his readers probably know the meanings.
Today, beginners benefit from over 100 years of refinements by a large number of authors whose works follow Waite's original book. There are, therefore, MUCH better books for beginners. I teach novice readers using Sarah Bartlett's excellent Tarot Bible.
If you are a serious student of the Tarot it is always helpful to return to the source and this is it. Therefore, I recommend this book for advanced readers and students as an important reference book to include in their Tarot library.