Source books · Tarot
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
How this book fits
- Traditions
- Tarot The Golden Dawn
- Role in the tradition
- Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.
- Public attention
- Notable Wikipedia has an article about it in 9 languages.
Read it
- Read at sacred-texts.com ↗ sacred-texts.com checked against the Internet Archive's copy of May 13, 2026, because the site refuses scripts · archived copy
- Read at wikisource.org ↗ wikisource.org
From Wikipedia
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot is a divinatory tarot guide, with text by A. E. Waite and illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. Published in conjunction with the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck, the pictorial version followed the success of the deck and Waite's text The Key to the Tarot. Both Waite and Smith were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Waite was very concerned with the accuracy of the symbols used for the deck, and he did much research into the traditions, interpretations, and history behind the cards.
From the Wikipedia article The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, revision 1362151959, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q1192538: “literary work”.
In this study
In the chronology, in Arthur Edward Waite's account.
The textual companion to the deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith.
Cited for 165 sourced claims here, among them correspondences of Justice, Strength, The Fool, Ace of Cups, Ace of Pentacles, Ace of Swords, Ace of Wands and Death.