Book Review: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

As an acclaimed occultist and scholar of the Kabbalah, Waite collaborated with artist Pamela Colman Smith to create what has become possibly the world’s most famous tarot deck. The pictoral key offers a rich introduction to the history and symbology of the modern tarot in addition to providing a detailed explanation of the 78 cards found in the original Smith-Waite deck. Readers will enjoy an in-depth exploration of the tarot’s secrets while gaining insight to the conventional meanings and reversed readings associated with each card.

Repeater’s re-release of this classic text contains a forward by Sereptie (Craig Laubach), creator of The Philosopher’s Tarot, celebrating the importance of the tarot to artists, activists, and others seeking to transform a world fraught with material and psychic oppressions. This expanded edition also includes an appendix featuring a quick reference guide to common keywords and interpretations.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite will be released on February 11, 2025. Repeater Books provided an early galley for review.

The first volume of this reference was published back in 1910, and Waite is one the recognized o.g. resources when it comes to all things tarot. This book predominantly features the classic card designs by Pamela Colman Smith (while not the same as those on the Morgan-Greer tarot deck I own, they were still very familiar to me).

The introductory sections talk about the history of tarot before diving into the details of twenty-two cards of the Greater Arcana and the fifty-six cards (broken across the four suits: wands, cups, swords and pentacles) of the Lesser Arcana. Most helpful are the two summary sections that quickly provide the standard natural position and reverse meanings of the cards when used in divination activities.

One area that was new to me was the additional meanings of the recurrences of cards of the Lesser Arcana when they happen within a reading (both for the natural positions and the reverse).

The final sections focus specifically on the art of divination and provide various layouts with which to do readings: the Celtic layout of ten cards, a more detailed forty-two card reading, a slightly different thirty-five card method. Of these, the Celtic one was the method of which I had been previously introduced as it tends to be one of the quicker versions. I have also seen even simpler readings made up of three cards or just a single card (the latter much like a daily horoscope approach to divination with tarot).

For someone just starting to dive into all things tarot, this volume with its roots in the classic publication is a good place to start.