Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot

by Marcus Katz

  The similarity of several of the images of the Sola Busca deck to Pamela’s execution of the tarot was first noted by Gertrude C. Moakley and documented in Stuart Kaplan’s Encyclopaedia of the Tarot Vol. III (1990).

  According to the most recent research, the original cards were painted in Venice in 1491, by Nicola di Maestro Antonio d’Ancona.43 This places the inspirational soul of the Waite-Smith deck firmly in Venice and likewise some of the design elements that were continued through the deck. These are particularly noticeable in certain cards (see below) but also through the alchemical symbolism.

  Waite would have been very much aware of the alchemical symbolism of the cards; however, this was obviously not passed on to Pamela, other than as a very general idea (see the 7 of Cups).

  Snuffles and Others: The Influence

  of Pamela Colman Smith on Contemporary Tarot

  That Pamela should include Snuffles the Cat in her depiction of the Queen of Wands (as we’ll see later) sets an important marker for tracing her influence on all following card design. This symbol, a black cat, is one of many that are unique to Pamela’s design and it has been reproduced without question in the majority of all clone decks. The secret of the symbol is simple; Pamela was painting the Queen of Wands and used Edy Craig, a chair in Smallhythe Place, a sunflower from the garden, a pole from the trellis-work they were building, and Snuffles as a model of the nature of the character she was painting.

  Her only esoteric source at that time was likely to be Book T, or portions of that Golden Dawn manuscript given or spoken to her by Waite. She would have encountered the Queen of Wands as:

  The Queen of the Thrones of Flame. A crowned queen with long red-golden hair, seated upon a Throne, with steady flames beneath. She wears a corselet and buskins of scale mail, which latter her robe discloses. Her arms are almost bare. On cuirass and buskins are leopards’ heads winged. The same symbol surmounteth her crown. At her side is a couchant leopard on which her hands rest. She bears a long Wand with a very heavy conical head. The face is beautiful and resolute.44

  In the Golden Dawn version of the card, sketched possibly by Moina Mathers, we see that whilst there is a leopard at her feet, her hands do not rest upon it. It is likely that the text version was written by a non-artist (likely MacGregor Mathers) and there is a composition issue when trying to draw a seated figure, holding a long wand whilst also having both her hands “resting on” an animal that is lying down at one side. There is a feline face on her “cuirass and buskins” and on her crown.45

  Pamela took this description (or one similar) and drew Edy Craig as her Queen of Wands, and Snuffles replaced the leopard, which she may have felt was a little out of place in her deck. We see this sketching-out and dilution of the original Golden Dawn correspondences throughout the deck; her usage of the four various creatures issuing from the Cups in the court cards (turtle, serpent, crayfish, and crab) is limited to the Page, for example, which simply shows a fish emerging from the cup.

  Once the cat was out of the bag and into the image, so to speak, it has almost become sacred to the deck. Its presence was then reinterpreted by every author, so for example Eden Gray views the cat as “the sinister aspect of Venus,” an unexplained attribution that is unique here but often repeated.46 It has also been connected with superstition, the inner nature of the Queen herself, a guide, guardian, symbol of occultism, and much more. In the Feminist Tarot, the cat is part of the Queen’s identification with “Diana the Huntress, protector of her sisters, avenger of their enemies.”47

  That is not to say that the cat symbol cannot be read in whatever context it appears in a question; nor should it stop appearing on every Waite-Smith-type deck in future! Here we are simply tracing the genesis and evolution of a symbol through a tradition-in-development. We are sure Snuffles will continue to be immortalised, and is likely very pleased that he replaced a leopard.

  We will now take a look at a couple of cards in a contemporary deck, the wonderfully vibrant and unique Gypsy Palace tarot to see how Pamela’s work has influenced, inspired, and been the starting-block for many modern decks. This analysis could be repeated for many of the thousand or more decks in contemporary circulation.

  The Gypsy Palace Tarot

  The Gypsy Palace tarot was published in 2013 by Hungarian artist Nora Huszka.48 Whilst this deck draws on traditional roots, we would like to select a few cards to demonstrate the legacy of Pamela’s design and art. This process can be repeated for any deck since 1909, showing the influence (or not) of Pamela’s designs and Waite’s intent on tarot for a century.

  The Magician, for example, mirrors the posture of Pamela’s Magician; his arms stretched out above and below, dividing the card diagonally. Nora says of this image, “His special kind of power is based on connecting the evanescent earth and the eternal sky.”

  However, the wand of the Waite-Smith Magician is now a bone and it faces down towards the ground, the opposite to Pamela’s wand held up above. The Magician of the Gypsy Palace is profane, whereas Pamela’s is sacred. This inverted image transforms Pamela’s hermetic Magician into a vibrant shaman, and in both decks they demonstrate the state of being between the worlds.

  It is coincidental that the image in Nora’s deck contains a black cat, sneaking away between the veil-like curtains. Perhaps Snuffles is having a laugh with us.

  In the 9 of Pentacles the female figure has a bird on her hand, again, straight from Waite-Smith. It has a certain amount of freedom, yet it is beholden to another. Here we see a symbol that has been passed from the Sola Busca deck, through Colman Smith, to contemporary decks.

  23 & 24. 9 of Pentacles and the Magician,

  Gypsy Palace Tarot, Nora Huszka. (2013, Self-published.)

  The Waite-Smith Deck in Contemporary Culture

  From the “Hollywood” backdrop of Madonna’s Re-Invention tour (2004), to its appearance alongside a custom deck designed by Fergus Hall in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die (1973), the Waite-Smith tarot is instantly recognisable. The irony of the deck shown in the Bond film is that if you look closely, because the prop is from the production merchandise deck created with the film, the cards in the film have “007” as the design on their back. So Solitaire would have simply needed to look at the back of her cards to get Bond’s code number!

  Another wonderful example of the iconography of the deck appearing in popular culture is within the video for Roseanne Cash’s song “The Wheel” (Sony BMG, 1993), which features live-action versions of over twenty Waite-Smith cards.49

  Pamela’s Later Life and Religion

  One of the last notable records we have of Pixie’s life immediately following her conversion to Roman Catholicism is in a letter from Lily Yeats (sister of Jack and W. B. Yeats) to her father, John B. Yeats in 1913. Lily reported that the change had affected Pamela’s social circle dramatically:

  Pixie is as delightful as ever and has a big-roomed flat near Victoria Station with black walls and orange curtains. She is now an ardent and pious Roman Catholic, which has added to her happiness but taken from her friends. She now has the dullest of friends, selected entirely because they are R.C., converts most of them, half-educated people, who want to see both eyes in a profile drawing. She goes to confession every Saturday—except the week I was there—she couldn’t think of any sins, so my influence must have been very holy.50

  25. Pamela Colman Smith in The Craftsman, 1912. (Photograph courtesy of authors, private collection.)

  Conclusion

  Pamela was a curious creature, amongst the last of the bohemians, the last of the Arts and Crafts movement. She appears to have eventually removed herself from people and art in favour of solitude and religion. However, so little is known of her later life that we can only surmise a few gleanings from the record of her death, not the life that immediately preceded it. Her story is incomplete, yet the tarot she designed and painted is its most complete le
gacy, a soul’s landscape and the land of the heart’s true desire.

  Timeline: (Corinne) Pamela (Mary) Colman Smith

  Whilst there are many overlaps in Pamela’s interests and working life, we have grouped her timeline into five phases for simplicity and specifically to highlight key times of interest to us. This is not a complete biographical timeline; however, as one is being created online with original sources and primary reference material. 51

  Childhood and Early Adulthood (1878–1899)

  Theatrical and Artistic Life (1900–1909)

  The Tarot Years (1909–19)

  After the Tarot and Catholic Life (1909–1918)

  Later Life (1918–1951)

  1878: February 16, born at Belgrave Road, Pimlico, London, England.

  Parents: Charles Edward Smith and Corinne Colman (US citizens).

  1881: April 3: English census, three years old and known as Corinne Pamela, recorded as living at “Oakhurst,” Fielden Park, Didsbury, Manchester, England with her parents, Charles Edward Smith (merchant) and Corinne Colman Smith. Parents born in New York and Boston. This area of Didsbury, Manchester was known at the time as being popular with the merchant class.

  1888: December 17: The Smith family relocates to New York, arriving on the passenger ship Etruria from Liverpool. Pamela is eleven, her father, Charles Edward Smith, is forty-three years old, and Corinne Colman Smith is forty-two years old allegedly.

  1893: Pamela sails from Kingston, West Indies, with her mother for New York; arrives October 4.

  1895: October 30: Aged seventeen, Pamela arrives in New York from Kingston, West Indies on the passenger ship Alleghany, accompanied by her mother, who is recorded as being a mere thirty-eight years old. No occupation for either is recorded. Both are recorded as “soujourning,” under the reasons for travel.

  1896: Pamela’s mother, Corinne Colman Smith, dies in Kingston, West Indies.

  1897: March 10: Pamela arrives in New York, from Satoon, West Indies, on the passenger liner Alleghany; she is travelling with her father.

  1899: December: Pamela’s father dies suddenly in New York (obituary).

  1901: English census, 14 Milborne Grove, South Kensington, London, aged twenty-three years, Pamela is recorded as a “visitor” in the household of the Davis family. She distributed The Broad Sheet, her collaboration with Jack Yeats from her home in Milborne Grove.

  1904: Pamela is residing at 3 Park Mansions Arcade, Knightsbridge, London, SW. An advertisement appears in the final edition of The Green Sheaf

  (no. 13) for Pamela’s business venture in hand-coloured prints, etc.

  1906: October 2: Pamela arrives in New York from London (departed September 22) on board the passenger ship Mesaba.

  1908: Pamela is living at 84 York Mansions, Prince of Wales Road, London, England (electoral voters register).

  1909: January 28: Pamela sails on the passenger ship Minnetonka from London to New York. She travels first class.

  1909: May 24: Pamela arrives in London, on the passenger ship Minnewaska; she travells first class. Pamela is living at the address below. See letter to Stieglitz. Exhibition of her work at the Steglitz gallery New York.

  1909: Pamela is living at 84 York Mansions, Prince of Wales Road, London (electoral voters register). However, she visits Ellen Terry at Smallhythe throughout the summer, based on photographs and sketches.

  1910: Pamela meets composer Claude Debussy (1862–1918).

  1911: Still living at York Mansions address (electoral voters register). Converts to Catholicism.

  1913: Illustrations in The Russian Ballet by Ellen Terry, and Bluebeard.

  1914: Illustrations in The Book of Friendly Giants by Eunice Fuller. Final inscription appears in her personal visitors book, indicating that she didn’t care for people any more.52

  1918: Moves to Parc Garland on the Lizard, a large house within walking distance of several coastal areas. This was at the same time women over the age of thirty got the vote in the UK, a major step forward in equal rights.

  1926: Illustrations for The Sinclair Family, by Edith Lyttleton. At present we cannot find any further reference to this book or the twelve illustrations Pamela created for it.

  1942: Moves to Bencoolen House in Bude. The property had several years before been advertising the services of the Rev. J. Allsop, who “coaches backward or delicate boys. Parents recommend.”53

  1951: Pamela dies on September 18. The National Probate Register recorded the following: “Corinne Pamela Mary Colman of 2 Bencoolen House, Bude, Cornwall died 18th September 1951. Probate Bodmin, 13 November to George Lyons Andrew and Richard Hugh Studley Jones, Solicitors. Effects £1048 and 4 shillings 5 pence.” Stuart R. Kaplan wrote that she left her money to a friend.54

  [contents]

  Three

  The Scholar—

  A. E. Waite

  The practice of painting among women has been clumsily cultivated;

  it remains a bad imitation of Nature, whereas it might be a great art.55

  –A. E. Waite, 1907

  Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942) had just turned fifty-three at the time Pamela posted her letter announcing her completion of the deck. During the time of its creation he had been living at 31 South Ealing Road in London, within reasonable commuting distance of Pamela. When Pamela was in London during that year and not visiting Ellen Terry at Smallhythe, they would have been able to meet with not much difficulty. How often they met and at what length we have no known record, although our guess is that they did not meet too often, despite Waite suggesting he had to “spoon-feed” certain images to Pamela. They could have communicated by telephone; we know that Pamela had a telephone number at York Mansions, which was “Metropolitan Midland Southern 276.” Waite’s later writings and memoirs do not refer to her in the manner of a close confidante or friend. He refers to her only as she was seen by those around her, not with any personal touch.

  In the year preceding his design of the tarot, Waite had become increasingly disillusioned with what he termed the “pseudo-occult side of things” (SLT, 172). This was despite his writing for the Occult Review. He was often writing on the mysteries of the Grail and the Arthurian Quest, which he viewed as a secret mystical tradition and not a historical account. He saw King Arthur as “not of this world, or of the immediate next either. It is of pure Romance, which indeed is truer than history, because it belongs to the eternal spirit of things.”

  His mind was also turning to Freemasonry and its mysteries in a search for the secret sanctuary, some rite or mystery beyond those designed by alumni of “Lodges and Taverns round about Covent Garden and Fleet Street, in early Georgian days” (SLT, 176). These thoughts took shape over this period and were published as the Secret Tradition in Freemasonry in 1911, the year following the tarot.

  Waite was immersed in the secrets of the Grail legends and Freemasonry when he conceived the tarot. He was also working on revising his work on grimoires (magical spell books) for the Rider publishing house, a company that survived, according to Waite, due to its prior publishing of the Timber Trade’s Journal. In this he was encouraged by Ralph Shirley (1865–1946), who appears to have held a good relationship with Waite. Shirley had founded the Occult Review in 1905, and also edited the Horoscope, an astrology journal, and Light, a Spiritualist journal. It may even have been Shirley who suggested the deck, as Waite was quite dismissive of the work, and Pamela was likely brought in purely to execute the artwork. Of course, Waite could have seen Pamela’s work and thought “that would be good for a deck” or Pamela herself might have suggested it.

  At the time, Waite was living with his wife and daughter at Sidmouth Lodge, a house located in Ealing, just eight miles north of the river Thames from Pamela. This has since been demolished, although we have located a photograph of the building. His signed census form shows that he held himself as a “Secretary of public
companies,” although he added underneath “disengaged at present.” He also notes that he is “born of American father and English mother” and is a “life resident in England.” It was perhaps this half-stepped out-of-place condition that was a common bond between Waite and Smith, as it would be ten years later with John Trinick, an Australian born to English parents who spent most of his life in England and who executed Waite’s second tarot deck.

  The Steps to the Crown

  Waite saw the tarot as a story of mystical and spiritual ascent, from the mundane world to the divine. He viewed the map of this ascent primarily on the Tree of Life, with the tarot cards as illustrations of the journey. He concentrated mainly on the twenty-two major cards, which correspond to the twenty-two paths of the Tree of Life, rather than the minors and court cards, which correspond to the four worlds and the ten Sephiroth on the Tree. This is because it is through the paths that we ascend, according to Kabbalah, as we learn each of their lessons. The paths also represent the world as we perceive it as we ascend though the ten grades of the Sephiroth, returning to divine union.

  So the major cards are the major lessons of life, as we learn them, and the minors are the grades of divine creation through the four worlds.

  We will take a look in this chapter at how Waite hid the secrets of this kabbalistic teaching in a lesser-known work, Steps to the Crown, and how that corresponds to and illuminates his concept of tarot as an illustration of these steps. We will also show how the preface of this work summarises Waite’s view of the four worlds and the levels of human experience, and apply it to the court cards.

  Steps to the Crown was published in 1906, four years prior to the Waite-Smith deck, and is a collection of what the Tribune newspaper review of the time called “terse and pregnant” aphorisms. According to Gilbert (1983), many of these aphorisms were published by Waite previously in Horlick’s magazine, which he edited, and later fifteen were printed by Florence Farr in A Calendar of Philosophy, in 1910.