Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot Quotes

“Waite, from where I sit, had about as much insight into that [the personality link to the Minor cards] and other matters as my beautiful Siamese cats. If anything, I have a sneaking suspicion that his artist, Pamela Coleman [sic] Smith, also a member of The Golden Dawn, was a strange clairvoyant creature whose inner vision must have had a greater effect on Waite than Waite did on her. Furthermore, I have always suspected that the real shining light behind this and so many of the other Golden Dawn concepts emanated from the fertile brain and vision of MacGregor-Mathers about whom we know so very little. —Israel Regardie, in a letter to Muriel Hasbrouck, October 25,”
― Marcus Katz, Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: The True Story of the World's Most Popular Tarot

“Temperance reconciles water and fire for Waite; it is the “cleansing” and the “saving” of divine connection. As such, it is a far more alchemical understanding that Waite had of this card than the version Pamela painted for his first deck. In fact, his second version of Temperance, in the Waite-Trinick images, shows a far loftier concept of the card. The Golden Dawn had two images of this card, and Crowley took from the alchemical version as Waite did with Trinick, but not with Pamela”
― Marcus Katz, Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: The True Story of the World's Most Popular Tarot

“It was as if she was more at home with her imagination than any land physical.”
― Marcus Katz, Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: The True Story of the World's Most Popular Tarot

“This is the true secret of the Waite-Smith Tarot—it was a rectification of the power of symbolism to provide universal access to a hidden sanctuary of mystical experience created by a bohemian Catholic artist and a Catholic mystic, presented through the theatrical tradition. 2.”
― Marcus Katz, Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: The True Story of the World's Most Popular Tarot