Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite was a profound scholar of the occult. He was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and made the tarot accessible to the reader with the release of his seminal work, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, in 1909. The book is broken into three parts: "The Veil and Its Symbols" which provides a history of the tarot along with traditional symbols associated with each card; "The Doctrine of the Veil" comprising 78 black and white images of the Rider-Waite deck along with regular and reversed meanings; and "The Outer Methods of the Oracles" which discusses the art of tarot divination, including the now famous Celtic Cross Spread.

Contents describe symbols and secret tradition; the four suits of Tarot, including wands, cups, swords, and pentacles; the recurrence of cards in dealing; an ancient Celtic method of divination; as well as wonderful illustrations of Tarot cards.While the perfect complement to old-style fortune telling, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot also serves to make the Tarot entirely accessible to modern-day readers. It is also the classic guide to the Rider-Waite deck and to Tarot symbolism in general.