Advanced · 14 min
Waite in 1911 and now
Waite's 1911 divinatory meanings beside today's card pages: where they match, where they part, and how to use the older layer without its forecasts.
In this lesson you will
- Compare a card's 1911 divinatory meaning in Waite with its modern reading.
- Explain why some meanings changed while others stayed close.
- Use the 1911 layer for one extra angle that fits the position, without its forecasts.
You look up The Star in Waite's 1911 book, expecting hope, and the first words you read are “Loss, theft, privation, abandonment.” Did the card change, or did its readers?
Two layers of meaning
Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot gives each card two things: a description of Smith's picture and a list of divinatory meanings. The lists draw on the fortune-telling of his time, full of letters, legacies, journeys and strangers, and Waite often gives two readings that disagree. Modern readings, VeilSoul's card pages among them, lean on the pictures and on the reflective reading that spread in the twentieth century.
Reading the two layers side by side shows you where a meaning came from and where it changed. Sometimes they match closely, sometimes they part ways, and sometimes Waite already holds both.
This lesson is part of Plus
Plus opens every lesson of the Practitioner, Reader and Advanced tiers, with practice that explains every answer.
What the lesson covers
- How the layers meet
- Using the 1911 layer well
- Practice
Foundations and the first lesson of every course are free.