Arthur Edward Waite
1857 – 1942 American-born English occult scholar, mystic, tarot designer
Occult scholar who co-created the Rider-Waite tarot and led a mystical Golden Dawn offshoot.
- Religion
- A mystical Christianity that read Kabbalah, alchemy, and Rosicrucianism as pointing toward inner union with God rather than practical magic.
- Affiliations
- Member and later leader of a branch of the Golden Dawn. Freemason and student of Rosicrucian history.
Arthur Edward Waite was a prolific scholar of Western esotericism who wrote histories of the Rosicrucians, alchemy, and the Holy Grail, favoring a mystical over a magical reading. With the artist Pamela Colman Smith he designed the Rider-Waite tarot, still the most widely used deck. Within the fractured Golden Dawn he led a branch that emphasized Christian mysticism over ceremonial magic.
Connections
- rival of Aleister Crowley — Crowley mocked Waite's mystical style in print.
- associate of Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers — Fellow Golden Dawn member before the order split.