The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. This is an updated edition of the original book. It is quite old fashioned, but studying the original text is beneficial if you want a rounded view of the cards. I wouldn't recommend it for beginners, but it is useful for anyone wanting to expand their basic knowledge.. It includes historical, social and political information and would also be a good artistic reference. Used in conjunction with other guides this is a useful text to have on your shelf.

I genuinely didn't realise when I selected this that this is essentially the primer book from the original time that the Rider-White deck was released. At the time the information was probably quite thorough but compared to other books I have read this just comes across as lacking. One of the moments that made me pause was the mention of the swapping of Strength and Justice in some decks... in that it got completely glossed over and not discussed at all. When the book does get to the actual cards themselves the descriptions are very basic. I'd really recommend the Jungian books in relation to tarot for a more in depth look.

Thank you to Net Galley and Repeater Books for this ARC!

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by AE Waite is a beautifully written reference book to accompany your tarot journey. My favorite part of this book was the foreword! Do not skip it! I will be buying this edition specifically for the foreword by Sereptie. The actual book itself is really written for more experienced tarot users, but if you feel drawn to it earlier on, I would recommend picking it up whenever feels right for you. I enjoyed the emphasis on tarot symbolism lying in the collective unconscious and about how it is to be used less as a fortune telling tool, but more as a tool to open a dialogue with the person having the reading done.

This pictorial guide is a reprint of the original 1910 publication by Arthur Edward Waite: The Pictorial Key to The Tarot, Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition Under the Veil of Divination.


When I first started reading this reprint, I thought to myself: "This guide must have been written centuries ago. The language is almost medieval in structure and tone." A little research disabused me of this suspicion. Despite the archaic language and sentence structure employed by the author, this book was, in fact, published in the first decade of the 20th century: in 1910, to be exact. The learned author refers to the numerous iterations of the imagery employed in tarot decks throughout its known history. This book is for avid devotees of The Tarot, for historians who already have decades of study and analysis under their erudite belts. I doubt that it would be much use as a guide for novices. The convoluted - indeed "squire-ly" - language and the dense sentence structures often had me rereading a passage more than once.

The Tarot is a hobby of mine. It is a very popular skill to have at parties or on seaside vacations. I am not a psychic. I memorized the meanings of all 78 cards and use the Celtic Cross layout to interpret a story - as laid out in the cards selected by the questioner. Quite often my questioner will complain that my interpretation of their card selection did not answer their (secret) question. I always remind them that THEY drew the cards, not I. (I also have to confess that this happens in my own self-readings.!)

I'm rating this reprint of the original edition a 3.5 out of 5 stars, because those of us who want a basic knowledge of The Tarot will get more than we bargained for in this verbally weighty tome. For collectors of Tarot books and memorabilia, this colourful, beautifully illustrated book will be a welcome edition to their bookshelves.

My thanks to the publisher, Repeater Books, and NetGalley for an ARC of this reprint in exchange for an honest review.