- Listenly
- Public Library
- All Authors
- Arthur Edward Waite
author
Arthur Edward Waite
1857–1942
Best known for helping bring the Rider–Waite tarot deck into the world, this English mystic and writer spent decades exploring symbolism, ritual, and the history of hidden traditions. His books helped shape how many later readers approached tarot and Western esotericism.
2 Audiobooks
Devil-Worship in France; or, The Question of Lucifer
by Arthur Edward Waite
Lives of alchemystical philosophers
by Arthur Edward Waite, Francis Barrett
About the author
Born in 1857 in Brooklyn, New York, and raised mainly in England, Arthur Edward Waite became a prolific writer, scholar of mysticism, and prominent figure in the late 19th- and early 20th-century occult revival. He wrote widely on alchemy, ceremonial magic, Rosicrucianism, the Holy Grail, and Christian mysticism, often trying to distinguish serious spiritual study from sensational occult claims.
He is most widely remembered for his role in creating the Rider–Waite tarot deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith and first published in 1909. Waite also wrote The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, which helped explain the deck’s symbolism and contributed to its lasting influence.
Waite was associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later pursued his own more inward, mystical path. He died in 1942, leaving behind a large body of work that still interests readers of tarot, esoteric history, and spiritual symbolism.