content: Rating this one is difficult. The rich symbolism of Tarot was forever impacted by the Order of the Golden Dawn, and A.E. Waite's "Pictorial Key" is a glimpse into that symbolism. Readers with a serious interest in occult Tarot will find this an essential text. Waite, though, considered himself bound by vows of secrecy, and mixes misinformation and blinds in his work to lead the "uninitiated" astray, so reading critically is a must. To make matters worse, his prose style is ponderous and leaden, deliberately overcomplicated and abstruse, less animated than Al Gore. However, modern tarot decks borrow and adapt from the Waite-Smith deck design; to understand the symbolism that underlies almost every deck on the market today (frequently symbolism the deck designers had no awareness of), this book is absolutely necessary. It won't be a fun read, but it *is* necessary