A. E. Waite
Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British poet and scholarly
mystic who wrote extensively on
occult and
esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the
Rider–Waite Tarot (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith or Waite–Smith deck). As his biographer R. A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a
systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of
protoscience or as the pathology of religion."
He was a
Freemason, as well as being a member of the
SRIA and
Golden Dawn.
He spent most of his life in or near London, connected to various publishing houses and editing a magazine, ''The Unknown World''.
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