WAITE, Arthur Edward.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Secret Doctrine in Israel. First edition, very scarce, from the library of the Medway Masonic Lodge No. 1678, with their shelf label on both endpapers. The Zohar is a foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. The Secret Doctrine is a key example of the blurred lines between interest in the occult, the Kabbalah, and long-standing anti-Semitic connections between Judaism and magic.Waite (1857-1942) was a member of the Golden Dawn, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, and a prolific historian of occultism. Though best known for the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, designed under his supervision by Pamela Colman Smith, "through his critical and historical studies of occultism in all its forms, and even more by his carefully edited alchemical texts, Waite brought order out of the chaos of the occult revival and enabled the study of both the history and content of 'rejected knowledge' to become academically acceptable" (ODNB).

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