The Celtic tarot and the secret traditions: a study in modern legend making

Folklore, Annual, 1998 by Juliette Wood

Many of Waite's ideas resonate widely in the literature of the twentieth century.(4) T.S. Eliot used tarot imagery in "The Waste Land," and the images, although not their esoteric meaning, were probably those of the Rider pack (Gibbons 1972, 560-5). The most famous member of the Golden Dawn, W.B. Yeats, used the images in Red Hanrahan (Yeats 1913). It has been suggested that the philosophy of the Golden Dawn was a formative influence on his perceptions of Celtic mythology (Moore 1954, 105-12; Raine 1972, 17-22). These ideas, which weave in and out of occult, academic and fictional writings, share common ground in their readiness to link material of differing periods and contexts without concern for external validation and to assume that one can be used to explain the other.

The Celtic and Occult revivals of the twentieth century make similar assumptions. For example, Lewis Spence, Scottish nationalist and folklorist, was an important influence on modern druidry. He firmly believed that Celtic religion was essentially a mystery religion whose revival would provide a buffer against the evils of modernity (Spence 1940, 99-102). The degree to which these rather speculative assumptions were accepted, or at least tolerated, in academic circles is illustrated in Steven Runciman's The Medieval Manichee, a study of dissident belief in the middle ages. Runciman suggested that the trumps, the twenty-two pictorial cards, reflected the secret symbolism of the Cathars (Runciman 1955, 176-80 and 186-9). The Arthurian scholar, R.S. Loomis, gave serious consideration to Celtic origins for medieval romance and, for a time, its possible links with mystery religion (Loomis 1975, 261; 1991, ix). While acknowledging his debt to Nutt on many points, however, he avoids reference to Waite (Loomis 1991, ix-xi, 20-7, 74-81 and 271-8).

Waite and Folklore Theory

Waite's theories were not the only influences shaping new interpretations of the meaning of the tarot and the Grail. Nevertheless, he encapsulates the fascinating and frustrating mixture of analysis and esotericism which give the modern tarot both its vigorous innovative quality and its lack of historical coherence. Waite's ideas illustrate the process by which a cultural theory and its methodology can become re-ified and transformed into belief. This cultural theory is the next topic.

The dominant view in folklore studies at the end of the nineteenth century suggested that customs, beliefs and tales were the survivals of earlier, more primitive, levels of culture when men had looked to non-rational forces to explain certain aspects of life, such as human fertility and seasonal cycles. Anthropological folklorists attributed these survivals to changes in outlook brought about by increasing rationality as culture evolved. The basis for this assumption was an evolutionary imperative with no obvious moral force (Harris 1968, 164-9). By the end of the nineteenth century this position had been modified to some extent. J.G. Frazer placed particular emphasis on descriptions of so-called agricultural rituals in pre-classical contexts. Folklore was still seen as a survival of earlier cultural forms, but these forms were being seen in the context of neareastern models. The links with agricultural rituals were strengthened, with increased emphasis on parallels between mythic and narrative patterns. A group of Cambridge-based classicists emphasised the role of myth as the narrative correlative of ritual. This shifted the emphasis from myth as a primitive explanation of natural phenomena to myth as a magic means to maintain a worldview (Weston 1993, xxi-xxiv).