Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942)

THE DOCTRINE AND LITERATURE OF THE KABALAH

PREFACE

FEW educated persons, and certainly none belonging
to the class of students for which this work is more
especially designed, will require to be told that the
Kabalah is a form of esoteric philosophy, that it
makes for itself a high claim, or that this claim has,
from time to time, been admitted by persons who are
entitled to our consideration. Nor will it be needful
to state that the literature called Kabalistic rose up
among the Jews during the Christian centuries which
succeeded their dispersal and the destruction of their
Holy City. It offers a strong contrast to the sacred
scriptures of Israel, which are direct, beautiful and
simple, while Kabalism is involved, obscure and in
many ways repellent as regards its outward form.
The Bible is in focus with humanity; the Kabalah is
distorted out of all correspóndence with the simple
senses, and we must grind our intellectual lenses with
exceeding care if we would bring it into perspective...… (más)

THE BROTHERHOOD OF ROSY CROSS

THE PREFACE

THE external facts connected with the Rosy Cross on the
historical side were set out with no inconsiderable accuracy,
so far as general lines are concerned, in a work which I
devoted to the subject at the beginning of my literary
life; and it appears even to have remained as a general
source of reference since its date of publication in the year
1887. It was impossible at the period that I should have
carried the research further, as-for example-into the
inward history of Rosicrucian symbolism.

There were seals upon the gates leading into such realms,
and they were not to be broken by the simple lettered student.
As such he depended solely on the resources of ascertainable
or public facts, and on the guidance of precursors who had
entered the region of debate, though after a certain point
most presumed authorities had to be set aside.

The book has been long out of print, and as since then it has
been given me to open many doors at which I had scarcely
knocked in 1887, while others were unknown, I feel that
the time has come to take up the old subject and to treat
it after a new manner, as one who can speak now not
only with different and much further knowledge on the
internal side but as one also who has travelled various
paths belonging to its sacred world. In the present volume
I shall be concerned therefore with the Rosy Cross
intus et foris scripta, like some of its own books. The present
era seems to offer a favourable opportunity for a record
of this kind and for the experiment which it involves,...… (más)

OCULTISMO AL DESNUDO

Arthur Edward Waite fue miembro del movimiento ocultista inglés Golden Dawn (Amanecer de Oro). En 1903 tomó el cargo más importante de esta orden. Edward Waite estuvo comprometido con la alquimia y el tarot, esto constituyó que Waite quisiera realizar un estudio profundo para corregir algunas especulaciones que se habían suscitado por otros autores con respecto al tarot. El autor en cuestión también fundó la secta “El orden del amanecer de oro”, agrupación que se dedicó a cultivar las ciencias ocultas.… (más)