[ TAROT - FELLOWSHIP OF THE ROSY CROSS - A. E. WAITE ] John Brahms Trinick & Wilfred Pippet.

The Symbols of the Paths / The Great Symbols of the Paths [ 23 black & white tarot-type designs in folder ].

London: Privately Published, 1917. First Edition Thus. The original grey card folder containing 23 10 x 8 inch loose black and white reproductions of highly detailed drawings, printed on coated paper. The set is complete as issued, comprising two plates numbered 0 & XI by Wilfred Pippet and 21 plates numbered XII to XXXII by John B Trinick. They are were issued circa 1925. They depict the 22 paths on the Tree of Life + Plate 0. The designs, the originals of which are apparently retained by the FRC, are sometimes referred to as "The Great Symbols of the Paths", or Waite’s esoteric tarot deck, and depict only the tarot trumps. That said, these were not cards as such, and were not used for divination, but for meditation and ritual work within the FRC. No plates were completed for the Sephiroth as Waite used the various Hebrew letters to represent these in rituals. Waite was apparently unhappy with the first two designs complete by Trinick which is why they were replaced with work by Wilfred Pippet. Waite's biographer, and chronicler of the FRC wrote usefully: "John Brahms Trinick (Frater Donee Attingam), a stained glass artist whose work was often exhibited at the Royal Academy, joined the Order as a young man when he arrived in England with the Australian Army during the First World War. He painted the 'Symbols of the Paths' (substitutes for traditional Tarot designs) used by the Order and drew the portrait of Waite, in his robes as Imperator of the order, that appears as the frontispiece to Volume I of "A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry." Later in life he took up Jungian psychology and wrote on the psychological interpretation of alchemy, his book "The Fire-Tried Stone" being published in 1967." ("A. E. Waite - Magician of Many Parts" by R. A. Gilbert p.146).
Trinick, was a professional artist and illustrator and a collection of his watercolour reproductions of European stained glass windows can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The original color paintings, which we saw at the London headquarters of the FRC in 2005, were all framed and used, as they still are used today, in the ceremonies of the FRC. A little light chafing and creasing to edges of folder, edges of some plates a little creased. Overall a VG + example of an interesting and unusual set. Item #70451

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