Update: Ordering information here for the 250 copy limited edition.
The following announcement by Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz has stirred quite a controversy. At the end of this announcement you’ll find a link to an article by Tabatha Cicero that adds much to an understanding of issues involved in the publication of these images.
Tali Goodwin of Tarot Professionals and the blog Tarot Speakeasy, through extensive research, has discovered the ORIGINAL Waite-Trinick images that comprised a tarot deck conceptualized by A.E. Waite for the private use of members of his Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. Tali tracked the family of stained glass artist, J. B. Trinick, who had lived in Kendal, England, and found the original color paintings!
Late last year Marcus Katz stumbled across an ebay sale for a set of worn and damaged images that he immediately recognized as part of a mysterious second Waite deck. It had been brought to the attention of tarotists in Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett’s book A History of the Occult Tarot. The illustrations here are from that book. The new discovery was part of a series of several major synchronicities in the story of this rare deck that have taken place over the last two years.
Tali and Marcus were able to view and photograph the beautiful and enigmatic original paintings and have agreed with the owners to bring out a book (in color and b&w) of the major twenty-two images with full commentary prior to Christmas 2011.
The commentary will be based on Waite’s unpublished and extensive commentary on the images, which has led to a complete mapping of Waite’s “secret” correspondences to the Tree of Life. Marcus says that this set of correspondences is so blindingly obvious and “makes sense,” such that he believes we will be astounded. It will be interesting to see if the mapping corresponds with the revised Tree of Life described in Decker and Dummett’s book. Also, this clears up a long-running controversy about whether the Rider-Waite-Smith deck was designed with Golden Dawn Tree of Life Associations in mind. My feeling is that it was, as Waite clearly uses these associations in some of his Order papers, but it’s also clear that he wasn’t really satisfied with them.
Tarot Professionals are hosting a funding drive—live on Indigogo (now available) to ask for assistance towards publication. As they want to make these remarkable images—and the biggest discovery in Tarot this century—available to everyone. I’ll post the information as soon as I get it.
For additional information and another perspective, read Tabatha Cicero on “The Great Symbols of the Paths” at The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn blog.

About John Trinick
About John Trinick
x
Several years ago, Cerulean, on Aeclectic’s tarot forum, posted this information about Trinick:
John Trinick was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 17 August 1890, sailing to England with his parents in 1893 before returning to Australia in 1907. He studied in the art school of the National Gallery of Victoria between 1910 and 1915 and then returned to England in 1919 to continue his studies at the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole school of Art.
Trinick began to specialise in glass in 1921 when he joined the studios of William Morris Merton and ten years later he opened his own studio in Upper Norwood, London. He rapidly became famous for the quality of his work, exhibiting widely at The Royal Academy, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and in Vitoria, Spain, in addition to providing stained glass windows for several churches, including a complete set of chapel windows for St. Michael’s in 1951. Among his other work was a panel, Opus Sectile, depicting Our Lady of Walsingham in Westminster Cathedral; 11 windows for St. Pius X, London and the entire chapel scheme for Salmerston Grange, Margate.
He was also an accomplished illustrator in watercolour, pencil, pastel and crayon, a collection of Trinick’s watercolour copies of European stained glass windows ws purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it forms part of the V and A archives.
Although the majority of Trinick’s work involved ecclesiastical commissions, he did not limit his exploration of spirituality to Christianity. He actively explored many modes of thinking throughout his life, including Rosicruianism and Freemasonry. He had a strong interest in alchemy and other forms of ancient spirituality. In 1922 he published a book of poetry entitled Dead Sanctuary and, in 1967, at the age of 84, he published a philosophical volume, The Fire Tried Stone, an appraisal of the work of Carl Jung.
John Trinick died in 1974, many of his designs returning to Australia.
This color design for five stained glass windows is in the University of Melbourne Art Collection.
Here’s his St. Theresa Window from Our Lady of Dolours, Hendon.
30 comments
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September 17, 2011 at 1:49 pm
shelleyjcarter
Congratulations to Tali and Marcus … that is SO exciting! Can’t wait to see the illustrations!
September 17, 2011 at 2:24 pm
ordinaryesotericist
Amazing, the images so far are beautiful!
September 17, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Juliette Williams
this is fantastic! Looking forward to seeing the illustrations!!
September 17, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Jim Maher
Can’t though will have to wait…no pun intended, just saw it as I wrote it… for more information to come to light, I live in Australia & yet any knowledge of J.B Trinick until now has eluded me…..Thanks Mary.
September 17, 2011 at 3:22 pm
roppo
Great contribution to the study of modern Tarot!
September 17, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Sharyn
Thanks for sharing the news Mary.
September 17, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Roberto Arteaga-A (@elarbolcelta)
great, waiting to take a big look
September 17, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Paul Nagy
Yes this project is much admired and I am happy that many of us will be able to contribute to the expense of making the set and book available. Kudos to Tali and Marcus. Thanks to Mary for keeping us advised!
September 17, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Naya Aerodiode
Simply amazing. The Waite deck (the original) set the standard for all tarot to come. It’s incredible to see more of this ground-breaker’s vision.
September 18, 2011 at 12:31 am
Ina Cüsters-van Bergen
This is an amazing discovery. Thank you for sharing this news Mary! I will post it on the forum of the Hermetic Order of the Temple of Starlight. The members of our temple will be very interested in this discovery
September 18, 2011 at 5:13 am
Tony Fuller
It may be a little bit of a misnomer to say that are ‘discovered’. There are coloured versions of these cards/Keys (including a large version) which are in constant use by the FRC Order in London and elsewhere. The FRC has continued, almost without interruption since Waite established it. The coloured versions are even more dramatic. Dr R.A. Gilbert suggested that some of the cards may have inspired drawings for th original Lord of the Rings – Charles Williams, an influential member of the Inklings (Tolkien, Lewis) was also a member of the FRC for many years. Details can be found in Gilbert’s biography of Waite.
September 18, 2011 at 6:58 am
Tabatha
Hi Mary,
I have been giving a slide lecture entitled “Images of Initiation,” on Waite’s “Great Symbols of the Paths” (both black and white images) with the permission by the owners since 2006. I plan on giving it again at Pantheacon 2012. The Waite Cards are one of a kind. I have always found it fascinating that Waite’s writing was so heavy-handed, while his images for the “Great Symbols” were so elegant and simple.
September 18, 2011 at 8:55 am
mkg
Tony & Tabatha –
The b&w images have been making the rounds for years. And colored versions have been in private hands but rarely shared with others and then usually under strict vows of secrecy. However, these are the original artworks—which seems like a pretty stunning discovery to me. Plus, those involved are willing to share them with everyone else. That’s news!
Tony – it’s great to know that the Order continued unabated without Waite. Has it changed much or do members continue to follow the rituals just as Waite wrote them?
September 18, 2011 at 12:16 pm
tarotpic8ynette Packer
Oh – Thankyou for this interesting post Mary …very exciting news … have shared with various groups whom I know will be interested. Can’t wait to read the book…..interesting times we live in – much seems to be coming to our attention. Warmest Lynette
September 18, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Tabatha
Hi Mary, Sorry, in my post I meant to say “both black and white and color images.” Its very interesting because the originals that we took photos of at the headquarters of the FRC were (we had assumed) the only ones in existence. Perhaps this means that Trinick painted a Second Set? That would be ground-breaking news!
September 18, 2011 at 3:18 pm
mkg
Tabatha –
Marcus, Tali and I are all taking off on Tarot journeys, but you should talk to Marcus & Tali soon at Tarot Professionals about what versions are involved.
September 19, 2011 at 8:04 am
Douglass White
Thank you for this fascinating post. I look forward to the book and possibly a deck based on these newly discovered images.
September 21, 2011 at 5:22 am
Una nueva revelación en el mundo del Tarot… « LAS CARTAS LENORMAND
[…] el trabajo de difusión de esta noticia, se lo debemos Mary k.Greer, que como siempre nos tiene en su blog sumamente bien informados, de todos los acontecimientos en […]
September 21, 2011 at 11:20 am
The Wild Hunt » A New Pagan Publisher Launches and other Pagan News of Note
[…] The Wild Hunt’s interview with Margot Adler on the release of the 2006 edition of the book).Mary K. Greer lets us know about an incredible discovery in the world of tarot, a second set of painted images commissioned by A.E Waite ten years after the now-famous […]
September 24, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Köy Deli
As there are also images for the sephiroth should the complete set be one of 32 trumps?
quote:
The allocation of the Tarot Trumps Major to the Paths of the Tree of Life is obviously the next step, and attempts have been made in this direction by blundering symbolists, but they have forgotten that in the Mystical Tree the Sephiroth are also Paths, making thirty-two Paths of Wisdom, from which it follows that in the logic of things there ought to be thirty-two Trumps.
end quote from
[i]The Great Symbols of the Tarot[/i] by Arthur Edward Waite
Published in [i]The Occult Review[/i] January 1926
September 25, 2011 at 9:11 am
Claire-Marie
Thank you for the news, and thank you for the link to where we can help sponsor the publication.
September 26, 2011 at 4:45 am
mkg
Koy –
Yes, as I understand it there should be a set of 32 cards that include the sephiroth. I haven’t seen all of the images yet, so I don’t know for sure.
September 26, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Köy Deli
Thanks mkg : as Wilfred Pippet is reported to have illustrated some of the symbols of the paths in 1923 – I presume that his would not be among the estate of Trinick’s anyway – and would involve other copyright permissions to be obtained… anyways, I look forward to seeing whatever images are available, and to learning about Waite’s revised attributions.
November 11, 2011 at 12:01 am
Salamander and Sons
What a blessing to have this Waite-Trinick material more widely available, and soon. Kudos to both Tali and Marcus for such detective work and determination! The publication cannot come soon enough.
November 11, 2011 at 7:48 am
Tabatha
Hi Mary,
I’m glad to hear that the copyright issues have been resolved. I look forward to seeing the book. The cards are fantastic and the entire tarot community will be thrilled by these beautiful images!
LVX,
Tabatha
February 4, 2014 at 6:04 pm
A.E. Waite’s Little Known Second Tarot Deck | Frederick Woodruff * Astrology * Gurdjieff * Fourth Way * Vashon Astrologer
[…] scholar Mary Greer posted a detailed entry on the Waite Trinick deck several years ago. Shortly thereafter there was a […]
January 9, 2018 at 3:35 pm
wmeegan
Mary Greer:
I just got the book: ABIDING IN THE SANCTUARY and just reading the first page: i.e. pg. #9, I find myself instantly disagreeing with your texts: THE GRACE WHICH ABIDES.
Yes, Crowley and Regardie may have been members of the Golden Dawn; however, their decks of Tarot Cards were not the chosen three decks prior to A.E. Waite second version of the Tarot Cards, which you call the fourth deck.
I also envisaged that there was a fourth version; however, until I learned of Trinick’s creation based upon A.E. Waite instructions I couldn’t imagine how the fourth supreme superlative deck would look like.
I believe the first three decks of Tarot Cards from the Golden Dawn was actually used by PAPUS in his work TAROT OF THE BOHEMIANS; however, the Marseille Tarot Cards were improved upon in A.E. Waites days and Paul Forster Case improved upon the second version ;that PAPUS used in his work and called it the B.O.T.A. Tarot Cards, which is a combination of A.E. WAITE’s Rider-Waite Tarot Cards and the revise version of the Marseille Tarot Cards.
Thus, the fourth Tarot Card deck: Trinick version completed the thesis on the Trinitarian Paradigm.
January 13, 2018 at 2:52 pm
mkg
wmeegan,
I’m afraid I don’t understand your objections. The English edition of Papus’ Tarot of the Bohemians, with an introduction by Waite (1910), is illustrated by a black and white Marseille-style deck and by the 1889 deck by Oswald Wirth (the BOTA deck had nothing to do with Papus). Papus did not use any Golden Dawn material or decks in his book as he was working in the French tradition, which is significantly different. My point, however, was that Waite felt free in his later Fellowship of the Rosy Cross to create a set of images that expressed the essence of his Secret Tradition, as described in his many books and articles specifically on the Secret Tradition. The Trinick “deck” is not Tarot as we normally think of it (despite the title to this post), but rather “Great Symbols of the Paths” to be used solely in ritual and meditation.
Mary
January 13, 2018 at 4:18 pm
wmeegan
What I meant about PAPUS is that he used decks, which were later on improved upon symbolically and aesthetically by the Golden Dawn members.
I fully understand that the Trinick deck is not Tarot Cards per se; however, they show supreme superlative concepts that supersede the Rider-Waite Tarot Cards. In fact the Trinick deck uses more than one-image in many of the Tarot Cards to convey a deeper spiritual meaning.
For example the THE WORLD has two images as if you can enter into the material animalistic world or enter into the spiritual realm from either direction.
Now look at the Resurrection’s three-images where Arthur Edward Waite has the male and female swastika in two of them, but Noah Ark in all three of them. Arthur Edward Waite knew of what I have named the MATRIX OF WISDOM (10 x 10 square): i.e. commentary on the MONAD, which per se he never talks about: see Rider-Waite’s Nine of Swords, which proves he knew of the matrix, which exudes the three swastika https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1599671280072280&set=pcb.1566172336755508&type=3&theater
My research is totally on the Matrix of Wisdom which I intuited in 1994 while researching Dante Alighieri’s mathematical system, which was academically published in 1997. This matrix is known all over the world by all cultures in all times and climes. Go to my FACEBOOK PAGE, which is solely about my research. I rarely allow anything else on the site.
I don’t look into the history or fortune telling via the Tarot Cards. I am light years away from all that garbage.
By the way I liked your Preface to ABIDING IN THE SANCTUARY; however, I did not approve of any of Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz texts; therefore, I am very happy just to have all the images of Trinick images. Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz texts going into Aliester Crowley nonsense and then chaotically revising Arthur Edward Waite’s positioning of the Hebrew alphabet amongst the Tarot Cards is absolutely ridiculous. I can understand why they did it; because, they are psychically into Aliester Crowley mentality.
I know that Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz are your friends and that is why they let you do a preface to the book; however, I don’t re-frame from telling my version of the truth.
I already knew of Tali Goodwin and Marcus Katz way of writing because I have there work: SECRETS OF THE WAITE-SMITH TAROT. This work is merely like someone looking at the Tarot Cards and giving a visual description of what they are looking at. That has nothing to do with revealing secrets.
I have my point of view, you have yours; but, your writings on site are nothing like their.
Thank you for your responses.
May 19, 2020 at 11:05 am
Kevin Finch
Hi I’m trying to find where I can buy abiding in the sanctuary book and deck the Waite trinick tarot
A Christian mystical tarot(1917-1923)
Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz mba,ma
Preface by Mary k Greer that’s you if you can let me know that would make her day many thanks