Biography of
Arthur Edward Waite
 Name: Arthur Edward Waite
Born: October 2,
1857
Location: Brooklyn,
NY
Died: 1942
Location: Bishopsbourne
in Kent, England
Nationality: American/English
Genealogy
Parents/Siblings:
- Father: Charles F. Waite
(Captain in Merchant Marine)
- Mother: Emma
Lovell
- Brother(s): None
- Sister(s): Frederika
Waite
Wife/Wives/Consort(s):
- Wives: 1st Wife - Ada
Lakeman (a.k.a.Lucasta) died; 2nd Wife - Mary Broadbent Schofield (a.k.a. Una Salus)
Children/Offspring:
- Son(s): None
- Daughter(s): Sybil Waite (by
Ada)
Chronicle
Principal Activity or Occupation(s):
- Clerk
- Magazine Editor
- Author
- A Critic and compiler on the history and doctrines of
occultism
Lived In:
- Brooklyn, NY
- London, England
- Ramsgate in Kent
Education:
- Small private school in North London
- St. Charles' College (Roman Catholic school in Baywater,
England)
Teachers and Mentors:
- At twenty-one he began to read regularly in the Library of the British Museum, studying many branches of
esotericism. (It was here that he came across the writings and teachings of Eliphas Levi).
Influences:
- The death of his sister in 1874 soon attracted him into psychical
research.
- Waite lost interest in the Roman Catholic Church, but retained a great love
for its ritual ceremony, in his later associations with secret Orders; he would utilize various aspects of
Roman Catholicism in his own ritual constructions.
- Eliphas Lévi
Key Relationships:
- Pamela
Colman-Smith (Co-creator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck).
- Gerschom Scholem,
famous for his critical approach and great knowledge in all matters of kabbala, took a very humilating position
against many productions of "Western Kabbala" but respected Waite as well informed on this
topic.
- S.L. MacGregor Mathers (One of the original founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn).
- Arthur Machen (Best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror
fiction).
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