Waite, Arthur Edward(1857–1942) Author, mystic, magician, alchemist, and occultist/Arthur Edward Waite is probably best remembered as the cocreator of the popu- lar Rider-Waite TAROT card deck. He was a member of the HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN and was active in both ROSICRUCIANISM and FREEMASONRY.
Waite was born on October 2, 1857, in Brooklyn, New York, to Captain Charles F. Waite of the U.S. Merchant Marines and Emma Lovell, the daughter of a wealthy mer- chant involved in the East Indian trade. Captain Waite died at sea on September 29, 1858, leaving his wife with a baby and pregnant with their second child. After deliv- ering Waite’s sister Frederika, the three returned to Lon- don. Emma and Charles had never married, as her family objected to the match. They did not welcome her return with two illegitimate children, forcing Emma to live in the poorer sections of north and west London. As further renunciation of her parents’ unyielding rejection, Emma converted to Roman Catholicism and raised her children in the faith.