Fairfax Cartwright

Burton was not the only 19th century diplomat to write Sufi influenced texts. Sir Fairfax Leighton Cartwright wrote “The Mystic Rose from the Garden of The King” which consists of Sufi teaching stories adapted from well known stories. Idries Shah devotes the latter part of his chapter on Burton in The Sufis to a description of The Mystic Rose and its usefulness in understanding certain aspects of Sufism. I

There is a  section in the heart of the book devoted to the major arcana of the Tarot, together with some explanations which deviate from the standard accepted ones. As an example card 15, The Devil, appears as a snake swallowing its own tail.

The book was republished by Watkins in the 1970’s and can still be obtained from various web based booksellers – eg Abe Books. It is well worth a read.

External Links

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=139263

Sir Fairfax Leighton Cartwright – Wikipedia