As Eliot's note points out the "wicked pack of cards" refers to a deck of Tarot cards. Only reluctantly is the Tarot is categorized here as an allusion. Before actually using any of this material I suggest that you also read the commentary for the Tarot.
At the end of chapter 6 of From Ritual to Romance Weston discusses the Tarot The following links will bring up a description of each card as given by A.E. Waite in his The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910):
- Three of Wands (The man with three staves).;
- This card in the Minor Arcana is mentioned on line 51.
- Wheel of Fortune
- This card in the Major Arcana is mentioned on line 51.
- The Hanged Man
- This card in the Major Arcana is mentioned on line 55.
- Two of Wands (The man with two staves).;
- This card in the Minor Arcana is not mentioned by Eliot but its description by Waite also seems symbolic of The Waste Land. Did Eliot get his cards mixed up?
- The Tower
- This card in the Major Arcana is not mentioned by Eliot but many commentators like to point out a connection between this Tarot card the ruined tower mentioned in Part V:
429) Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la tour abolie
In his 1956 essay "The Frontiers of Criticism" Eliot wrote an apology of sorts for the notes to The Waste Land:
The citation and a fuller quote are available on another page.I regret having sent so many enquirers off on a wild goose chase after Tarot cards and the Holy Grail.
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