The Tarot of the Golden Dawn - Joseph Gurney

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Journal of the Western Mystery TraditionNo. 17, Vol. 2. Autumnal Equinox 2009

The Tarot of the Golden Dawn

by Joseph Gurney

Introduction

The pseudonymous “Fraulein Sprengel,” supposed author of the

Cipher Manuscripts, clearly thought that the Tarot was an

immensely important subject for the Golden Dawn. Six folios –

ten percent of the total number – concern a lecture on the Tarot

which was delivered to members of the grade of 3=8

Practicus.[1]

The Tarot is referred to with progressive frequency

in the Golden Dawn teachings as one advances up the grades to

Adeptus Minor and beyond.

What is fundamental to remember about the Tarot of the

Golden Dawn is that it is most definitely not just a system of

Divination. If one were to join the Golden Dawn, having

absolutely no prior knowledge of the Tarot or what it is meant

to be, one would glean the following from the way that the

order teaches the subject –

Firstly: the Tarot Trumps are visual symbols of the initiate’s

progress on the Tree of Life, and through the Order itself.

Secondly: the Tarot generally is a method of uniting Astrology

and the Qabalah, in particular the attributions of the Hebrew

alphabet, and teachings on the Sephiroth, the Partzufim, and the

Tree of Life generally.

Thirdly: the Tarot is an essential part of a highly sophisticated

theory of the human Aura, Astrology, Ceremonial Magic, and

the convoluted interplay of energies between the four worlds of

the Qabalah.

Fourthly: yes, the Tarot can be used for divination. But even in

this it is not mere fortune telling. The teachings given to Golden

Dawn initiates say that one should approach a Tarot Divination

with as much care as one would a full ceremonial magic

operation – literally in fact. The recommended method of Tarot

divination in the Golden Dawn is in fact a synthesis of

cartomantic practice, ceremonial magic, and clairvoyance.

Fifthly, the Tarot was incorporated directly into the ceremonial

magic of the Golden Dawn – most obviously through its

inclusion in the Enochian system. The peculiar attributions of

the individual squares of the Enochian tablets as specified by

the Golden Dawn require one to know the Tarot in order to

Tarot of the Golden Dawn - Joseph Gurney http://www.jwmt.org/v2n17/gu

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appreciate all of the various forces which are at work.

There were yet further applications for the Tarot devised by

members of the Golden Dawn, but which were not fully

developed before the original Order closed in 1903. However,

successor groups to the Golden Dawn developed them to a high

degree. The most famous of these other Tarot applications as far

as modern day occultists are concerned is the practice of

Pathworking on the Tree of Life, in which the Tarot trumps arefocal points for clairvoyant excursions along the paths which

link the various Sephiroth. The earliest reference I can find to

“Pathworking” as an actual practice appears to have been

authored by J W Brodie-Innes.[2] This now appears to be a

widespread practice, described by occult authors such as Chic

& Tabatha Cicero[3]

; Osbourne Phillips[4]

; and Nick Farrell[5]

;

to name but a few.

A more obscure application of the Tarot was mentioned in a

document written for the original order by Macgregor Mathers,in the context of the curriculum of “Theoricus Adeptus Minor.”

This was a practice referred to as “Tarot Divination translated

into Magical Action.”[6] This has never been published:

although as other papers of the Theoricus Adeptus Minor have

surfaced over the years, there is every possibility that it was

actually written, and perhaps a copy lies in some unknown

archive somewhere.

In short, we should remember that the order intended the Tarot

to be an important key to unlock the full potentiality of the

Golden Dawn system. When one considers that the aim of theGolden Dawn system is to access the Tree of Life in all its many

subtleties, one can appreciate that the Tarot is a powerful

theurgical tool.

A Brief History of the Tarot prior to the Golden Dawn

In order to understand how important the Hermetic Order of the

Golden Dawn was to Tarot, it is first necessary to appreciate

what state the subject was in prior to the foundation of that

society. The first definitive evidence of a seventy-eight card

tarot deck occurs in the late fifteenth century – the “Sola-

Buschi Tarocchi” which is dated to 1491. There are earlierdecks, such as the Visconti decks which date from circa 1442 to

1447, however these are either incomplete or else they were

deliberately not made with the full seventy-eight cards as we

know them today. Note that the so-called “Visconti-Sforza”

deck which is nowadays available is only a modern

approximation of the original Visconti decks, as there is no

historical record that any of the originals had either a “Devil” or

“Tower” card. The earliest evidence for playing cards in Europe

generally is from 1367, when they were banned in Bern,


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Switzerland, implying they had been in existence at least from

some time in the mid-fourteenth century.

Despite the historical evidence that Tarot decks first came into

existence sometime between the mid fourteenth and late

fifteenth centuries, the first evidence that they were used for

divinatory purposes is not until the late eighteenth century, at

least three hundred years later. It was at this time that Antoine

Court de Gebelin first alleged that the Tarot was in fact the“Book of Thoth” – a repository of the ancient mysteries of

Egypt, which had been brought to Europe by the Gypsies.[7]

De

Gebelin also first alleged that the twenty two trumps were

associated with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but did not

give the attributions.[8]

One of de Gebelin’s contemporaries,

however, was more explicit, by stating that the trump cards

should actually be read as if “The Fool” were attributed to Tau,

and the rest in reverse of the order established by Lévi some

seventy years later (vide infra).[9]

This arrangement is at odds with modern attributions, but there

are three points worth noting. Firstly: both de Gebelin and his

contemporary, de Mellet, put “The Fool” at the head of the

Tarot trumps ahead of the so-called “Game of Cups” or

“Juggler” – which is the old title for the “Magician.” Secondly:

they associated the suits of the Tarot to the suits of common

playing cards in the following manner – Spades, Swords, Hearts,

Cups, Diamonds, Batons (i.e. Wands), and Clubs, Coins (i.e.

Pentacles). Some cartomancers have found this somewhat

counter-intuitive, and instead attribute Diamonds to Coins and

Clubs to Batons as did Papus,[10] although quite inconsistently

he switched from his own attribution back to De Gebelin’s

part-way through his book.[11]

Thirdly: by using de Mellet’s Trump / Hebrew letter attribution,

the letter Tzaddi is attributed to “The King” (an old title for

“The Emperor”) – a fact which a certain Aleister Crowley made

use of in the twentieth century.

We should also remember that when de Gebelin and de Mellet

were writing, the Rosetta Stone had not yet been translated, sotheir speculations as to an ancient Egyptian derivation for the

word “Tarot” have no basis in reality. Indeed, there is no

historical basis for claiming that the Tarot originated in Egypt at

all: the idea of the “Book of Thoth” being one of a number of

myths which tend to crop up from time to time in the Western

Mysteries.

Yet, like all good myths, it continued to have an influential hold

on people’s imaginations. Thus it was that Eliphas Lévi

confidently asserted the relation of the Hebrew letters to the


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How Tarot was taught in the Golden Dawn

An initiate of the Golden Dawn first encountered mention of the

Tarot in the grade of Zelator, i.e. the second grade,[14]

when he

or she was told to memorise the names of the twenty-two

trumps, and the four suits.[15]

At this stage only memorisation,

and not analysis was necessary.

Assuming that the initiate successfully passed the Zelator exam,

he or she was entitled to be advanced to higher grades in which

they were exposed to progressively more Tarot imagery. In the

next grade, that of Theoricus, the first part of the ceremony

features a large reproduction of the Tarot trump “The Universe”

prominently displayed on the central altar. The next grade

ceremony of Practicus was in three parts: in the first two the

initiate was shown the trumps of “Judgment” and “The Sun”

respectively. In the fifth grade ceremony, that of Philosophus,

the candidate was shown three trumps: “The Moon,” “The Star”

and “The Tower.” In each case the various ceremonies followthe initiatory rationale of the Golden Dawn: as a Candidate is

advanced to a new grade, they are initiated in the mysteries of a

Sephirah of the Tree of Life, and in those of all the paths

leading up to the Sephirah. Hence:

Number Name of the

grade

The candidate is initiated in…

0º=0 Neophyte -

1º=10 Zelator Malkuth

2º=9 Theoricus The Path of Tav (“The Universe”);

Yesod.3º=8 Practicus The Paths of Shin (“Judgment”)

and Resh (“The Sun”);

Hod.

4º=7 Philosophus The Paths of Qoph (“The Moon”),

Tzaddi (“The Star”), and Peh (“The

Tower”);

Netzach

The grade of Practicus was the most interesting as far as the

Tarot is concerned, for it was in this grade the initiate was given

detailed information about the attributions of the Tarot trumps.In the original Practicus ceremony, the new 3=8 is shown a

diagram of trumps / letters of the Hebrew alphabet whilst

traversing the path of Resh. One of the officers, the Hegemon,

pointed out the diagram to the candidate, saying:

This shows the true and genuine attribution of the

Tarot trumps to the Hebrew alphabet which has

long been a secret among the Initiates and which

should be carefully concealed from the outer


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world.[16]

The showing of this particular diagram to the candidate during

the Practicus ceremony is specified in the Cipher

Manuscript.[17]

However, in the version of the same ritual which Israel Regardie

published in 1937, this particular part was omitted, indicatingthat some temples at least had adopted the practice of chopping

parts out of the rituals.[18]

However, in both the early and later temples, the new Practicus

was given an instruction paper on the Tarot trumps as part of

the Knowledge lecture for that grade. Here we have another

curiosity: the lecture on the Tarot which appears to have been

given out to Practici differs substantially from that specified in

the Cipher Manuscript, the former being an original composition

by Macgregor Mathers.

The version in the Cipher manuscript essentially amounts to an

explanation as to why the Golden Dawn’s astrological and

Qabalistic attributions of the Trumps differ from those already

published. For example, as to why “The Juggler” is associated

with Beth, a letter which should correspond to a planet, and not

Aleph, which corresponds to Air, the Cipher Manuscript says

this:

The Juggler is the natural symbol of Mercury the

god of tricksters and also the deeper knowledge.[19]

Mathers’ version takes a different approach. According to him,

each Tarot trump is to be thought of as the combined product of

the Sephirah at the upper end of the path in question, the

astrological significance of the path itself, and the Sephirah at

the lower end of the path. So to take the example of “The

Juggler” again, Mathers says:

1. The Juggler=The Crown of Understanding, the

beginning of material production, the Primum

Mobile acting through the Philosophic Mercury on

Saturn.[20]

That is to say: “The Juggler” is attributed to the path of Beth. At

the top of the path is Kether, which is the Crown, and also

represents the Primum Mobile, and the idea of “beginning.”

Beth itself is attributed by the Golden Dawn to the planet of

Mercury. At the bottom of the path is Binah, which is

Understanding, and also represents Saturn and the general idea

of motherhood, giving birth, i.e. “material production.” In like

manner, each of the descriptions of Tarot trumps given by


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Mathers can clearly be seen to be syntheses of the respective

parts of the Tree of Life.

Both lectures on the Tarot go someway to giving a brief

explanation of the Minor Arcana as well. In the Cipher

Manuscript this is very brief:

Cards of each suit: The 4 suits are the 4 worlds. The

16 cards are the lower fold Tetragrammaton.[21]

In other words: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles

respectively represent Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah,

whilst the King, Queen, Prince and Princess respectively

represent Yod, Heh, Vav and Heh on their respective planes.

Mathers on the other hand refers to the Minor Arcana thus:

The King and the Queen are the correlations of the

Abba and the Aima in that suit; the Knight or

Prince answers to Microprosopus, and the Knave or

Princess which was anciently a female figure, is

referred to the Bride, Kallah or Malkah.[22]

This expands on the idea of the Court Cards representing the

Tetragrammaton, and also indicate how the Qabalistic teaching

of the “Partzufim” may be incorporated into both the Tarot and

the Tree of Life.

All I have described up to now was the sum extent of

instruction on the Tarot given to members of the Outer Order. It

was all theoretical knowledge to be memorised: initiates were

not expected to do practical work or divination, and

consequently the divinatory meanings of the Tarot cards were

not touched upon.

How the Tarot was taught in the “Inner Order”

After spending a minimum of seven months in the grade of

Philosophus and passing the required examination, the initiate

was entitled to be advanced to the grade of “Portal of the Paths

of the Vault of the Adepti.” This grade does not have a direct

equivalent in other Rosicrucian orders, such as the SRIA.

According to the Golden Dawn idiom it represented the outer or

lower half of Tiphereth. It was created by the founders of theGolden Dawn to complete the symbolism of the outer order

which was otherwise left unresolved by the Adeptus Minor

ceremony.

In the Portal ceremony itself, the candidate is again presented

with three more Tarot trumps: “Death,” “The Devil” and

“Temperance,” representing the Paths leading up to Tiphereth

from Netzach, Hod and Yesod respectively. Interestingly, two

versions of the “Temperance” card are used – a modern


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version, and what purports to be a more ancient version.

In the later and more modern temples of the Golden Dawn, the

tendency is to encourage initiates to practice Tarot divination in

the grade of Portal, and even from the grade of Practicus

onwards. However, it is only when the initiate reaches the grade

of Adeptus Minor that the full genius of the order’s teachings on

the Tarot is fully revealed. Most of the Inner Order’s teachings

on the Tarot were composed by Macgregor Mathers, no doubtassisted by his wife Moina and, if legends are to be believed, by

the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. What can be said for

definite though is that there is no point of reference for the inner

order teachings in the Cipher Manuscript, so presumably the

Mathers were relying on their own genius.

One of the most important inner order documents is the

so-called “Book T.” This contains a full description of the

divinatory meanings of the Tarot trumps and the Minor Arcana.

It also gives a method of attributing the Minor Arcana to the

various decans of the Zodiac. One of Mathers’ boldest claimswas that this Tarot document was in fact the very same “Book

T” which was said to be found in the hand of Frater CRC when

his tomb was discovered by Frater NN, and of which is said:

… [N]ext unto the Bible [it] is our greatest

treasure, which ought to be delivered to the censure

of the world.[23]

Mathers also went on to claim that it was called “Book T”

because it stood for the “Book of Thoth” – hence “proving” not

only an ancient Egyptian but also a Rosicrucian origin for the

Tarot! Unfortunately as far as scholarship is concerned, it

proves nothing of the sort. One must assume that the Secret

Chiefs delivered a copy of the Rosicrucian manifestos to

Mathers which is different from the published versions, which

usually name the parchment in Frater CRC’s hand as being

called “I” instead of “T.”[24]

However, Mathers goes further with his teachings on the Tarot.

In addition to the so-called “Book T” there are also:

A full-blown method of actual Tarot divination;

A manuscript which gives in a detailed manner a method

to plot the entire cards of the Tarot deck not just to the

parts of the Zodiac, but also to the whole of the starry

heavens themselves;

A further manuscript which describes how the Tarot cards

not only relate to all the major constellations, but to a

very recondite manner of the interchange of Divine

influence down through the four Qabalistic worlds.


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This last mentioned manuscript is quite difficult to understand,

as its practical application is not immediately obvious. However

from documents that have now become public there are

indications that it was meant to be the first part of some very

advanced teachings regarding the Aura, which were developed

in an order called “The Holy Order of the Sun.”[25]

An Adeptus Minor was expected to be able to not only divine

by use of the Tarot, but also by Astrology and Geomancy as

well. Moreover, an initiate would have to know the meanings of

the various Tarot cards in connection with the order’s teachings

on Enochian Magic. For those that were talented enough to pass

the first two stages – the so-called sub-grades of Neophyte- and

Zelator Adeptus Minor – there was said to be further Tarot

teachings entitled “Tarot Divination translated into Magical

Action,” as mentioned previously.

Divinatory Meanings of the Cards, according to the Golden Dawn

When it comes to using the cards for Divinations, theirmeanings derive partly from cartomantic tradition, but also

partly from the particular astrological and Qabalistic

associations given to them by the Golden Dawn.

With regards to the Major Arcana, several writers have argued

that the astrological and Qabalistic assignments of the Major

Arcana can be rationally justified, by reference to the twelve

signs of the Zodiac, the twelve houses with which those signs

are related, the traditional divinatory meanings of the cards, and

quite simply by the imagery of the cards themselves.

[26]

[27]

So for example: the assignment of “Justice” to Libra is justified

by the imagery of the “scales of Justice”; likewise the

assignment of “Strength” to Leo is justified by the fact that

strength is a quality associated with Leo, and also by the simple

fact that a Lion is depicted on the face of the card.

Again: the association of “The Emperor” with Aries is justified

on the basis that the divinatory meaning of the card is generally

in harmony with the sign of Aries, cardinal Fire ruled by Mars

(and in which the Sun is exalted).

Some Trumps appear to cause difficulty at first, but may be

resolved by looking at the divinatory meanings of the cards and

comparing them to astrological houses. One question that

sometimes perplexes beginners is why “The Moon” is

associated with Pisces, and not with Luna as the name suggests.

The answer is that the divinatory meaning of “The Moon” -

glamour, deceit, treachery – corresponds to the twelfth

astrological house (enemies in secret), which itself is associated

with the twelfth sign of the Zodiac, i.e. Pisces. By rationalising


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it in this way, an elegant solution is provided which does not

cause the natural ordering of the Tarot trumps to be upset too

much.

In a similar manner, the association of “The Chariot” with

Cancer is difficult to explain until one remembers that in Horary

astrology, one of the meanings of the fourth astrological house

is “the end of the matter.” Thus it is appropriate to link “The

Chariot” (which means triumph – i.e. bringing things to asuccessful conclusion) with the fourth astrological house –

which happens to be itself associated with the fourth sign of the

Zodiac, i.e. Cancer.

The Minor Arcana are a somewhat more complex issue. The

meaning of any given card in the Minor Arcana is subject to the

following influences:

The Sephirah of the Tree of Life corresponding to the

“pip-number” of the card (e.g. Ace = Kether, Two =

Chokmah, Three = Binah, etc) or , in the case of the Courtcards, the letter of the Tetragrammaton associated with

the card (e.g. King = Yod, Queen = Heh, Prince = Vav,

Princess = Heh sophit);

The element with which the suit is associated (e.g. Wands

= Fire, Cups = Water, Swords = Air, Pentacles = Earth);

Traditional cartomantic ascriptions to the suits and the

ranks of the cards generally, and to individual cards in

particular; and

The influence of a particular decan of the Zodiac to

which the card is assigned, together with the influence of

the planet with which that decan is associated.

I want to devote some space to explaining the last of the

aforementioned, as it is this which is the point of widest

divergence between the Tarot of the Golden Dawn, and other

divinatory systems, such as that proposed by Papus. Firstly: the

Golden Dawn had an idiosyncratic method of assigning planets

to decans of the zodiac which does not correspond to

conventional astrology. In conventional astrology, the decans of

a sign are all ruled by the planetary rulers of the signs of the

same triplicity. However , in the Golden Dawn, starting from the

first decan of Leo, planets are assigned in the order they appearin classical astrology, with the proviso that Mars is duplicated at

the end of Pisces and at the beginning of Aries.

So for example: in conventional astrology, the decans of

Sagittarius would be ruled by Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius itself),

Mars (ruler of Aries) and Sol (ruler of Leo). However, in the

Golden Dawn, they are ruled by Mercury, Luna, and Saturn. If

one were to work out the whole system one would see that the

Golden Dawn and the conventional astrological method only


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agree 25% of the time (i.e. nine decans out of thirty-six).

Secondly: the Golden Dawn had its own method of assigning

the Minor Arcana to the decans, which is completely different

to that of Papus. In the Golden Dawn system, the Aces are not

assigned to the Zodiac itself: only the cards two through nine of

a suit and the Court Cards are. Regarding the pip-cards, they are

all assigned to Signs of the Triplicity associated with their own

suit. So for example, the cards assigned to the first twelvedecans – i.e. the first four signs of the Zodiac – are: (Aries) 2 of

Wands, 3 of Wands, 4 of Wands; (Taurus) 5 of Pentacles, 6 of

Pentacles, 7 of Pentacles; (Gemini) 8 of Swords, 9 of Swords,

10 of Swords; and Cancer starts the cycle again with 2 of Cups,

3 of Cups and 4 of Cups.

The Golden Dawn’s method of assigning the Court Cards is

idiosyncratic yet again. Briefly: the Kings rule the mutable sign

of the element associated with their own suit. Likewise, the

Queens rule the cardinal sign, and the Princes rule the fixed sign

– the Princesses not playing a part in the scheme, as, like theAces, they are assigned to different parts of the heavens

entirely. However : no Court Card rules over all thirty degrees of

its corresponding sign. Instead, it rules over the first 20 degrees

only, as well as the last ten degrees of the preceding sign. So for

example, the King of Wands rules from 21 degrees of Libra to

20 degrees of Sagittarius; the Queen of Pentacles rules from 21

degrees of Sagittarius to 20 degrees of Capricorn; and the

Prince of Swords rules from 21 degrees of Capricorn to 20

degrees of Aquarius.

The Golden Dawn attaches significance not merely to the beltof the Zodiac, but to the whole of the sphere of the heavens.

The north-pole of the ecliptic – which happens to lie in the

constellation of Draco – is associated with Kether, and thus with

the four Aces: whilst the Princesses are interpreted as being the

“thrones” of the Aces.

Divination

A point of divergence between the Golden Dawn tarot and

other tarot decks is that rather than having “upright” and

“reversed” meanings, the cards are either said to be “well-

dignified” or “ill-dignified.” The Golden Dawn makes use of tarot-spreads in which the meanings of individual cards are

judged according to the influence of other cards which are in

close proximity. Hence, a card which is surrounded by other

cards of generally harmonious nature is said to be “well-

dignified,” whilst one that is surrounded by inharmonious cards

is “ill-dignified.” The precise meaning of a card may also be

more specifically attenuated by the surrounding cards.

So for example, the Five of Pentacles may mean either financial


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being Wands; the Sword being Swords obviously; and the Dish

or platter being Pentacles.[31]

Mary K Greer has argued that the

artwork to the Minor Arcana are meant to depict the various

incidents in the Grail Legend.[32]

Waite is also famous for his book The Pictorial Key to the

Tarot ,[33] in which he further follows the Golden Dawn

attributions – though painstakingly avoiding saying where he gotthem from. Waite incidentally also makes passing reference to

the Knight of Swords being Sir Galahad,[34] leading one to

speculate that the characters depicted in the deck are character

are meant to be characters from Arthurian or Grail legend.

Crowley

Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947) being perhaps the most famous

occultist of the twentieth century, it is not surprising that his

“Thoth Tarot” is an exceedingly popular Tarot deck. Crowley

and artist Lady Frieda Harris (1877 – 1962) worked on creating

the deck between 1938 and 1943, although it was only first

published in 1969.

Crowley joined the Golden Dawn in 1898 but distanced himself

from it after the Horos scandal, finally breaking with Mathers

altogether in 1906. Whilst he was still within the pale of the

Golden Dawn he was advanced to the grade of Adeptus Minor:

he also acquired all of Allan Bennett’s magical papers –

including Golden Dawn documents and incunabula – when the

latter emigrated to India in 1900.

The artwork of the Crowley Thoth deck, which is exceedingly

intricate in its design, displays a number of influences,

including:

The tarot, astrological and colour attributions of the

Golden Dawn;

Revelations which came to Crowley in regard to his own

Liber Al Vel Legis and his Enochian work as described in

The Vision and The Voice;

A miscellaneous number of Crowley’s pet subjects, such

as Sexual magick and Alchemy; and

The projective synthetic geometry of Jakob Steiner (1796

– 1863).[35]

Generally speaking the Crowley deck follows the Golden Dawn

system well, except in a few noted instances. As part of Liber

Al Vel Legis Crowley received the following cryptic message:

All these old letters of my Book are aright; but

[Tzaddi] is not the Star.[36]

Crowley himself was puzzled for many years as to what Tzaddi


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should be if not “The Star,” and many of his major works are

based on using the traditional Golden Dawn attributions.

However he eventually decided that it was not “The Star” but

“The Tsar” i.e. “the Emperor,” thereby swapping round the

letters Tzaddi and Heh (coincidentally de Mellet gives “the

Emperor” as Tzaddi as well).[37]

Another notable departure from the Golden Dawn is that theJudgement card is replaced by “The Aeon.” Crowley came to

believe that the Last Judgement had happened when he had

received the Book of the Law: therefore it was now more

appropriate to look forward to the so-called Aeon of Horus of

which he claimed to be the prophet.[38]

Aside from the deck itself, Crowley was also the author of The

Book of Thoth (Egyptian Tarot), the text which explains the

cards. Whilst the descriptions of the cards therein clearly

demonstrate Crowley’s originality of thought, the method of

divination proposed is nothing other than the Golden Dawn’sown “Opening of the Key,” [39] which Crowley had originally

published without attribution in The Equinox some thirty years

prior to the Book of Thoth.[40]

Crowley referred to the Tarot

throughout his written works, so a thorough knowledge of the

subject is essential to understanding “Thelema” and his

magickal philosophy generally.

Case

Paul Foster Case (1884 – 1954) was the founder of the

“Builders of the Adytum” (BOTA) and the designer of its

eponymous tarot deck. Case was a former member of the

“Alpha Et Omega,” one of the schismatic factions into which

the original Golden Dawn split. Most significantly, it was as a

scholar of the Tarot that Case first became involved in the

occult generally, and the Golden Dawn tradition in particular.

The BOTA Tarot deck is similar in design to Waite’s. One of

the main differences is that the pictures are black and white line

drawings: the idea being that as part of their occult training,

BOTA members would make use of their knowledge of occult

colour attributions to colour them in.

As a scholar, his work on the Tarot is solidly in the Golden

Dawn milieu. Case himself claimed that he worked out the

“correct” (i.e. the Golden Dawn’s) ordering of the Tarot trumps

before it was ever published.[41] However it is as an occultist

that Case produced his most original work on the Tarot, as

opposed to merely going over the Golden Dawn’s material: this

was the Book of Tokens, which he and his Alpha Et Omega

colleague Michael Whitty channelled circa 1919. This is a book


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of twenty-two “meditations” or free-verse poems.[42]

Others/strong>

There are now a number of “Golden Dawn” tarot decks

which are officially published. These include versions byRobert Wang, Tabatha Cicero, Richard Dudschus and

Patrizio Evangelisti, whilst others are in the pipeline at thetime of writing. In addition, Chic and Tabatha Cicero in an

attempt to recreate the obscure Golden Dawn teaching of “Tarot Divination translated into Magical Action” havepublished their own system of Tarot magic which is

nevertheless harmonious with the order’s teachings.[43]

Although there are only about half a dozen tarot decks

published which are specifically “Golden Dawn,” thenumber of Tarot decks which the Golden Dawn has inspiredis very large indeed and appears to grow exponentially. This

is principally because the Golden Dawn teachings inspiredtwo of the most influential decks in their own right (those of

Waite and Crowley), which themselves have inspirednumerous others. Many of these are essentially clone-decks,

although there is a significant number designed bypractising occultists which manage to display both the

creators’ original thought and the influences of either Waiteor Crowley. When one considers that these tarot decks

themselves have inspired works not merely on divination buton the use of the Tarot for spiritual, meditative and magical

practices, one can appreciate the influence of the GoldenDawn at the heart of modern Tarot practice is very

pervasive indeed.

Index

Appendix One

Attribution of the Tarot trumps to the Hebrew alphabet, with

partial Qabalistic correspondences, according to Lévi.

Hebrew Letter

Name of TarotTrump

Qabalisticcorrespondence

Aleph The Juggler Air

Beth The Female Pope Luna

Gimel The Empress VenusDaleth The Emperor ?

He The Pope Aries

Vau Vice & Virtue Taurus

Zayin The Cubic Chariot Gemini

Cheth Justice Cancer

Teth The Hermit Leo

Yod The Wheel of

Fortune

Virgo


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Shin 20 31 Judgment Fire

Tau 21 32 The Universe Saturn

Index

Bibliography

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http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/fama.html , accessed

2009-06-04.

Anonymous, Kupperman, J S (transcriber / translator), [n.d.],

The Cipher Manuscript, http://www.hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/index.html et seq., accessed 2009-05-21.

Case, P F, 1933, The Oracle of the Tarot, http://tarot.org.il/Library/PFCase/Oracle%20of%20the%20Tarot.pdf ,accessed 2009-06-24.

Case, P F, 1968, The Book of Tokens, fourth edition, Builders of

the Adytum, Los Angeles.

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Angels of the Tarot, Llewellyn, St Pauls, Minnesota.

Le Comte de Mellet, Tyson, D (translator), 1781, “Recherches

sur les Tarots, et sur la Divination par les Cartes des Tarots,”

published in Le Monde Primitif, analysé et compare avec le

monde moderne, Volume 8, http://www.donaldtyson.com/gebelin.html, accessed 2009-05-21.

Crowley, A, 1904, The Book of the Law Liber AL vel Legis subfigura CCXX as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI ,

http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/engccxx.htm accessed2009-08-03.

Crowley, A, 1912, The Equinox, Volume 1 number 8, Wieland

& Co, London.

Crowley, A, 1995, The Book of Thoth (Egyptian Tarot),

Weiser, Boston MA.

De Gebelin, A C, Tyson, D (translator), 1781, “Du Jeu Des

Tarots,” published in Le Monde Primitif, analysé et compare

avec le monde moderne, Volume 8,

http://www.donaldtyson.com/gebelin.html, accessed

2009-05-21.

Phillips, O, 2001, Aurum Solis Initiation Ceremonies and Inner

Magical Techniques, Thoth Publications, Leicester.

Duquette, L M, 2003, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth

Tarot, Red Wheel / Weiser, Boston MA.


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Farrell, N, 2003, Magical Pathworkings: Techniques of Active

Imagination, Llewellyn, St Pauls Minnesota.

“G H Frater DDCF, 7=4” (Macgregor Mathers, S L), 1898,

General Orders, http://www.angelfire.com/ab6/imuhtuk/gdmans/general.htm , accessed 2009-06-04.

Greer, M K, 2006, Llewellyn’s Tarot Reader 2006 , Llewellyn,St Pauls Minnesota.

Lévi, E, Waite, A E (translator), 1896, Transcendental Magic:

its doctrine and ritual, Rider & Company, London.

Papus, Morton, A P (translator), 1892, The Tarot of the

Bohemians, http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/tob/index.htm, accessed 2009-05-22.

Regardie, I, 1989, The Golden Dawn, 6th edition, Llewellyn, St

Pauls, Minnesota.

Regardie, I, Cicero, C (editor), Cicero, S T (editor), 2002, A

Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life , 3rd

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“Shemesh,” [n.d.], XXIII Aura Teachings (2nd Series)

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http://magicoftheordinary.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/aura-23-complete.pdf , accessed 2009-07-31.

“V.N.”, 1910, “The Truth About the Tarot Trumps,” reprinted

in Waite, A E, Kuntz, D (editor), 1996, The Golden Dawn

Tarot , Holmes Publishing Group, Edmonton WA.

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Rebman Limited, London.

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Occult Review, Volume X: No. 12, London.

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Index


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Notes

[1] Cipher Manuscript , folios 51 to 56.

[2] Described in Regardie (1989), pp 463 – 464.

[3] Regardie, Cicero, Cicero (2002).

[4] Phillips (2001), p19.

[5] Farrell (2003)

[6] DDCF (1898).

[7] De Gebelin (1781)

[8] Ibid. “The whole of the 21 or 22 atouts, the 22 letters of the

Egyptian alphabet common to the Hebrews and to the East, and

which were also used as numbers, are necessary to keep an

account of so many regions.”

[9] De Mellet (1781).

[10] Papus (1892), p36.

[11] Ibid. p322.

[12] Lévi (1896), book two, chapter XXII.

[13] Westcott (1912)

[14] NB: This paper was originally written for the benefit of

members of the SRIA, who have a similar though slightly

different grade structure to the Golden Dawn.

[15] The Cipher Mss (Anonymous (n.d.), folio 15) specified the

22 Trumps only: the original Zelator ceremony added the

qualification of the four suits.

[16] Regardie (…)

[17] Op cit, folio 25.

[18] Regardie (1989).

[19] Op cit, folios 55 and 56.

[20] Regardie (1989), …

[21] Op cit folio 51.

[22] Regardie (1989), …


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