Can You Recommend a Book on the Golden Dawn Tarot "Revolution"?

[Shaira]

Hi everyone! I've been scouting around for a good, readable, single volume book which discusses what the Golden Dawn "did" to the Tarot, and why. In particular, I'm looking for it to cover the following subjects:

 

- the reasons behind the Strength / Justice switch

- the reasons behind the Court Cards change

- why A E Waite produced a tarot which included some, but not all, of the GD innovations, and his reasons for doing so. 

- bonus points for a general overview of the Golden Dawn, its history, and Waite's and Crowley's break-offs

 

I already know the rough outlines of answers to the above questions, so please no need to try to answer them here. But there seems to be an immense amount of wordage out there which kind of dances around these questions without actually clearly answering them, so I'm just looking for a good authoritative book which presents the answers clearly. Does anyone know of one? 

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Blessed be,

 

Sarah

[Aeon418]

You're asking a lot from a single book. But the closest 'one-stop-shop' that I can think of is, The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang. It's a very well known book. And I'm sure quite a few forum members have it on their bookshelves. 

 

The Qabalistic Tarot Book: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy: Amazon.co.uk: Wang, Robert: 9781572819108: Books

 

Unfortunately there's no preview, so you can't look inside. But the book is basically a systematic journey through the Hermetic Qabalah and Tree of Life model that was favoured by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. To this end Wang illustrates his discussion by using four different Tarot decks - Golden Dawn Tarot, Rider-Waite Tarot, Thoth Tarot, and the Marseilles.

 

Each card of these four decks is viewed through the lens of the Golden Dawn qabalah. (Which is I why I don't agree with everything Wang says about the Thoth deck. Although I believe he does mention a few of Waite's needless obfuscations.) The discussion of the Major cards can get a little technical in places. But this won't pose a problem to anyone with a firm grounding in Hermetic Qabalah. 

[Shaira]

Thank you Aeon418, that looks very good indeed, and Wang wasn't on my reading list at all. I'll grab a copy and take a look!

[Kally]

Be aware that while there are many great insights to be had from this book, Wang continues to foster the issue with Waite's confusion with the knights and kings. This issue is addressed more properly in David Allen Hulse's "The Western Mysteries," part of a two volume set that include "The Eastern Mysteries," a set worth having on your shelf for reference. In my reading, I have not found one book that addresses all the issues you have mentioned. If I find mistakes in a researcher's work, I go back to their source (for Waite, this is the Golden Dawn [LiberT - Tarot Symbolism and Divination], for GD, this is the Sepher Yetzirah) or you can go forward to read from someone else who had done the research and critical thinking about an issue (Aleister Crowley). Good thing you like to read, eh?

[Shaira]

2 hours ago, Kally said:

Be aware that while there are many great insights to be had from this book, Wang continues to foster the issue with Waite's confusion with the knights and kings. This issue is addressed more properly in David Allen Hulse's "The Western Mysteries," part of a two volume set that include "The Eastern Mysteries," a set worth having on your shelf for reference. In my reading, I have not found one book that addresses all the issues you have mentioned. If I find mistakes in a researcher's work, I go back to their source (for Waite, this is the Golden Dawn [LiberT - Tarot Symbolism and Divination], for GD, this is the Sepher Yetzirah) or you can go forward to read from someone else who had done the research and critical thinking about an issue (Aleister Crowley). Good thing you like to read, eh?

Thank you Kally for the heads-up about Wang continuing to propound Waite's obfuscation - my copy of The Qabbalistic Tarot just turned up today, and tbh I'd hoped I'd be able to avoid negotiating a path through all that again! Forewarned is forearmed though! 🙂

 

Blessed be, Sarah

 

[Kally]

You won't be disappointed in the book. It's really full of insightful information and helpful diagrams. It only fails in the one respect.

[Aeon418]

I think Wang had a choice between several unsatisfactory options, but chose one that kept the names of the cards reasonably consistent across four different decks. Two of which don't overtly depict the Golden Dawn interpretation of the tetragrammaton.

[Kally]

It seems quite doubtful you will find all this in one volume anywhere, as mentioned. I have pursued the history of the Golden Dawn and all the members in the past and came to an understanding about these things, but it took quite a bit of sleuthing. In doing that, I was delighted to discover the two volume set by David Allen Hulse and refer to over and over again, particularly regarding the GD and tarot. Though it is expensive, it has a considerable amount of information about the Tarot (in both volumes) and has two addendums you will find of particular interest: 1) Mathers' Qabalistic Proof of the Tarot and 2) Tarot Esoterica: Secrets of the Waite Deck. In the first addendum, he goes step by step reasoning out how Mathers' came to his conclusions in rearranging the deck order (like you, Mathers was concerned about all the correspondences "fitting.") And in the second addendum, Hulse goes through each of Waite's cards pointing out the symbols and what they mean, where Waite was taking from the GD and where he was promoting astrological connections, etc. In it's entirety, the two-volume set is about 1200 pages with many references to tarot in sections you would not think would be related. It has greatly expanded my historical understanding of the RWS origins and tarot as it relates to the Qabalah. BTW, the confusion about kings and knights is clarified in relation to the tetragrammaton also. Here is a YouTube review about the books so you can see a bit more of what is covered. To review in person, you might find a local book store that has them or check WorldCat to see if you can get them from a local library. Hope this hits the spot for you!

 

[Shaira]

8 hours ago, Aeon418 said:

I think Wang had a choice between several unsatisfactory options, but chose one that kept the names of the cards reasonably consistent across four different decks. Two of which don't overtly depict the Golden Dawn interpretation of the tetragrammaton.

 

I'm seeing that, yes. It irks me a little that he doesn't follow the (pretty sensible, IMHO) system of associating the "guys on horses" with Yod in Atziluth, and the "guys on thrones / in chariots" with Vau in Yetzirah. But I had a good initial flip through the book last night and realised that if I substitute "Knight" for "King", and read "Prince" as "Prince / King", then I'm good to go from my own point of view. It's good that he has the Decan Circle all sorted out. 

 

For my own purposes, I'm trying to apply some alt-titles to the court cards just to really clarify those distinctions. Nothing too formal, but also nothing as wordy as the usual paragraph-length honorifics you can end up with. So far I'm groping towards:

 

1. Yod in Atziluth: The Questing Conqueror in His Riotous Youth. This is the Knight on Horseback. Examples: Alexander the Great, Sir Lancelot. 

2. Heh in Briah: The Mother of the Realm, For Whom We Seek Glory. This is the Queen. Examples: Guinevere the Queen, Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria. 

3. Vau in Yetzirah: The Ruler Who Rules From His Palace. This is the King on his Throne or Chariot. Examples: The Mature King Arthur, the Older Charlemagne. 

4. Heh in Assiah: The Innocent Young Princess, Beloved of the People. This is the Page. Examples: Guinevere the Princess or Young Queen, Lady Diana.

 

My main wibble with the above at the moment is the maturity I'm attributing to the King / Prince. Many sources say he's the son of the Knight and Queen. My instinct currently tells me he's the old King, solid in his power, but somewhat superseded by the young and fiery Knight. I'm reasonably happy with the characterisations of the Queen and particularly the Page / Princess, who conveys an Atziluth-in-Assiah vibe which seems to fit with her role as the Throne of the Ace.        

[Shaira]

3 hours ago, Kally said:

It seems quite doubtful you will find all this in one volume anywhere, as mentioned. I have pursued the history of the Golden Dawn and all the members in the past and came to an understanding about these things, but it took quite a bit of sleuthing. In doing that, I was delighted to discover the two volume set by David Allen Hulse and refer to over and over again, particularly regarding the GD and tarot. Though it is expensive, it has a considerable amount of information about the Tarot (in both volumes) and has two addendums you will find of particular interest: 1) Mathers' Qabalistic Proof of the Tarot and 2) Tarot Esoterica: Secrets of the Waite Deck. In the first addendum, he goes step by step reasoning out how Mathers' came to his conclusions in rearranging the deck order (like you, Mathers was concerned about all the correspondences "fitting.") And in the second addendum, Hulse goes through each of Waite's cards pointing out the symbols and what they mean, where Waite was taking from the GD and where he was promoting astrological connections, etc. In it's entirety, the two-volume set is about 1200 pages with many references to tarot in sections you would not think would be related. It has greatly expanded my historical understanding of the RWS origins and tarot as it relates to the Qabalah. BTW, the confusion about kings and knights is clarified in relation to the tetragrammaton also. Here is a YouTube review about the books so you can see a bit more of what is covered. To review in person, you might find a local book store that has them or check WorldCat to see if you can get them from a local library. Hope this hits the spot for you!

 

 

This is excellent, Kally, thank you so much! I had no idea these books even existed, and they look very much to be in my wheelhouse. They are quite expensive, but not prohibitively so. Living in France, there's not much possibility of getting them from the library, so I'm thinking of jumping in for September's book purchase and getting book two (The Western Mysteries), as that seems to have the most apposite info, and then buying book one later? Do you think that's reasonable, or do I really need to begin with the Eastern Mysteries first for it all to make sense?

 

Looking forward very much to taking a look at these!

 

Blessed be,

 

Sarah

[Kally]

Starting with book two is fine. It furthered my understanding quite a lot and corrected many errors others have made. I hope you find it useful too.

[Kally]

Love your titles for the court cards. The more personally meaningful you can make them the better. Do remember that these cards can represent situations with the same energies as well as personalities. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks ... the court cards and meanings. Waite seems so screwy and arbitrary with his court card meanings that I sometimes think he threw those in as a joke, though I suppose he was just trying to true to older tarot deck format for fortune telling by "common folk" (even though he despised them, they were his purchasing audience). Like you, I want to go beyond the mundane and stay true to the esoteric correspondences. So, I go back to Qabalah and Waite's roots in the GD. LiberT is my final authority reference on this topic. I'm satisfied the correlations are accurate (for my purposes). How do your titles fit with the descriptions? In case you don't have it, LiberT can be downloaded here: https://thelema.org/downloads/cot_monograph_eshleman_LiberT.pdf.

[Aeon418]

15 hours ago, Shaira said:

My main wibble with the above at the moment is the maturity I'm attributing to the King / Prince. Many sources say he's the son of the Knight and Queen. My instinct currently tells me he's the old King, solid in his power, but somewhat superseded by the young and fiery Knight. I'm reasonably happy with the characterisations of the Queen and particularly the Page / Princess, who conveys an Atziluth-in-Assiah vibe which seems to fit with her role as the Throne of the Ace.        

 

Crowley comments on this in the Book of Thoth and points out that two different conceptions of the court cards need to be kept in mind simultaneously. The first one he calls the Hebrew system where Father and Mother produce Son and Daughter. This scheme is very obviously depicted in the court cards. But as Crowley points out it is a kind of sterile dead end. 

 

To balance this there is what Crowley termed the Pagan system. In this scheme the Princess or Daughter is the "earth soul" who is guided by her "spiritual lover," the Prince. His job is to guide the Princess - or individual consciousness - to the Throne of the Queen, or universal consciousness. This in turn awakens the Prince to his own self nature. No longer is he the "slumbering ancient of days" or the Old King. He now awakens to his own godhead and becomes the new questing Knight who sets out to redeem the earthbound natural soul once again. In contrast with the Hebrew system, the Pagan conception of the court cards is circular and perpetually self renewing.   

Edited August 21, 2024 by Aeon418

[Kally]

That's interesting. I haven't read a lot of Crowley. I saw the Hebrew (Sephir Yetsirah/tree) as self-perpetuating, because source continues to "spew" so to speak. Energy is always "in motion." There is always "flow." Also, in working our way back "home," up the tree, so to speak, there is the appearance of recycling. So for me, the pattern only needed to be established and recreated in subsequent generations to be self-perpetuating. The pattern being fire - water - air (yields) earth. Yod, heh, vau, heh(f). On the tree, Kether - Chokma - Briah - Chesed. Then repeated beginning with Chesed. Then repeated beginning with Netzach. Earth being the heh(f). This resulting in the supernal, ethical and astral triangles (and earth), themselves collectively representing the yod/heh/vau/heh(f). Once I had the knights in their proper place at Sephira 2 (Darn Waite!), I just thought of them as single males, male energy running down the right column on the tree, until they made the connection with the female energy on the left side ...the connection constituting the "marriage." So the Kings are initially (single) sons, who become (married) fathers. How does Crowley's pagan system fit in with all that?

[Shaira]

13 hours ago, Kally said:

Love your titles for the court cards. The more personally meaningful you can make them the better. Do remember that these cards can represent situations with the same energies as well as personalities. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks ... the court cards and meanings. Waite seems so screwy and arbitrary with his court card meanings that I sometimes think he threw those in as a joke, though I suppose he was just trying to true to older tarot deck format for fortune telling by "common folk" (even though he despised them, they were his purchasing audience). Like you, I want to go beyond the mundane and stay true to the esoteric correspondences. So, I go back to Qabalah and Waite's roots in the GD. LiberT is my final authority reference on this topic. I'm satisfied the correlations are accurate (for my purposes). How do your titles fit with the descriptions? In case you don't have it, LiberT can be downloaded here: https://thelema.org/downloads/cot_monograph_eshleman_LiberT.pdf.

 

Thank you very much for this PDF link, Kally, I've never read Liber T itself, so will do so with great interest! I'm definitely aware of the situational meanings and uses of the court cards - I'm trying to come up with titles that help me unlock those, too, and not simply focus on the court-cards-as-people aspect. Part of me wants to start sketching out some rough illustrations of how a "rectified" set of court cards might look in RWS style!

[Shaira]

9 hours ago, Aeon418 said:

 

Crowley comments on this in the Book of Thoth and points out that two different conceptions of the court cards need to be kept in mind simultaneously. The first one he calls the Hebrew system where Father and Mother produce Son and Daughter. This scheme is very obviously depicted in the court cards. But as Crowley points out it is a kind of sterile dead end. 

 

To balance this there is what Crowley termed the Pagan system. In this scheme the Princess or Daughter is the "earth soul" who is guided by her "spiritual lover," the Prince. His job is to guide the Princess - or individual consciousness - to the Throne of the Queen, or universal consciousness. This in turn awakens the Prince to his own self nature. No longer is he the "slumbering ancient of days" or the Old King. He now awakens to his own godhead and becomes the new questing Knight who sets out to redeem the earthbound natural soul once again. In contrast with the Hebrew system, the Pagan conception of the court cards is circular and perpetually self renewing.   

 

Thanks, Aeon418 - it's been a long time since the Book of Thoth, although I'm planning to re-read it again soon (after the Wang book, Liber T, and maybe now the Allen Hulse one too!). I think I may have at least partially assimilated the dual nature that Crowley identifies (and its downside). 

 

I think the circular / cyclical nature of the courts is the key. Especially when we "end up" with the Page / Princess bringing Atziluthic energy into Assiah, it seems to easily loop that right back to the Ace and to the Knight in Atziluth. I think personally in many ways I'm really just only now exploring the full ramifications of the restructuring of the court card order from the Four Realms point of view - obviously it's very far-reaching, but also extremely fruitful. 

 

When you mention "Pagan System", I'm also minded of the Year King and wondering how that might fit into this court card cycle.  

[Kally]

Wow, Shaira, sketching a rectified deck sounds like so much fun. If I had any art skills at all, I would play with that. As it is, I've been content just to make myself a study deck with Waite card pictures and tree of life indicators on them. Just needing a reminder to keep it all in my head. My initial desire to review all this just comes from the fact that so many people read tarot cards as if they were reading oracle cards, with no real understanding of the underlying system. The new RWS-based decks being produced are losing the meaning of the cards as the deck creators have not done their homework on the system itself and are unable to put meaningful symbols on the cards that truly reflect the system. What a shame! I bring a lot of intuition to my card readings, but having a deep understanding of the meaning of each card feels critical for deeper interpretations. And of course, once you understand the deeper meanings, you can bring that understanding to bear when reading from any RWS-based deck, even when the cards lack meaningful symbols. That's the beauty of tarot being a system and what makes it so different from oracles.

In working out my study deck, I ran into problems with descriptions for the energy of each card, however, due to issues of secrecy and downright misrepresentation on the part of Waite...who I originally thought would be my final authority on the subject. After all, "author" denotes final authority! Well, sort of. He greatly relied on Mather's and the GD work, so I had to go back a little further, turning to the LiberT as final authority where Waite failed me. For myself, the court card descriptions given by Waite were the most problematic. After finding so much symbolism in the major arcana cards, how could I be satisfied with simple physical descriptions of people and a few personality quirks for the court cards? Since my main purpose in using the cards is personal insight and growth, I really didn't want to leave out 16 important cards in my understanding of the system. I'm now seeing the need to incorporate the astrological data as it correlates with the Hebrew word associated each card. The Hulse reference is a great help, as you'll see. I wish you had your rectified deck available NOW! I'm not getting any younger. Oh, well. I have to fill my retirement hours somehow. And I got through months and months with the tarot on the cube of space and Suarez' revived Qabalah (psyche.com), so this doesn't seem all that daunting. Still having fun with it, hope you are too!

[Aeon418]

10 hours ago, Shaira said:

When you mention "Pagan System", I'm also minded of the Year King and wondering how that might fit into this court card cycle.  

 

Crowley was heavily influenced by James Frazer's classic book - The Golden Bough - and its description of the priest-king of Nemi, who only held the position for as long as he was able to defeat all challengers for the role. In many respects it is a thinly veiled solar cycle myth. But Crowley connected it with the Fool card and the Knights (Golden Dawn Kings) court cards.

 

Incidentally, the Liber T that Kally posted a link to is actually Liber Theta by James Eshelman. It's a modern day revision and expansion of the original Liber T. Despite the fact that it is free, it is practically indispensable. (The section on the court cards is very good.) However, it is not pure Golden Dawn. The Hebrew letter correspondences to the Major Arcana reflect the Thelemic system of Aleister Crowley and the Thoth Tarot.        

[Kally]

Different version ... oh, so it is! Thanks for pointing that out. I grabbed it quickly with a quick google and didn't pay enough attention... I'll call it Divine intervention. Your angels knew you would want to see it, or one of your readers will. lol. Anyway, Benebell has the original on her site. Here is her link: https://benebellwen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mathers-and-felkin-golden-dawn-book-t-the-tarot-1888.pdf. 

[Aeon418]

19 hours ago, Kally said:

 How does Crowley's pagan system fit in with all that?

 

I'm not sure how to describe it without it becoming very off topic because it involves Crowley's ideas on initiation and spiritual awakening and the twin themes of evolution and involution.

 

In simple terms there are two different things happening simultaneously. In one sense there is the classic "path of return" whereby the incarnated earth-soul - the Princess (Heh final) - is raised to Throne of her Mother - Heh/Binah. 

 

Running concurrently with this is a downward impulse whereby the Yod seeks to incarnate itself ever more deeply in the material universe. But his perfect "bride" can only be a Queen who has been raised to the Throne of Binah. 

Edited August 22, 2024 by Aeon418

[Aeon418]

Just now, Kally said:

Different version ... oh, so it is! Thanks for pointing that out.

 

It was a happy accident. Eshelman's Liber Theta is excellent!

[Kally]

re: Crowley and Pagan system. Hmm. I'm still not quite getting it. Can you cite a source for me? Concurrent impulses up and down the tree and the marriage concepts are noted in Wang's Qabalistic Tarot. I don't remember his specifying this was Crowley's idea, so I assumed it came from the Hermetic traditions. I'm still trying to decide whether to read Crowley. I got into his work one time and found it very dark. Not sure if I was stuck down a rabbit trail. Since then, I've realized how respected Crowley's work is, and I'm fairly certain he was more forthcoming about the secretive items Waite refused to divulge. Still ... a lot of effort ... not sure what I will gain from it. Any comments about your experience with reading Crowley are welcome.

[Shaira]

11 hours ago, Aeon418 said:

 

Crowley was heavily influenced by James Frazer's classic book - The Golden Bough - and its description of the priest-king of Nemi, who only held the position for as long as he was able to defeat all challengers for the role. In many respects it is a thinly veiled solar cycle myth. But Crowley connected it with the Fool card and the Knights (Golden Dawn Kings) court cards.

 

Incidentally, the Liber T that Kally posted a link to is actually Liber Theta by James Eshelman. It's a modern day revision and expansion of the original Liber T. Despite the fact that it is free, it is practically indispensable. (The section on the court cards is very good.) However, it is not pure Golden Dawn. The Hebrew letter correspondences to the Major Arcana reflect the Thelemic system of Aleister Crowley and the Thoth Tarot.        

 

Excellent! I wondered if there was a Frazer connection, of course it makes sense. I'm going to keep going in that direction, then, see where it leads me. It's helpful to know I've not gone too much out on a limb. 

 

Thanks for the clarification on Liber T / Liber Theta (and to @Kally for both links! 🙂 ). Having looked at both, I think I'm going to print out Liber Theta and give that a good read alongside my much-needed re-read of the Book of Thoth (it's been a while...). As you say, it's clearly very good, and I think will help a lot with my own Tarot grimoire.  

Edited August 23, 2024 by Shaira

[Shaira]

10 hours ago, Kally said:

re: Crowley and Pagan system. Hmm. I'm still not quite getting it. Can you cite a source for me? Concurrent impulses up and down the tree and the marriage concepts are noted in Wang's Qabalistic Tarot. I don't remember his specifying this was Crowley's idea, so I assumed it came from the Hermetic traditions. I'm still trying to decide whether to read Crowley. I got into his work one time and found it very dark. Not sure if I was stuck down a rabbit trail. Since then, I've realized how respected Crowley's work is, and I'm fairly certain he was more forthcoming about the secretive items Waite refused to divulge. Still ... a lot of effort ... not sure what I will gain from it. Any comments about your experience with reading Crowley are welcome.

 

I know exactly what you mean with Crowley, Kally. I've had the same vibe for years, but at the same time I think there's a *lot* of extremely good stuff in his writing. I think a lot of the animus comes from his media reputation, in which he himself happily threw petrol on the fire ;), and also the imagery of the Thoth tarot, which personally I've always found too intense, powerful, and idiosyncratic to properly take to my heart - I prefer something which feels a little more "neutral" for me to layer my own understandings on, which is why I'm digging the Radiant Wise Spirit so much at the moment. 

 

But I think Crowley did a phenomenal job of continuing and rationalising the GD work. For me personally, that means the work on the Tarot; personally I'm not specifically into ritual magick or all the Thelema stuff as a practitioner, although I do find the theory and study of it quite fascinating. For many years all that I read of Crowley was the Book of Thoth, Liber Al Vel Legis, and the small Tarot book excerpted from the Equinox periodical. I also have Magick in Theory and Practice, but as I say that's not specifically my area of interest. 

 

I can find Crowley's tone quite bumptious and combative, which isn't always what I want, but his scholarship on the Tarot is undeniable. Bearing in mind that his approach is very idiosyncratic, I'd recommend reading The Book of Thoth, even if you might not take everything there on board. 

 

Incidentally, I recently watched the TV series "Strange Angel", about Jack Parsons and Thelema, in which Crowley appears, and found it very entertaining, and was sad to see cancelled after just two seasons. I think it did a very good job of portraying just how instrumental Crowley (and the Thelemans) were in bridging the gap between the very "Victorian" 19th century occultism, with its secrets, meetings, and Masonic vibe, and the much more open, modern, global, "New Age" form of the Tradition we enjoy today. 

[Kally]

Thank you for your response. I have The Book of Thoth on my computer, so it was easy to pull it up. Looking at the title page, I now remember being put off by Crowley's association of the tarot with Egyptian origins. I remember all the arguments that came forward on that topic when I was review the history of the GD and it's members. I feel that is resolved and I don't believe Tarot originated in Egypt. However, I don't know how Crowley's belief's vary from Waite's on this topic. How has his association of tarot with Egyptian origins influenced his point of view about the cards? Now that I've lost some of my admiration for Waite (having discovered some of his errors and pompous attitudes), I feel a bit more open to reading Crowley. The most important question for me, though, is whether reading Thoth will put me on firmer ground with a comprehensive understanding of the GD Tarot as a system or not. Not that I need to know everything, such as the gematria that Hulse goes into. Does his interpretation of the cards as they relate to the Qabalah fit together well? How far astray from LiberT does he go? Will I be a better tarot reader for having read Crowley.

 

re: Radiant Wise Spirit ... looks just like the Radiant Rider-Waite (my favorite and most used deck), except Wise Spirit is borderless. That's appealing. I might get a copy.

re: Strange Angel. I checked out the trailer. Interesting, but it would probably give me nightmares. lol. I'm kind of a pansy.