Sylvia Plath Reads “Daddy”

May 21, 2008 in Book/Story/Poetry Reports, Video & Audio Tarot | Tags: , , , | by | 9 comments

. . . With my gypsy ancestress and my weird luck

And my Tarot pack and my Tarot pack . . . (at minute 1:43)

See more Sylvia Plath videos here (then search on her name).

Added: It turns out that the original manuscript of Sylvia Plath’s book, Ariel, was ordered according to the Tarot and Qabala—with the first twenty-two poems associated with the Major Arcana and the next ten with the ten pips and sephiroth followed by the four ranks of the Court and then the four suits. This ordering is now apparent in Ariel: The Restored Edition (2004). All of this is explained in an article by Julia Gordon-Bramer for the journal Plath Profiles. Download a pdf of Gordon-Bramer’s article here.

1969 – The Tarot Renaissance

May 20, 2008 in Book/Story/Poetry Reports, Tarot Deck Reports, Tarot History & Research | Tags: | by | 13 comments

When did the modern tarot renaissance actually begin? It’s always hard to pinpoint the beginning of a movement but here are some events worth noting that lead up to the breaking of the dam in 1969. I’m looking for corrections and additions to the information below, plus tarot stories from the 60s and early 70s. Please share them in the comments.

The 1940s saw some interesting tarot activities that set the stage for the later renaissance. The Crowley-Harris Thoth deck was completed and published in a limited edition of 200 in monochrome brown by Chiswick Press, but these were not available to the general public. In 1947 Paul Foster Case published his masterful work The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, based on his tarot correspondence course. In France, Paul Marteau came out with his hugely influential book Le Tarot de Marseille that noted the symbolic significance of the smallest details in the deck. In Brazil, J. Iglesias Janeiro, published his book La Cabala de Prediccion, which popularized the turn-of-the-century Egyptianized Falconnier/Wegener cards. It became a center-piece of his important occult school, known mostly in Latin America. Meanwhile, in the U.S.A., Dr. John Dequer published The Major Arcana of the Sacred Egyptian Tarot, which was his revised version of those same Egyptianized cards, similar to what was already being used by C.C. Zain’s Brotherhood of Light correspondence school.

The Insight Institute in Surrey England started up their tarot correspondence course (later published in a book by Frank Lind) and produced their occultized version of the Marseilles deck (eventually published as the R.G. Tarot). Also appearing was an unusual book, solely on the psychological dimension of the Minor Arcana cards numbered 2-10 as they are associated with one’s birthday. It was Pursuit of Destiny by Muriel Bruce Hasbrouck, who had studied with Aleister Crowley when he was in the United States. Tudor Publishing’s The Complete Book of the Occult and Fortune Telling became the sole source in English of the unique Tarot card interpretations from Eudes Picard’s 1909 French work, Tarot.

The 1940s also saw the incorporation of Tarot imagery in surrealist artworks such as Victor Brauner’s “The Surrealist,” and in Jackson Pollack’s “Moon Woman” (both of which I happened upon when I visited the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice following the 2000 Tarot Tour with Brian Williams). William Gresham’s novel, Nightmare Alley, featured a carny mentalist who reads tarot and the book is presented as a twenty-two card reading. A year later Tyrone Power played the lead in the movie version featuring two tarot readings by Joan Blondell. Charles Williams’ landmark tarot novel, The Greater Trumps came out just as this decade ended and the next one began.

The 1950s produced even fewer tarot works. George Fathman published The Royal Road: A Study in the Egyptian Tarot, which used Dequer’s version of the Falconnier/Wegener cards. Paul Christian’s seminal work The History and Practice of Magic was translated from French to English, providing the original source material on which all those Egyptian-style decks were based. Arcanum Books reissued Papus’ The Tarot of the Bohemians with an introduction by librarian Gertrude Moakley, who noted the influence of tarot on creative writers and in psychology. Off in the Netherlands, Basil Rakoczi published the English language letterpress art book: The Painted Caravan: A Penetration into the Secrets of the Tarot Cards. Yet, the tarot seemed likely to fade away from popular view.

1960 started out the decade with a bang. University Books published Waite’s A Pictorial Key to the Tarot for an American readership, as well as a deck: Tarot Cards Designed by Pamela Colman Smith and Arthur Edward Waite. Eden Gray self-published her Tarot Revealed that still sells well to this day. In England Rolla Nordic came out with The Tarot Shows the Path: Divination through the Tarot. These last two books showed a clear shift in interest to practical tarot readings for the masses. Muriel Hasbrouck’s greatly overlooked 1940s work was re-published. 

As the 60s progressed we got two heavy metaphysical works: Mouni Sadhu’s Tarot: A Contemporary Course of the Quintessence of Hermetic Occultism, and Mayananda’s The Tarot for Today, a study of Crowley’s material in the Book of Thoth (despite the latter’s being unavailable). The Brotherhood of Light came out with a new, revised edition of their 1930s Tarot deck. Idries Shah claimed, in The Sufis, that the Tarot was a Sufi creation. Influenced by T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” and Yeats’ involvement in the Golden Dawn, poets like Robert Creeley, John Weiners, Diane Wakowski, Sylvia Plath, Philip Lamantia and Diane di Prima began using tarot imagery in their poems. While not published until 1974, Jack Hurley and John Horler worked on “The New Tarot,” a Jung-based deck, at the Esalen Institute throughout the 60s, influencing many who passed through there.

In 1966 Gertrude Moakley set tarot history on it’s ear with her groundbreaking research in The Tarot Cards Painted by Bembo. The Grand Tarot Belline deck was published in Paris, as was a new edition of Oswald Wirth’s 1927 book, Le Tarot des imagiers du moyen age, that included his 22 card deck. Beginning in 1966 and running through 1971 the day-time TV soap opera Dark Shadows gave many people their first glimpse of a tarot deck as various episodes featured readings with the Marseille deck.

By 1967, even a paper company jumped on the bandwagon with its advertising Linweave Tarot Pack that gave David Palladini his introduction to tarot design (see card on right). Helios Books in England published a small edition of the Golden Dawn’s Inner Order tarot teachings, Book T. Doris Chase Doane came out with two books that helped popularize the Brotherhood of Light Egyptian tarot deck in America. Sidney Bennett wrote Tarot for the Millions.

In 1968, the House of Camoin reproduced the classic 1760 Tarot de Marseille based on original pearwood woodcuts. The mysterious Frankie Albano redid Waite and Smith’s deck in brighter colors, giving those in the U.S.A. an alternative to the University Press version. Hades, in Paris, published Manuel complet d’interpretation du tarot, claiming it was based on a pre-de Gébelin 1761 original. Jerry Kay came up with his own version of Crowley’s deck that he called The Book of Thoth: The Ultimate Tarot. And, Stuart Kaplan brought back the Swiss 1JJ deck from the Nuremberg Toy Fair, selling 200,000 copies in the first year and making tarot available in department stores across the U.S. 

The stage was now set for the 1969 deluge: at least five decks and twelve separate books where published! I won’t mention them all but they included Crowley’s Thoth book and deck (though not readily available for another two years), Cooke & Sharpe’s New Tarot for the Aquarian Age, an English-language edition of Grimaud’s Marseilles deck. Also books by Arland Ussher, Brad Steiger, Corinne Heline, Gareth Knight, C.C. Zain, Hilton Hotema, Frater Achad, Rodolfo Benavides, Elisabeth Haich, Sybil Leek, and Italo Calvino’s Italian short stories, ‘Il castello dei destini incrociati (“Castle of Crossed Destinies”). Every hippie pad had its requisite tarot reader.

1970 featured fewer books but even more decks, including the Rider-Waite and Palladini’s Aquarian. Stuart Kaplan at U.S. Games, Inc. started publishing his own decks.

The Tarot Renaissance was now fully underway.
For an even more extensive look at Tarot in America from 1910 to 1960 please see this Tarot Heritage page.

Arcana in the Adytum

May 18, 2008 in Tarot History & Research | Tags: , , , , , | by | Leave a comment

Many of you will be familiar with the tarot teachings of Paul Foster Case and the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA). Case took the idea of the adytum from a word long associated with the Mysteries. His idea was to build the adytum by meditating on the tarot Arcana. Adytum means inner shrine or holy-of-holies, from aduein meaning “not to be entered.” The adytum is said to contain the arcana, from the root arcus, “chest or box,” and arcere, “to ward off; shut up, keep,” from whence we get such concepts as the Ark of the Convenant, as a container of the secret knowledge between God and humanity that also wards off the profane. But what do these two terms, arcana and adytum, really mean and how do they relate to the tarot?

The phrase Arcana in the Adytum, first mentioned by Iamblichus, signifies the container of mysteries in the innermost sanctuary of a temple. Mystically speaking, this sanctuary must be built in the heart where the mysteries are directly experienced out of view of the profane. [This photograph is of the altar in the sanctum sanctorum at Karnak, which only the pharaoh was allowed to enter. The picture after it is of the spirit ascending into the starry sky in that sanctuary.]

Helena Blavatsky described the innermost shrine as:

“The Sanctum Sanctorum of the Ancients, i.e., that recess on the Western side of the Temple which was enclosed on three sides by blank walls and had its only aperture or door hung over with a curtain—also called the Adytum—was common to all ancient nations. . . . They regarded it—in its esoteric meaning—as the symbol of resurrection, cosmic, solar (or diurnal), and human. In Theosophy, therefore, the Holy of Holies represents the womb of nature, the female generative principle found in the mystery religions of Egypt, Babylon, India, Kabbalism, Masonry, etc. . . . The esoteric meaning of this arrangement typified cosmic, planetary and human resurrection or regeneration” (Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II).

The word arcana goes back at least to the Neoplatonist, Iamblichus (165-180 CE). Thomas Taylor, in translating Iamblichus’ On the Mysteries explains:

“For the highest order of intelligibles is denominated by Orpheus the adytum, as we are informed by Proclus in Timaeus. By the arcanum in the adytum, therefore, is meant the deity who subsists at the extremity of the intelligible order [i.e. Phanes]; and of whom it is said in the Chaldean Oracles, ‘that he remains in the paternal profundity, and in the adytum, near to the god-nourished silence.’ . . . And all things remain perfect and entire, because the arcana in the adytum are never disclosed. Hence, in those particulars in which the whole of things possesses its safety, I mean in arcana being always preserved occult, and in the ineffable essence of the Gods, never receiving a contrary condition; in these, terrestrial daemons cannot endure.”

The Abbot Trithemius (1462-1516) defined arcana as “a synthesis of Hermetic alchemical doctrine, Pythagorean numerology, astrological correspondences, and Cabalistic word magic” (Trithemius and Magical Theology by Noel L. Brann). It was Trithemius’ cryptogram that was employed in the “cipher manuscripts” upon which the Golden Dawn rituals and tarot correspondences were based.

Paracelsus (1493-1591) uses the word in his philosophy of alchemical medicine. He tells us that in contrast with our bodily being, arcana are immortal and eternal, “they have the power of transmuting, altering and restoring us, and are to be compared to the secrets of God, being vital in human health” (Paracelsus, Archidoxies, Bk V, trans. A.E. Waite).

It was in the adytum that the Ark of the Covenant was kept. The arcana (plural form of arcanum) contain and preserve the hidden wisdom, the esoteric, versus exoteric knowledge. This distinction is made explicit by Eckartshausen, a favorite author of A.E. Waite, in speaking of the different roles of priest and prophet, where the prophet, not the priest, held the inner truth of the arcanum in the adytum:

“The wisdom of the ancient temple alliance was preserved by priests and by prophets. To the priests was confided the external,—the letter of the symbol, hieroglyphics. The prophets had the charge of the inner truth, and their occupation was to continually recall the priest to the spirit in the letter, when inclined to lose it. The science of the priests was that of the knowledge of exterior symbol. That of the prophets was experimental possession of the truth of the symbols. In the interior the spirit lived. There was, therefore, in the ancient alliance a school of prophets and of priests, the one occupying itself with the spirit in the emblem, the other with the emblem itself. The priests had the external possession of the Ark, of the shewbread, of the candlesticks, of the manna, of Aaron’s rod, and the prophets were in interior possession of the inner spiritual truth which was represented exteriorly by the symbols just mentioned” (The Cloud upon the Sanctuary (c. 1790) by Karl von Eckartshausen (translated by Madame Isabel de Steiger)).

The Golden Dawn named their tarot rites of the 12 Zodiacal and 7 Planetary Major Arcana after the items mentioned in the quote above: “The Table of the Shewbread” and the “Ritual of the Seven-Branched Candlestick,” respectively, making clear that for them the Ark was the Arcana.

In 1782 Count Cagliostro gathered his research in secret societies into a body of knowledge known as the Arcana Arcanorum, or A. A., consisting of a series of magical practices that stressed “internal alchemy.”

Although he doesn’t mention arcana, Etteilla tells us of the mystical arrangement of these cards in the Temple of Ptah at Memphis, “Upon a table or altar, at the height of the breast of of the Egyptian Magus, were on one side a book or assemblage of cards or plates of gold.” [The photograph to the right is of an image at the entrance to Ptah’s temple at Thebes showing Pharaoh making his offerings with Shekmet, wife of Ptah, giving him strength and direction.]

In 1863 Paul Christian (pseudonym of J-P. Pitois) wrote a novel called L’homme rouge des Tuileries, which tells of an encounter between Napoleon and a Benedictine monk who possesses an occult manuscript. This manuscript described seventy-eight symbolic houses or pictorial keys, referred to as Arcana. Virtually the same Egyptianized descriptions of the Arcana appeared in Christian’s 1870 Histoire de la magie, where they were finally acknowledged as the tarot.

Ely Star’s 1888 work, Mystéres de l’Horoscope contains a chapter on the tarot based almost entirely on Paul Christian. He was first to use the terms Major Arcana and Minor Arcana, and the following year they also appeared in Papus’ book Tarot of the Bohemians, suggesting that these terms were already in general use.

Blavatsky believed the Arcana were key to the science of the soul.

“There is a regular science of the soul. . . . This science, by penetrating the arcana of nature far deeper than our modern philosophy ever dreamed possible, teaches us how to force the invisible to become visible; the existence of elementary spirits; the nature and magical properties of the astral light; the power of living men to bring themselves into communication with the former through the latter” (Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Vol. 1).

The term arcana continually calls us back to the spirit of the hieroglyphs that make up the tarot, which can only become known in the astral light of the inner temple of the heart. We must make of ourselves a sacred place to receive and contain the inner spiritual truth that can, in turn, transmute, alter and restore us.

Added: for a modern perspective on arcanum check out the definition from Inna Semetsky here.

A Tarot Tour of Italy with Robert Place

May 16, 2008 in Tarot News & Events | by | Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered about the real tarot history? There appears to be no doubt that it began in Northern Italy, probably between 1420 and 1440. Italy is also the home of a major resurgence in tarot art. Join artist and writer Robert Place, creator of the Alchemical Tarot and the upcoming Vampire Tarot, and Ernesto Frazioli, curator of the Museo dei Tarocchi in Bologna and an expert on Italian history and art, on a Tarot Tour of Northern Italy this October 12—25, 2008. Go to cities in Northern Italy where the tarot began, visit historic and artistic sites, discover inspirations and parallels for the tarot trumps in the mystical symbols of the artworks of the 15th century.

I went on a Tarot Tour to Italy in 2000 with the late Brian Williams (the Renaissance Tarot deck and many more) – read about it here. It was a never-to-be forgotten experience that changed forever my understanding of tarot origins. In the process of directly encountering the imagery of 15th century Italy, you will come to truly appreciate how and why this deck of cards emerged as it did in a way that books can never portray. Plus, Italy is luscious and has just about the best food in the whole world! You can read more about Tarot in Italy and the Museo dei Tarocchi at Fern Mercier’s website – here.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot

May 15, 2008 in Tarot Deck Reports | Tags: , , , , , | by | 4 comments

UPDATE ALERT: The contract for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot has been cancelled. See new post.

Rachel Pollack has done it again! This August her Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot will be available from Dark Horse Delux. With Rachel as the author and conceptualizer and Buffy artist Paul Lee illustrating the cards, this is a must have item for all Buffy fans and tarot collectors.

The wonderful thing about this deck is that it doesn’t just illustrate the life of Buffy. Instead, this is an ancient artifact in Slayer history, predicting coming events and emerging periodically, through time, when it is most needed. Although knowledge of its existence has been long suppressed by the Watcher’s Council, it is now available for use by the allies of Buffy to help her fight evil and save the world. By using this deck you, too, can be part of the continuing Slayer saga, and get guidance for your own life issues.

Read an interview with the creators here.

Definition Spreads

May 14, 2008 in Tarot Spreads, Tarot Tips & Techniques, zQuotables | by | 5 comments

In responding to a comment by tarotgirl about my previous post I wrote:

You can also create a spread around a definition or description of a single word or concept.

She asked: “How would you create a spread around a single word?”

So I thought I’d write my response here.

It’s not the word itself, but the definition of the word that I use. The parts of the definition become the position meanings and the word itself is the theme of the reading. Word roots could also be used.

I collect definitions of words that I find intriguing like for “symbol,” “imagination,” “meaning” and “myth.” Almost every writer on these subjects defines these words as they have come to understand and use them. Some of these definitions are very poetic, some strike at the heart of life’s dilemmas and issues. They can help us see the world and our mundane situations through a different lens, similar to what Rachel Pollack calls “Wisdom Readings” – but in this case, focusing on the wisdom in our own lives.

For instance:
According to Joseph Campbell: “A myth is a public dream; a dream is a private myth.”
You could draw two cards for what is the “public dream”/myth of your situation and what is the “private myth”/dream aspect of a situation. In doing this you take yourself out of the mundane level of what’s going on and choose to look at it from a wider perspective.

Or, Freud: “A myth is conscious ignorance and unconscious wisdom.”

You could ask “In this myth that I have about my mother . . . (add specific details) . . . : what is the conscious ignorance on my part (Card 1)? and what is the unconscious wisdom (Card 2) in that story?

Besides elucidating situations in your life, you can arrive at a very deep understanding of what the author of the definition was trying to convey. By operating “as if” this definition were true, you can also get a sense if it really works or not – it may just be a nice platitude that doesn’t go anywhere. Your life becomes the test case.

If you try this technique and like it, leave a comment and let us know what definition (or favorite quote) you used and how it worked.

Although I’ve been using this technique for a long time, I want to mention that the inspiring tarot author James Ricklef came up with it independently and taught it at one of the Bay Area Tarot Symposiums, using favorite quotes and proverbs. His book on creating spreads, Tarot: Get the Whole Story, is excellent.

The Will/Fortune/Fate/Destiny Spread

May 9, 2008 in Tarot Spreads | by | 9 comments

A wonderful way to create spreads is to adapt a self-help process that you especially like to a spread. You can also do this with a favorite quote or aphorism (a technique favored by tarot author James Ricklef). I undertook a long-term study of Dante’s Commedia in a small study group and made it my special task to look for tarot images—of which there are many.

When I came to Inferno, Canto 32, line 76, I found, “se voler fu o destino o fortuna, non so.” Translated, it says, “if it was will or fate or chance, I do not know.”

This struck me as one of the great questions that is implied when we seek answers through the Tarot. Don’t you sometimes wonder how you got into a situation? Do you always have a choice? What keeps you bound to your past? Are some things fated? What role does chance play? What furthers your destiny? Fate, destiny and fortune are often used interchangably. How do they relate to will? In exploring this topic I’ve come to see each of these as having their own implications in a situation. I went back to Dante’s Italian language to see if I could understand these perspectives better.

If you have ever wondered, along with Dante, about such things, then you might want to try this spread.

1 – What is my current Will? Voler means will, wish or volition (all come from the same root). This is your personal desire or intent and suggests deliberate, conscious choice.

2 – What is my current Fortune? Fortuna means luck in Italian, but it also suggests something stormy and tempestuous or chaotic. The Goddess Fortuna throws you around in a random and unpredictable way. This shows you what chance or happenstance has in store.

3 – What is my current Fate? Related to karma, Fato assumes that an outcome is the result or consequence of an earlier, though sometimes unknown, cause. This includes the playing out of previous actions or tendencies as they’ve become conditioning and habits. Carl Jung noted, “That which we do not confront in ourselves, we will meet as fate.”

4 – What is my current Destiny? Destino suggests destination and implies a higher, divine or ultimate goal toward which you are impelled by something greater than or outside yourself.

An example showing the difference among these four is: I wish (will) to lose weight, but fortune takes me to a dinner party where all my favorite fatty foods are deliciously prepared. I am fated to break my diet because I’ve always done so when tempted. It is my destiny to eventually . . . become fat? Or, to overcome my habits and develop willpower? Or, as a friend mentioned, remain overweight as a divine flaw that keeps me from getting too arrogant (thanks to James Wells). The cards will reveal all.

Added: I was reading Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul and came across the phrase “the demands of fate.” I wondered how this related to the four concepts above—if it could add another dimension to the positions. So I came up with the phrases that follow. What do you think?

• Fortune happens
• Fate demands
• Destiny urges
• Will decides

Speaking of Aleister Crowley & Frieda Harris

May 7, 2008 in Thoth Tarot Deck, Video & Audio Tarot | by | 2 comments

There’s a professional video biography of Aleister Crowley available in 5 parts on YouTube – here. Despite a few attempts at balance, it strongly emphasizes the most shocking and depraved aspects of Crowley’s life and works. Unfortunately (or fortunately) there’s nothing about tarot in the film.

To get the other side, and perhaps erring on the side of sweetness, try this commentary featuring Lon Milo DuQuette – here.

Check out these art exhibits featuring the art of Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris – here.

Frieda Harris’ alternate versions and sketches for the Thoth deck can be seen here. Harris’ use of Synthetic Projective Geometry and friendship with Olive Whicher is here. A bio of what little is known about Frieda Harris is here. (Note: Harris spent her most of her last years in India.)

A collection of the letters between Crowley and Harris regarding the creation of the Thoth deck are available here.

A feature film on Crowley written by musician Bruce Dickinson is scheduled to open this month. In this supernatural occult thriller, the spirit of Crowley possesses a modern Cambridge professor (Simon Callow). I don’t know if there is any tarot in it. See the trailer (which I’ve heard is better than the movie):

Added: the official website – here.

Hear Bruce Dickinson talk about making the film here.

Read a review of the film by Ivor Davies here (warning: spoilers): “This is the crux of the problem that this film has – just what would someone possessed by the late Aleister Crowley do all day long? ‘Sex and murder’ unfortunately is this film’s disturbing answer.”

An interesting article on how Crowley has been fictionalized in literature can be found here.

Killing the Thoth deck

May 6, 2008 in Book/Story/Poetry Reports, Golden Dawn Tarot, Thoth Tarot Deck | by | 47 comments

An issue came up on one of the forums about which is the best book from which to learn about the Crowley-Harris Thoth deck. The answer for almost everyone is, without question, Aleister Crowley’s Book of Thoth. This, despite the fact that, for most beginners in esoteric studies, it seems impenetrable. Books by Duquette and Banzhaf are proposed as intermediaries and I agree they are excellent choices, but a problem occurs when Angeles Arrien’s name comes up. Her Tarot Handbook: practical applications of ancient visual symbols takes a completely different approach to the deck, which is often characterized as the “make up anything you want” variety—though it isn’t that at all. I should mention I took several classes with Angie on the Thoth deck starting in 1977, and so I’m not at all objective in my views.

Angie’s approach is based on Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and the meaningful repetition of archetypal images and themes across world-wide human cultures. The statement by Arrien that probably infuriates people the most is: “I read Crowley’s book that went with this deck and decided that its esotericism in meaning hindered, rather than enhanced, the use of the visual portraitures that Lady Frieda Harris had executed.” Of key importance was that Arrien experienced a powerful response to the deck that did not arise from an esoteric OTO or Golden Dawn background. It was not specifically a rejection of Crowley, though it is easy to take it as such.

Instead, Arrien recognized most of the symbols from her study of anthropology and mythology. As a result she felt that “a humanistic and universal explanation of these symbols was needed so that the value of Tarot could be used in modern times as a reflective mirror of internal guidance which could be externally applied.” She believed that the Thoth deck symbols could be read in an other-than-esoteric way—specifically, as cross-cultural psychological symbols (archetypes from the collective unconscious). Her book offers this alternate perspective, based on the work of Carl Jung, Marie Louise von Franz, Joseph Campbell, Ralph Metzner, Mircea Eliade and Robert Bly.

In essence, Arrien asked: What do these symbols tell us if we strip away the esotericism and look at them purely as symbols and archetypes from the collective unconscious reflecting myths and images that have appeared across many cultures?

I see this simply as an alternate reading of the deck—not as a demand that we discount Crowley—but, rather, asking what can be seen if we do ignore Crowley? Is there anything else to this deck? Do real ‘true’ symbols transcend fixed definitions? Can they transcend any and all dogma?

We might also ask: If Crowley’s book were lost (along with all other esoteric texts), would future generations be able to reconstitute and find anything meaningful in these 78 images? Would this deck still offer something capable of informing our thoughts and actions?

It turns out that this is a valid question, for at least one person involved in the online discussion (and perhaps many others) felt that the Thoth deck is based on a specific language of symbols, defined by Crowley, such that, without his text the symbolism and the deck become meaningless. To remove Crowley, then, is to kill the Thoth deck—to make it worthless. In fact, as explained to me, symbols contain no meaning outside of the stated definitions of an individual. Strip symbols of definition and they either convey no information or they mean anything one likes.

This is absolutely contrary to the understanding of symbols held by such people as Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, the French magician, Eliphas Lévi, and countless others who have written extensively on symbolism and who believe that the meaning of the symbol is inherent in its nature. “Symbols can thus be understood as metaphors for archetypal needs and intentions or expressions of basic archetypal patterns . . . which are ultimately inherent in the human mind-brain” (Anthony Stevens, Ariadne’s Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind).

Furthermore, symbolism is a sacred, living language that reflects divinity through like vibrations. From this principle arose the occult ‘doctrine of correspondences,’ which says that something that is red, for instance, shares some kind of energy and meaning with other things that are red. Thorns that pierce are the protective weapons and barriers to the alluring rose whose scent also draws the bees. Even an esoteric interpretation takes such elements into account.

Many spiritual teachers do not fear the subjective, for they see each person as partaking of the Divine. The esotericist Manly Palmer Hall wrote in The Secret Teaching of All Ages: “Like all other forms of symbolism, the Tarot unfailingly reflects the viewpoint of the interpreter himself. This does not detract from its value, however, for symbolism is one of the most useful instruments of instruction in the spiritual arts, because it continually draws from the subjective resources of the seeker the substance of his own erudition.”

Certainly Crowley’s erudition is great, and we benefit from the knowledge he put into the Thoth book and deck (his book is magnificient!). But, if we stop there, we have not done our own work. There may be other interpreters of the Thoth deck who can also point us down what has been called “the royal road” of Tarot. Still, eventually we must make the path our own—there’s no getting around that.

The Egyptologist, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz in Symbol and the Symbolic tells us that symbols are different than an abstract alphabet in that we can reconstitute their meanings: “Any manner of writing formed by means of a conventional alphabetical, arbitrary system can, over time, be lost and become incomprehensible. On the other hand, the use of images as signs for the expression of thought [hieroglyphics] leaves the meaning of this writing, five or six thousand years old, as clear and accessible as it was the day it was carved in the stone.” In The Temple in Man, Schwaller de Lubicz talks about the living quality of the symbol that can not survive too rigid of a definition: “To explain a symbol is to kill it; it is to take it only for its appearance; it is to avoid listening to it. By definition, the symbol is magic, it evokes the form bound in the spell of matter. To evoke is not to imagine. It is to live, live the form.” (See Schwaller’s Egyptianized Tarot Trumps here.)

Most of all I appeal to Oswald Wirth who created the first truly esoteric Tarot deck (1889; revised in 1926) that is a significant influence behind all that have followed. Wirth, in Le Symbolisme Hermétique (translated by P. D. Ouspensky), wrote that symbols are meant to awaken us to our own freedom:

“Each thinker has the right to discover in the symbol a new meaning corresponding to the logic of his own conceptions. As a matter of fact, symbols are precisely intended to awaken ideas sleeping in our consciousness. They arouse a thought by means of suggestion and thus cause the truth which lies hidden in the depths of our spirit to reveal itself. . . . They especially elude minds which . . . base their reasoning only on inert scientific and dogmatic formulae. The practical utility of these formulae cannot be contested, but from the philosophical point of view they represent only frozen thought, artifically limited, made immovable to such an extent, that it seems dead in comparison with the living thought, indefinite, complex and mobile, which is reflected in symbols. . . . By their very nature the symbols must remain elastic, vague and ambiguous, like the sayings of an oracle. Their role is to unveil mysteries, leaving the mind all its freedom.”

“. . . Leaving the mind all its freedom.” It saddens me that the fears and anger provoked by Angeles Arrien’s book indicate a deep mistrust that the Thoth deck can survive the common touch of the “masses,” or that it has any worth whatsoever outside of Crowley’s text. It is felt that the mistakes and misconceptions in Arrien’s book (of which there admittedly are many) could create a devastating sense of betrayal in those who eventually find out that Crowley intended something different. This supposedly-fearful juxtaposition, however, led me to a much deeper appreciation of Crowley, while Angie encouraged independence and freedom in how I work with the deck and its symbols (not a good thing to those who see Crowley as the absolute and only fundament).

Although Crowley professed love for “the scarlet woman,” yet he feared the prostituting of his work, insisting that the deck and book always be sold together (it isn’t) and describing the deck’s potential use in fortune-telling as being a base and dishonest purpose (here -see text at the end). In fact, it seems that Crowley feared even the thought that anyone might claim independent insight into his deck for, despite her working diligently for five years with him to produce the deck, Crowley made clear that his student and artist, Frieda Harris, at no time contributed “a single idea of any kind to any card, and she is in fact almost as ignorant of the Tarot and its true meaning and use as when she began.” What hope is there, then, for the rest of us?

But, hope does exists, for the ever-contradictory Aleister Crowley (using the pseudonym “Soror I.W.E.“) wrote in his introductory biographical note to the Book of Thoth, that “the accompanying booklet [this book] was dashed off by Aleister Crowley, without help from parents. Its perusal may be omitted with advantage.“ If Crowley was of two-minds about how necessary his own book was to the deck, then is it at all surprising that we should be, too? I think most of us can agree that Frieda Harris’ innovative use of Steinerian ‘Synthetic Projective Geometry,’ described here, which was not in any way Crowley’s contribution, certainly deepens the effect of the deck’s imagery on the psyche.

I can only hope that, if you care about the Thoth deck, that each of you are brave enough to make up your own minds and feel free to “do as you will.” I leave you with this thought from old Aleister:

Know Naught!
All ways are lawful to innocence.
Pure folly is the key to initiation.

The Readers Studio 2008

May 2, 2008 in Tarot News & Events | by | 5 comments

The Readers Studio is a weekend workshop/experience created by Wald and Ruth Ann Amberstone who run The Tarot School in New York. Once a year, experienced tarotists gather together in a conference-like hotel setting to learn new ways to expand their tarot reading skills from three different teachers. The emphasis is on creating a tangible expansion of reading skills marked by the difference perceived between a spread done with a partner at the beginning of the weekend and then the same spread revisited in depth at the end. {Poster by attendee Ciro Marchetti, creator of the Gilded Tarot and Tarot of Dreams.)

In the past, most of the teachers have been tarot authors, this year they were known mostly for other contributions to the tarot field. Kevin Quigley had wowed participants previously with his reading insights and an evening session the year before. Thalassa, a former stand-up comedian and actor at Renaissance Fairs, is the long-time organizer of the San Francisco Bay Area Tarot Symposium (BATS). James Wells reads professionally and teaches in Toronto and has brought other outstanding teachers to Toronto. Thalassa and James are also known for writing tarot articles that are both practical and insightful.

This year we learned, via a seven-layered spread, just what we really have to offer our querents, about reading oracularly, and all about the art of asking questions rather than delivering pronouncements in our readings. Here’s NY tarot teacher, Ellen Goldberg, reading a spread with me.

Over the years, Readers Studio has expanded to include a Thursday early-evening workshop with Wald and Ruth Ann (since, over the weekend, they are totally involved with keeping things running smoothly), morning breakfast roundtable discussions, several choices of evening workshops by other participants, “celebrity” readings by current and past presenters, a fabulous selection of vendors (including Tarotgarden), and representatives from one or more publishers. At least six deck creators freely shared their process of creating decks and several had limited edition prints for sale.

Besides the workshops and other sessions, the most exciting part of this event has been the gathering together of serious tarotists from all around the United States, and a sprinkling from other countries. Many of these belong to tarot discussion lists, forums and Meet-ups. For some it is the first time they’ve met face-to-face with people with whom they’ve been talking for years! For others, it’s become “old home” week, when we can visit with like-minded friends who we see only once or twice a year. New projects get sparked, like the Teleconferences that Mary Collin initiated last year from England, an international Tarot Calendar from Amy Lamash, or this year’s “Tarot for Writers Forum,” which should be appearing any day now on the web.

The most surprising phenomena is something I’ve observed at every tarot event I’ve ever attended and that’s the friendliness of the participants. I’ve never met such an overall supportive group of people before. Newcomers are welcomed—if you love tarot you’re automatically part of the in-crowd! You can pretty much join with any group of people to sit and chat. Discussions are lively, funny and interesting. Ideas and resources are generously shared. There’s no hierarchy of “experts” and “students”—we’re all practitioners of the art who want to learn more. View lots more pictures from Beth Owl’s Daughter here and Elizabeth Genco here. Also visit Elizabeth’s daily RS commentary and cool stuff on running a metaphysical business here.

I didn’t talk about the Readers Studio earlier because the 140 spaces were sold out for months before the event. Next year, a larger conference room will be available as Tarot luminaries Jim Wanless (Voyager Tarot), Geraldine Amaral (Tarot Celebrations) and Rachel Pollack (too many books and decks to be individually mentioned!) will be presenting. Sign up early as this will surely be a sell-out crowd.

If you are hungry for face-to-face tarot fun and learning, then check out the more intimate workshops Rachel Pollack and I will be teaching at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck NY in June, and there’s the always popular up-coming BATS and LATS in the fall in California – more information here.

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Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me HERE.

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