Journal
of the Western Mystery Tradition
No. 17, Vol. 2. Autumnal Equinox 2009
No. 17, Vol. 2. Autumnal Equinox 2009
Tarot Today
editorial by J. S. Kupperman
The tarot, as a divinatory tool, has been with us for a few hundreds of years now. Over those few hundred years much has remained the same and much has changed. Some of the older decks, drawing on their history as a card game, had upwards of 30 tarot trumps. That would make for an interest divination indeed.The modern tarot deck, despite its very old lineage, is derived almost in its entierty from the tarot work of the founding adepts of the Order of the Golden Dawn. From the work of MacGreggor Mathers and William Wynn Westcott to that of Aleister Crowley, Arthur Edward Waite and Pamala Coleman Smith the tarot today has become quite orthodox.
How it may be used, however, has not. From traditional fortune telling to the advanced divinatory methods of ceremonial magic, from scrying in the spirit vision to talismancy the tarot's uses are seemingly unlimited. This issue of the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition will explore just a little bit of the tarot's history and uses. Starting with the development of the tarot in the Golden Dawn this issue will explore different ways people have created their own decks to using the tarot to better understand the sacred landscape to exploring the major arcana with the ideas of Jewish mysticism as a cosmological underpinning.
As always we at the Journal hope you enjoy this issue and will come again for the Spring issue focusing on angelic magic.
LVX et PAX
-J. S. Kupperman