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 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 are focal 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 the Golden 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 earlier decks, 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, 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, so their 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 twenty two tarot trumps, attempting to interpret them in a Qabalistic fashion.^[12] Lévi’s method of attribution remains extremely influential today, especially amongst continental occultists, such as Papus, Franz Bardon, Ouspensky and Mouni Sadhu, who himself was influenced by the Russian, G. O. Mebes.

Lévi’s set of attributions of the trumps are shown in Appendix One: it will be instructing to compare this with the revisions later made by the Golden Dawn.

“The Juggler” is what in modern decks is called “the Magician.” The derivation comes from the fact that in ancient times, what we nowadays call “stage magicianship” and “juggling” were both part of the same art. This is exemplified by the Juggler card of the Tarot of Marseille, who is depicted playing a game of cup and ball.

“The Female Pope” and “the Pope” are ancient names for the “High Priestess” and “Hierophant” respectively.
“Vice and Virtue” is the exact same card as “The Lovers” from the Tarot of Marseille – Lévi is here depicting two of the figures seen on that card as representing Vice and Virtue respectively.

From his description of “Kether” Lévi is referring to what would nowadays be called “The World” or “The Universe.” The rest of the names of the trumps are sufficiently similar to their modern counterparts that I should not need to explain them.

What Lévi has done therefore is to take the trumps, in the order in which they are found in the Tarot of Marseille, and simply allotted them to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, without attempting to change them around. Hence, the first numbered trump, “The Juggler” is assigned to Aleph, the second-numbered, “The Female Pope,” to Beth, and so on. The un-numbered trump, “The Fool,” is placed in the penultimate (i.e. twenty-first) position. The following points need to be emphasised:

Note that “Justice” is the eighth-numbered tarot trump, and “Strength” is the eleventh. This is the original order of these two cards as found in ancient decks such as the Tarot of Marseille. Some uninformed modern commentators mistakenly believed that when Crowley made “Balance” the eighth trump and “Lust” the eleventh, he was somehow changing around their order: in fact he was leaving the order of these two cards untouched as compared to traditional Tarot decks.

Note also that whilst certain Qabalistic attributions of Lévi’s trumps may be inferred by comparison with the Sepher Yetzirah, Lévi himself avoided doing so except in two clear cases, “the Female Pope” and “the Empress.” He also implied that the character of “the Juggler” was a Mercurial figure. The fact that Lévi avoided giving clear astrological attributions to the Tarot trumps has caused some people to allege that Lévi knew his associations to the Hebrew alphabet were wrong, but that he was prevented by oaths of secrecy from revealing the true order (there is no evidence that this was the case).

The Golden Dawn
The Golden Dawn was founded in 1888 by W Wynn Westcott, Robert Woodman, and S L Macgregor Mathers. This happened as a direct result of Westcott acquiring, in 1886, approximately 60 folios of a so-called “Cipher Manuscript.” Various forms of speculation have been put forward as to where this Cipher Manuscript came from, but the solitary primary source on the subject – Westcott’s own account – is categorical in stating that it came from the Reverend A F A Woodford, a fellow member of the SRIA, and Westcott’s mentor in the Qabalah.^[13] Where Woodford himself acquired the folios from is unknown.

The Cipher Manuscripts are of prime importance when considering the Golden Dawn’s contribution to the Tarot. They demonstrate that Tarot was an extremely important part of the Golden Dawn’s teachings right from the outset.

The attributions of the Tarot trumps to the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, and their corresponding astrological associations, are listed in Appendix Two. Hence, the trumps are essentially in the same order as that of the Tarot of Marseille, but with two crucial differences. Firstly, “The Fool” is placed at the head of the Trumps – following the example of de Gebelin. Secondly, “Strength” is assigned to Leo and the letter Teth, and “Justice” is assigned to Libra and the letter Lamed. Now it so happens that in the Knowledge Lectures of the Golden Dawn these two trumps were actually renumbered as 8 and 11 respectively. However, the Cipher Manuscript, although it adjusted the astrological and Hebrew attributions of the two trumps, it actually kept the old numbering.

With regards to the Minor Arcana, the suits are referred to as “Wands” (i.e. Sceptres or Batons), Cups, Swords and “Pentacles” (Discs or Coins). In referring the Minor Arcana to the suits of ordinary playing cards, the Golden Dawn follows the scheme of de Gebelin, and that followed part of the time by Papus, depending on which chapter of “Tarot of the Bohemians” one is reading, i.e. Wands – Diamonds, Cups – Hearts, Swords – Spades, Pentacles – Clubs.

The Court Cards are named by the Golden Dawn: Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses – the latter being equivalent to Knights and Knaves of other decks.

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 follow the 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:

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 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, indicating that 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 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 the Golden 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 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 doubt assisted 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 claims was 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.

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, their meanings 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 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 a successful 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 Court cards, 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 appear in 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 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 twelve decans – 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 the Aces, 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 belt of 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 loss or marital problems. Were this card surrounded by cards of the suit of Pentacles, this would emphasise the financial or material loss aspects of the card. If on the other hand, it were surrounded by cards of the suit of Cups, this might indicate that an interpretation concerning marital or relationship problems might be better emphasised. If surrounded by Wands, this might indicate problems with an enterprise in which one is engaged, such as one’s career: Swords on the other hand might point to the fact that problems are caused by strife or conflict with another person. In the last mentioned example, the precise meaning might differ tremendously depending on which particular card it actually was. If the Five of Pentacles were next to the Two of Swords, for example, this might indicate the possibility that the problems could be resolved: if however it were the Ten of Swords, this would indicate the opposite, that these problems would lead to disaster.

Determining whether suits are naturally antagonistic, harmonious, or neutral to one another may be accomplished by taking into account the elements that the suit represents. Wands (Fire) and Cups (Water) are generally mutually antagonistic: so too are Swords (Air) and Pentacles (Earth). A Minor arcana is harmonious with other cards of the same suit, but is neutral (i.e. neither one or the other in particular) with the other two suits.

The harmonies of the various Major Arcana can be worked out by taking the astrological significations. So, for example, “The Emperor,” “Strength,” “Temperance” and “Judgement” are all Fiery-cards and would thus go well with cards from the suit of Wands.
Because the meanings of the Minor Arcana depend on a number of different factors (Suit / Element, a Sephirah, astrological sign, planet, traditional cartomantic meanings), differing cards when judged in relation to a card may bring out corresponding aspects of that card. For example, “Judgement” might bring out the fiery-aspects of the Eight of Wands, but “The Magician” might indicate its mercurial-aspects. Conversely, “Wheel of Fortune” represents Jupiter, which in astrology is in its detriment in signs ruled by Mercury and vice versa. Thus if the “Wheel of Fortune” were considered in relation to the Eight of Wands this might sit inharmoniously with its Mercurial-associations, and cause it to be ill-dignified.

Concerning actual methods of Divination, the members of the Inner Order were given a method called “The Opening of the Key.” This was in five-parts – the opening of the matter, its development (in three stages) and conclusion. Macgregor Mathers, who composed this order paper, recommended the Diviner thoroughly prepare through meditation, the lesser banishing rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, and by being equipped with all his or her ritual regalia and paraphernalia. He also advised magically invoking the element most connected with the subject of the question, to aid the divination, and if necessary, to use Clairvoyance (by going through the cards as in “tattva journeys”) in order to discern the true meaning of cards appearing in a spread.

Hence, a Golden Dawn tarot divination is not simply an instance of dealing the cards and interpreting their meanings: when done in its full form it is a full magical operation in its own right.

Post Golden Dawn Developments in the Tarot

Waite
Arthur Edward Waite (1857 – 1942) joined the Golden Dawn in 1891. After a three year hiatus from 1893 - 1896 he re-entered the Order and joined the second order 1899. From 1903 to 1914 he lead one of the several schismatic factions in to which the Order had split, which gradually moved away from magic and towards (esoteric) Christian mysticism. Thereafter he formed his own order the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross.

Waite is most famous today as the man responsible for the popular “Rider-Waite” Tarot Deck, which was illustrated by Pamela Colman-Smith (1878 – 1951), who herself had joined the Golden Dawn in 1903. Of the creation of the deck, Waite wrote:

Miss Pamela Coleman Smith, in addition to her obvious gifts, has some knowledge of Tarot values; she has lent a sympathetic ear to my proposal to rectify the symbolism by reference to channels of knowledge which are not in the open day; and we have had help from one who is deeply versed in the subject. ^[28] (Emphasis added).

Quite who this “one who is deeply versed in the subject” might be is open to speculation (there has been one allegation that it was W B Yeats himself ^[29]). It is quite clear though, from a study of the designs of the Tarot deck, that Waite is following Golden Dawn attributions – as well as a lot more besides. Although Waite admitted that he admired Papus’ work,^[30] it is clear that from the artwork that “The High Priestess” represents the Moon (due to the presence of the Luna crescent); “the Empress” is Venus (there is an obvious Venus-symbol); and “the Emperor” is Aries (his throne is decorated with ram-symbolism). Moreover, the trumps are numbered in the Golden Dawn sequence. However in a number of his books he implies that he associates the Tarot with the Grail tradition as well. In “The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal” he explicitly states state that suits of the Tarot are equated with the Grail Hallows: the Grail or Chalice being Cups; the Spear of Destiny 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 got them 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 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 the Judgement 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’s own “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 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 by Robert Wang, Tabatha Cicero, Richard Dudschus and Patrizio Evangelisti, whilst others are in the pipeline at the time 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” have published their own system of Tarot magic which is nevertheless harmonious with the order’s teachings.^[43]

Appendix One

Attribution of the Tarot trumps to the Hebrew alphabet, with partial Qabalistic correspondences, according to Lévi.

Appendix Two

Golden Dawn attribution of the Tarot Trumps, according to the order’s knowledge lectures.

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