My studies into the Golden Dawn tarot are both creating new problems for me and enlightening some matters. The problem is of course that I can't really claim to understand Kabbalah, and particularly not as related to tarot. For example, I am only just beginning to get why the minor arcana are placed on the sephiroth and the major arcana on the pathways between them. This fact is beginning to make more sense as I study these cards. On the other hand, when I think of the energy of The Fool, I don't think he should be on the tree at all: since he is the time before the first glimmering of an idea, I feel he should be somewhere above it. But hey ho, we press on.
One of the things this study is doing for me is enlightening the exasperating hints Waite keeps dropping that there are 'inner' secrets to the tarot keys, which he does not reveal and are not always visible in his cards (although some of them are well known and discernible by meditation). This study is beginning to reveal some of them, for example:
The Golden Dawn Fool shows a child holding a wolf, and represents worldly wisdom kept in check by perfect innocence.
The Magician represents the Fool in the act of experience, but things are not yet manifest. He has all powers at his fingertips.
The High Priestess carries us across the Abyss on the Tree of Life, and is the vessel of creation. In Golden Dawn terms she can represent the church rather than the Order.
The Empress represents things taking form, and we must be born of her womb to access the higher levels of the Tree. Here I have the slight difficulty that movement on the Tree is both upwards and downwards, although perhaps this says more about me than anything else.
The Emperor wears a fleece over his armour (why did I never notice this) and represents the force of Mars having put down the sword and taken up the wand.
The Hierophant's lesson is not intellectual, it has to be felt and experienced, which was the role of the Hierophant in the Golden Dawn. He links the Ethical Triad of the tree with the Supernal triad, Higher self with Spiritual self. The nails on the card bring together the fragments of the universe.
The Golden Dawn Lovers represents Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the Dragon of fear and the waters of stagnation. The 'inner' meaning is not sexual or the choice depicted in other decks, but is the love of the divine twins of Gemini for each other, the union of male and female within the initiate, conscious and subconscious.The Chariot is the first key to pass the Abyss to the lower Sephiroth, and represents will connecting and reconciling opposing forces.
Fortitude represents the soul controlling the passions. The woman is the same woman in the Universe card. The red line at the top of the card represents the abyss.
The Hermit represents communication with the Higher Self and help from above. I have a friend who refers to it as the wanker card, which of course does not represent the 'inner' meaning!
And so on...
I am sure you have readers who are nodding along sagely to your Golden Dawn tarot revelations, so I shall leave that well alone (as it is, as you know, nonsensical to me), and comment instead on other matters.
ReplyDeleteLike, for example, why you have a rather candid photo of Mr Crowley having been caught raiding the dressing-up box? And where are Ben's hands and what are they doing (does it have anything to do with his strained smile and all those veins popping on his forehead - perhaps related to your after-breakfast ritual)?
Ah, I have always said you were a great magician, and since it behoves us to know ourselves, only a real expert would acknowledge his areas of interest as dressing up, sailors and masturbation!
DeleteI thought the Golden Dawn dressed like that all the time...
Oh, stop. You'll make me blush! I'm really only an amateur when it comes to dressing up...
DeleteWhich reminds me: perhaps the Golden Dawn are overexaggerating, and their dawns are overcast and dark, hence their haphazard dress-sense particularly when Samuel Macgregor Mathers hadn't paid the electricity bill again?
Well possibly, but the spirit of Moina Mac Gregor Mathers has just possessed me and told me the problem was because the Secret Chiefs didn't leave a ruling on the subject the problem arose as a result of arguing about it...
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