Variants of Golden Dawn attributions by the Aurora Aurea

foolMoon

Cannot add anything to the GD temple tarot comments, as I have never owned one, but again I tend to agree with Zeph on the point that wordings of titles are less important than attributions.

What I feel more important are,

Adaptation of the GD teachings, such as TOL, astrological attributions, and main interpretation from Book T.

There could be minor variations on wordings, images and interpretation depending on each decks such as Tarot of Stars Eternal. This deck has peculiar images and different wordings on the titles of each cards from the tradition, but most would agree that it is a GD based Thothy deck due to its adaptation of the GD astrological association in the deck and also interpretation made from TOL teachings.

Some images are Crowley Thothy, some are downright unique and mysterious.
 

Richard

Cannot add anything to the GD temple tarot comments, as I have never owned one, but again I tend to agree with Zeph on the point that wordings of titles are less important than attributions........

My point if that if the careless use of titles in Book T can, for example, cause someone like Nick Farrell to create an expensive, but flawed, Tarot deck, then it is not an insignificant issue. However, since people wish to downplay any weaknesses inherent in Book T, I'll shut up. It is heretical to criticize Holy Writ.
 

Michael Sternbach

My point if that if the careless use of titles in Book T can, for example, cause someone like Nick Farrell to create an expensive, but flawed, Tarot deck, then it is not an insignificant issue. However, since people wish to downplay any weaknesses inherent in Book T, I'll shut up. It is heretical to criticize Holy Writ.

I wouldn't call the GD Temple deck "flawed." Virtually every deck creator is taking certain artistic liberties.
 

ravenest

I am taking right to the heart of the issue and making a new 'story' ..... why not, its a new deck and a new Aeon :)

Not everyone will be clear on it, as some are still 'old aeonic' ... even partially.

The story works fine for old aeon princesses that need need redeeming and kings that rule with a queen as some sort of passive consort. Like the Waite deck, the whole thing seems mixed up, convoluted, old-fashioned and needs acrobatic justifications to make all the systems interlock nicely . Which they won't , of course, hence all the confusion.

Why do we need a king AND a queen ? We dont. Who is the current King of the British Empire ? Why do we need a King if we have a Queen?

What is important is the 2nd stage of the process ... the 'Queen Scale' .... calling it a King or anything else is immaterial. We have these 4 stages, that are best observed by observing nature itself (and not some unnatural human political hierarchy ).

Queen (or King ) is the ruler from the 'concealed' or ' from the rear' ( or 'at home at the castle' ) position. The Knight, being active , 'goes forth' or is sent out. I won't go on , as most posters here will understand what these 4 levels of operation are .

Going back to my old favourite (that I have a few posts around here on) ; Don Pavey , a color theorist , who realised the same classifications. His first level ( the knight) of colours, he says are colours that 'scream' , that 'burst forth' that 'attack' the senses 'demand attention'. Modern fluro colors used in warning signs, to bring attention, advertising, safety clothing, etc.

The next he calls colors that 'command' ( natural primaries ; such as the red , yellow , green of traffic control lights, etc. ) These are the central 'ruling colours' that all the others are drawn from, even though they are 2nd in position. The third level of colours ( our Princes) are the main colours we use in their blends and mixtures and the 4th , more subtle (like the Princesses level) are soft and 'mute tones', pale or pastels.

So, IMO , the King or Queen on throne or chariot is the 2nd position , the Knight, on horseback needs to be first. And I would put the Prince in a third position as trainee ruler , learning statehood and martial skills ) and the Princess , at a previous stage, not yet required to take on as much responsibility but holding power in potential, as yet undefined yet mutable .

That way we still have the trad 4 elements interacting in their hierarchy, an elimination of the king as we dont need one if we have a queen, and 2 of each sex out of the 4 courts.

I am also seeing a similar set up in the psychological dynamic of Thoth ATU XI - the knight is the 'Beast' and the King/Queen 'The Bride' . The Beast is energetic and forthright and is the vehicle that brings forth the Bride.

Also in the psychological dynamic suggested by Liber Resh;

" ... Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. "

Here , I see Tahuti as 'Queen' standing at the prow giving directions; the look out, the observer, the one that chooses where to go. Ra-hoor, the 'active principle' at the helm driving the boat forward at the direction from the prow, the active Knight.

[ The 'splendour' of Tahuti can relate to the 'shimmering' quality of that species of Ibis that the Egyptians equated with the ' perfected soul' . The guidance of this quality draws the human soul - a mix of 'animal soul - nephesh- Kha (Princess), the human 'spirit' - ka ( Prince) along the path of 'developing perfection' - Ba (Knight) .... towards 'immortal spirit' - Akh - the 'splendid Ibis' (Queen) . ]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/8f/32/22/8f3222fddd6afd06c9d198e4508bd579.jpg
 

Barleywine

@ravenest:

I think your color analysis is basically a sound one. As a graphic design student way back in the '60s, I was required to buy a packet of what was known as "Color Aid" paper, basically a "scale" of chromatic intensity for each color ranging from the purest, most saturated and vivid hue to the palest, subtlest tint. The "command colors" were the primaries (red, yellow and blue) followed by the secondaries (orange, green and purple). All remaining colors were iterations created by adding either black ("shades") or white ("tints"). There were no "neon" or "fluorescent" colors in my art world at the time. Black (the combination of all colors) and white (the absence of color) were things apart (note that this is opposite of the common understanding of "white light" as containing the full spectrum of color, and is a function of the mixing of pigments). I've never tried to equate this hierarchy to the Golden Dawn color scales. Maybe now's the time. I wonder if any artistically savvy occultist has written anything on the subject.
 

Richard

The artists for the GD Temple Tarot adapted the CMY (cyan/magenta/yellow) primaries to the GD color scales. There may be more information about this at the wendricharthouse.com web site. (Secondary and tertiary colors mixed from CMY are more saturated than what one gets with RYB. This is an empirical fact which has a solid theoretical basis.)
 

Barleywine

The artists for the GD Temple Tarot adapted the CMY (cyan/magenta/yellow) primaries to the GD color scales. There may be more information about this at the wendricharthouse.com web site. (Secondary and tertiary colors mixed from CMY are more saturated than what one gets with RYB. This is an empirical fact which has a solid theoretical basis.)

Thanks! I've often wondered why printer technology has always used those three, and where the concept came from. I also know that if my printer runs out of black ink, it can make black out of the other three.
 

Richard

Thanks! I've often wondered why printer technology has always used those three, and where the concept came from. I also know that if my printer runs out of black ink, it can make black out of the other three.

The CMY theory has been around for awhile. (The theoretical basis for the GD's "flashing colors" are explained correctly by the concept of "visual complements" in CMY theory. The RYB "flashing colors" are based on so-called "mixing complements" and are a crude approximation.) Somewhat surprisingly, CMY theory is derived from the RGB (red/green/blue) additive color theory for light.

While magenta inks have been around for quite some time, only relatively recently have non-fading magenta pigments been developed for use in painting (the quinacridones). The Wendrichs used oil paints for the original GD Temple Tarot paintings. The colors in this deck are stunning!
 

Babalon Jones

@ravenest:

I think your color analysis is basically a sound one. As a graphic design student way back in the '60s, I was required to buy a packet of what was known as "Color Aid" paper, basically a "scale" of chromatic intensity for each color ranging from the purest, most saturated and vivid hue to the palest, subtlest tint. The "command colors" were the primaries (red, yellow and blue) followed by the secondaries (orange, green and purple). All remaining colors were iterations created by adding either black ("shades") or white ("tints"). There were no "neon" or "fluorescent" colors in my art world at the time. Black (the combination of all colors) and white (the absence of color) were things apart (note that this is opposite of the common understanding of "white light" as containing the full spectrum of color, and is a function of the mixing of pigments). I've never tried to equate this hierarchy to the Golden Dawn color scales. Maybe now's the time. I wonder if any artistically savvy occultist has written anything on the subject.

I have a book called "Colour and the Kabbalah" by Doreen and James Sturzaker that is pretty good. Out of print but you can find used copies inexpensively on Amazon which is where I got mine.

(James Sturzaker also wrote Kabbalistic Aphorisms which I like too)
 

Barleywine

I have a book called "Colour and the Kabbalah" by Doreen and James Sturzaker that is pretty good. Out of print but you can find used copies inexpensively on Amazon which is where I got mine.

(James Sturzaker also wrote Kabbalistic Aphorisms which I like too)

Thanks! Kabbalistic Aphorisms is one of my all-time favorites.