Golden Dawn Original Tarot Design

Desecrated

I just want to point out a very unpopular opinion.

The golden dawn tarot that Israel did is most likely just some nonsense he made up.
Crowley was in the golden dawn for 1.5 year, He never advanced to the inner levels and he was kicked out together with his teacher.

Israel Regardie was Crowley's secretary for under 2 years before he got kicked out and they never spoke to each other again.

Having read Regardie's 800 page brick about the golden dawn, I think it's obvious that it's nothing but a mix of Golden dawn fragments, Crowley's own ideas, and what ever Israel himself could come up with at the time.
The Cicero couple are nothing but a bunch of frauds and like most modern versions of the golden dawn/thelema it's nothing but a glorified swingers club that likes cake.

The tarot deck is equally horrible. It looks like it was drawn with felt-tip markers.

But, that is just my opinion.
 

gregory

Wow - don't pull your punches.

I like Regardie/Wang's work, myself.

There is FAR more to a good deck than its art though. There is at least one tarot deck done by a tarot luminary whose art I have always wished had been done by someone else - but the tarotishness comes across very well anyway. You can't just lump artists whose work you don't like into a category of people you think are rubbish.
 

The Happy Squirrel

I just want to point out a very unpopular opinion.

The golden dawn tarot that Israel did is most likely just some nonsense he made up.
Crowley was in the golden dawn for 1.5 year, He never advanced to the inner levels and he was kicked out together with his teacher.

Israel Regardie was Crowley's secretary for under 2 years before he got kicked out and they never spoke to each other again.

Having read Regardie's 800 page brick about the golden dawn, I think it's obvious that it's nothing but a mix of Golden dawn fragments, Crowley's own ideas, and what ever Israel himself could come up with at the time.

So what you are saying is that none of them have been in the Golden Dawn enough to know enough to produce an accurate deck?

Have you seen DuQuette's descriptions of the original designs as he explained Crowley's cards?

The Cicero couple are nothing but a bunch of frauds and like most modern versions of the golden dawn/thelema it's nothing but a glorified swingers club that likes cake.

LOL I don't know if I am suppose to laugh ...
This reminds me of what Marie Antoinette allegedly said about letting the poor people eat cake (apparently she never did say that)

The tarot deck is equally horrible. It looks like it was drawn with felt-tip markers.

But, that is just my opinion.


Thanks for a bombastically honest opinion!

I think there is an agreement amongst people here that none of the art is anything to write home about :) But that the ones who are qualified weren't the best of artists. I actually think Cicero's art is the easiest on the eyes amongst the others.

Except the Whare Ra's but I can't seem to find tha anywhere. Although I saw Mary Greer has them on her blog :)
 

Freddie

I prefer the Regardie/Wang deck as it is based on original drawings and manuscripts, these can be found in various G.D. books. Another deck to consider is the 'Golden Dawn Temple Tarot'. I like that one too.

I guess I am odd as I only dislike about three images from the Regardie/Wang deck....The Chariot.... Temperance..... The Star.... the symbolism is great, but the images are poorly drawn.


Freddie
 

The Happy Squirrel

Artistically I like the GD Magical best. But apparently it isn't the most accurate. I have decided that's for you were to put the accuracy aside, Frieda Harris' design for Crowley's Thoth is probably the most beautiful and the closest to the original GD. Yes I know Crowley changed things around. If I have a choice I would have loved a copy of the black and white that Whare Ra seemed to have when they are still around.
 

Richard

Artistically I like the GD Magical best. But apparently it isn't the most accurate. I have decided that's for you were to put the accuracy aside, Frieda Harris' design for Crowley's Thoth is probably the most beautiful and the closest to the original GD. Yes I know Crowley changed things around. If I have a choice I would have loved a copy of the black and white that Whare Ra seemed to have when they are still around.

Forget about the Whare Ra. One of the most important things about the GD Tarot is the coloring. The GD Temple Tarot is probably the best of all but a bit pricey.

The Regardie-Wang is also fairly accurate, and cheaper, and uglier.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Forget about the Whare Ra. One of the most important things about the GD Tarot is the coloring. The GD Temple Tarot is probably the best of all but a bit pricey.



The Regardie-Wang is also fairly accurate, and cheaper, and uglier.


Ah! I didn't know that!
 

Zephyros

Of course, the whole point of all these authentic decks is that they were, or would have been, made by members who weren't necessarily artists. Some may have scrawled the attributions onto a regular Marseilles but I think that members who had the yen to would have made more elaborate decks. Quite a few actually did. There's certainly no GD rule that I know of that decrees spartan decks.

The main "problem," if you will, with elaboration is that it invited increasing levels of personal bias. An example of this is the RWS's Minors who's demonstration in visual terms of the abstract concepts of basic Book T invites debate, because they are in themselves interpretations. In many ways so are the Thoth Minors, albeit in different ways. However, the Thoth is still more authentic GD in spirit, at least in its methodology.

It really all depends how much of a purist one is. You could also say that Book T is an interpretation of 777, but that would really mean reinventing the wheel. Something like the Hermetic may not be 100% authentic, and it even borrows both some designs as well as ideas from the Thoth, but as a GD study tool I find it superb, if only because it has everything except the colors.

But considering the Whare-Ra, I have to wonder how important colors originally were, or if they were if they were important to Tarot rather than being relevant mainly in ritual work.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Wow. This is clearly over my head a little. But thanks for that Zep. Those are food for thoughts and will definitely assist in my still infant stage of journey!