The question suggested by Crowley’s footnote to page 3 has interested me since it was posted. As far as I can say at present, after more than a week’s research, is that it seems that the Golden Dawn’s Adeptus Minor (5=6) initiation ritual, composed by Samuel Liddell “MacGregor” Mathers in 1892, is the first to claim that the
Rota mentioned in the
Fama Fraternitatis, and “consulted in the Collegium ad Spritum Sanctum”, is the Tarot. The term “Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum” also appears to be unique to the Golden Dawn, although I have a hunch it must have been around a bit longer (perhaps used in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, for instance). In any case, it is not used in the
Fama Fraternitatis.
This finding surprised me, because it seems that surely some earlier occultist – especially Eliphas Levi - would have mentioned it.
Here are the references (links to all public domain sources cited at the end of the post), to the 1614 first edition of the Fama Fraternitatis; Thomas Vaughan’s 1652 English translation (also published by A. E. Waite in 1887); the Adeptus Minor ritual (see Regardie,
The Golden Dawn (Llewellyn, 1971), vol. II, p. 220;
The Portable Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic (New Falcon Press, 2013), vol. 7, p. 39)
“…auch altbereit sein newes Gebäw
Sancti Spiritus genennet” (1614, p. 104)
“…also whilst his new building (called
Sancti spiritus) was now finished”
“These four Fratres also erected a building to serve for the Temple and Headquarters of their Order, and called it the
Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, or the College of the Holy Spirit.”
“…(weil wir uns erst in unserer
Rota wollen ersehen)” (1614, p. 113)
“…because first we would
overlook our Rotam”
“…they wished first
to consult the ROTA.”
Clearly, Crowley’s use of the specific terms “consult” and “Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum”, neither used in the
Fama Fraternitatis itself (nor in Vaughan’s translation, the only one available), explicitly echo the Adeptus Minor ritual. Crowley also uses the phrase “consulting the Rota” in his 1903 “Prefatory Note” to the
Goetia. Of course, he also used the terms Rota and Taro interchangably throughout his life.
A further, related Golden Dawn innovation was the identification of the book “T” with the Tarot. The Adeptus Minor ritual (1971, p. 228; 2013, p. 43) says “Upon his breast was the Book ‘T’, a scroll explaining in full the mystic Tarot”; Crowley’s version of the ritual (
Equinox I, 3 p. 216) has “…hands rest on shoulders, bearing scourge and crook; between them and under them the Taro.”
There is one interesting exception to the silence of “some scholars” prior to the Golden Dawn’s principal scholar, Mathers. In 1892, William Francis Chalmers Wigston published a Rosicrucian interpretation of Francis Bacon (1561-1626),
The Columbus of Literature or, Bacon’s New World of Sciences, in which he wrote a section on “The Tarot of the Bohemians” (pp. 178-183; see links at the end of this post for this and all other references) where he explicitly identifies the Rota in the
Fama Fraternitatis with the Tarot. I have no idea if Mathers or Crowley read Wigston, but the Rosicrucian subject matter makes him a plausible source. Also remember that Crowley includes Francis Bacon among the Saints of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, so perhaps Crowley’s phraseology of “some scholars” alludes to Wigston and other less explicit authors, who, with hindsight, seemed to saying the same thing.
My research has been fairly thorough, but not exhaustive; Levi, in 1856, was the first to suggest the ROTA-TARO(T) anagram (
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, volume 2,
Ritue, p. 281), but he based himself solely on what he believed to be Guillaume Postel’s
clavis diagram, which contains the letters ROTA in a circle. Levi makes no mention of the
Fama Fraternitatis, or of the Rota mentioned therein being the Tarot. Levi’s follower Gerard Encausse (Papus), also used the ROTA-TARO concept in 1889, but again only mentions Postel as the source. In his list of authors alluding to Tarot at the end of his book, he mentions the Rosicrucians as having possessed the Tarot, and quotes what he supposed to be the
Fama Fraternitatis (but is really a paraphrase of Levi’s quote of a 1792 book of Jacques-François Lefranc), which only mentions a book, but not the
Rota.
It is tempting to see both Levi and Papus as strongly implying that the Rota was the book of the Roscrucians, but this must be seen as an anachronistic attitude. The
Fama mentions several books (e.g. M, H, and T), and the
Rota is not called a book, so we must be cautious about attributing to either of these authors the implicit identification of the
Fama’s
Rota with Tarot. Wigston, writing about the Rosicrucian Bacon in 1892, and Mathers, writing the Adeptus Minor ritual in the same year, were the first to make this identification explicit.
BACKGROUND SOURCES
The first author to suggest that
Rota and
Taro are anagrams was Eliphas Lévi, in
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1856 edition pp. 279-281; 1861 edition, pp. 382-383; cf. Waite translation, 1896, pp. 359-360). Levi bases himself on a diagram he mistakenly attributed to Guillaume Postel in his
Absconditorum a constitutione mundi clavis of 1546, but was actually designed by Abraham Graf von Franckenberg (1593-1652) in his 1646 edition of Postel’s work. of the
Fama Fraternitatis was the Tarot,
Papus (Gerard Encausse),
Le Tarot des Bohémiens (1889), p. 306
LA MYSTÉIEUSE FRATERNITÉ DES ROSE-CROIX (1604).
La Fama fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (1613) montre aux Initiés que les Rose-Croix possédaient le Tarot qui est ainsi décrit :
Ils ont un livre dans lequel ils peuvent apprendre tout ce qui est dans les autres livres faits et à faire.
N’oublions pas que ces Rose-Croix sont les initiateurs de
Leibniz et les fondateurs de la Franc-Maçonnerie actuelle par
Ashmole.
https://archive.org/details/clefabsoluedelas00papuuoft
“The Mysterious Brotherhood of the Rose-Cross (1604). The
Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (1613) shows to Initates that the Rosicrucians possessed the Tarot, which is described thus:
They have a book in which they can learn everything that is in other books, written and to be written.
“We must not forget that the Rosicrucians are the initatiors of
Leibniz and the founders of modern Freemasonry by
Ashmole.”
ROTA IN THE
FAMA FRATERNITATIS
There are four occurences of the term “Rota” in the
Fama Fraternitatis, which I will list below. They are quoted from the 1652 translation of Thomas Vaughan (see links below for the pages):
1. “After this manner began the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross; first, by four persons onely, and by them was made the Magical Language and writing, with a large Dictionary, which we yet dayly use to Gods praise and glory, and do finde great wisdom therein; they made also the first part of the Book M: but in respect that the labor was too heavy, and the unspeakable concourse of the sick hindred them, and also whilst his new building (called Sancti spiritus) was now finished, they concluded to draw and receive yet others more into their Fraternity; to this end was chosen brother R.C. his deceased fathers brothers son, brother B. a skilful Painter, G. and P.D. their Secretary, all Germains except J.A. so in all they were eight in number, all batchelors and of vowed virginity, by those was collected a book or volumn of all that which man can desire, wish, or hope for.
“Although we do now freely confess, that the World is much amended within an hundred years, yet we are assured, that our Axiomata shall unmovably remain unto the Worlds End, and also the world in her highest and last Age shall not attain to see any thing else; for our
Rota takes her beginning from that day when God spake
Fiat, and shall end when he shall speak
Pereat;”
2. “…none of us had in any manner known anything of Brother R.C. and of his first fellow-brethren, then that which was extant of them in our Philosophical Bibliotheca, amongst which our Axiomata was held for the chiefest;
Rota Mundi, for the most artificial; and Protheus the most profitable.”
3. “…therefore we gave God thanks and let it rest that same night, because first we would overlook our
Rotam;”
4. “…besides by instruction and command of our
Rota, there are come to sight some books, among which is contained M.”
Transcription of 1614 edition by Markus Osterrieder, at Adam McLean’s site Levity –
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/fama_g.html
1. “Also fieng an die Brüderschafft des R. C. erstlich allein unter 4 Personen und durch diese Worte zugericht, die Magische Spraache und Schrifft mit einem weitleufftigen Vocabulario, weil wir uns deren noch heutiges Tages zu Gottes Ehr und Ruhms gebrauchen und grosse Weißheit darinnen finden: Sie machten auch den ersten Theil des Buchs M. es weil ihnen aber die Arbeit zu groß worden und der Krancken unglaublichen zulauff sie sehr hinderten, auch altbereit sein newes Gebäw Sancti Spiritus genennet, vollendet war, beschlossen sie noch andere mehr in ihr Gesell: und Brüderschafft zu ziehen: hierzu wurden erwehlet Fr. R. C. seines verstorbenen Vatters Bruder Sohn Fr. B., ein geschickter Mahler G. G. und P. D. ihre Schreiber, alle Teutschen biß an I. A., daß ihr also achte, alle lediges Standes und verlobter Jungfrawschafft waren, durch welche gesamblet würde ein Volumen, alles dessen so der Mensch ihme selbst wünschen, begehren oder hoffen kan: Ob wihr wohl freywillig bekennen, daß sich die Welt innerhalb hundert Jahren treflich gebessert, seynd wihr doch vergewissigt, daß unsere axiomata unbeweglichen werden bleiben, biß an den Jüngsten Tag, und nichts wird die Welt auch in ihrem höchsten und letzten Alter zu sehen bekommen, dann unsere
Rotae nehmen ihren anfang von dem Tag, da Gott sprach: Fiat, und enden sich, wann er sprechen wird, Pereat,” (pp. 104-105)
“…daß nach A. Todt unser keiner das wenigste von R. C. und seinen ersten Mitbrüdern gewust, ausser deme, was in unser Philosophischer Bibliotheca von ihnen vorhanden gewesen, darunter unser Axiomatae das fürnembste,
Rotae Mundi das künstlichste und Protus das nützlichste von uns gehalten worden, “ (p. 110)
“…darüber wir Gott gedanckt und desselbigen Abends (weil wir uns erst in unserer
Rota wollen ersehen) beruhen lassen,” (p. 113)
“…darüber auß anleytung und befehlch unser
Rotae, etliche Büchlein, darunter auch die M. hoh …” (p. 121)
1615 edition, pp. 26-27; 33; 36; 44
https://archive.org/details/famafraternitati00andr
1616 edition, pp. 14; 19; 22; 29
https://books.google.fr/books?id=fR...=PP1#v=onepage&q="fama fraternitatis"&f=false
Thomas Vaughan, English translation, 1652, pp. 13; 18; 20; 26
https://archive.org/details/fameconfessionof00vaug
Benjamin Rowe edition (English)
http://hermetic.com/norton/pdf/Rosicrucian.pdf
Adam McLean’s Vaughan versions
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/fama.html
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/confessi.html
Levi, Rituel, 1856,, p. 281
https://books.google.fr/books?id=CwUOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false
Waite, Rosicrucians, 1887
Original (colour PDF) -
https://archive.org/details/realhistoryofros00waituoft
Searchable text -
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sro/rhr/rhr06.htm
William Francis Chalmers Wigston,
The Columbus of Literature, 1892, pp. 178-183
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009979233
Waite, 1896, p. 360
https://archive.org/details/transcendentalma00leviuoft