Tarot + Ritual Magic (Tyson)

So... is there anybody out there using Donald Tyson's system/ideas in his book 'Portable Magic'?
This is = using a Tarot deck to lay out/define a ritual magical circle, and then using
the card imagery for visualisation in the ritual.
(And magic - for anyone reading who's wondering what I mean by this - is the practice of visualisation,
and meaningful words and actions for the purpose of aiding/influencing an outcome. Much like if one would sit/kneel down, make the sign of the cross, and pray for something good - or for someone to recover quickly from an illness. Or just praying as a regular form of discourse with The Deity/meditative practice).

If so - I'd love to hear from you (assuming you are happy to share):
- Your experiences and any other ideas of the use of the Tarot in this realm/way.

Presently I use The Tarot of the Cat People (Kuykendall) as my 'magical' deck for this exercise and I'm most excited about how energising and well... just "magical" it feels to use them in this way.
I chose Cat People because the images are clear cut and simple compared to some other decks
(whilst at the same time, still being a deck that I love and am strongly connected to via it's particular beautiful/colourful artwork). Simpler means easier to use for visualisation as there's less details of the total images to remember. Lol.

Anybody there? (hopefully).

I did a session for my coven about the usage of tarot in various settings, like magick. For tarot magick I prefer Donalt Tyson's book because it's simple, easy to remember, and self-sufficient, so I mentioned his book. While I do not perform magick outside of our coven works, if I were to I'd use Tyson's method. I bought a mini Pagan Cat Tarot deck for this though, and for the course I was giving (to show mini decks exist and are great for tarot magick).

"Tarot + Ritual Magic (Tyson)"

WolfyJames said:

I did a session for my coven about the usage of tarot in various settings, like magick... I mentioned Tyson's book...I bought a mini Pagan Cat Tarot
- for the course I was giving (to show mini decks exist and are great for tarot magick).

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Many thanks for sharing this WolfyJames.

I really like the idea of Tarot use in this way and can feel ideas floating about on how else
I might incorporate this more into my daily personal ritual practice.
I now have two 'ritual' mini decks - Secret Tarot and Pagan Tarot (which I find appropriately coven-like in it's artwork) and look forward to what I can invent with them.

Tanga said:

So... is there anybody out there using Donald Tyson's system/ideas in his book 'Portable Magic'?
This is = using a Tarot deck to lay out/define a ritual magical circle, and then using
the card imagery for visualisation in the ritual.

Click to expand...

I haven't read the book, but this dates back to the Golden Dawn at the turn of last century.

I think Tyson was/is in Golden Dawn, he mentions it. His book is his method to do magick with tarot, which is based on the GD but it's his own method to do it so he deviates a bit. The system is self-suffecient because you don't need external tools, just a tarot deck, to do the magick circle, the rituals and the spells. And there is no complicated things to remember for the ritual. I read 1-2 pure GD magick books and they were long, complex and not the type of things I'd try. But Tyson's book is the opposite, it's simple and easy to understand, and does not use GD formulations at all. The difficult part of the book is the visualization part.

"Tarot + Ritual Magic (Tyson)"

WolfyJames said:

I think Tyson was/is in the Golden Dawn

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Yes. I have a 1st edition of his Book 'Portable Magic' - published in 2006.

WolfyJames said:

- in the book - The system is self-sufficient because you don't need external tools, just a tarot deck, to do the magick circle, the rituals and the spells. And there are no complicated things to remember for the ritual. The difficult part of the book is the visualization part.

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Yes - the challenge of getting your visualisations so good that you can hold that much detail in your 'minds eye' all-at-once. I love it! I'm getting better at it slowly.

WolfyJames said:

I read 1-2 pure GD magick books and they were long, complex and not the type of things I'd try.

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Huge points to you for actually ploughing through some. I just leafed through them and knew it was waaaay too complex for my simple brain. When anybody asks I just say "I'm a lowly HedgeWitch - ceremonial magick is way over my head".
I've had a peep into the ceremonial world in various ways - acquaintances who are Freemasons, having a tour in the Freemason Hall here, going to presentations/lectures at my favourite esoteric bookshop on the GD - some where we've been taken through the LBRP (Lesser Banishing Ritual of The Pentagram - a sequence for 'purifying' the working space and the mindset in preparation for ritual) and the Middle Pillar Ritual (a sequence for 'aligning with Universal power/forces of Kabbalah to empower oneself in preparation for ritual - I could be remembering this one slightly wrong) which come from GD.
It's all very interesting.