Golden Dawn deck, but not Waite...

Richard

DT, I agree that the Wang and the Cicero decks leave a lot to be desired artistically. I don't have the Regardie book which has the depictions of GD cards, but I believe the original GDers had to go by written instructions, not pictures. Wang is actually a better artist than he seems to be in the GD. He may have deliberately simulated the efforts of an imaginary untalented GDer. The Cicero deck doesn't interest me at all for some reason.
 

treedog

Ah, black and white...

I just received my Hermetic Tarot in the mail today. Wow, there's just something about Black and White!

And what I notice is that I'm (slowly) relaxing and not looking for the one, perfect deck that contains the "truth". I see in the Hermetic deck that the severed head in the Queen of Swords looks pained rather than peaceful (which doesn't make as much sense to me), but what do I know?

I also am happy to report that so much more of the symbolism, in every deck, is beginning to have meaning. I think about a card's position on the Tree--I think about that a lot. Nothing is static or isolated; all is movement.
 

Zephyros

I love the Hermetic, but don't actually read with it, but use it as a study deck. The black and white makes it very good to write notes on, the only deck I do that with.
 

Freddie

Solid choice Treedog and sounds like you are on your way.


Enjoy,


Freddie
 

Wee_Gypsy

Hi there :)

I use all the decks above mentioned above, alot.

The BOTA deck by P Case is used as a coloring exercise to learn the color scales, which are similar but way more simplistic than the Golden Dawn color scales. Although Paul F Case (the founder of BOTA) has exelent tarot papers and techings avalibile and I highly recomend them and his cards,from a learning standpoint. Well more so his books and tarot teachings than the actual cards. The cards are very similar to Waites deck, and also recomended to be colored similar.

The Thoth- by AC and Lady Freida Harris is also exelent, and it is colored properly, in the sense of combining the paths and sephiroth with in the cards, although it does switch cards and trump's names, and 2 of the letters up (because of genders) the emperor and the star-so it is a different animal from the other hermetic decks out there, in a sense. This is a great deck, in my opinion for dream work with tarot path working because of the surreal type art Harris did with in it.

The Ciceros and older I Regardie and Wangs-use book T from the HOGD and the classic Golden Dawn color scales (which are very exact, color being one of the most important factors in the HOGD), so if you are looking for working with a certain (exact) color system this is the one. The HOGD is beyond strict with colors, very systematic. The HOGD teachings generally are an exelent foundation and have awesome teachings for anything "esoteric" though, so alot to offer in that sense too.

The Hermetic - by Dowson sort of swings toward a more purist alchemical deck with the engravings, not totally, but more so than the RWS, thoth or GD decks. This is also a great deck, especailly if you would like something Hermetic or esoteric, and the color scales arent as important. Great symbolism and iconogrphy in this one.

-There is also the Oswald Wirth deck, but qabbbalistically, the fool is Shin as opposed to aleph so every letter is one off, and this confuses me, dosent sit as well rather, but iconogrphy and art wise it is an exelent deck als, and has a classic marsellie style, if you are a TmD fan this would be a nice choice in that sense.

It depends is you are using the deck as a learning tool, how you would like to use your cards, and also visually, what you perfer. I use the Thoth, myself, the most at this point, but did heavily use the HOGD decks as well, espeacilly to build a strong fondation on esoteric tarot teachings, in conjunction with book T.

I also use P Cases way of thinking of the tarot, and BOTAs teachings with the table of trumps, cube of space, and general qabbalah studies, but not the deck per ce (still coloring mine)...P Case has some of the best esoteric books out there on the tarot.

At the end of the day, check some of the decks out, see what you like, try them out, go from there. What ever feels right to you. ;)
 

treedog

book to go with Hermetic Tarot

Thanks. These comments are all useful. One thing that helps (for now) is reading a few different sources and working with a few different decks. I'm Gemini, what can I say... I'll settle down in a while, or not.

I do wonder if there is, in addition to the LWB, some text that talks about some of the choices for the drawings in the Hermetic Tarot. Not the regular attributes but some of the animated characters and other objects.

I noticed on an Amazon review that someone spotted an incorrect elemental assignment to the KCup in the HT. Sure enough. So I got out my fine permanent marker and turned a Fire sign into an Air sign. He is, afterall, the Air of Water. Kings are between Queens and Princesses in the HT. I hope I got that right :)
 

Richard

......I noticed on an Amazon review that someone spotted an incorrect elemental assignment to the KCup in the HT. Sure enough. So I got out my fine permanent marker and turned a Fire sign into an Air sign.
Strange. The K/C in my Fournier Vitoria printing is correct: Air of Water.
 

treedog

first attachment. . .

Strange. The K/C in my Fournier Vitoria printing is correct: Air of Water.

I'm attempting an image attachment here. (just subscribed; guess it was time)

Here's what I mean about editing the element attribute in the Hermetic deck.
 

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Richard

I'm attempting an image attachment here. (just subscribed; guess it was time)

Here's what I mean about editing the element attribute in the Hermetic deck.
Yes, I got that from your description. Nice that it's easy to change fire to air with a Sharpie. Here is the K/C in my edition of the HT, which was printed in Spain and distributed by USG.
 

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treedog

Oh, that's what you meant by "Fournier Vitoria". Clean imagery, and a nice scan.