The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang -study tool

Freddie

Now I am confused again....not hard for me to get this way though when trying to digest the GD Tarot system.... I thought that Crowley and Wang made the Princes the top dogs over the kings.

Like this:


Princes

Queens

Knights

Pages

Do they not claim the Prince marries the queen as the kings are too old and feeble to do their duty???? Sort of a take on 'Crown of the Magi' This switch always messes with my head lol..

Freddie
 

Aeon418

Step 1. Start with the traditional TdM court cards in their usual order.

King

Queen

Knight

Page

Step 2. Now swap the positions of the King and Knight.

Knight

Queen

King

Page

Step 3. Rename two of the cards.*

Knight (The Golden Dawn renamed this card, King. Crowley does not.)

Queen

Prince*

Princess*

Step 4. Map the cards to the name IHVH.

Knight - I - Yod - Father - Fire.

Queen - H - Heh - Mother - Water.

Prince - V - Vau - Son - Air.

Princess - H - Heh - Daughter - Earth.
 

Richard

Pecking order:

1. In the Book T overview they are listed as: King, Queen, Prince, Princess
2. In the Book T detailed descriptions they are listed as: Knight, Queen, King, Knave
3. Crowley Thoth: Knight, Queen, Prince, Princess
4. Regardie-Wang Golden Dawn: King, Queen, Prince, Princess

No matter what they are called, the guys riding horses are the top dogs, next are the Queens, then the guys in chariots.
 

Zephyros

Do they not claim the Prince marries the queen as the kings are too old and feeble to do their duty???? Sort of a take on 'Crown of the Magi' This switch always messes with my head lol..

Freddie

The Princes marry the Princesses, and in so doing they become the King and Queen. They then consummate their marriage (annihilation of opposites) after which the old King goes to sleep (like a phallus that has done its job) and the Queen gives birth to a Prince and Princess. Such is the cyclicity of the Courts.

Horses are of course a strong male and sexual symbol, while the chariot is a mercurial mode of conveyance. Rule of thumb: if a man has his legs apart straddling a horse, his intentions are seldom virtuous. The Princes are top dogs as far as humans are concerned, they are the part of God we can actually experience, the Higher Self, the HGA, Jesus, etc. They are the ones we deal with directly.
 

Aeon418

Vir

Rule of thumb: if a man has his legs apart straddling a horse, his intentions are seldom virtuous.

Really? What's so un-virtuous about viritlity?
 

Richard

He also says the Knight's are older than the Kings when discussing their divinatory meanings. Wang had to ignore both qabalism and the astrology which is clear on the cards for all of the courts to equate the courts as he did.
Good point. I had forgotten about the age reference. The evidence really seems overwhelming that the pecking order of the Rider-Waite court cards should be Knight, Queen, King, Page.
 

ravenest

I just throw the whole lot out the window and start with IHVH

It doesn't matter who runs the show, it is a King or a Queen or both so it may as well be called a Queen ( and 'we' have one running the show now ... we don't need a king as well) ... that first H is all important ... it 'runs the show' ... the Queen scale. The Knight is her outward emissary ... her fire, her first cause.

She makes the law and he goes out and enacts it. He is her active component. He is Y ... but the Y 'of' ( the first) H.

I wrote all this out in detail somewhere here on Thoth forum the last time the subject came up ... but what was the thread title ???
 

Freddie

Great posts on here everyone, well done!!!

As I continue to study this book I cannot help noticing that Wang is more concerned with the Crowley opinions on Tarot and seems to rate them higher than the other GD members take on the Tarot. Sometimes it seems he might have been happier to just write a book about 'Thoth'. This is my only minor complaint about the book. I also notice that he has changed some information for this book that he put in his smaller earlier work 'Introduction the the Golden Dawn Tarot'. I like that book as well and it is quite cheap to buy.


This book still continues to be too expensive and hard to find. I lucked out and found a copy for £15.00 on ebay. It would be nice for it to be more affordable to the masses.



Freddie
 

Aeon418

As I continue to study this book I cannot help noticing that Wang is more concerned with the Crowley opinions on Tarot and seems to rate them higher than the other GD members take on the Tarot. Sometimes it seems he might have been happier to just write a book about 'Thoth'.

Maybe Wang found it easier to write about the Thoth due to the wealth of information provided by Crowley.

Wang makes it clear that he disagrees with Crowley's Emperor/Star swap. He stays squarely within the Golden Dawn framework, giving his reasons why he thinks the cards should remain where they are.
He even has a bit of moan about Crowley's comments on the Lamb & Flag on Atu IV The Emperor, which he dismisses as just another attack on Christianity. Although he missed the fact that Crowley describes the lamb as "couchant". :confused: Was Crowley ignorant of heraldry? Or was he trying to say something in an indirect way?

Either way I'm sure it would make a lovely Apron. ;)