Did Crowley use the Oswald Wirth deck for his study?

[Zezina]

Was it the 22 card Oswald Wirth Tarot deck that Crowley quotes in his 1944 BoT Bibliographical note page xi:

'[since 1898] during all this time the Tarot was his daily companion, guide, and object of research'?

also, on page xii: 'The medieval packs are hopelessly corrupt...'

Or does no-one really know which deck Crowley refers to in this quote? I did a search of threads before asking, and while feeling sure this question must have been asked here before, I couldn't unearth the answer. Which deck would Golden Dawn members have used for their study before the 78 card Waite deck was published in 1910?

46 years is a long time to study only 22 cards on a daily basis!

And if it was the Oswald Wirth deck that Crowley studied, would it have been a 22 card deck Crowley had hand coloured himself? I found a reference to such a deck being amongst his Golden Dawn papers after he died. But surely Crowley would have used a full 78 card deck for his study, when he went on to design a full deck in Thoth Tarot?

Not really important to know the answer, but another piece of the puzzle if available.

Sorry if this gets tiresome for the knowledgeable here who keep repeating information over and over for Thoth novices like myself.

*Z*

 

[Laura Borealis]

Not being the scholar in this area that some here are, I can't help with your main question -- except to say that I have read that Crowley did not mention any tarot deck by name in his diaries. (Someone here may be able to confirm or deny this.)

But I can help a tiny bit with this --

Which deck would Golden Dawn members have used for their study before the 78 card Waite deck was published in 1910?

We know that W.B. Yeats, another Golden Dawn member, owned a Dotti Tarocco Italiano. You can see a few cards from it in an online exhibition here: http://www.nli.ie/yeats/

To navigate to the where the cards are, click "Launch Online Exhibition" and then from the "Areas" menu at the bottom, navigate to "The Celtic Mystic" and then "The Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn." The cards are in the lower right corner, and you can click them for a closer view, and even see the notes he wrote on the cards themselves.

It's reasonable to believe that other G.D. members would have used similar Italian decks that were originally meant for gaming, which they turned to their own purposes. From what I've read, these decks were common enough at the time. (Actually I've just noticed that the Tower card shown in Yeats' collection is from a different Italian tarocchi pack; it's one of the double-headed ones.)

It makes sense as well that Crowley would have studied the esoteric decks of Wirth, Etteilla, etc. as well -- and no doubt found them wrong on many points!

Hopefully someone with more solid information will come along and answer your questions more fully.

 

[Le Fanu]

Solid information is always scarce in these matters, but...

If he said the "medieval" decks were hopelessly corrupt then that would just be eliminating (presumably) the Visconti. The Conver was known at this time (not medieval; 1760ish) from 19th Century hermetic studies, and also - as laura says - the Dotti was circulating among his contemporaries. My hunch is that he would have used the Dotti. No evidence whatosever, except that it's definitely not medieval, perhaps slightly Neo-Gothic...

 

[kwaw]

By 'medieval' perhaps he meant 'medieval looking' - like TdM.

 

[Zezina]

We know that W.B. Yeats, another Golden Dawn member, owned a Dotti Tarocco Italiano. You can see a few cards from it in an online exhibition here: http://www.nli.ie/yeats/

What a wealth of beautiful information is to be found in your sentence, Laura.

I thought I knew a little bit about most Tarot decks, but had never encountered these 19th century Italian decks before. It does seem reasonable that Crowley's companion for so many years could have been one or more of them. Thank you for expanding my knowledge into this area.

Then at the Yeats exhibition how I enjoyed 'en passant' listening to WBY reciting 'Innisfree', over and over until my heart was bursting!

Thank you for your reply.

*Z*

 

[Laura Borealis]

You are most welcome. I'm glad it was helpful.

 

[Abrac]

In Vol. 2 of his Encyclopedia, on page 391, Kaplan describes a set of 22 Wirth images from a limited edition of 350, published in 1889 by E. Poirel under the title “Les 22 Arcanes du Tarot Kabbalistique.” The accompanying picture on page 393 says: “Aleister Crowley Collection, Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.”

Further down in Kaplan’s article it says: “The Hebrew letters, where still visible on this deck, were altered on cards 8 LA JUSTICE, 9 L’ERMITE, 10 LA ROUE DE FORTUNE, 12 LE PENDU, 14 LA TEMPERANCE, 16 LE FEU DU CIEL, 17 LES ETOILES, 19 LE SOLEIL. Apparently they were changed to reflect the system of correspondences for tarot cards and Hebrew letters as put forth by the twentieth-century occultist Aleister Crowley. In fact this deck probably once belonged to Crowley himself (emphasis mine). Unfortunately Kaplan doesn’t explain why he believes this. In the picture, the only Hebrew letters visible to the naked eye are Samech on Temperance and Peh on The Tower. Those two have clearly been altered from Nun (Wirth) to Samech (Crowley) and Ayin (Wirth) to Peh (Crowley).

If a person wanted to learn more, the University of Texas might be a good place to start. I think I might check their website later when I get time.

Edit: The link below is for an inventory of the Crowley collection at the Humanities Research Center. It also contains some biographical information. About 3/4 of the way down, the Wirth cards are listed along with this comment: "An item of particular interest in this series is a set of hand colored tarot cards designed by the famous Swiss Kabbalist Oswald Wirth. Crowley purchased the cards in Paris in 1906."

That's pretty amazing. I still don't know how they know he purchased them. Maybe there's something in his others papers.

H.R.C.

 

[Zezina]

"An item of particular interest in this series is a set of hand colored tarot cards designed by the famous Swiss Kabbalist Oswald Wirth. Crowley purchased the cards in Paris in 1906."

That's pretty amazing. I still don't know how they know he purchased them. Maybe there's something in his others papers.

H.R.C.

Thanks Abrac. That makes it pretty conclusive that Crowley did own and use the Oswald Wirth deck.

Crowley very likely used other decks as well, as he would probably have been familiar with a 78 card deck too.

*Z*

 

[Aeon418]

Crowley very likely used other decks as well, as he would probably have been familiar with a 78 card deck too.

There are entries in Crowley's diary that record Tarot readings with a full deck - Majors & Minors. So it's fairly certain that he did own a complete deck. What kind is a mystery.

Going back to your earlier point where you quote Crowley saying he made the Tarot his daily companion, guide, and object of research. I'm not convinced that this is a reference to any particular deck that he may have owned. To Crowley the Golden Dawn system was the initiated Tarot tradition. So in all likelihood he could have used any available deck and read with it, regardless of whether he considered the symbolism 'hopelessly corrupt'.

 

[roppo]

Edit: The link below is for an inventory of the Crowley collection at the Humanities Research Center. It also contains some biographical information. About 3/4 of the way down, the Wirth cards are listed along with this comment: "An item of particular interest in this series is a set of hand colored tarot cards designed by the famous Swiss Kabbalist Oswald Wirth. Crowley purchased the cards in Paris in 1906."

That's pretty amazing. I still don't know how they know he purchased them. Maybe there's something in his others papers.

H.R.C.

The Crowley collection of Texas Univ. mostly consists of J.F.C. Fuller's library which they purchased in 1966. The Wirth Tarot was a gift from the Beast to Fuller.