Today I uploaded some videos to youtube. The videos are the beginning of a series of lessons on reading the tarot using Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and the Opening of the Key Spread. Elemental Dignities, card counting and card pairing will be upcoming subjects.
This review also appears on Lori Green’s blog. I think the interesting point Lori makes is that she did a reading using the Celtic Cross, and then read the cards using the techniques Catherine and I describe, and she found that:
“The Celtic Cross spread that I laid out was OK but a bit ambiguous in places and I didn’t gain much insight from the interpretation. I then re-did the reading using the card counting technique and the reading came to life and made absolute sense – I was amazed and so pleased that it actually “worked” for me.”
Clearly the proof is in the pudding.
If you have come across a review, or you have written one yourself, please let me know.
I have just uploaded a couple of videos to youtube that show the first part of my talk at the RWS 100th Anniversary celebration in London on 5th December with Mary Greer.
At last the day arrived. Held at the Devereux Pub just around the corner from Temple in London, where so many esoteric talks have taken place. Mary Greer spoke eloquently on the spiritual and religious dimensions that Waite incorporated into his tarot deck, and interpreted by Pamela Coleman Smith.
Mary demonstrated how the Minor suits closely followed Masonic rituals, particularly the murder of Hiram Abiff for the Swords. After my talk on the influences of the Golden Dawn on Waite, we cut a beautiful cake featuring the Magician. Mary then spoke on synesthesia, the ability to experience senses in a different way, and how Pamela Coleman Smith was able to use this ability in her art. Mary led us through an exercise to ‘step inside’ a tarot card to gain extra insights, probably the way Pixie Smith did it.
The evening was for socialising. I was surprised how many people had seen me speak before, and it was great to catch up with everyone. Any more anniversaries coming up?
Looking forward to meeting Mary Greer, Kim Arnold and everyone else at the 100th Anniversary of the Rider Waite tarot deck tomorrow afternoon. I am booked to speak, not so much on the RWS deck – there will be too many experts who know far more than me on the subject.
What I will be talking about is the incredible influence of the Golden Dawn on the tarot, ritual magic, Wicca, Paganism, you name it in the esoteric world.
The GD has had its fair share of sex, drugs and scandal, not to mention the schisms and internecine wars that continue right up to the present day.
In all of this lay the birth of AE Waite’s Tarot deck, so I will try to put things into some kind of context, and assess what we know about the deck in this light, and where we might see new directions.
Oh, and there will be one lucky winner of my new co-written book, Beyond the Celtic Cross. For everyone else I will be bringing copies…
Great to see everyone who turned up last night in the cold and wet for the start of the Infernal Salon talks in Brighton, as part of Occulture.
We started off with a 20 minute video exploring the occult and esoteric synergies between Occulture and Brighton. The photography is beautiful, and we were treated to some new angles and views of this great seaside town.
As so many people had not heard me talk before, I started with my own background in Tarot, meeting Punditt Maharaj, and how he influenced me to begin reading the Tarot. Then it was on to understanding tarot interpretation via the odds of winning the National Lottery – surprisingly the two are linked. After a chat about the new book, I ended up with the Tarot Cabaret; spontaneous short readings for members of the audience. The talk was taped, but I have not had a chance to check the quality. If it is good enough, I will post some excerpts on youtube.
Doing the talk has got me warmed up for the Rider-Waite anniversary on 5th of December. I hear it has sold out, but there might be tickets available if people are unable to come. Kim Arnold will be giving away a copy of Beyond the Celtic Cross at some point, and I will have more copies. This is pretty much an exclusive for the Conference, and I hope to be able to talk about the book informally in the evening. Looking forward to seeing you all.
On December 1st 2009 I will be a doing my Tarot Cabaret as part of the Occulture/ Infernal Salon Show at the Caroline of Brunswick in Brighton. As well as a demonstration of tarot I will be talking about my new book Beyond the Celtic Cross, co-written with Catherine Chapman.
Included will be a video of the recent 2009 Occulture Festival.
Douglas Gibb and Catherine Chapman have posted a fabulous analysis of Elemental Dignities. I have been encouraging them for some time on this. We need more writers on the subject as it gives students a better chance to understand this important divination system when there are more resources. So, now you can compare and contrast Doug’s insights with mine on Supertarot.
There is another great resource Catherine Chapman’s blog that I recommend. As you now know, Cath co-authored “Beyond the Celtic Cross” published next week, which also includes a lot about Elemental Dignities.
Word is reaching me that my second book co-written with Catherine Chapman is at the publishers and fingers crossed, it will be available at the end of next week. Beyond the Celtic Cross explores powerful techniques for analysing a tarot reading at very deep levels. It all began when Catherine emailed me about problems she was having with a reading about herself.
When I looked at the cards it was easy to see why she was struggling. Rather than stay with the Celtic Cross format, I decided to apply the techniques I have been using and show Catherine how she can do it herself, rather than me simply giving a reading. And so a half hour tarot reading became a six month project that eventually took even longer when my publisher took an interest.
Since Catherine knew the techniques (she had been reading supertarot for sometime), I realised that it was not about teaching, but mentoring, bringing out the skills that were already there. Already one very tangible outcome of the book is Catherine’s blog, quite simply the best tarot blog so far.
First cometh the Atu numbered 0, the O of the Heavens = Negative. Then 1 = the O opened out into a right line = the Positive. These two numbers have corrupted Egyptian Titles: 1 to the 0, Mat – to the 1 Pagad. These are Maut = Mother Goddess and Pekht = Extension. Maut of all extended through the Universe, “and above the shoulders of that great Goddess is nature in her vastness exalted.” Note the last Atu is called the Universe. — Golden Dawn
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