New Tarot Magical System

All systems, whether they be science, philosophy, divination or magic, must evolve or die. The Tarot is no exception.

Apart from the Thoth Tarot, there has been little change in the concepts of Tarot for over 100 years. My book, Tarot and the Magus marked a significant change in ways that I am only starting to understand now. This section starts the beginning of an investigation of the new system of Magic based upon the Tarot, a powerful system that overcomes many of the problems associated with traditional magic, and is simpler to use. What is it to do with you? If you read cards, you need to know how to use the latest powerful divination techniques, which allow you to not only make more accurate predictions, but also work at deeper levels of the psyche. If you do not know them, others will. Also, as a magician, you do not want to be stuck with obsolete techniques. Magicians are increasingly using these new systems, so be prepared.

The basis of these techniques are found in the Golden Dawn tarot divination, Opening of the Key, a complex operation involving five separate stages. My book, Tarot and the Magus analyses and presents the core techniques of Elemental Dignities, Counting and Pairing of a string of cards, illustrating how the same string of cards can be analysed in many different ways. During this process, the Spirits of Liber 231 and Goetia made themselves known to me in a very friendly and helpful manner. All I had done was analyse a tarot reading, and somehow it invoked these spirits! No rituals or invocation, and now they are available to me at any time I desire. The book was supposed to be a 'howto ' on tarot reading not magick, but my publisher suddenly became very keen for me to pursue the spiritual and magickal aspects, which I did.

Many of these techniques have been available on Supertarot for many years, so if you are not familiar with them, do the Tarot Lessons. The book develops the techniques way beyond the Golden Dawn descriptions into a workable system. The website and the book complement each other.

I was under a lot of pressure to write the book to a deadline, so I did not have the luxury of reflection during this time. I knew that parts of the book were a grimoire, but I did not know how use it. Since publication, I have been able to work and analyse the techniques. While I was writing the book, Donald Michael Kraig 's Tarot and Magic was published. In it, he includes the writings of Kenneth Grant and the Shadow Tarot by Linda Falorio. The techniques of Grant are the old style that are too dangerous for most magicians, and in any case, the Opening of the Key provides powerful, safe and easy methods of invocation of spirits. As Kraig discusses the 'new' magical techniques of Grant, I was consigning them to the past! However, Kraig's brave magical exploration of Liber 231 was not in vain - apart from being terrified and nearly dying, he grasped the point that magic must change and evolve:

The real question this chapter presents is, "Where are the Tarot and magic going?" Who is going to come up with a system of magic that will carry us well through the twenty-first century? Who will devise a system of divination and magic for the next era of human existence? Is it hidden in some book or deck that is already created? Is it being created now?

Perhaps the creator of new forms of magic with tools like the Tarot is finishing reading this book right now.
Donald Michael Kraig, Tarot and Magic

I read those words with a shiver a few days after the Spirits presented themselves while I was writing Tarot and the Magus. Part of the process of understanding the new Tarot Magic is to separate Tarot from the past accretions that encumber it. First on the list is to separate the Kabbalistic Tree of Life from the Tarot...