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.
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Tag Archives: golden dawn
Rider-Waite 100th Anniversary talk
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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?
Photographs of the 100th Anniversary of the Rider-Waite deck in London
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Thinking about the tarot talk tomorrow
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…
See you tomorrow.
News on the Rider-Waite centennial anniversary
Kim has sent me a pdf of the program for the Rider-Waite anniversary talk.
Knowing the politics around the Golden Dawn at the turn of the century is vital to understanding AE Waite’s motives for producing his tarot deck. Researching the talk has opened my eyes on a number of things – you will have to come along to find out.
Rationalising Liber 777
I am now on my fourth attempt at rationalising the tables on Liber 777, and this time I think I have cracked it. Mind you, I thought I had cracked it previously, but as the months go by, and I look at the pages, I realise there are still serious problems. This time the penny dropped – I had included the Goetic powers in the Major Arcana when they should be in the relevant Minor Arcana pages. Blindingly obvious when you think about it. Continue reading
AE Waite and the Golden Dawn
Image via Wikipedia
I am speaking with Mary Greer at the 100th anniversary of the Rider Waite Deck in London on the 5th December 2009. Kim Arnold asked me months ago if I knew anyone who could speak at the event, so I was a bit surprised to find myself booked. Continue reading
How watery is the Hanged Man?
Take a close look at the Golden Dawn’s Hanged Man. Do you see any evidence of water in the man suspended upside down? Do you see any connection between the profound life-giving precious substance that may one day be more expensive than oil, and the notion of sacrifice and suspension? I don’t, and yet when I see this card in a reading, it invariably suggests some idea of renunciation, of giving up. Continue reading
The Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot
First of all, this is not a tarot deck. Tarot decks have 78 cards: Major, Minor and Court cards. This has 89 cards that are reversible; that is to say, on one side are aspects of the Angelic Watchtower system, while the other side has a conglomeration of tattva and I Ching symbols. Confused? You bet!
Tree of Life Disease
Over the last 24 hours I have been receiving a new vision. It started with a tree fallen across a road, with people behind it blocked from moving forward. Before you think, wow, he’s just noticed that there is global warming, and the forests and jungles of the world are in serious trouble from logging, this wasn’t the tree I was seeing. Continue reading