The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn created a system of magic that had the tarot at its heart. People think the Golden Dawn is about ritual, but the tarot is its beating heart.

As part of the training students had to create their own tarot deck to demonstrate understanding of the complex systems.

The French occultists were the inspiration for Golden Dawn tarot in combination with Kabbalistic systems.

Because the GD is a secret society, there are no real Golden Dawn tarot decks, but that did not stop students publishing their own. The best known are The Book of Thoth, The Rider-Waite deck and The Builders of the Adytum, whose authors were members of the GD.

Structure of the Golden Dawn Tarot deck

The 78 cards are divided into three main groups, Major Arcana, Minor Arcana and Court cards. The Aces are separate from these groups, but I have put them with the Court Cards.