Internal polarity of the Tarot Cards

If you are doing the Tarot Blog Hop, odds are that you have arrived from Tarot Notes by Zanna Starr, a nice blog which uses cards from many Tarot decks---for those of us who are always looking for more Tarot decks to buy. And if you are a regualr reader, the post is about a Tarot spread based on an Easter Egg.

The prompt for today (tommorrow) Ostra's Tarot Blog Hop is Paint a journey with new life. It was hard not to think of the "coloring the Tarot" exercise that I have done in the course of my Adept Minor ZAM training (Zelator Adept Minor--one of the subgrades that some Golden Dawn Orders use) when presented with this prompt. And being the lazy New Age Adept that I am, I figured "Why not?"

A rough draft of the Wheel of Fortune as colored by the RR et AC.

Now, I will be the first to admit that my results should be buried under a rock. My cards are not the world's prettiest; they are also not the most true when you look at the basis of the color scheme--the color scales of the RR et AC (the original Inner Order of the Golden Dawn, not to be confused with any of the modern Second Orders of the esoteric schools that call themselves Golden Dawn today). For instance, the Wheel of Fortune should be colored (according to my favorite set of scale sheets) with the colors violet, blue, rich purple, and bright blue rayed with yellow. Even my color blind Dad would have been able to see that my colors are slightly (or greatly) off the mark.

The polarities of the Wheel of Fortune card--according to the least reliable GD authority--me!

Even more suspect are my private non-canon, non-approved coloring experiments where I just toss out the traditional colors and do whatever I feel like doing. (Suspect in the sense that they are not even remotely what my mentor wanted me to turn out.) One of the coloring experiments that I have indulged in is to attempt to figure out the internal polority of the individual Tarot cards.

To understand why the internal polarity of a card matters, one must remember that in Golden Dawn ritual, the Temple is often symbolic (taking place in the location) of one of the Tarot cards. The projecting, neutral, and recieving (or positve, neutral, and negative if you prefer) parts of the card would in theory reflect into the space that the initiation is being done in. To figure out the parts would be a hint of what is going on in the lodge room during the initation. (Initiation equals a new stage of life and another step on the journey of spiritual development--smart I am, right?)

There would also be a bleed-over when reading the Tarot cards--the part that leaps out at you during a reading could be read in terms of polarity. For instance, if the first thing that leaps out at you during a reading is passive, there is a good chance that the energies of the card are manifesting themselves in that way in the client's life.

Now, one of the more easier cards to figure out the polarity for is the Wheel of Fortune (GD/RR et AC version). As I have colored it here, red represents the projecting element of the card (the sphinx), the neutral part is yellow (the wheel itself), and the recieving element is blue (the monkey). These are the basic zones of the card.

Actually, it may not be as simple as that. All three of these parts can be further subdivided, for they are comprised of symbols that add another layer to the polarity play of the card. For instance, the wheel's spokes actually represent the 12 zodiac signs; therefore, there are both positve and negative elements that comprise the neutral part of the card.

Of course, I do not need to tell my regular readers to take this idea with a large grain of salt. This idea is not gospel, rather it is suggestive only. After all, we all know that I got my Golden Dawn certificate out of a cracker jack box and my training in the back of a coffee shop. Ironically, according to some, that makes me the equal of most Golden Dawn leaders and teachers...in which case, feel free to take this as gospel (heavens knows that I am going to inflict it on the members of my own lodge).

If you are continuing with the Tarot Blog Hop, you are now going to head over to Johanna Powell Colbert's blog (she is the creator of the Gaian Tarot). Her post is also about an Easter Egg Tarot Spread--obviously, I am the odd one in this particualr Blog Hop.

[This post was updated on 21 March 2012 with the permanent web links to the Tarot Blog Hop blogs that preceeded and followed mine.]

What is a Tarot Blog Hop?

Tomorrow, my regular readers will notice that I am doing another round of the Tarot Blog Hop, and may be wondering exactly what a Tarot Blog Hop is.

The Tarot Blog Hop is a bunch of bloggers that periodically create posts around the same scheme or inspiration, and then link their blogs together. In theory, a reader hops from one blog to another (discovering new blogs) until they come full circle and return to their starting point. The Tarot Blog Hops take place eight times a year (the eight Wiccan holidays).

The Tarot Blog Hop is a way for the readers to discover new blogs to read, and for bloggers to be able to expose their blogs to new readers.

Two Extremes of Grade Requirements

There are two extremes when it comes to deciding what Grade one has in an esoteric Order. One is severe training where a person spends years in a Grade and is tested to an inch of their life. The other extreme is where the only thing that matters is if they paid the dues and fees for the Grade. Both extremes result in getting a piece of paper that says you are of a particular Grade.

The same thing happens with Charters and Warrants. Just because a group has a Charter or Warrant, it does not mean that the holder(s) of it actually got any training to go along with it. In fact, it is more likely that they just paid some money to get it.

Therefore, in my opinion, it is best to treat those who brag about having Grade certificates and Charters and Warrants with caution. Watch their overall actions, and weigh their teachings--don't take those pieces of paper at face value. While an Adept can't help but be human, they also can't help being an Adept. If you watch carefully, a person's true level of attainment eventually rears its ugly head.

The Tarot of the Holy Light (Tarot Review)



Queen of Wands from The Tarot of the Holy Light.

Awhile back, a friend of mine sent me a copy of The Tarot of the Holy Light (Christine Payne-Towler & Michael Dowers--Noreah/Brownfield Press). Upon opening it, I realized that it would be perfect for an Adept Major game--Can you identify the source of the alchemical imagery in this card?

As my regular readers will not be surprised to learn, this deck was slow to start for me. Why? Simple, my mind got caught up with trying to understand and remember the sources of the alchemical emblems used in the artwork of this deck. After all, I am the person who really needs to take an Alchemy 101 class, often struggling to to read the simpliest of alchemical emblems.

The deck works much better, at least for me, once you set aside your rational mind and forget trying to intellectually decipher the symbolism. I am not sure if my last Inner Order mentor, VH Frater QA, would be pleased to hear that or not (he insisted that I took six months off to study the basics of alchemy--a task I still haven't gotten around to doing, thanks to the horrors of finishing up the final two semesters of my undergraduate degree, well, actually two degrees {the University of Colorado at Denver rules say that I have so many credits that it is two Bachelor degrees, and not a double major}--one hopes that he understands how Senior Seminars trump studying alchemy for the moment).

Of course, given this mode of working (forget knowing exactly what the emblem is supposed to say and going with my gut reaction), and the mash-up of the alchemical symbols drawn from multiple sources, I imagine that this Tarot deck is going to offend the more serious-minded alchemical students and masters. I am quite sure that they will label it "New Age Alchemy." The fact that it is more suitable for a student of psychological alchemy, and less useful for the student of traditional lab alchemy, will automatically offend the student who thinks that only lab or initiated alchemy is worth studying.

For the rest of us, The Tarot of the Holy Light will be more favorably looked upon. Especially for us, who are trying to link the symbols of alchemy to the events of our daily lives. Or at least, those of us who really could care less what the one True and Correct reading of alchemical emblems is.

How many chickens for a Tarot reading?

One of the things that I have done in the past (something that I have been informed that I should be ashamed of) is doing Tarot readings for a fee. Yes, I have been a professional Tarot reader. Even worse is the fact that I have collected fees to cast spells for others. Obviously, I am not a member of the real RC...because we all know that in the real RC, only an Order Head collects a fee to do a task that is taking time away from their day job that pays their rent. (I half-joke here.)

Occasionally, when people find out that I used to do this for a profession (or sideline job), they ask me how much I charge. My answer, like most answers I give, is less than helpful and maybe a touch chaotic.

"How many chickens can you afford?"

Actually, I have never collected a chicken for a Tarot reading. But over the years, I did end up eating a lot of government cheese and peanut butter. (My wife wants me to point out that I will kindly accept government pork in exchange for Tarot readings--she actually like to use the cans of government pork to make tacos with.)

Why? Well, I was dealing with the poor. And they were getting government and food bank assistance. In fact, the only reason I wasn't getting assistance myself was that I was making a hundred dollars a year too much. (No joke.) Therefore, while they did not have chickens to pay me with, they had more than enourgh cheese and peanut butter to share.

If you think that this does not go on all the time, let me point out that there is an IRS rule that insists that services and goods obtained in barter is actual income, therefore must be reported to the IRS.

[The Norse rune Fehu, which some consider the source of our modern term "fee," means "cattle." Therefore, I should probably be collecting cows for my services...therefore, I am also willing to accept the government cans of beef also.]

Sanctuary of Maat officially closed

A few months ago, as many of my readers know, the Golden Dawn community lost a valuable member, GH Frater Imhotep. He was the founder and prinicipal mover behind the Sanctuary of Maat, an online Hermetic school that used the Cicero's Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition as their primary textbook.

And as most of my readers know, between his death and a rather ugly server crash, the website of the Sanctuary of Maat has been inaccessible for months. Basically, everyone including Proctors and Co-Chiefs, were locked out of the site. 

Today, it was announced that the Sanctuary of Ma'at was being officially closed, and was no longer going to be accepting applications for SoM memberships or study groups. The decision was made because of the loss of all the school's data in the server crash, the death of Imhotep, and the need to focus on the growth of the physical Order.

Part of the official announcement for the closure, made by GH Frater Odo Caosg (Imperator, Ordo Stella Matutina) included the following statement:

If you currently have an ongoing subscription to the SoM [Sanctuary of Ma'at], please cancel it. The current Chiefs of the Stella Matutina have no access to Frater Imhotep's accounts, so we can not remove you or offer refunds, nor can we access any funds that are paid into it. Likewise, we have no access to the existing SoM website, and cannot even post this announcement there. It is our hope that these accounts will close of their own accord now that our Frater has passed on.

For those who are involved in the process of self-initiation into the Golden Dawn tradition, the Magical Working Group (MWG) yahoo group is still available for answering questions about the system. Most, if not all, the former Proctors of the SoM are active on the MWG. And many are members of the Ordo Stella Matutina or other lodge based Golden Dawn Orders, as are many former SoM members. In fact, the trend for SoM members to move on to take physical initiations was one of the reasons that the Ordo Stella Matutina was formed.

(Yes, one of the members of Bast Temple--VH Frater H.K.Aa.L.A.H.R.--was a proctor for the Sanctuary of Maat.)

Long time members of the SoM will remember this picture.

Concord and Peace of the Three

S.R. just posted an appeal for peace in the Golden Dawn community. Having experienced the Denver Witch War of the 80s and having been an "active bystander" in the flaming Golden Dawn feud of the last decade (only half of its length), I doubt peace will actually occur. I honestly do not see any chance for peace in the Golden Dawn community until one of the camps steps completely away from the Golden Dawn label, especially considering how wide the gap is between the perception of the two parties of what Golden Dawn is about.

As proof that such a peace is possible, S.R. notes that he was taught that Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (Head of the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega), Dr. Robert William Felkin (Head of the Stella Matutina), and Arthur Edward Waite (Head of the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn) met and agreed to mutually recognize each other's Orders.

This is only partially true. A "working truce" occurred, but there is no evidence that it ever was a formal meeting and recognition between the three. And it fall apart quickly.

Initially, there was a concord between the Stella Matutina and the Independent and Rectified Rite (Waite). This concord broke because Waite discovered that Felkin was communicating with J.W. Brodie-Innes, Mathers, and Westcott. Waite could not tolerate peace with Mathers or any of his supporters.

And officially, there is a lack of peace between the three Orders.

When the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross formed in 1915, after the Independent Rite suffered a series of schisms, its constitution said "The Independent and Rectified Rite, with its dependencies, if any, in so far as now in activity, and the Stella Matutina Temple, together with its dependencies, are not in communion with the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, and cannot be Visited or Joined."

Likewise, the 1916 New Constitution of the Stella Matutina says, "Members of any other Temples applying for admission, must be clearly warned that they will be required to give a definite pledge not to work in future with or under D.D.C.F. [Deo Duce Comite Ferro--Mathers], S.R. [Sacramentum Regis---Waite], Sub Spe, or Dr B. [Brodie-Innes]." Furthermore, in the section about the conditions where expulsion of memebrs is talked about, besides mentioning that six members were expelled when the Order broke with D.D.C.F., it says, "I have had to ask one Member to resign, because she told me she intended to join S.R.'s new Society."

And people outside the Concord of the Three did not foresee lasting peace between them. For instance, Westcott presumed that after his death that the Three, along with "Crowley and Co." would "make claims on my G.D. properties and may each make public claims derogatory to my historical interests in the G.D. and Isis [Urania] Temple."

Based on all this, if there was ever a meeting between Mathers, Felkin and Waite, the resulting peace did not last very long (and I really doubt that the meeting actually happened). And can you really picture Mathers agreeing that anyone else was legit?!

As for a possible peace between the two current Golden Dawn camps, I will not hold my breath; for the one side will only allow peace when the other side acknowledges their absolute right to rule the entire tradition, and the other side refuses to allow themselves to be repeatedly trashed as being less than fully Golden Dawn. That is how I see it. If you disagree, you know where to comment.