Trade secrets (31-HP Day 26)

Coffee stained
Enciphered and encoded
Old and browned
Handwritten recipes

Weigh and measure
Pound and dollop
Pinch and handful
Exactness counts

Fresh berries
Crushed and mashed
Staining hands
Blue and purple

Fresh onions
Skinned and peeled
Tears forming
Yellows and tans

Cactus lobes
Smuggled in a box
Covered with beetles
A delicate red

Pound of ancient
Dried up mummy
Such a delicious
Shade of brown

Old ways remembered
An artist's craft
Original colors
All handmade

Beltane 2013 (Tarot Blog Hop)

The first Tarot card I ever created. 

Welcome to the Beltane 2013 edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. For those people who are doing the hop, you probably came from Alison Coals' blog. If there has been any problems, you might have came directly from the Tarot Blog Hop Master List. As for my regular readers...well, it is probably a secret where you are coming from (esoteric Order humor--I s*** at it).

The theme of this particular blog hop is "What traditions are important to you in how you read Tarot?"

Now, some of my regular readers have heard me talk about one of my favorite Tarot traditions--which is to make your own Tarot cards. It is a tradition that some in the Golden Dawn has observed; but not all, for the number of surviving handmade copies of the initiated version of the Golden Dawn deck that has surfaced in the historical arena number less than a dozen (or so, I have been led to believe).

When I first joined Golden Dawn, or what passed for GD here in Denver during the 1990s, I was horribly bad at reading Tarot cards--better than some people, but not good enough to rely on them to tell me anything that I did not already know. One of the things that Hathoor Temple insisted that members do during their course work was prove that one could create a Tarot deck (hand make it) if one really had to.

Now, at the time, I was reading a Tarot based story by Pier Anthonys. Some people will recognize the book cover that I based my Death card on, and perhaps even the fact that I borrowed more than just that. The interesting thing is that, despite my nerdish leanings in my initial Tarot creation, the exercise worked. I became better at reading Tarot cards. I never did complete that first Tarot deck, but the point was proven to me that making your own Tarot cards helps you build a connection to the spirit of the Tarot.

Color your own Death card in Golden Dawn.

One of the problems with creating your own Tarot deck is that you might not have enough artistic skill to comfortably do the task. This problem may be why so few decks have survived. Or like in my case, the requirement was done with just a handful of cards.

BOTA, an esoteric Order in the United States, an offshoot of the Alpha and Omega, came up with a solution where the student did not completely create their own Tarot deck. The BOTA deck is a "color it yourself" Tarot deck; many in Golden Dawn seemed to have gone with that option. From a Golden Dawn viewpoint, the BOTA deck is not completely right (it is based more on the A.E.Waite/Pamela Smith deck than the initiated GD version); a point that was addressed a decade ago with the creation of a limited edition Golden Dawn version of a outline deck...which unfortunately is out-of-print to the best of my knowledge (not that you can't find and print out the whole thing from your computer with the help of a simple Google search).

Making your own Tarot deck is the one Tarot tradition that I insist on inflicting on all the students that I teach...because it worked for me. It is the cornerstone to how I teach the Tarot. Besides everyone loves to paint and color by number--and if they don't, well, I am quite sure that they will not tell me so to my face.

(And yes to the person who asked--eventually I did end up doing an entire Tarot deck by hand for the Inner Order Adept Minor program that I did a couple of years ago.)

For those who are continuing with the Tarot Blog Hop, the next stop is Aisling's Tarot Witchery Blog. As always if there is any problems, you can jump over any broken links by consulting the Tarot Blog Hop Master List. As for my regular readers, you probably should get back to work. Until next time, keep shuffling those Tarot cards.

Debating what model scale to use

Vault of the Adepts Sun Wall color study 2000 MDE.

When I did my color study of the coloring of the Vault of the Adepts back in 2000, I kicked around making a scale model of the Vault of the Adepts. Blame it on my days of playing table top wargames (remember FASA?) & Dungeons and Dragons. Or on the fact that I used to build model kits when I was a kid.

Periodically, I revisit the idea. A couple of weeks ago (or was it a month or two?), someone shared a link to a paper model (insert tab Y into slot Y) of the Rosicrucian Vault as described in some of the older RC material. And once again, I got the urge to make a scale model of the Golden Dawn version (RC et AC) of the Vault.

I would not be the first one to do so. A few years ago, I know that someone did one for a Golden Dawn conference (I have seen some of the pictures of the model). And let's be honest, I won't be the last person to do so.

Given my strong urge to do so, I think that I am going to add it to my list of things to do once the semester is over. I am going to need something to break up the paying work (yes, more dating site adcopy). And I can always use the model for studying the movements of the Adept rituals.

So the big question becomes what scale to use. Should I do it index card size? Or maybe 1:12 scale (an inch to a foot)? Or maybe 1:24 (half an inch to a foot)?

Both the index card size and the 1:12 scales would be okay for just myself. But the 1:24 would be better if I decide to assemble it into a small ebook to share with the rest of the universe.

Decisions, decisions.

Vault as an example of extended GD color scales



Vault of the Adept color study Venus Wall 2000 MDE.

Some of my readers may be curious about how I realized that the Golden Dawn color scales could be extended in the fashion that I mentioned in last night's post. The answer is pure experience.

In 2000, during the opening days of Bast Temple/BIORC (as we were busy reinventing ourselves from the previous group, the EOEW), I had cause to turn my eyes back to my Golden Dawn studies after taking several years off to deal with the EOEW. One of the studies that I did involved the Vault of the Adepts (the ritual chamber that is necessary for Second Order operations).

At the time, I was restricted to the published Regardie material and the oh-so few notes that I have taken during my time in the IIOGD. So it was from Westcott's lectures about the Vault that I discovered the thread about the idea of mixing color in various sub-sets; the Vault itself can be classified as a specialized sub-set.

Oh, I had also gotten a crash course in the basics of color theory---it happened over a pizza.

After completing my first color study of the Vault, on index cards (the above picture is from that particular round of study), a little voice in the back of my head asked, "Why stop there? Why not continue to extend the use of the color scales further?" So in 2004, when I found myself needing a very exact set of targeting foci, I simply resumed that line of work to create a more specialized sub-set of colors for my own magical purposes.

(I have done several studies of the Vault coloring since the first one---I am about to start a new one as soon as the current college semester is over.)

Of course, one can argue that what I did was merely put together something from a dead bunch of papers. I like to think otherwise, for I belong to that division of the esoteric traditions that believes that published material allows the great Adepts of previous ages to instruct the students of the current age. In my mind, Westcott (thanks to Regardie) spoke to me across the ages and pointed me in the right direction.

Now, all this work I did took place before I saw a complete version of the Book of the Tomb. I was also ignorant of the Westcott Enochian Tablets. Both of which I have looked at with some interest, for I am always curious to see how different my work is from other students of the tradition. Doing this work before learning of such things just proves to me that there is a natural progression to the work that we do in Golden Dawn. This belief is based on pure experience.

Developments in Golden Dawn color scale work



Golden Dawn Colors of the Sub-Sephiroth of Netzach of Briah.

One of the nice things that I can say about the internet, and the little corner of it that Golden Dawn inhabits, is that it is nice to occasionally see the work that other people have done in the Golden Dawn tradition. For me, it is especially interesting to see the results that other people got in those areas that I had already done experimental work in.

For instance, back in the first quarter of 2004 (it was sometime between December 2003 and March 2004---I don't really keep good dates in some of my GD sketchbooks), I was working with the Golden Dawn color scales. On the side, I was doing some specialized spell work. How specialized? Well, I needed the colors of several sub-sephiroth for targeting purposes.

The concept for extending the color scales is easy enourgh to figure out, which is probably why it is not considered important or secret enourgh for some Adepts. Personally, I like using the color scales and their extensions. At heart, I am still an artist despite the fact that I chose to be a slimy literary historian and writer of bad Russian Bride adcopy instead.

(I have absolutely no idea where the extensions of the color scales would fall in the curriclum of Golden Dawn, other than it is someplace in the Inner Order...or at least, the style of Inner Order that I am used to.)

A couple of days ago, I got to see a slideshow about the Cross of Victory. And today, I got to leaf through Volume V, Edition 3 (Vernal Equinox 2012) of the Hermetic Virtues journal which has an article by Tabitha Cicero in it.

(Is it actually "leaf" when it is a pdf? Yes, that is a writer's question.)

Tabitha's article, The Path of the Chameleon: Golden Dawn Color Studies, focuses on the logical extension of the Golden Dawn color scales. Basically, the color scales can be extended to provide colors for all the possible energetic interactions. For instance, the color scale work that I was doing in early 2004 can produce a palette of four hundred sub-sephiroth colors to allow one to tap into very specific sephirah energies.

(Actually, there is no need to stop at four hundred colors; one can go for a sub-sub sephirah if one desires to. And sub-sets can interact with other sub-sets; there are millions of colors to generate if one is willing to spend lots of time on this particular Golden Dawn method.)

Anyways, it is interesting to see that other people have also followed the various hints and instructions of the Adept Minor material and extended the color vocabulary of Golden Dawn to include energies like the sub-sephiroth. If you get a chance, be sure to buy a copy of Vernal Equinox 2012 Hermetic Virtues journal and look at all the pretty colors of the various sub-sets that Tabitha is exploring.

(I will admit that my color scales are slightly off compared to the ones that I have seen produced by Olen Rush, Nick Farrell, and Tabitha Cicero. There is a reason why I decided to make a living as a writer rather than as an artist. Nevertheless, in some cases, I am actually in the general ballpark of the colors that they have produced. It may be just simply the fact that I have very little formal art education---outside of a couple of classes, I am a self-taught artist. Or it could be the fact that I prefer working with colored pencils. Nevertheless, take my color examples with a grain of salt and work out your own set.)

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.]

Being a Better Candle (Tarot)

This post is part of the Tarot Blog Hop/Blog Round Robin for Candlemas 2012.

Therefore, some of you just got done reading Michael Banuelos' Modern Day Oracle blog.

The rest of you are wondering what a Tarot Blog Hop/Blog Round Robin is. Basically, it is a group of bloggers who agreed to blog loosely about the same topic today and link their posts in a circle. Today's topic is Being a Better Candle (Tarot).

Tommorrow is Imbolc. Or Inbolg. Or Oilmec. Or Brighid's Day. Or Candlemas. Or St. Bridget's Day (Jesus' nurse and foster mom). Or Groundhog's Day.

Or as I like to call it---Why do I have candle wax on my Tarot cards Day. And don't laugh---I actually do have candle wax on several of my Tarot decks. The reason for this is that I sometimes do Tarot readings in the full Golden Dawn ritual envirnoment. For those who are in the Blog Tour, the Golden Dawn was a teaching organization in its Outer Order (first five stages/Grades) and a working magical system in its Inner Order (RR et AC). The techniques of the Golden Dawn were borrowed from the French and English occultists of its day (1880s and 1890s), were further developed by its membership, and then passed down the line (Aleister Crowley, A. E. Waite, Pamela "Pixie" Colman Smith, Paul Foster Case). If you read the Tarot, odds are that you have been influenced by the Golden Dawn...often without knowing it.

Now, I personally believe that the Golden Dawn lore and RR et AC methods have made me a better Tarot reader. I don't use the methods all the time---in fact, it is impossible to use the methods all the time, especially if you ever do public readings---but the lore is always in the back of my mind.

The method that has helped me the most is hand-coloring my own Tarot deck. The lodge that I first joined required its members to create a few cards; for me, this exercise helped me create a better connection to the cards (I was a pretty lousy Tarot reader before that point). BOTA, Case's esoteric school, issues a outline version of the Tarot cards for its members to handcolor. Briefly, there was a Golden Dawn deck that one could do the same with (alas, I believe that it is out of print now). The current lodge I belong to requires the initiate to hand-color a deck in the Grade of Adept Minor (using either a bootleg of the GD deck, a BOTA deck, or another outline deck).

There are other methods in the Golden Dawn system that positively affect one's ability to read the Tarot cards; which method helps the most will vary from person to person. The Z operation (basically, you do a full ritual with the divination in the center of the process), godform assumption, pathworkings...I am probably forgetting something...the Grade initiations themselves, all of these things can help make a better Tarot reader. Of course, there is also the fact that one often (not always) ends up working with other people in the Order exchanging readings and information about the Tarot.

Originally, all these methods were kept under the lock and key of Hermetic secrecy. Today, most of the methods are general knowledge among advanced Tarot readers. (Ok, there are a few things still secret...but let's be honest, the information that has slipped into the public has spread far and wide.) Whether this is a good thing or not depends upon how much you desire to keep people ignorant. Personally, as someone who is worried about the state of the world, I think that we need all the information that we can get to safely navigate through the torrents of modern times. And if that information comes from people using the Tarot---so be it.

In my case, I try to be a better candle by doing the occasional Tarot reading and teaching the Golden Dawn and Inner Order methods to a small circle of people. Whether this actually makes me a better person, a harbringer of the Light, is anyone's guess. But one does what one can, and crosses their fingers, hoping for the best.

So what working method have you found most useful working with the Tarot? And do you believe that information about various methods should be shared? Or should they be kept secret?

(All comments are read, but I reserve the right to not publish the worst comments.)

Blessed be on this Why do I have candle wax on my Tarot cards Day.

For those who are reading the Tarot Blog Hop/Blog Round Robin, the next stop on the Tarot blog tour is October's blog, Readings by October, and she is hella funny.

More history and the color scales

King Over the Water pontential cover.

Talking to a Soror from my lodge about the post about Impressionism and the Golden Dawn color scales, I realized that I need to do a follow-up to it with some additional information. She asked some questions---some involved me looking up information to confirm things I already suspected---and I realized that if she had those questions that other people might be curious about the answers too.

(For the record, it was the potential cover of Nick Farrell's book that made my mind connect several facts together and realize that the expanded color scales of Golden Dawn could only result after 1840. And as far as I know, I am the first one to realize this fact...or at least, the first person to actually consider it to be important; I don't remember anyone ever writing about this topic before.)

First, just to get it out of the way, I do not believe that Moina Mathers was a "modern woman" or a "feminist." I am not looking for an example of a modern woman or a feminist---I am looking for an artist. The reason that I am looking for an artist is that the Golden Dawn color scales have too large of a color vocabulary to be the sole invention of a non-artist.

Agrippa's color scales are an example of a set of color scales created by a non-artist; the color vocabulary is simple and basic. The Golden Dawn color scales, on the other hand, has a wide color vocabulary. Now, one quarter of it is just layering an occult idea (colors attract energies) onto the standard artist's color wheel---something that is easily produced by non-artists. But the other three quarters involve a series of colors so rich and varied that one needs a cheat sheet with paint samples on it to accurately reproduce it (or a digitual camera and a really good color printer).

I have seen no evidence that Samuel Mathers or Wynn Westcott had such a large color vocabulary. The concept that color attracted magical forces was not a new idea---Agrippa and the SRIA are solid proof that the idea was common currency among occultists. Nor have I seen any evidence that convinces me that the SRIA is actually the source for the expanded color scales. Occasionally, someone points to the SRIA as the source of the Golden Dawn Vault of the Adepts---but no one has yet to provide what I would consider proof of this fact. When Westcott mentions that there was an older color scheme for the Vault, he may have been referring to the color lore of the SRIA in his day and age.

Therefore, the idea that color attracts magical forces is common currency of occult thought of the 1890s, but the expanded range of color vocabulary is something new and is the product of an artist---therefore who is the artist? Westcott? Samuel Mathers? Moina Mathers? Someone else? Until someone proves otherwise, I am presuming that Moina Mathers was the one to expand the color vocabulary, and therefore it is she (and not Samuel or Westcott) that is truly the source of the Golden Dawn color scales.

As I said, maybe Nick's upcoming book, or maybe Tabatha's, will convince me otherwise.

Possible cover for Concourse of the Watchtowers.

The other thing that my dear Soror brought up was the possibility that it is not water colors or oil paints that are being used in the color scale work. That maybe it is color pencils that were meant to be used. I told her that I was positive that we were supposed to be doing the color scale work in "wet medium." There are some effects that can only be achieved with the use of wet medium---not even the use of modern paint programs can duplicate some of the effects. (Then again, I like the physical process of using a brush to create art.) Furthermore, I told her that color pencils are a modern art development, and that I was positive that the expanded color scales (usable by all Adepts and not just those who were professional artists) had to be an invention occurring after 1840.

Looking it up, I learned that the history of art materials backs up my conclusion. Colored pencils were not marketed to artists until after 1900. It is not until 1920s that we start to get a wide range of art-grade color pencils. Prismacolor pencils are not introduced until 1938. Likewise for other dry mediums---wax crayons 1903; oil pastels 1925; paint sticks 1966.

The only two exceptions for dry medium would be colored chalk and pastels (pastels are pure pigment with a binding agent)---chalks have been used for thousands of years and pastels for about three hundred years. Yet the amount of time that they have been used removes them from the running; if they were suitable for expanding the color scales, the color scales would have expanded much sooner and I would not be looking for an artist inside Golden Dawn to credit the expansion with. Besdies, these two mediums are not actually conductive to making talismans and lamens---which is one of the primary reasons for the Adept's studies of the color scale system.

A final thing I must mention is the fact that we do have a lot of evidence that the color scale work of the Golden Dawn Adept was a new development. The sheer amount of variation between the color scales of various Golden Dawn offshoots, and even between lodges of the same Orders, indicate that the system was not developed enourgh to have standardization. An older, more developed system would have figured out a way to decrease the number of variations.

The expanded color scales are not something that you can look back to a previous esoteric group and find purer information about...unless you want to toss it out completely and go back to the simple color scale used by Agrippa and earlier occultists. In fact, the expanded color scales are so new that the period of its best development may still be in the future.

Impressionism and the GD color scales

King Over the Water by Nick Farrell.

The Book of the Concourse of the Watchtowers by Sandra Tabatha Cicero.

The other day, I was reminded that there are some soon-to-be-released books that are on my shopping list (well, after I managed to crawl out of the monetary hole that I have fallen into). Both Nick Farrell and Sandra Tabatha Cicero posted possible covers for their respective books (I say "possible" because I know how things change at the last moment in publishing).

Looking at the covers, I realized something---our required color scale work in Adept Minor (5=6) was not possible previous to 1841. Or at least, not in the form and style that we do it today.

Don't believe me? Think about how you did your color scale studies. Were there tubes of paint involved? If there were tubes of paint involved, then you are using a post 1841 method. Or did you use watercolors of straight from the pans of a box? In which case, your method of study could not have developed before 1832. The idea of using watercolors from a box only dates to 1766; before that point, watercolors were sold in lumps that had to be hand-grated before using.

The ability to do color studies while sitting in your living room is a product of the Victorian Age. Before the improvements to watercolor paints by Henry Newton and William Winsor in 1832, only professional artists worked with paints. Amateurs did not start to paint until Newton & Winsor developed the methods of creating watercolor paints that could be used directly from the box. Queen Victoria helped lead a national passion for amateur painting.

Paint tubes were invented by an America, John Goffe Rand, in 1841. Rand's invention was a technological leap for the artworld. Rand would tell his son that without his invention that "There would have been no Cezanne, no Monet, no Sisley or Pissaro; nothing of what the journalists were later to call Impressionism." I would go one step further and say that there would be no required color scale work in Adept Minor if he hadn't invented the paint tube.

Please remember that I am not saying that color was not important in magic previous to the Victorian Age (Agrippa is enourgh proof of the importance of color in magical work among our magical ancestors). What I am saying is that the creation of color scales studies and flashing tablets were much harder before that point, and were unlikely to have been an important part of the esoteric lesson plan---at least among amateur artists.

Westcott mentions that there is an older color scale that were used in the ancient Vault of the Adepts. Exactly what this older color scale looked like is hard to say for sure; the Adept Major ritual doesn't develop the idea enourgh to get a clear look at it without some knowledge of art history. There are also alchemical formulas that are actually about making pigments. So while there is definitely color scales involved in the older magical systems, they were placed much higher in the estoteric Grade system.

One of the things that Nick and I have disagreed over (publically on the internet if you want to go looking---I can't remember what Golden Dawn forum it was on) is the importance of Moina Mathers in the creation of the modern Vault of the Adepts and the modern color scales. My logic tends to be: if I needed a crash course in color theory to understand the color scales and its development into the Vault, then an artist had to be involved. My best bet is Moina Mathers, who was trained as an artist. Nick says that Samuel (MacGregor) Mathers and Westcott could be the ones that brought it in---I am not sure if he was implying that the color scales were built up by a previous esoteric group prior to their founding of the Golden Dawn or if it was invented by them (Nick will reply in the comment section about that one).

One thing that would be helpful to determine which one of us is right would be knowledge about whether Westcott or Samuel Mathers were amateur artists before meeting Moina. If they only started working with the complicated color scales after meeting Moina, then I am inclined to continue crediting Moina---after all, she is the one that was responsible for painting the first RR et AC Vault of the Adepts. I am hoping that one or both of these upcoming books reveals some evidence that would make the answer to this question clearer. Knowing the source authority would clear up some questions that I have about the color scales...beyond how much credit to give to Moina.

But while I am unsure about the source authority for our color scale work, I am positive that it is definitely an esoteric development of the Victorian Age. Before that date, the color scales were much simplier, and applied in a different manner when it came to magical workings. This fact affects a lot of stuff that we do and study today---a cascade effect---including the Tarot and the making of magical talismans.

And just in case, you are wondering, the modern Victorian Age color scales is something that I am not willing to abandon, no matter how wrong they are according to the older esoteric material. I may not be good at alchemy, but I am a fair hand with a paintbrush. For maximum outrage, just remember I use the modern color scales with the Elder Futhark (the Norse Runes).

Qlippothic Color Scale

Colors of death, decay and things that go bump in the night.

Recently, I have been taking part in an online conversation about whether there is a color scale for the Qlippoth; and if so, what would the basis of that color scale be. My personal gut reaction is that it would not just be various shades of black or a mixture of the Prince (Vav) and Princess (Heh final) color scales. No, it would be based on things that disgust and make one sick to one's stomach (unless you are into necromancy and zombies---no judgment here, hehe). Rotten meat, slime, the inside of the dead organs, things like that. The photo here is a part of a page (page 28) from Drawing and Painting the Undead by Keith Thompson; this particular chart shows the Color Spectrum of Death. I believe that this little chart illustrates what I am talking about. If it does not, feel free to visit your local funeral home or city morgue. 

WOT Primary colors in a commerical

One of the interesting things about being an occultist is the strange thoughts that run though your head while you go about your day. For instance, just now while watching TV, a Phoenix University commerical came on and they were talking about how different students get different amounts of attention.

By itself, it is nothing. Except that the A-level students were dressed in red; the trouble-makers in blue; and all the students in-between dressed in yellow. No actual occult significance to this color scheme (I suspect that the makers of the commerical just chose the colors because they were primary colors), but my mind could not help musing about the possible occult significance to the scheme.

And if you are an occultist, especially one familiar with the Golden Dawn color scales, I bet that you are now wondering yourself how good students can be associated with fire; bad students with water; and the middling students with air. It is an interesting world that we live in, isn't it?

Color study 2000 (Part Thirteen) Color Scales on the Tree of Life

I believe that these are self explainatory. As with the rest of this 2000 study, these were done with colored pencils on the back of index cards.

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Twelve) Vault Wall Masterkey

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is the masterkey for the coloring of the Vault Walls. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Eleven) Luna Wall

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is the Luna (Moon) Wall of the Vault. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).

What I learned in the color scale class yesterday

Yesterday was the first session on the color scales for Bast Temple. And I must admit that it was a learning experience.

What did I learn?

Oh, quite simply that there is a lot of missing material here, besides the obvious lack of a set of published complete color scales. There is nothing like teaching a class to point out all the holes in your own knowledge base.

So now I have to kick around whether the holes I spotted (the ones that have not been addressed already---yes, I am going to be borrowing some of Tabitha Cicero's work from the Hermetic Virtue magazine) are big enourgh and important enourgh to sink a bunch of time into them filling them.

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Ten) Saturn Wall

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is the Saturn Wall of the Vault. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Nine) Floor of Vault

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is the floor of the Vault. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Eight) Jupiter Wall

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is the Jupiter Wall of the Vault. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Seven) Side of Pastos

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is one of the sides of the Pastos which contains the image of the founder of the RC Brotherhood. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).

Color and Vault study 2000 (Part Six) Mars Wall

This is part of a study of the color scales and the Vault of the Adepts that was done in 2000. It was not the world's best study, nor is it the best scan on earth. This is the Mars Wall of the Vault. Original is drawn in color pencil on the back of a large index card, and is part of my personal baseline (however wrong that is).