Tarot Time Traveller

by Marcus Katz

King of Pentacles—Bull

  Queen of Wands—Sunflower

  5 of Swords—Sea

  We then visualize a portal on which a bull’s head is illustrated within a large sunflower design above a flat and calm sea. We spend a few minutes concentrating on this emblem and then enter the portal and explore the landscape as we have explored single cards.

  We can ask any figures, animals or even inanimate objects that appear as guides within that space to explain and explore the situation we presented to the tarot.

  This can be a powerful experience, and whilst there may be verbal and conscious guidance given during the working, there will also be profound unconscious changes keyed by the images.

  The legacy of the Golden Dawn provides a major stream from which contemporary tarot still draws into today. It also inspired many other authors and teachers in the decades following its untimely collapse as a functional group.

  From Magical Order to Mail Order

  The Golden Dawn collapsed after a peak of about twelve years of esoteric innovation, development, and teaching. Whilst this was in part due to the schisms and arguments amongst and between founder members and vocal students, it was also a consequence of these politics. The Order collapsed because it had no time to fulfil its primary purpose: to deliver an initiatory system of teaching, correspondence, and ritual that developed the human condition.

  There were many members who began to complain that they were being taught knowledge for the sake of it, without any application, and taking part in rituals whose meaning was empty. This was because they were not being taught properly; the correspondence between the knowledge and the ritual was not being communicated, as the teachers were too busy arguing with each other about the principles of the Order.

  The Order collapsed because students were not being properly taught its main secrets and were leaving after years of work, not because a few people were engaged in rivalries.

  It is unfortunate that the Order collapsed when it did, for one reason: the postal service.

  If it had continued for just a few more years, it would have been able to take advantage of simultaneous revolutions that were just around the corner: the wide-spread availability of motor cars, long-distance telephony, portable typewriters, and the lithograph machine. Together, these revolutionised the world in a post-Victorian “Internet” fashion and brought the rise of improved postal delivery and the mail-order teaching revolution—now called “distance learning.”

  It was another group which would famously take advantage of these technologies: AMORC, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (Rose Cross). This group was founded in 1915 by Harvey Spencer Lewis (1883–1939) and grew rapidly by mass-marketing in print ads, on its own radio service, and by providing a massive correspondence course.

  AMORC was not the only group to continue the legacy of the Golden Dawn. Another smaller group, the Brotherhood of Light (the Church of Light since 1932) was founded in 1915 by C. C. Zain, the pseudonym of Elbert Benjamine (1882–1951). 144

  Benjamine had originally been contacted by the founders of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor to rewrite that Order’s teachings. However, over forty years he established a huge range of course materials from astrology to alchemy and tarot to weather prediction. The total number of lessons created number over two hundred, and many of them carried detailed exams whose successful passing led to certification.

  He also designed a unique deck for the Brotherhood of Light which uses designs based on Ancient Egyptian art and myth. This deck was produced in black and white and is often provided for colouring-in by the earnest student.

  C. C. Zain presents an interesting view of how the suits correspond to the tarot. In that he says each suit embodies the Hebrew name of deity: Yod-He-Vau-He; the qualities or states that are “masculine, feminine, union, and the product.” They also demonstrate the workings of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity; of one god in three divine persons.

  He points out that “in Egypt, (that was heavily influenced by a powerful matriarchal religion and society) Osiris the Father, Isis the Mother, and Horus the Issue were popularly worshiped; and in addition there was a fourth deity which included the three others” and that was “the Holy Ghost.” Later in history and with the advent of the teachings of Saint Paul, other countries and cultures readily adapted the concept of the Holy Ghost—Father, the Son, and the holy spirit—fully masculine in nature and suitable for Christian patriarchal societies. It soon found favour over then-redundant feminine divinity.

  As Christianity marched on, the female was looked upon by priests “as an instrument of evil, a tempting agent of the devil, strictly to be avoided.” Women were excised from the church, due to the Adam and Eve story, that portrayed the woman as the temptress that lured man to commit sin, and move away from union in the garden of Eden. C. C. Zain comments that all remaining is the figure of Virgin Isis, (the High Priestess of the tarot), who has from “time immemorial been pictured as a virgin with a crescent Moon in her arms to symbolise the immaculate conception—as the Mother Mary, and venerated.” They did however cut her from the Holy Trinity and in her place put the Holy Ghost.

  C. C. Zain says that all is not lost of the female influence in religious teachings, however. Their presence is retained in the “common playing cards as in the tarot, she holds her rightful place as Queen, joint ruler with the King.” Here the natural balance is still at work, but he goes on to say that this was not the fate for the fourth court.

  Zain suggests that the playing cards however miss out the “spirit of rectitude and justice” that still exist in the tarot as the page card.

  Origin of the Suits

  The symbols used on the playing card suits, that of diamonds, clubs, hearts, scepters, were inspired by the “passing of the seasons.”

  Diamonds

  The season of spring. Zain says the symbology of the diamonds goes back to the common but much valued rose, this symbolism was used in the Verses of Omar where the spring is “signalled by the rose.” He tells us that the symbol of rose goes back a long way in playing card iconography. Spring, he explains, is “the period of renewed life, and thus the rose, as representing it, in some mystical orders, is the symbol of a renewed life.”

  Spring brought with it hope and the promise of better times ahead as well as natural resources that were now abundant. Then later when the world became more commercial, these resources became something that could be traded in, and this is where we needed money to do so, the very same money that are the coins that are depicted on the tarot cards. Later in history, when the natural resource of diamonds became sought after and were considered precious, they became more valuable than money itself. C. C. Zain suggest that this is why we now have the suit of diamonds in the tarot.

  Clubs

  The season of summer. Zain suggests the suit of clubs derives from the trefoil, or three- leaf clover, that came with the advent of summer and he says that the clover “became associated with the heat of summer” and then he says later that from there came an allusion to the heat that is emitted from the process of burning wood (wands) and that “thus the scepters came to be the symbol of summer heat, and are so represented in the tarot.” The playing cards of the day still depict the clover, yet still have a connection to the wood of old in that they are called the suit of clubs.

  Cups

  The season of autumn. Zain suggests that the suit of the cups derives from the drinking of wine that came “from the grape” and from the “seasons of festivities, of dancing and of marriage.” The allusion to the emotional state that came from the drinking of wine from a vessel such as a cup, and the cup is still used as a symbol in one of the suits of the tarot. However, the playing cards of today still use the heart to “associate the emotions of joy.”

  Swords

  The season of winter. Zain suggests that the suit of swords derives from the acorn: />
  “[From] winter there was a time of dearth and want. To provide for this period when no food could be garnered, it was customary to work hard to gather and hoard a supply sufficient to last until spring. And it was observed that the oak thus provided a food supply which was similarly sorted by the squirrels. Thus, the acorn came to be a symbol of winter.”

  Later on, this evolved into an association with strife that came from difficult winters because of fighting for limited resources, and this was then associated to “strife among peoples, and came to be depicted by the emblem of strife, the sword.” However, an association was made much later by “people who still looked upon the unfruitful season as the cause of their unceasing toil; and to depict this, used the modern emblem of toil, the shovel, or spade as it is still called in present day playing cards.”

  Zain goes on to correspond these suits to the elements that relate to the seasons as he says the “balmy air of spring is represented by the coins, (airy signs) the fire of summer by scepters, (fiery signs) the bibulous festivities of autumn by cups, (watery signs) and the hardships of winter by swords/acorns (earthy signs).”

  The elemental correspondence, however, is not entirely like that of the tarot where we have:

  Coins/pentacles = Air (different)

  Sceptres/wands = Fire (same as)

  Cups = water (same as)

  Swords/acorns = earth (different)

  Here is a sample of Zain’s examination for tarot which is part of the comprehensive compendium of teachings within the original Brotherhood of Light. We have provided the given answers at the back of this present book if you would like to test yourself with these sample questions.

  How to Read the Tarot

  Why should no other than the reader be permitted to handle the tarot cards except when they are being used to give a reading?

  Why should the cards be only turned over one at a time as read?

  How much detail can be learnt about the people signified by the Court Arcana turned into a spread.?

  How is the influence of the life of the client of any person represented in the spread by a Court Arcanum determined?

  Why is it that any problem is capable of solution by the method of the tarot?

  What is signified in Arcanum XXI by the winged lingham?

  To what planet does the Arcanum 0 correspond, and what are the two aspects or influences of this planet as indicated by the common T and the reversed T?

  It is time for us to leave the secrets of esoteric tarot for a while and return to a most unlikely artist who was briefly a member of one of the aforementioned magical orders. Her story is one we have told elsewhere but the nexus point she created in tarot will always call us back; her name is Pamela Colman Smith, and we will set our time-dial to meet her in 1909 under the most idyllic of circumstances.

  [contents]

  137 Ellic Howe, The Magicians of the Golden Dawn (London, UK: RKP, 1972), 12.

  138 Alex Owen, The Place of Enchantment (London, UK: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 72, Marcus Katz, The Magister, Vol. 0 (Keswick, UK: Forge Press, 2015).

  139 Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1985), 47–48.

  140 Text modified from the booklet accompanying the deck.

  141 Janine Hall Gallery, www.janinehall.com (Last accessed 6 July, 2016).

  142 “An Example of Mode of Attaining to Spirit Vision and What was seen by Two Adepti S.S.D.D. (Florence Farr) and F. (probably Annie Horniman) on November 10th 1892” in The Golden Dawn Community. Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls (Dublin, Ireland: Kerubim Press, 2013), 36.

  143 See Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin, Tarot Face to Face (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2012), 4–6.

  144 Christopher Gibson, “The Religion of the Stars: The Hermetic Philosophy of C. C. Zain,” Gnosis magazine, Winter 1996; Mitch Horowitz, Occult America (New York, NY: Bantam, 2009), 217; Godwin, Chanel, and Deveney (eds.), The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1995), 39.

  9

  The Illustrated Years

  It is a gypsy encampment and Edy Craig is its Romany matriarch.

  —Vita Sackville West on Smallhythe Cottage 145

  2:30 pm, 12 August, 1909: Tenterden, England

  The English air is scented with apple-blossom and barley, lit under a high sun peering through the occasional but polite cloud. We walk up the lane and can already hear the voices of several men, women, and children, punctuating the summer haze.

  At Smallhythe cottage in Tenterden, we are in the middle of a fortnight of unbroken sunshine that is uncommon for the country and being enjoyed by many as an endless summer. The red slated roofs of houses bask in the heat, and a second harvest of wheat drifts lazily in the fields. A slight haze hovers over the distant shoreline and the sea is as blue as the skies.

  As we walk into the garden to which our visit intends, we see five women in white smocks building a long and impressive trellis, about which are already curled rose bushes and lilies. They are holding up the long, rough-hewn poles and trying them out, some of which still have leaves upon them as they have just been cut. The sunflowers by the wall are standing up like a row of soldiers whilst a young boy plays on his hobby horse in front. He is dressed in a kimono that looks like it is sewn of golden sun symbols. It was given to his grandmother by the artist Whistler, and is four times bigger than the child.

  Across the garden, a dog barks and leaps up joyfully against his owner’s legs. “Down, Ben!” the man laughs, “You’ll tear my darned trousers!”

  Elsewhere in the garden, bails have been set up for an impromptu game of cricket. The young men are letting the children play with good humour, but we can see they are impatient for a proper match. The children are trying to avoid hitting the ball into the pool, where it might get lost in the water lilies and irises. A wooden boat lies half-in the pool with theatre props bundled in it for cleaning; six realistic swords stick up out of the bags.

  Ellen Terry is indoors somewhere whilst her daughter, Edy, is sat smoking and talking to a dark-haired artist who is also absently watching the children supposedly under her care. Edy’s black cat, Snuffles (Snuffy to his friends) is sat at her feet, watching everyone with a haughty glare subject to his kind. His left paw is held slightly back, always sore since some accident in the barn.

  This artist’s mind seems more occupied with the music that drifts from the gramophone through the open window, and the easel in front of her, erected in the courtyard between several plant pots, than the children in her care. She is capturing Edy, sat stiffly on a small lion-headed stool, with Snuffles, as an ideal “queen.” Edy has managed somehow to hold a sunflower whilst also holding a cigarette in the other hand.

  The artist’s name is Pamela Colman Smith, and she is painting a big job for little money. 146

  The Abiding Illustration of Tarot

  When the theatrical stage artist and storyteller Pamela Colman Smith came to the tarot in 1909, she was presented with a text, likely Book T, from which to design seventy-eight cards. She had seen the Sola Busca tarot in the British Museum, perhaps accompanied for a single visit by A. E. Waite, and was aware of the designs required but also aware of the time constraints. The text was abstract but laced with possibility so she had to work fast. In fact, she would be almost penniless again by Christmas. So, Pamela took these descriptions previously only seen by initiates within the magical order of the Golden Dawn, and with childlike abandon, transformed them into a pictorial deck driven by storytelling. In doing so, she unknowingly passed the tarot from the Order of the past to the youth who would pick it back up again in the late 1960s through an unlikely holding period where it languished in the pages of women’s magazines.

  We will first look at several cards Pamela gave a new theatrical twist, artistic
choices that went on to influence most decks following in the time-stream. It was not until recent years that these correspondences were re-discovered, so it is again testament to her design that the specific elements of the cards prevailed for so long. In fact, it is only as publishing costs have lessened, technology improved, and the advent of the Internet that independent decks have flourished and more decks have begun to differ from Pamela’s template.

  2 of Pentacles

  It is this card that we visited earlier in our travels to see how it changed through time. We saw that Pamela had painted “False Mercury” inspired by the Flower Book by Edward Burne-Jones. The way Pamela illustrated the concept given in Book T adds much to its significance in a reading. If we were to receive this card in the past position of a relationship spread, for example, we would know that it signifies deliberate miscommunication rather than the usual meaning of “balancing finances.” Although given the magic of tarot, the situation might be a deliberate miscommunication about the finances.

  7 of Pentacles

  The likely text to which Pamela was working, Book T, writes of “promises of success unfulfilled,” and more specifically for this card: “a cultivator of land, and yet a loser thereby.” Pamela’s illustration so cleverly depicts this as a blighted potato plant. The young man looks upon the source of his livelihood and knows that this harvest is not the success that he had hoped.

  As we know from history, the famine that struck Ireland in the nineteenth century was caused by the devastation of the potato crops from blight, and it led to starvation and ruin.

  Pamela has transported the design from the original concept of the Golden Dawn as a symbolic rose with “buds that do not come to anything” to the practical potato plant. It is apparent even A. E. Waite did not appreciate her design, as he describes the man leaning on a “staff” rather than the potato hoe that Pamela has clearly designed. As Pamela had Bohemian leanings, she was very aware of the social changes that were going on in society. She had surrounded herself with progressive people, one of these being the Irish-born writer, poet, and social commentator W. B. Yeats. She was in tune enough to realise that this was a more accessible and suitable design for the audience of the day.