"Talismans, used in the practice of magic by the Golden Dawn, were sometimes constructed from geomantic, planetary and angelic sigils (symbols created for magical purposes) utilising a wheel of eight radii and placing appropriate Hebrew letters between the two circles, grouped according to their numerical values."
Anne was so happy to see the post of her pineapple that she asked me to post another one of her drawings. This one was done on April 14, 2016.
Last April my friend Anne was coming over to my house every day and sketching with ink and watercolor. (Her house was being remodeled so she wanted to get away from the noise and mess for a while.) She'd usually just sketch something from my kitchen. I was surprised she wanted to try this pineapple on April 13, 2016 but as you can see what she wrote was, "No guts, no glory?"
Unfortunately we somehow got off track in the middle of the month. Anyway, since I just found her drawings, I thought it would be fun to post at least one of them before I give them back to her.
A standard Tarot deck has 78 cards of which 22 are referred to as Major Arcana or Major Trumps. The Devil card is one of these 22. The one displayed here is a replica of the one from the 1910 Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. When a pentacle or five-pointed star is inverted like the one shown above the Devil's head, it is often considered symbolic of evil.
Note. C programmers may support the numbering of the Major Trumps. The first Major Trump, The Fool, is either given no number or the number zero. The others are numbered explicitly from 1 to 21.
The 2012 documentary film Tarology, originally available only DVD, can now be $treamed from a number of sources. This surprisingly enjoyable film features Enrique Enriquez strolling around New York City with his Marseille Tarot deck. Enrique feels very strongly about rescuing the Tarot from the occult.
You can view a short trailer for free from the film's website.
Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley's first novel, was published in 1921, 11 years before Brave New World. Crome Yellow is a humorous satire of contemporary fads and personalities. Here the lady of the house explains the value of horoscopes and related subjects to her newly-arrived young houseguest.
For consolation she dallied with New Thought and the Occult. Her passion for racing still possessed her, and Henry [her husband], who was a kind-hearted fellow at bottom, allowed her forty pounds a month betting money. Most of Priscilla's days were spent in casting the horoscopes of horses, and she invested her money scientifically, as the stars dictated. She betted on football too, and had a large notebook in which she registered the horoscopes of all the players in all the teams of the League. The process of balancing the horoscopes of two elevens one against the other was a very delicate and difficult one. A match between the Spurs and the Villa entailed a conflict in the heavens so vast and so complicated that it was not to be wondered at if she sometimes made a mistake about the outcome. "Such a pity you don't believe in these things, Denis, such a pity," said Mrs. Wimbush in her deep, distinct voice.
"I can't say I feel it so."
"Ah, that's because you don't know what it's like to have faith. You've no idea how amusing and exciting life becomes when you do believe. All that happens means something; nothing you do is ever insignificant. It makes life so jolly, you know. Here am I at Crome. Dull as ditchwater, you'd think; but no, I don't find it so. I don't regret the Old Days a bit. I have the Stars… I have the Infinite to keep in tune with," she waved her hand. "And then there's the next world and all the spirits, and one's Aura, and Mrs. Eddy and saying you're not ill, and the Christian Mysteries and Mrs. Besant. It's all splendid. One's never dull for a moment. I can't think how I used to get on before--in the Old Days. Pleasure--running about, that's all it was; just running about. Lunch, tea, dinner, theatre, supper every day. It was fun, of course, while it lasted. But there wasn't much left of it afterwards."
In a later scene the novel satirizes palm readers when Mr. Scogan, an older male house guest probably intended as a caricature of Bertrand Russell, is disguised as "Sesostris, the Sorceress of Ecbatana" and predicts horrible fates at a local fair. "People stood in a queue outside the witch's booth waiting for the privilege of hearing sentence pronounced upon them." (T. S. Eliot alludes to Crome Yellow when he uses the name "Madame Sosostris" for the Tarot reader in his 1922 poem The Waste Land.)
As I wrote yesterday, I'm using an assumed name.
I'm a retired high school science teacher. I've always thought of myself as a rational person who can objectively consider information and detemine its reliability. I don't think I could be taken in by what is currently referred to as fake news. I also think it likely that my former students and colleagues as well as family, friends, and acquaintances feel similarly about me. Meanwhile however I've gotten interested in using the Tarot and in learning more about its history, including The Golden Dawn, associated art, and related esoteric practices. Since that interest is going to be the focus of my new journal it seems prudent to keep my identity private.
