The Golden Dawn was a British magical order active from 1888 to about 1910. The organization was short-lived due to “politics” and “power struggles” within the order. Even though the Golden Dawn was active for less than 25 years, many of its teachings still guide magical practices worldwide. Their readings and rituals remain a strong influence today among followers of the Golden Dawn.
These charts include descriptive meanings of Tarot according to the original Golden Dawn manifest.
| # | Name | Tarot Title |
Letter |
Correspondence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | The Fool | The Spirit of GR:ΑΙΘΗΡ | א | Air |
| I | The Magician | The Magus of Power | ב | Mercury |
| II | The High Priestess | The Priestess of the Silver Star | ג | The Moon |
| III | The Empress | The Daughter of the Mighty Ones | ד | Venus |
| IV | The Emperor | Sun of the Morning, chief among the Mighty | ה | Aries |
| V | The Hierophant | The Magus of the Eternal | ו | Taurus |
| VI | The Lovers | The Children of the Voice; the Oracles of the Mighty Gods | ז | Gemini |
| VII | The Chariot | The Child of the Powers of the Waters; The Lord of the Triumph of Light | ח | Cancer |
| VIII/XI | Strength | The Daughter of the Flaming Sword | ט | Leo |
| IX | The Hermit | The Magus of the Voice of Power, the Prophet of the Eternal | י | Virgo |
| X | The Wheel | The Lord of the of Fate Forces of Life | ק | Jupiter |
| XI/VIII | Justice | The Daughter of the Lords of Truth: the Ruler of the Balance | ל | Libra |
| XII | Hanged Man | The Spirit of the Mighty Waters | מ | Water |
| XIII | Death | The Child of the Great Transformers: the Lord of the Gates of Death | נ | Scorpio |
| XIV | Temperance | The Daughter of the Reconcilers: the Bringer-Forth of life | ס | Sagittarius |
| XV | The Devil | The Lord of the Gates of Matter: the Child of the Forces of Time | ע | Capricorn |
| XVI | The Tower | The Lord of the Hosts of the Mighty | פ | Mars |
| XVII | The Star | The Daughter of the Firmament, the dweller between the Waters | צ | Aquarius |
| XVIII | The Moon | The Ruler of Flux and Reflux: the Child of the Sons of the Mighty | ק | Pisces |
| XVIII | The Moon | The Ruler of Flux and Reflux: the Child of the Sons of the Mighty | ק | Pisces |
| XIX | The Sun | The Lord of the Fire of the World | ר | Sun |
| XX | Judgement | The Spirit of the Primal Fire | י | Spirit and Fire |
| XXI | The World | The Great One of the Night of Time | ת | Earth and Saturn |
In 1887, William Wynn Westcott, a coroner and occultist, found a manuscript written in cipher. He decoded its contents and found descriptions of magic rituals. One part of the manuscript, Book T, described the true meaning of divination in the Tarot.
Westcott corresponded, or faked correspondence, with a Fräulein Sprengel, member of “die Goldene Dämmerung.” Sprengel’s letters survive, though scholars believe they were written by a non-native German speaker, and no evidence supports the existence of a Fräulein Sprengel, or an “Eingeweihten der Goldenen Dämmerung,” in Germany or anywhere else.
Westcott asked Sprengel’s permission to found a similar secret order; this permission was granted without any particular requirements, very suspect considering the circumstances. The following year, Westcott founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Teachings of the order were based on the Book T manuscript, Westcott’s personal experience with occult societies, and the letters he claimed authority by approval of Fräulein Sprengel. Westcott invited two colleagues, W.A. Woodman and S.L. Mathers, to join him in a ruling triumvirate, which is how this group began. Unfortunately, Woodman died three years later.
# |
Name |
Divinatory Meanings of Cards |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | The Fool | Spiritually: Idea, thought, spirituality, that which endeavours to transcend Earth. Materially: folly, stupidity, eccentricity, or even mania. |
| I | The Magician | Skill, wisdom, adaptation, craft, cunning; occult wisdom or power. |
| II | The High Priestess | Change, alternation, increase and decrease, fluctuation, for good or evil. |
| III | The Empress | Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success. Also luxury, dissipation. |
| IV | The Emperor | War, conquest, victory, strife, ambition. |
| V | The Hierophant | Divine wisdom, manifestation, explanation, teaching, occult force voluntarily invoked. |
| VI | The Lovers | Inspiration, motive power, action. |
| VII | The Chariot | Triumph, victory, health. |
| VIII/XI | Strength | Courage, strength, fortitude, power passing on to action. Obstinacy. |
| IX | The Hermit | Wisdom from on high. Active divine inspiration. |
| X | Wheel of Fortune | Good fortune, happiness, intoxication of success. |
| XI/VIII | Justice | Eternal justice. Strength and force, but arrested as in act of judgment. May mean law, trial, etc. |
| XII | Hanged Man | Enforced sacrifice, punishment, loss, fatal and not voluntary, suffering. |
| XIII | Death | Time, age, transformation, change. |
| XIV | Temperance | Combination of forces, realization, action. |
| XV | The Devil | Materiality, material force, temptation, obsession. |
| XVI | The Tower | Ambition, fighting, war, destruction, danger, fall, ruin. |
| XVII | The Star | Hope, faith, unexpected help. Dreaminess, deceived hope, etc. |
| XVIII | The Moon | Dissatisfaction, change. Error, lying, falsity, deception. |
| XIX | The Sun | Glory, gain, riches. With “very” evil cards it means arrogance, display, vanity. |
| XX | Judgment | Final decision, judgment, sentence, determination of a matter without appeal, “on its plane.” |
| XXI | The World | The matter itself. Synthesis, world, kingdom. |
Members S.L. Mathers and A.E. Waite of the Golden Dawn, wrote guides to the Tarot’s use and correspondences. Golden Dawn rituals sometimes included the Tarot as a meditative and divinatory aid. Other teachings furthered astrological, symbolic and kabbalistic correspondences of the Tarot.
No one could publish tarot decks based on Book T, as that would violate the order’s oath of secrecy. However, some Golden Dawn members, including Pamela Coleman Smith, drew up decks for their personal use.
Holmes Publishing Group released some of the Tarot card sketches made by a Golden Dawn member, probably Moina Mathers. The sketches, though primitively drawn, show the influence of previously unpublished Golden Dawn teachings, and may have been used in Golden Dawn rituals.
In 1909 the Rider-Waite Tarot was published. Both A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, each being a Golden Dawn member, created this most popular of all Tarot decks. Smith’s designs are influenced by the teachings of Book T, but do not exactly follow them.
Around this time, the secrets of the society were nearly revealed. In 1909, Aleister Crowley published some of the Order’s secret documents, and in 1911, he published the entire of Book T, the order’s main text on the Tarot. This violated the order’s oath of secrecy. Crowley later co-created the Thoth Tarot, which often follows Book T’s descriptions of card imagery, though it is not accurate according to the original Book T since Crowley added a measure of his own interpretations over some of the original.
In 1938, Israel Regardie’s Golden Dawn omnibus was published, showing how tarot was used in many Golden Dawn rituals. This book, and the correspondences illustrated above, influenced the occult revival of the 1960s and 70s.
Today there are hundreds of Tarot decks with illustrations that vary according to designers and artists. There is an amazing history to the Tarot which is documented to the 1400s in the original Visconti Soforza Tarots. Many of these 15 hand made decks, (some incomplete), exist today in various museums and private collections. Also, there are many indications, including pictoral evidence, that a form of Tarot existed back to the times of ancient Egypt where it was likely used in divination and other magical workings. Tarot is a great mystery, but it is also a useful tool and has been a divinatory key to fortune telling for hundreds of years. The magic is not in the cards, chance will determine the cards that are drawn. It is your reader who interprets cards that fortune has provided for you.
MAGICKWYRD 