New Golden Dawn deck/book set

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 17 Aug 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Lee	17 Aug 2002
For those who are knowledgeable about Golden Dawn matters, I was wondering whether you have this set and what you think of the book and deck as a way to learn Golden Dawn-type tarot attributions. I would prefer not to use the Thoth deck for this, as it contains many distinctive features added by Crowley and Harris. And the New Golden Dawn seems superior to Wang's Golden Dawn deck because the astrological attributions are included on the pip cards, whereas they aren't in Wang. Also, while I can't say the New Golden Dawn artwork is my favorite, I think I prefer it to Wang's drab pictures. -- Lee

jmd	17 Aug 2002
Are you referring to the one by Cicero? If so, I have misplaced mine, but personally favoured Wang's version when it comes to the Golden Dawn.

Lee	17 Aug 2002
Yes, it's the Cicero one. Since the Wang one doesn't have the astrological symbols on the Minors, then if one wanted to use the astrological associations, wouldn't that necessitate a frightening amount of memorization? (Frightening for me, anyway. I actually enjoy memorizing things but that sounds like quite a task.) -- Lee

Laurel	18 Aug 2002
I think its a good way to learn Golden Dawn type attributions, moreso than the Wang deck for reasons you've described as well as the images are just more blatant, less intuitive. I've never meshed well with either deck, though. I think its the art style for them both. Laurel

Lee	18 Aug 2002
The art style gives me pause too, Laurel. In fact, I think I may not be able to use the Cicero deck for that reason. As I was just looking at it, it strikes me that the authors made a really unfortunate decision. The Golden Dawn lists color attributes for each card, what they call "flashing" colors, but they never said, I don't think, that the cards had to be drawn with these colors. But the Ciceros decided to actually use these colors for the cards, with some truly horrendous results. I would call them "clashing" rather than "flashing"! :) Now I'm thinking of getting the Tarot of the Sephiroth for learning purposes. -- Lee

jmd	18 Aug 2002
I do not own 'Tarot of the Sephiroth', but must admit that it looks like a well designed pro-Golden Dawn type deck. As with any Golden Dawn oriented deck, the positioning of the individual cards upon the Tree of Life, in their peculiar order, remains important. On this deck, this is assisted by the 'path' being shown across the card, and the Sephiroth linked also shown in parts with GD appropriate shading. As I have only looked at this deck in its partial on-line form, I presume that all cards do, in fact, adhere to the Golden Dawn ordering...

Jewel	19 Aug 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Lee [b] Now I'm thinking of getting the Tarot of the Sephiroth for learning purposes./B] I have not dedicated a lot of time to this deck, but I do have it and I like the artwork. I will need to pull it out and see how the minors do in relation to the GD correspondences, but if I recall they do adhere. The deck is much nicer looking than either Wang's or Cicero's. I have the Wang deck, and just could not bring myself to buy the Cicero deck because of the colors and art style. I will get back with you in a couple of days about the Sephiroth minors.

The New Golden Dawn deck/book set thread was originally posted on 17 Aug 2002 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.