Waite's vows of secrecy

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 02 Feb 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Rusty Neon	02 Feb 2004
I can certainly sympathize with Mr. Waite being silent/vague/misleading in his book _The Pictorial Key to the Tarot_ when mentioning issues that could reveal points of Golden Dawn tarot curriculum. I've just read that, apparently, the Golden Dawn took the question of secrecy "... so seriously that members took an oath, with a sword on their shoulders, that they invited the spirits to strike them dead if they ever revealed anything to the outside world." Source: Rachel Pollack, _Forest of Souls_, pp. 8-9

TemperanceAngel	02 Feb 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Rusty Neon I've just read that, apparently, the Golden Dawn took the question of secrecy "... so seriously that members took an oath, with a sword on their shoulders, that they invited the spirits to strike them dead if they ever revealed anything to the outside world." Source: Rachel Pollack, _Forest of Souls_, pp. 8-9 Really?? Wow... I would love to get that book (along with a million others...) Any other great bits of info like that one anywhere? XTAX

Rusty Neon	02 Feb 2004
TemperanceAngel ... Actually, I don't have the book. I read it on amazon.com, the U.S. site. Amazon.com has a feature to let you "look inside" the book. There's even a search function! For instance, type in the word "tarot" and you can get a lot of hits. That's how I found page 8. Once at that page, you can access neighbouring pages. You might not be able to actually access the pages unless you've registered with amazon.com.

TemperanceAngel	02 Feb 2004
Thanks Rusty :D I am registered at Amazon, but try not to go on there very often, for reasons which I think would be obvious.... XTAX

mac22	13 Feb 2004
Quote: Originally posted by TemperanceAngel Really?? Wow... I would love to get that book (along with a million others...) Any other great bits of info like that one anywhere? XTAX The penalties for breaking the oaths of the Golden Dawn were dire and taken seriously by most senior members. Regardie goes into detail as to WHY he broke his oaths... Would you believe it was over a certain type of chess? :D "As to bits of info" YES it's all over Regarie's, R A Gilbert's & Francis King's works. Were the penalties effective? That's a whole other thread. :D

The Waite's vows of secrecy thread was originally posted on 02 Feb 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.