Counting method of the Golden Dawn
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 13 May 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| Tetrflare |
13 May 2005 |
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Recently, I've regain interest in the Opening of the Key spreads. But I cannot find much information about the way to go about the counting of the spread. In fact, i noticed OOTK it's hardly discussed in the forum. (always being referred to supertarot.com, and their coverage on counting is not comprehensive)
Anyway, I search through my notes and found this bit of info. (I forgot where is the source, if anyone know, pls tell)
Card Type - Number to Count
Aces - 5 or 11
Princess or Knave (page or knight for RW) - 7
Knight or Queen (King or Queen for RW) - 4
Minor Cards 2-10 - face value
Hanged Man, Fool, Aeon - 3
Planetary Major cards - 9
Zodiacal Major Cards - 12
Start counting from the last choosen card as being the first card.
Queen or Princess - read right
Knight or Knave - read left
Reversed Cards - reverse direction
Something is said about the direction the person on the minor card is facing which is not clear.
Counting stops when reading a card that have been read from the same direction (e.g. left to right)
I have no recollection of the integrity of this info and I'm hoping that someone can give me more detail insight about the counting method. What I have is too unclear like why Aces can be 5 or 11, when to change direction of the counting, etc, etc...
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| firemaiden |
13 May 2005 |
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Forgive my ignorance, what is it that you are "counting"? points? and what does this mean?
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| Tetrflare |
13 May 2005 |
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Golden Dawn reads Tarot by going through the various speads in the OOTK. Then after spreading the cards, they read the cards in a certain sequence, they first use the counting method, followed by the pairing method.
This counting method is done by taking the first card as the significator, after that, according to this card, the reader will "count" towards the next card that is to be read. This will form a sequence of events till the counting reaches the same card, where it then ends. The method of how to count for each card is vaguely in the first post above.
I have seen this in chapters of the Tarot within quite a few Golden Dawn references, written in detail. But sadly, I do not possess any of those book, so i do not know how to go about it exactly.
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| firemaiden |
13 May 2005 |
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You say they choose a spread from the "Opening of the Key", and then they start counting the cards?? I don't understand. Do they lay the spread out first? and then start adding up points???? or do they use the "counting method" to determine which card to turn over. I have no idea what you are talking about. Please explain.
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| zorya |
14 May 2005 |
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the info can be found in the book the golden dawn by israel regardie.
there are 20 pages of instructions, which i'm afraid, is too much for me to try to type out here.
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| Tetrflare |
14 May 2005 |
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zorya, glad that i can find someone with the info.
I just need the info about the counting technique, I guess I can handle the rest of the OOTK with the notes I have. Can you write out some info on it? (or is the 20 pages just info on the counting technique?)
Just state the values to count for the type of cards and the direction of counting.
I've been looking all over for this bit of info. Please help! Thanks!!
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| tmgrl2 |
14 May 2005 |
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tetrflare....this is way too complex for me...but if you get the information, use it and find it interesting or helpful...please share here your impressions....
I need to work with a system that is stored within.....this would never work for me unless I did it as an exercise to study the cards for myself....as an interesting "task."
terri
Happy Reading with this method...keep us posted.
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| zorya |
14 May 2005 |
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start counting with the significator (which will be a court card)
go in the direction the significator is facing.
the significator is counted as card 1 as is every card from which you start.
from every ace-5 cards (spirit and four elements)
princess (knave)- 7 cards (seven palaces of malkuth)
king, queen, prince- 4 cards (letters of tetragrammaton)
smaller cards- its own number (a sephirah)
key of aleph mem shin- 3 cards (number of the mother letters)
key of duplicated letters- 9 cards (number of planets and caput and cauda draconis)
key of single letters- 12 (number of signs).
you continue counting until you land on a card which has already been read.
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| zorya |
14 May 2005 |
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continued from above,
at this point, you pair the cards starting at opposite ends (working inward), and read them as pairs.
hope this helps.
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| Rusty Neon |
14 May 2005 |
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Once the counting stops and the counted cards of the quarter-pile are identified, the counted cards are read as triples consisting of the counted card as the middle card with the immediately neighbouring cards to the counted card as the left and right hand side elemental modifiers of the counted card.
The pairs readings of all cards of the quarter-pile is the second step of the First Operation of the Opening of the Key. This second step would be done after the end of the first step (i.e., after the reading of triples).
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| Paul |
14 May 2005 |
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I've used this technique extensively.
STRENGTHS: It's really fun and interesting to see how the "sentence" bobs and weaves back and forth according to the counting. It's as if the final answer takes on just as much sentence-complexity as it needs to. The elemental dignities are an interesting component; although, I developed my own.
CHALLENGES: Not having the cards in a single line loses some of the nuances of noticing how the cards naturally sit with EACH OTHER in a sentence row of cards. In the OOTK spread, it is harder to see how different characters face (or face away) from each other, sequences, and other natural phenomena of a string of cards, when they are separated from each other by counting.
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| Tetrflare |
14 May 2005 |
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zorya, thanks for the info. I'm much clearer now.
I won't use elemental dignities, will feedback in future about the usefulness of this method.
p.s. how about direction change when counting cards? Paul, how do you count?
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The Counting method of the Golden Dawn thread was originally posted on 13 May 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.
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