Cicero's Tarot Talismans

I purchased this book about a year ago. But not really understanding much about the GD system. How closely does this material adhere to the GD system?

It is basically purely Golden Dawn information. The Cicero's are senior adepts in the GD, and aparently hold the copyright on "Golden Dawn" in the US. They were friends of Israel Regardies and established one of the modern GD groups. So pretty much GD all the way. There is some work of their own in the book, but its all based on GD stuff.

This was the first book I bought on tarot magic, and initially I found it a little too complex for me, I didn't have enough background GD or magical knowledge. For the most part its intended to be useable by a newbie, but I found a few holes in their explanations that I tripped over. In hindsight they are actually very minor details, but at the time it seemed a big gap to me.

I found Donald Kraig's books extremely useful. His "Tarot & Magic" was more accessable, and gave a combination of GD and pagan appraoches. And his "Modern Magic" went further into non-tarot specific fields, and was a very good introduction to GD magic.

There are a few other books by the Ciceros that I found useful to complement "Tarot Talismans". "Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot" is good for some details on the tarot system and to go along with their deck, "Essential Golden Dawn" is good background information on the GD in general.

Thanks for the input knew about the ritual tarot .... I looked for the Ritual Tarot some time ago and it is out of print as far as I know....The Golden Dawn Magical Tarot took its place so to speak...

archer1 said:

Thanks for the input knew about the ritual tarot .... I looked for the Ritual Tarot some time ago and it is out of print as far as I know....The Golden Dawn Magical Tarot took its place so to speak...

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Yes, both decks are OOP now I think, though are identical anyway, just different packaging. The GD Magical has a small booklet with it, it came in a little package. There is a much larger and more useful book that was published with the GD Ritual that is available to purchase by itself. The book is called "Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot" still.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Golden-Da...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227740934&sr=8-1

It's a very good complement to the Tarot Talismans, it illustrates the same system but focussed on divination rather than magic.

thanks I am headed out to pick it up..... Barnes and Noble is nearby ... I don't use the internet to buy anything anymore ...... was defrauded out of about 4 thousand dollars a couple of years ago.....

archer1 said:

thanks I am headed out to pick it up..... Barnes and Noble is nearby ... I don't use the internet to buy anything anymore ...... was defrauded out of about 4 thousand dollars a couple of years ago.....

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Ouch, sorry to hear that this happened to you.

Back to the book... The thing that bothers me the most is the way they treat the Thoth. Like when giving talismanic/amuletic uses they switch Knights to Princes and for the pentacles, they give a knight to both king and prince. You would think they would know better.
Otherwise, a good look at tarot as magic.