books and decks

I love Kipp's book, Aeon!... It's one of the things that drove me back into traditional astrlogy a while back.

A brilliant, eye-opening book that's hard to characterize because it's unlike any other book I can think of. Know what I mean? I 'm not sure HOW I would recommend it to someone other than to say: READ THIS.

Scion said:

A brilliant, eye-opening book that's hard to characterize because it's unlike any other book I can think of. Know what I mean? I 'm not sure HOW I would recommend it to someone other than to say: READ THIS.

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I couldn't agree more. I'm amazed how Kipp has managed to weave together so many seemingly disparate strands into a combined whole. At no point do you get the feeling that he is trying to force connections that don't exist. Everything fits together beautifully and is presented in such a logical and intelligent manner that you just have to keep turning the pages. Brilliant!

If only more books of this quality were published these days. Fat chance.

Just finished Kipp's book. All I can say is........ WOW!!!

Some sobering points made in the final two chapters had me nodding my head in agreement. Que Será, Será.

Does anyone have any advance info on this deck?
http://www.amazon.com/Initiatic-Tarot-Golden-Dawn-Scarabeo/dp/0738713872

I'm assuming it's just a re-drawn Golden Dawn deck. Can't say I like the comic book look though.

I own it, randomly. LOL Actually it was gifted to me by the lovely Aulruna here in NYC when she was visiting.

VERY comic-booky artwise... sort of a pulpy, adventure illustration style suitable for a Edgar Rice Burroughs story. But it is a Golden Dawn deck, and they do follow the spirit if not the letter of Book T. Specifically the colors are VERY loose. I'm not sure if you'd find it charming or annoying.

Scion

Does anyone recommend either of these two books for GD tarot study?

* The Golden Dawn Tarot by Waite, Arthur Edward. (isbn 1558183388)
* The Astrology Of The Golden Dawn, Brodie-Innes, J.W.

The GD Tarot sounds like fascinating reading, if nothing else.

For the second book, I'm fairly novice yet with astrology; it's long been a weak point of mine. Not sure if studying GD source material in this form offers benefits. Just got "New Way to Learn Astrology" from my library, and it seems like a good start for me.

I'm wondering if these two GD books offer useful information, or is their knowledge already distilled into more readily accessible, modern books? I don't want to end up with stilted, historical curiosities that I can't use.

FWIW, I did recently get a good price on the Zalewski "yellow brick." So I may not need to go back to the Waite material if it's all reproduced, but I don't really know.

Thanks!

I can tell you that Astrology of the Golden Dawn is sort of misnamed. It's essentially a transcript of a presentation and is NOT in any way an ovcerview or an intro. There are much better ways to get your teeth into the GD astrology.

One thing: I keep saying this but it bears repeating, GD astrology is NOT sunsign astrology. It predates the lobotomized sunsign astrology by about 50 years and has a couple thousand years of tradition to back it up. Modern sunsign astrology is NOT what is operating in the GD Tarot structure. The similarities are cosmetic only. Studying modern "psychological" astrology will be largely worthless beyond teaching you the superficial meaning of the symbols.

I knew Scion would have some info for me.

Scion said:

I can tell you that Astrology of the Golden Dawn is sort of misnamed. It's essentially a transcript of a presentation and is NOT in any way an ovcerview or an intro. There are much better ways to get your teeth into the GD astrology.

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Sounds like a pass then, thanks!

One thing: I keep saying this but it bears repeating, GD astrology is NOT sunsign astrology. ... Studying modern "psychological" astrology will be largely worthless beyond teaching you the superficial meaning of the symbols.

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I've read your other posts about this. In fact, I picked up Olivia Barclay's "Horary Rediscovered" on your recommendation. However, it seems to me to assume a grounding in basic/natal astrology, which is something I lack. I've always rather glossed over astrology beyond the basics; but GD tarot and an e-group have convinced me otherwise.

(And at the risk of going OT... don't forget about those people who bash all things Golden Dawn and hearken back to Renaissance sources! )

How about that Golden Dawn Tarot book... anyone?

Oh, I'm with you there... Most of the good material on astrology is pre17th century. The truth is, the GD structure is based largely on the Agrippa material from Barrett's plagiarized Magus, and they incorporated it withuout breaking it down as totally (at least in extant papers) as they did their take on Qabalah... largely because of the scholarship available at that point. The fact is the GD didn't DO much to astrology, probably because they didn't have the wherewithal or the sources. Much easier to muck around with QBLH post-Levi. There really isn't a good book on astrology in the GD system. Mostly new age sun sign slop. Kipp's book on Crowley is good, but not about the basics. More of a rumination. A definite gap there, but onwe that will take a LOT of primary source scholarship, rather than Llewellyn-styl regurgitation.

So much material has emerged in the past 50 years.. which elucidates the underlying astro-bones of the GD. So, yes, older material is better. As for friendly intros: Barclay, Frawley, Lehman, Zoller, Brady, Cornelius are all great... but they're all pretty demanding. Barclay is probably the friendliest. Frawley the funniest. I find that as I read I sort of absorb the topic osmotically. Slow going, but worth it I think.