books and decks

Dear learned ones,

I have been reading some of the discussions here with a mix of fascination and amusement at my own ignorance. So I was thinking it would be very useful for people interested in studying the Hermetic Tarot tradition if those among us with some knowledge of the subject (i.e. not me) would be willing to offer suggestions towards an 'annotated bibliography' of books and decks. Or point to a good list somewhere.

For example, I assume obvious decks that are directly relevant would be the Thoth, the Waite and the Golden Dawn Tarot? The Hermetic Tarot? And...?

Books I guess would include 'classics' like
-Crowley's Book of Thoth because it talks about a and b.
or
-Regardie's Golden Dawn because it talks about c and d? (haven't read it, just assuming. You can see why I felt the need to ask about this stuff.)
and so on.

As more 'user friendly' could e.g. be
-DuQuette's Understanding the Thoth, because allegedly it actually makes some sense (haven't yet read that one either).

These things can obviously not be spoon fed, but there is a lot of material out there and everyone needs to start somewhere. I am making this suggestion in the hope that it will be useful to all the silent ones participating from home.

Well we're talking post-19th century hermetic occultism right? The trouble is it's a neverending topic and there are several different "schools" implicated by the "Hermetic" title, and everyone comes at this stuff from a different angle... But here's stuff off the top of my head

Decks:
Crowley-Harris Thoth
Waite-Smith
Hermetic (Dowson)
Liber T: Tarot of the Stars Eternal
Tarot of the Sephiroth
Tarot of Ceremonial Magick
Magickal Tarot
Tarocchi delle Stelle
Classic Golden Dawn Tarot
Golden Dawn Magical Tarot

nonGD: Oswald Wirth, Tavaglione/Stairs of Gold, Lasenic, Tarot des Mages, Knapp-Hall


Tarot specific books:
Book "T" (essential for any GD study)
Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth
Robert Wang's Qabalistic Tarot
Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (turgid, cryptic, but packed with stuff)
Oswald Wirth's Tarot of the Magicians
Valentin Tomberg's Meditation on the Tarot (n.b. heavily Christian Hermetics)
Paul Foster Case's Book of Tokens
Decker, DePaulis, Dummet's Wicked Pack of Cards
O'Neill's Tarot Symbolism


non-Tarot specific
Duquette's Chicken Qabalah
Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah (for years the go-to intro)
Frances Yates' Giordano Bruno & the Hermetic Tradition
Regardie's Golden Dawn... although it's kind of a behemoth and lots of the material is covered more clearly elsewhere
Flowers' Hermetic Magic
Lehrich's The Occult Mind
Knight's Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism


For some deeper digging:
Crowley's 777... actually pretty much anything by Crowley after about 1904 ("The Wake World" from Konx Om Pax is a real treat)
Golden Dawn Cypher Manuscript (Runyon's edition is useful)
Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic
Raine's Yeats the Initiate
Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Skinner's Complete Magician's Tables

The trouble with all this is that if I knew how you'd like the list focused I could tailor accordingly.. Is there one area you're interested in? Hermnetic Qabalah? The Golden Dawn? Ceremonial Magick and evocation? Astrology? All of these topcis are part of the stew...

I love recommending books, but let me know what you're lookng for and I'll be able to go to town.

X

Scion

Scion, in one of your other posts you mentioned Ellic Howe's Magicians of the Golden Dawn. I was wondering if you could give any feedback on that book. There is one review at Amazon and it sounds pretty good, but does it get into the GD's magical system as such?

-thanks

My collection is a lot more limited than Scions (then again, so is the British Library's ) I think good books to start with are Duquette's on the Thoth, Wang's Qabalistic Tarot, Book T and an introductory astrology text.

Ultimately I don't think it matters which book you start with. Any one will have references and lead you to areas you want to study more about. Its probably worthwhile to just pick any one to start with, and see where that leads you.

There are a number of great websites that give you access to many useful titles free also. Though most are older texts outside of copyright, so they largerly aren't "introductory" in nature.
http://www.scribd.com/groups/view/1397-ancient-magic
http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm
http://hermetic.com/
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/
http://www.ehostarea.com/liber/
http://www.esotericarchives.com/

Abrac said:

Scion, in one of your other posts you mentioned Ellic Howe's Magicians of the Golden Dawn. I was wondering if you could give any feedback on that book. There is one review at Amazon and it sounds pretty good, but does it get into the GD's magical system as such?

Click to expand...

It's a terrific book... the thing is, it's more of a biography of the Order and its members than an examination... and the coverage of the magical system is all done indirectly as part of anecdotes about the complicated politics of the GD and its members. In fact I'd say before yoiu read it you'd want to know a fair amount about the GD practices or you might get lost at points. Howe sort of expects you to know what he means in the use of terms and grades and rituals; at the same time there are these detailed nuggets about specific designs, concrete practices, ceremonial events that come up contextually and it's fascinating to situate them in the GD's history. And wonderful primary text quotes throughout from letters, diaries and hard to find books. You finish it feeling like you know the members a bit... not as intimates but as if you'd sat next to all of them at a dinner party for several hours when they were in their cups and feeling confessional.

I'd characterize it as a detailed biography/intelligent-soap-opera that delves often into the specifics of their practices, but expects you to have done your homework first. Does that make sense?

Thanks Scion...yes, it does make sense. It seems that a lot of books on magic use obscure references and secret codes; it's something I've grown accustomed to.

There is another one I was looking at, What You Should Know About the Golden Dawn by Regardie. It's a little shorter and might be easier to digest.

I'm finding there is much about the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley's sytems that makes a lot more sense when you know something about the personalities involved. Actually, the personalities are about 99% of what is interesting about it. To me, the magical information seems a bit muddled and uninteresting.

Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn

Just saw this one http://tinyurl.com/3yo3dj recommended on another forum by our own Adam McLean, who just bought it and hasn't read it yet but says he's known the Zalewskis for years and expects it to be a good one. A little pricey, but shipping is free on Amazon. Anyone know this one?

There's an extended description by the Zalewskis of the book's contents here: http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/Magical.htm

Abrac said:

Thanks Scion...yes, it does make sense. It seems that a lot of books on magic use obscure references and secret codes; it's something I've grown accustomed to.

There is another one I was looking at, What You Should Know About the Golden Dawn by Regardie. It's a little shorter and might be easier to digest.

Click to expand...

And rather juicy as well. But it just goes to show that amidst all the human 'skulldugery' a bloody good hermetic system can thrive (for a little while anyway), it says a lot for 'powering into it' and getting as much down (or naughtily revealed) as possible.

I remeber years ago some one said (it might have been Bill Heidrick ?) something like, 'If you are looking for a magical group with people in it who have no faults and a leader who is perfect ... you will be looking a long time.'

Thank you similia for the links. Some I was not aware of, I've already spent some hours in there...

Scion said:

The trouble with all this is that if I knew how you'd like the list focused I could tailor accordingly.. Is there one area you're interested in? Hermnetic Qabalah? The Golden Dawn? Ceremonial Magick and evocation? Astrology? All of these topcis are part of the stew...

Click to expand...

Well, this list should keep me busy for about a century or so. In fact I have my hands full at the moment with that theology of arithmetic and some other stuff. I just thought it would be useful to set the context and see what people consider relevant. But since you're asking some astrology recommendations would be nice. I'm particularly interested in astrology a couple millennia back, Greece preferably, since that's where my study focus is at the moment. Is it true that that is where modern western astrology is based on? But anything astrology oriented would be nice

fyreflye said:

Just saw this one http://tinyurl.com/3yo3dj recommended on another forum by our own Adam McLean, who just bought it and hasn't read it yet but says he's known the Zalewskis for years and expects it to be a good one. A little pricey, but shipping is free on Amazon.

Click to expand...

Has anyone bought or taken a look at the new Zalewski book yet? I've been toying with the idea of buying a copy, but £30 for a paperback is not pricey, it's excessive.