Strange Book Find to Discuss

[Rosanne]

The Local second book dealer keeps an eye out for anything Tarot for me on his travels. I have this oddity picked up. It is a Brown covered hardback, it has no title or author- but Press 1957 Published under the Berne Convention
There is no ISBN number. The quality is excellent- printing was not a cheap job.
The first half of the book deals with the 22 Majors, using the illustrations of a Marseille, that I have not seen before- but calls Le Mat -Magus.
The Tarot packs are recommended as three choices
1st choice:The Marseille pack
2nd Choice:The Insight Institute pack
3rd Choice: Waite's Pack
Chapter 23 Deals with Divinatory aspects 0f the Courts and Aces, some interesting Zodiac ruminations, and how to use playing cards.
I am presuming it is a book from one of the Societies or Temple menmber like Golden Dawn- but I am not sure.
Whoever wrote the book and went to great expense to have it printed, seems to think there is a Templar connection to Tarot. I am interested in this statement as well.
Whatever may have been the inner reasons for the dissolution of the Order, it is abundantly clear that the Templars were capable of creating creations from Astral Light, which were veiled in the the word TEMOHPAB which is Baphomet reversed. " Templi Omnium Hominum Pacis Abbas" (The Priest of the Temple of Peace for all Men.)
I would like to know if someone knows of the 2nd choice of decks in the list.
The author seems to quote Blavatsky's Secret doctrine/Bible/Koran and various Poets.
Your help would be appreciated. ~Rosanne

[BodhiSeed]

Rosanne,
Scroll down to about midpage and you will find a letterhead for the Insight Institute. It seems to have been a group that published its own deck and had a correspondence course to go with it (perhaps similar to BOTA?) around 1949 and was based in Surrey.
http://www.wopc.co.uk/tarot/index.html

Bodhran

[Rosanne]

Thanks very much Bodran! I wonder who bought it out here from England? I think the illustrations are quite lovely even in black and white. I wonder if any of the decks are still existing? They are very playing card-ish. ~Rosanne

[Elven]

Sorry I am not help, but I love your new find! Sounds very interesting ... and its the 3rd time today Ive heard of the Blavatsky's Doctrines - and volume 1&2 are in the 2nd hand bookshop around here!!

I love the cards - I like the proportions of the artwork, and they are a bit 'playing-cardish', but beautiful!

Blessings Elven x

[Rosanne]

Thank you Elven- they are great little illustrations. Here is the Juggler.
Each Chapter starts with a verse. Here the The Tarot premises that every man is his own Magician, and plans can be bought to fruition by the concentration of the imagination and Will on the desired objective....
A mighty purpose rises large and slow
From out the fluctuations of my soul,
As, ghost-like from the dim and tumbling sea
Starts the completed moon. (Alexander Smith)

[BodhiSeed]

Love the cards Rosanne - they have a very "Marseille" feel to them, yet they are a bit "softer" too. Please keep us posted if you find out anything else about the mysterious Insight Institute or cards. Now that I think about it, I think there is a BOTA mystery school based in New Zealand; maybe someone associated with it had the book.

Bodhran

[Rosanne]

I will look into it a bit further- I was taken with the fact that the Juggler's hat looked more like the horns of a bull than a lemiscate shape. That is very interesting- like it is more a deck of Kabalist(Aleph and all that) than a Christian mystic society. ~Rosanne

[Rosanne]

I have been told this is the cards now OOP, called the Rolla Nordic Tarot. It is strange that this book was printed in 1957 and those cards in 1981. It would seem someone (presumably Rolla Nordic) took the images from a similar book to the one I found. I wonder what the story is behind that? ~Rosanne

[fyreflye]

If the cards are the Rolla Nordic this http://tinyurl.com/339bw4 may be the book.

[fyreflye]

Further research (Encyclopedia of Tarot v. 1 p. 269) seems to confirm that the illustrations are the Rolla Nordic cards. The clincher will be if The Fool is labeled The Magus.

Rolla Nordic was one of the original Gardnerian witches who flourished in the U. K. during the 1950s and '60's. She wrote two books (one, an Introduction to Tarot for children (!)) and the one I linked in my previous post. US Games published a version of the deck but it's likely that it was previously issued earlier by another publisher and licensed by USG. A hardback edition of the 127 page companion book was published by Weiser in the late '70's.