Alobar
hmmmm...
well, since no explanation seems to be forthcoming, i'll take the lead and post evidence as to why i feel that these cards were meant to be a complete tarot pack all along (as opposed to merely illustration for the book).
the following are excerpts from various correspondences between Lady Harris and AC from here...
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/crowley-harris.html
i have to thank whomever it was from this forum that turned me onto this wnderful site, and i apologise for forgetting your name (it's been awhile ).
so, here we go then...
from FH to AC - Sept. 18, 1939
same (undated)
from AC to FH - Dec. 19, 1939
same
same
the letters go on, and there are many more references to the "cards".
but i think the most telling evidence is in that last quote...
"The great difficulty of this whole work is to make a completely harmonious pack".
this seems point conclusively to the fact that Crowley intended all along for this to be a complete deck of cards, and not just illustrations for the Book of Thoth.
well, since no explanation seems to be forthcoming, i'll take the lead and post evidence as to why i feel that these cards were meant to be a complete tarot pack all along (as opposed to merely illustration for the book).
the following are excerpts from various correspondences between Lady Harris and AC from here...
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/crowley-harris.html
i have to thank whomever it was from this forum that turned me onto this wnderful site, and i apologise for forgetting your name (it's been awhile ).
so, here we go then...
from FH to AC - Sept. 18, 1939
I do not find the names of the Cards in the Index you have sent at all illuminating in fact it took me hours to sort which was which. They are much too flamboyant, & I prefer the old names don't you. I hate all those rushing words & feel I've alighted in Taliesom. What am I to print in the surrounds, because I won't do them wrong, it is very hard work.
same (undated)
I'm glad I was unintelligible, such a change round for you, & anyhow I don't care for just look at the stucco work you have planned out for me--"Push the Cups deeper! Twist the whole card round" Oh! but these things are all on 1 plane &, unless I start applique or sculpture, it can't be begun.
from AC to FH - Dec. 19, 1939
I got the photographs with great joy. I do not remember the colours of the Three of Swords, but the centre of the rose should be deep crimson, and the veins of the petals black and very wavy. Ten of Cups. This is admirable, but I can't tell much about the background; it ought to look menacing. There is something very sinister about this card. It suggests the morbid hunger which springs from surfeit. The craving of a drug addict is the idea. At the same time, of course, it is this final agony of descent into illusion which renders necessary the completion of the circle by awakening the Eld of the All-Father.
same
These notes on Justice, or as we have preferred to call her 'Adjustment'. Please note this title. In reading through my description of the card, I noticed a correction to be made, Phalax should be Phallic. There are several mistakes in spelling and punctuation, but no doubt you can put these right by your own ingenium. I suppose I was in a very bad temper when I made my criticism, but I do feel strongly that the plumes of Maat are too insignificant, and the Dove and Raven look simply stuck on; nor do I think that the tessellated pavement is quite right. The general criticism is that the card is a little too cold; Liber is the sign of autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close-bosomed friend of the maturing sun. In your card you have got the idea of balance static, whereas it ought to be dynamic. Nature is not the grocer weighing out a pound of sugar; it is the compensation of complicated rhythms. I should like you to feel that every adjustment was a grande passion; compensation should be a festival, not a clerk smugly pleased that his accounts are correct.
same
What an extraordinary thing to say! To retain one card may be different from all the other cards. The great difficulty of this whole work is to make a completely harmonious pack; that is why I wrote so strongly about the private Private View.
the letters go on, and there are many more references to the "cards".
but i think the most telling evidence is in that last quote...
"The great difficulty of this whole work is to make a completely harmonious pack".
this seems point conclusively to the fact that Crowley intended all along for this to be a complete deck of cards, and not just illustrations for the Book of Thoth.