Windhorse said:
But one thing that I did find interesting was that on one page, he shows the various versions of the ToL - the one that GD use (shape-wise; it didn't go into path associations) is labelled as being 'an older kabbalistic version'.
There are lots of different versions of the Tree of Life. But the important thing is that the western esoteric movement uses the Kircher ToL. It does not matter that the western system disagrees with the older hebrew system because it's a totally different system.
Hardcore hebrew Kabbalists my pour scorn of the Hermetic Qabalah because of it's inclusion of Tarot, Astrology and other aspects of western esotericism. So what! The Hermetic Qabalah, while having hebrew roots, is a new system that breaks away from the hebrew tradition and embraces everything.
Old may be good, but new is better.
Windhorse said:
Was the GD the only group at that time making the connections here? And did they splinter off from another Rosicrusian group? Can someone enlighten me on this?
I don't even want to try and explain this one.
Windhorse, dig into the origins of the Golden Dawn. But forget all the stuff about charters from continental Rosicrusians and links to the past because it's all a smoke screen.
Windhorse said:
I'm also wondering what form of deck did they use? Would it have been Mathers' version which was used to teach tarot to GD initiates like Waite and Crowley? Has this version been published?
Erm...... they used the Golden Dawn deck.
This one is supposed to be based on photos of Israel Regardies deck. I think vapid is the best word I can use to describe it.
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/golden-dawn/
This one is a new version by the Cicero's. It's er..... very bright. But that's because it sticks slavishly to the Golden Dawn flashing colour scheme.
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/golden-dawn-magical/
I don't/can't read with either deck. They're just for study and comparrison.
Windhorse said:
I've actually been playing around with changing the astrological associations completely (helps when you are an Astrologer by trade).
Fine. But then you would creating your own symbol system. People using the Hermetic Qabalah attributions are talking the same language making it easier to share ideas. By altering the attributions you would be creating a new language.