by Sasha Graham
Tarot Structure
Once the Golden Dawn had an organizational structure for members to adhere to, it was time to organize their work. French occultist Éliphas Lévi predated the Golden Dawn. He inspired Golden Dawn magicians with a stroke of sheer genius. Lévi was the first person to place tarot at the center of occult science. He considered astrology, alchemy, and Kabbalah to be actual sciences worth study, examination, and experimentation. He famously stated, “To practice magic is to be a quack; to know magic is to be a sage.” He means that once an individual understands the true nature of magic and divinity, there is no need to practice spells or incantations. To know true magic is to understand you are infused with magic and energy at every level. Once Lévi placed tarot at the center of all occult sciences, it altered tarot’s usage forever. Lévi believed tarot was “the most perfect instrument of divination.” He believed it was a symbolic synthesis of all earthly and supernatural knowledge. Every magical system could be placed within the context of tarot due to tarot’s sublime structure. It fit together perfectly.
1888: Golden Dawn’s Creation
and the Triad of Secret Chiefs
The Secret Chiefs were a trio of enterprising gentleman who plotted and planned the formation of the Golden Dawn. Doctor William Wynn Westcott was a “Coroner of the Crown,” a London doctor. His day job was examining corpses to determine the cause of death. Westcott conducted inquests for twenty years and published numerous works on the nature of pharmacology, suicide causation and prevention, and the effects of alcoholism on the body. Occult study captivated Westcott’s imagination. This large, grandfatherly looking fellow would go on to publish dozens of books, articles, and lectures on vast occult subjects. Westcott called on his friend and colleague William K. Woodman, a forensic pathologist. He asked Woodman to join him in creating the Golden Dawn, a society to study occult and magical practice. Westcott envisioned his group to be highly secretive, select, and intensely productive. Woodman, a passionate gardener, agreed. Woodman died in 1891, three years after the formation of the Golden Dawn.
The third Secret Chief was Samuel MacGregor Mathers, a handsome English chap with intense eyes. He was fluent in multiple languages, including Latin, Greek, French, and Gaelic. He translated numerous works of occult literature throughout his life. He penned many of the Golden Dawn rituals and took over as head of the organization when Woodman passed away. Mathers’s wife, Moina, was the first member to be initiated into the Golden Dawn. Moina was an extraordinary visual artist, psychic medium, and Egyptologist who played a significant role in the group. Mathers wrote the highly influential Book T, which was circulated among Golden Dawn members. The Book T creates a perfectly workable system aligning tarot with the Kabbalah. Mathers says of his work, “The result of these has been to show me how absolutely correct the symbolism of the Book T is, and how exactly it represents the Occult Forces of the Universe.” The Book T bore direct impact on the creation of the RWS deck. The Book T was obviously referenced many times by both Pamela and Waite while creating their rectified tarot.
Cipher Manuscripts
The Golden Dawn needed a fascinating, entrancing origin story to draw members into its ranks. After all, every religion and organization worth its salt contains an essential creation story. The Mormon Joseph Smith discovered angelic plates in the woods. L. Ron Hubbard, the science-fiction author, created an extraterrestrial Scientology origin story. Christianity contains a virgin birth and a god who is murdered and reborn as the savior of all humankind. The Secret Chiefs wanted a juicy story, and they wasted no time creating one.
The Cipher Manuscripts became the center of the Golden Dawn’s origin story. Westcott claimed he’d come into possession of a number of secret manuscripts. They were written in code. Two versions of his acquisition exist. The first version claims Westcott found the manuscripts in old book stalls. The second version says he inherited them amongst a series of papers from a friend. Either way, Westcott, a self-proclaimed expert on occult matters, deciphered the sixty folios.
The documents contained a collection of Masonic-type rituals that could be used by both men and woman. These magical rituals aligned with the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. The papers were written in English with Hebrew letters. They held diagrams, contained numerous tarot cards, and included typical subjects of esoteric study. It contained a perfectly workable system of how to progress through a series of esoteric knowledge. The systems were Masonic in structure. They allowed the occultist to work like a Mason progressing through higher and higher grades. The story details of the Cipher Manuscripts’ acquisition never matched up. The Secret Chiefs likely invented the story. The documents gave their organization an ancient lineage and thrilled its members. The Golden Dawn was off and running. Members were invited and admitted. Once their status as neophyte, the first level of the order, was secured, dues were paid and their work began. Membership included lessons and rituals in all areas of occult work.
The Golden Dawn’s work was grounded in study and scholarship. Written and oral exams were administered. Members would advance through ten grades aligning with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Three orders aligned with the three triads of the Tree of Life. Basic symbols, the Hebrew alphabet, and astrological information were memorized. Once an initiate moved into the Second Order, they were allowed to practice magic and create rituals for themselves. Golden Dawn magic took place in the spiritual plane. The spiritual plane could be understood by the layperson as the creative imagination. It is the subtle space entered into during a guided meditation. Spirits were evoked, ritual items infused with energy, psychic protective circles cast. All of this work was done specifically and coordinated carefully. The three orders and ten grades matched up to the ten Sephiroth on the Tree of Life, which also aligned with tarot.
Golden Dawn Membership
The Golden Dawn attracted an intellectual and artistic membership. Women and men participated. Numerous romantic liaisons ensued, entanglements occurred, and married couples joined the group. Nobel laureate playwright George Bernard Shaw was a member. His lover Florence Farr became a member in 1890. Irish literary giant, poet, and playwright W. B. Yeats was an extremely active Golden Dawn member. His muse, the aristocratic Maude Gonne, actress, suffragette, and Irish revolutionary, was a member of the group too. She refused to marry Yeats and famously said of Yeats’s proclaimed unhappiness, “Oh yes, you are, because you make beautiful poetry out of what you call your unhappiness and are happy in that. Marriage would be such a dull affair. Poets should never marry. The world should thank me for not marrying you.”
Dark master Aleister Crowley, a divisive member of the Golden Dawn, was initiated in 1898. He was dubbed “the wickedest man in the world” by the British press. He delighted in controversy and called himself “the Great Beast 666.” Crowley went on to create his own magical societies, including a salacious temple called the Sicilian Abbey and the Thelema religion. This subversive magician practiced all manner of dark, chaos, and sex magic. Crowley exalted the idea of a Scarlett Woman, a high priestess and sexual partner. Crowley sold tickets to his public ceremonial magic performances. He was a serious mountaineer who co-led the first British expedition to K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. He was an occult writer, and he created the Thoth tarot deck, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris. His deck was profoundly influenced by the Golden Dawn’s tarot associations. Arthur Waite and Crowley often butted heads during their time together in the Golden Dawn.
The Golden Dawn contained an intense power structure. Where power exists, people will vie for it. Magic is power. True magic empowers anyone and everyone due to its infinite nature. Like love, individuals can’t hoard magic all to themselves, yet it is the nature of any organization, from governments to parent-teacher associations, to experience power struggles within its ranks. Individuals always think they know best, crave the top of the perceived food chain, or believe they understand the work better than anyone else. The
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was no exception. Members fought, broke rules, disagreed, and formed numerous factions. Ultimately, the Golden Dawn could not maintain itself. It disbanded, yet they had the single biggest impact on Western occultism. It left behind dozens of rituals, instructions, and research materials for future occultists. Today, Golden Dawn systems are performed and operated around the globe.
Waite and Smith’s
Golden Dawn–Influenced Deck
Arthur Waite created his own faction of the Golden Dawn after schisms divided the group. Pamela Colman Smith was among the members joining him. It was during this time that Pamela and Waite created the RWS tarot. Golden Dawn members took an oath of silence regarding their occult work. Waite was faced with the challenge of preserving the esoteric secrets of the Golden Dawn when he commissioned the deck and wrote the accompanying book. To keep his secrets, Waite printed the fortunetelling points of the cards. He coded the Golden Dawn occult secrets in vague language. By coding his work and paying heed to traditional fortunetelling definitions, Waite proved an excellent point. He inadvertently made the case for why tarot is universally adaptable. The Pictorial Key reflects how tarot can be used for fortunetelling or great spiritual insight.
Waite described the major arcana in a section titled “The Doctrine Behind the Veil.” The veil he speaks of is what separates the material and spiritual worlds. Waite tells us,
The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas, behind which lie all the implicits of the human mind, and it is in this sense that they contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths embedded in the consciousness of all, though they have not passed into express recognition by ordinary men.
His sentiment expresses that tarot contains a secret truth that is embedded in everyone, yet few people recognize and understand it. The secret truth, for Waite, securely rests in the major arcana cards, and he speaks of the “higher intentions” of these cards, meaning the spiritual journey of the cards. He acknowledges this with an ultimate tease, saying,
There is a Secret Tradition concerning the Tarot, as well as a Secret Doctrine contained therein; I have followed some part of it without exceeding the limits which are drawn about matters of this kind and belong to the laws of honor.
Waite hints at the esoteric meanings without ever fully explaining them. He discusses “inner symbolism,” meaning the symbols are meant to evoke meaning inside the reader and awaken truths lying dormant in our consciousness.
Waite calls the court cards “the bridge between the Greater and Lesser Arcana.” Waite gives little detail and explanation to the minor arcana cards. He admits they relate to the “divinatory meanings.” He tells his reader that they “have been drawn by many sources.” This reflects the various influences that Pamela used to illustrate the minors. Waite’s great concern and focus is the major arcana. A few of Waite’s descriptions of the minors do not match Pamela’s illustrations. Waite claims all the minor arcana cards, with the exception of the aces, are designed for the benefit of divination:
In the rectified Tarot which illustrates the present handbook, all numbered cards of the Lesser Arcana—the Aces only excepted—are furnished with figures or pictures to illustrate—but without exhausting—the divinatory meanings attached thereto.
Regardless, Pamela Colman Smith was well versed in Golden Dawn theory and couldn’t help but include occult symbolism even in the cards designed to display divinatory meanings. For Pamela Colman Smith, all imagination was a shared landscape. It is clear there is no separation for her between the minor and major, all cards being of the same imaginary universe.
Waite admits that the cards offer hints of the occult treasure that lay beyond. He tells the reader what to do when they encounter cards loaded with occult symbolism, such as the Ten of Pentacles: “When the pictures in the present case go beyond the conventional meanings, they should be taken as hints of possible developments along the same lines.” He claims the minor arcana will help the intuition uncover occult truth:
The mere numerical powers and bare words of the meanings are insufficient by themselves; but the pictures are like doors which open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn in the open road with a wide prospect beyond.
His words here are beautiful, elegant, and perfectly describe a deck whose pictures keep opening into unexpected chambers over a hundred years after they were drawn.
The deck was originally titled the Rider-Waite Deck. The title combined Waite’s name with that of his publisher, William Rider. Tarotists felt the title of the deck overlooked Pamela’s impact and underscored the importance of her illustrations. Later editions of the deck changed the name to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck to honor Pamela’s contribution.
[contents]
chapter four
Chesed (Mercy)
Kabbalistic Tree of Life
It is essential to understand the Tree of Life if you are to deeply recognize the symbolism of the RWS deck. There is no way around it. Thankfully, knowing how the Tree of Life relates to tarot will blow your mind. It is worth grasping Tree of Life basics, even if you do not intend to become a practicing Kabbalist. It will add depth to your tarot reading and bring the RWS deck to life before your eyes. Dozens of RWS cards are imbued with the tree’s symbolism. The tree is a fascinating esoteric system combining language, numbers, and graphics aligning perfectly with the structure of the tarot deck. In a sense, if you study the tree, you study tarot, and vice versa. The tree can sometimes feel overwhelming and intimidating. This chapter will provide a quick overview on a deep metaphysical system. We’ll have some fun while we’re exploring it.
The Golden Dawn knew structure was essential for their organization’s success. They used Masonic structure to organize their rituals and degree systems. They infused tarot and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life’s structure into their metaphysical workings. Tarot was connected to the Tree of Life by Éliphas Lévi. The Tree of Life has no “official” connection to tarot. Occultists simply realized the systems blended seamlessly.
The tree expresses divine nature as it appears, manifests, and seeps through reality into everyday life and the material world. Ancient Kabbalists were pre-medieval Jewish holy men who meditated and worked with Talmudic works and Hebrew scripture to understand the nature of divinity. Literally translated, Kabbalah means “to receive,” and it can be spelled many different ways, including Kabalah, Cabala, and Qabala. Any spelling is valid. Over the years, other faiths, including Christianity, placed Tree of Life symbolism in the context of their spiritual stories. The Golden Dawn occultists and the Western traditions that sprang up from the Golden Dawn’s work would go on to do the same thing. Waite explains it perfectly in his book The Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah:
The true student of occultism believes in the existence of a knowledge—which in effect is occult science—handed down from remote ages, and that it concerns, broadly speaking, the way of union between man and God.31
The best way to explain the Tree of Life, which can feel weighty and confusing due to its philosophical nature and complex Hebrew alphabet and language, is to place it in the simplest possible terms. Indulge me: let’s go time traveling. Let’s head back—not to foggy London, not to ancient holy men in dark medieval times, but to the flashy, colorful, and hilarious 1980s. We are heading to the mall. If you wore deep blue Jordache denim, feathered your hair, and popped your puberty hormones around the time MTV debuted, you recall gaming arcades. If you weren’t around in the ’80s, you’ve probably seen arcades in movies and TV shows.
Gaming arcades were a major teen hangout found in most American malls and bowling alleys in the 1980s. They were dark rooms filled with kids and electrified with hot pink and lemon yellow neon. Flashing electronic games and snacks lured teenagers inside. Digital sound effects popped and zoomed from games like Pac-Man, Centipede, and Space Invaders. The arcade’s wall-to-wall carpeting was usu
ally soaked with soda stains and sneaker grease. Speakers blasted Pat Benatar, Journey, and Madonna through smoky cigarette air.
Video games glowed at the front of the arcade while old-school ’70s pinball machines, a dying breed of game, were pushed to the back. Pinball machines had different themes. The themes took inspiration from popular TV shows like CHiPS or Dukes of Hazzard or movies like Star Wars or Jaws. The game itself remained the same no matter what theme the machine took: two flippers, three or four shining silver balls, and glowing bumpers set to ricocheting the ball anytime it hit.
The arcade will help us understand the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Now that you have the scene in mind, take my hand. Let’s move through the arcade and check out this room in back. We’ll step through this door, and now I’m closing the door. It’s pitch-black inside, totally dark, but bear with me. The darkness has something to show you. In fact, this darkness is everything. It is nothing, or no thing. You can’t see your hand in front of your face. This is the state of not-being that theoretically exists before the appearance of the Tree of Life.
Cross-cultural religious and spiritual creation stories usually include a time of nothingness prior to the beginning of god/human time. This is due to the linear nature of the human mind. Humans tend to think in beginning, middle, and end terms because our life, our days, and our experience of most things contains a beginning, middle, and end. We apply this structure to all our narratives, including our creation stories. Inside this state of darkness the divine presence usually makes its first appearance. As a reminder, I’m using the word “divine,” but you can insert any meaning you want: God, aliens, Buddha, Jesus, Zeus, David Lee Roth, whatever you like. I am not here to preach specifics or dogma. I am simply showing you how this really cool Tree of Life machine works and how it applies to tarot. Are you with me so far?