by Pat and Chris Zalewski
Aeon books revised edition 2019, original edition published 2008.
RRP – £30.99
ISBN 13 – 1911597292
ISBN 10 – 1911597299
This book is probably the most impressive Golden Dawn based Tarot book I’ve read for content and readability—495 pages of a discussion of Book T, and I was in my element! Almost A4 in size means that the text is not overly heavy or unwieldy to read and I poured myself into each word written. The book is methodically laid out starting with the introduction to the reasoning for creating the text and accompanying Tarot deck. (I do have to purchase the deck!) It is evident a great deal of well thought out research has gone into creating the comprehensive content. The style of writing may be too congested or dense for some tastes; however, I did find it a straightforward and easily digestible read. I would recommend this text for starting out on a Golden Dawn Tarot journey; it would give a good solid grounding. The sections regarding Kabbalah and the colour scales were useful. The comprehensive section on colour scales included a brief comparison between Crowley’s and Regardie’s systems, more modern colour names, and the bold claim that the Zalewski deck colouring is the most accurate yet.
The card descriptions are detailed and comprehensive and the descriptions contained some welcome additions that aren’t readily available in other texts that I’ve read previously. For the Major Arcana the card detail is around five pages long and contains numerology relating to the card number including Golden Dawn references, gematria, the Hebrew letter, Kabbalistic association, psychological expression, a card description, divinatory meaning paragraph and a mantra for each card.
The Court descriptions are about three pages long and include I Ching as well as tattvas, decante influences and elemental influences, geomancy, and a divinatory paragraph. The Minor Arcana follows a similar format in length and include angel association, alchemy and Kabbalistic influence as well as the divinatory paragraph. The angel association is a welcomed addition and is not something I’ve studied previously so is now on my ever-growing list!
The book contains various methods of working with the cards including spreads, scrying, dreamwork, and meditation. The dreamwork section will be a challenge for me as I never seem to remember my dreams, but I shall rise to that challenge! The book provides about 12 spreads including the Opening of The Key and a couple of other large spreads which I will work through. It also includes a useful commentary on some of the spreads, which helps to see them working in practice. It did take me a while to follow the Horoscope spread as the two images show different card placements, so I followed the card placement as described in the commentary. This provided some insightful results. Some of the spreads are large, yet it was interesting to find them, such as the seven-card spread in the accompanying photograph, described as a ‘little spread for quick and concise answers.’ The ‘personal tree of power’ spread looks an interesting meditation to work through; I think I have also found another spread to use during my New Year Tarot workings.
The final section of the book , titled celestial Tarot, was interesting and warrants further study as I’m not very knowledgeable on astrology. This leads me to my final comment that a bibliography and index would have been a welcome addition to the text. Sadly, both were omitted and there appear to be no footnotes in the text either, which makes cross referencing difficult as well as searching for particular keywords within the book.
All in all, if you have an interest in the Golden Dawn teachings regarding Tarot, this book is a must for your bookshelf.
Reviewed by: Emma
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