tarot
Golden Dawn Magical
Esoteric Golden Dawn system deck commissioned by Israel Regardie with rich symbolism.
by Chic Cicero, Sandra Cicero · 2001
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The Canon's read
Tarot Canon's own assessment, written for this catalog.
The commission line tells the story: Israel Regardie, the man who published the Golden Dawn's secret papers and kept the order's system alive, commissioned this deck, and Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, his successors in the tradition, completed it. That provenance makes the Golden Dawn Magical Tarot something rarer than an esoteric-styled deck: it is the order's own working tarot, symbolism assembled from inside the tradition for actual magical use, the same lineage that produced this catalog's Babylonian Tarot (Sandra's) and the Golden Dawn Temple meditation set.
The archive's reviewer, a lover of esoteric density, found it a joy, and that is the honest audience test: every card is a correspondence diagram wearing a picture. It suits practicing ceremonialists, students of Regardie's published system who want the matching instrument, and collectors of decks with institutional lineage. Readers who want their symbolism ornamental rather than operational will find this deck working harder than they are.
From the archive
An excerpt from a review at the Aeclectic Tarot archive, in the original reviewer's voice.
I truly have grown fond of Tarot decks with a great deal of esoteric imagery, so it was a joy to review this deck. I was fascinated to learn that it had first been comissioned by Isreal Regardie for work...
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