And yes, there were quite a few of these groups ... but I am going to gloss coat over the one that is still the most talked about when you sit around and casually discuss the Tarot with others. *smile*

In 1888, the Golden Dawn was formed by Westcott and MacKenzie with the guidance as well as input of Frau Sprengel, and soon afterwards Samuel Liddell Mathers-MacGregor became a leader of it. He had written a short tract on the practice of divination with the Tarot, and was contacted by the original founders of the group ... but he would also ultimately become not only the major driving force and chief theorist (he wrote much of the societies ritual material as well as many of the "Knowledge Papers") -- but also more than a little unwise (which will be touched upon later). Under his leadership, the Golden Dawn created and implemented a modern magickal system which which networked and brought together many different systems : Qaballah, tarot, alchemy, astrology, numerology, along with visionary experiences and ritual magick practices. The Golden Dawn was a very serious group about its purposes and the members worked their way through a series of increasingly difficult mysterious initiations by studying magickal lore, taking part in rituals, seeking spiritual visions, keeping elaborate journals, and meditating on the Tarot images.

The Golden Dawn was a group conceived to "break molds" of secret societies in basic inner structure among the members. The inner and outer groups were composed of several degrees; and members proceeded to the different levels by passing examinations and participating in initiation ceremonies. At first the Golden Dawn got off to a flourishing start ... and turned out to be a very group that was at first dreamt about.

In the Golden Dawn system, the Tarot was given complete esoteric context - which had never been given before. Mathers had created a network drawn from a variety of traditions - but more important to note was that the members employed them in creative ways. Each member had to copy his/her (it is said that nearly 300 members were women - which was the original intent of Westcott versus the other "secret societies" like the Masons and the Soc Ros that were male dominated) deck from a Master Copy, and there were precise instructions on how this was to have been done. - the result was a variety of highly personalized decks. The trumps (also referred to as Keys by the members of this group) were used as "gateways" thru the imagination into the supposed immaterial realms of being.

The various cards were also assigned to different levels or "grades" in the order and were used in initiations and rituals (i.e . 4th level the Tarot Key was The Moon .. symbolic element was then water, the initiary rite required the members to mask themselves in garb associated to the card - such as the Goddess Isis - and to incant on the meanings of the Tarot Moon card. This may sound rather silly from our point of view, but this kind of activity represented in its time the attempts of some very creative folks actually trying to ENTER INTO the world of the symbolic imagination. Recall in the early 19th century... and on to thru the 20th century... early technology and "modernization" appear to be draining all the mystery and spiritual worth out of cultural life, many people were looking for some way then of restoring connections between the material and immaterial worlds -- not *just* thru abstract knowledge, but thru ACTION as well. There were experimentations in many areas - the art critics were taken aback by the introduction of cubism and violence erupted among the audience at the premiere of Stravinsky's "Rites of Spring" -- occultism is neither more or less "crazy" than these other forms in experimentation.

But as all thought to be radical forms of activities - painting or poetry as well as mysticism and divination - can be regarded to be personally "dangerous", in a sense that they can as often as not capable of leading to chaotic relationships, emotional imbalances, and other excesses. These negative results of creative experimentation were very evident among some of the members of the Golden Dawn .. to many of the adepts, the stronger passionate desire to break thru into new imaginative realms seemed to overrule the basic common sense practices.

For the first decade or so, an uneasy truce reigned among the diverse personalities of the Golden Dawn - but like many secret societies, was full of intrigue and debates over matters of interpretation and emphasis. By 1900, several strong factions had developed and relations were strained to the breaking point. Then Mathers-MacGregor himself started a major upheaval within the group by stating that Westcott (who, by the way, was the original founder of the society) had forged the page in a manuscript he had used to base the formation of the group upon.

To make matters more complicated, while Yeats (the famous poet who used Tarot imagery and symbology in many of his works, yet revealed none of the secrets of the Golden Dawn within them) was trying to oust Mathers - MacGregor, the latter had sent a "mad persona" to take possession of the rooms and the papers belonging to the society. While this "mad person" later became one of the most well-known and dynamic alumni of the group and had been personally initiated from the "outer order" to the "inner order" by Mathers - MacGregor himself, the Yeats faction refused to acknowledge this stating : "We did not think a mystical society was intended to be a reformatory". The young protege of Mathers - MacGregor garbed himself in highland regalia with a black facial mask, young Aleister Crowley attempted to take physical possession of the order's papers and paraphernalia and had to be forcibly ejected by a constable - thus supporting Yeats agree-ers' feelings towards both men even more. In any event, the episode involving Crowley finally marked the splintering of the Golden Dawn and, ironically, began a period of productivity surrounding the Tarot. The Golden Dawn spun off to spawn several esoteric groups - and each fragmented order developed its own "revised" and "perfected" Tarot deck complete with its own book of interpretation, following in the footsteps in one of many traditions set forth by the Golden Dawn.

Click here for the final chapter about the "history" of the Tarot.

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Last Updated on October, 1997
© Carol aka Secretive