- Author
- Revised and expanded by GH Fra. P.; introduction signed James A. Eshelman; College of Thelema
- Published
- Fourth revised edition, June 2012
- Kind
- Thelemic teaching manual on the Tarot, in PDF
- Original
- thelema.org/downloads/cot_monograph_eshleman_LiberT.pdf
- Subject
- Occult, myth and religion
What it is
This is the fourth revised edition, published by the College of Thelema. The reviser adds esoteric meanings and meditation advice to the older text. The aim is to teach the cards as a symbol system. Memorising fortune-telling meanings is not the aim.
What it says
- The book revises Book T, a Golden Dawn text written primarily or wholly by Mathers.
- The introduction says Crowley later realised the Golden Dawn swapped Heh and Tzaddi.
- The 22 Trumps correspond to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
- Each numbered card combines a sephirah and element with a decanate and planet.
- The book calls its printed card meanings a veil over a deeper language.
- Chapter 4 teaches two methods: The Opening of the Key and a nine-card spread.
- The book says divination is foremost a communion with the divine.
What evidence it gives
The text offers correspondence tables, card entries, procedures and footnotes citing Crowley, Waite and Case. The introduction says the esoteric history cannot be verified, yet cites an initiated oral tradition. It reports no test of whether the divination works.
Interests and limits
The publisher is a religious corporation. The book is an official instruction for its order. Read the introduction, contents and divination chapter; card entries and appendices were not read. Its claims about hidden history and magical effect rest on tradition and are untested.