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To: alt.magick,alt.tarot From: Jess KarlinSubject: Re: Waite's translation of Levi, Transcendental Magic Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 11:40:05 +0000 George Leake wrote: > Waite seems to make some thinly veiled references to Crowley. Like what for example? > Levi really didn't do his research very well. Are you sure he simply did not have a different idea than you of what was meant by 'research'? Things have changed on that point in 150 years you know. > The fact that Crowley idolized Levi, Crowley did not idolize Levi. He simply thought he had been Levi in his immediately former life. Crowley was known to criticize 'himself'. I think, to properly illustrate this relationship it's helpful to look at a couple of things from 'Key to the Mysteries' For example, this is Bill Heidrick's note about the importance of this text--- "THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES< and that Levi doesn't seem to > understand some things very well, in part explains why Crowley ignores > certain magical works. No, rather that Levi and others had well-defined opinions about their magical forebears--- Refer to page 11 of the introduction to Transcendental Magic for Levi's view of Agrippa (and read the note at the bottom of the page). Clearly, he thought Agrippa an interesting but in no way a profound magician. > In particular it is odd, isn't it, that Crowley > does not recommend Agrippa, and Levi's characterizations of that work. Crowley and Levi do, in a way, recommend Agrippa's works, since they reference them---for example, Crowley talking about a magical figure used in the creation of a ritual circle--- "The Sigil of the Spirit (which is to be found in Cornelius Agrippa and other books) you would draw in the four colours with such other devices as your experience may suggest." > Could it be that Levi/Crowley's point of view is based on the degree to > which people focus on the kabbalah? What people? View about what? > And what about the tarot? Both men seem to take it for granted that the > tarot has its roots in Egypt. Crowley on the 'origin' of Tarot, from Book of Thoth--- "The origin of this pack of cards is very obscure. Some authorities seek to put it back as far as the ancient Egytpian Mysteries; others try to bring it forward as late as the fifteenth or even the sixteenth centuries. But the tarot certainly existed, in what may be called the classical form, as early as the fourteenth century; for packs of the date are extant, and the form has not varied in any notable respect since that time." "In the Middle Ages, these cards were much used for fortune-telling, especially by gypsies, so that it was customary to speak of the "Tarot of the Bohemians" or the "Egyptians". When it was found that the gypsies, despite the etymology, were of Asiatic origin, some people tried to find its source in Indian art and literature. He concludes all his speculations by saying--- "The only theory of ultimate interest about the Tarot is that it is an admirable symbolic picture of the universe, based on the data of the Holy Qabalah." So--- 1. Crowley was not a great tarot historian, but few people have been. 2. His conclusions about the origins of tarot settle on the idea that the answer is ultimately mysterious and probably unknowable but that this fact is irrelevant to the purpose for which tarot has now been assigned (or for which it has finally been revealed to be the sacred instrument). I do not agree with him that the only theory about tarot of interest is kabbalistic. I do tend to agree that one can bury themselves in concerns over the origins of tarot at the expense of focusing on any modern exploration of 'what it's good for'. (jk)
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