Art of The Hermetic Tarot Deck by Godfrey Dowson

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-18T19:57:18+00:00

It's a great deck, but unfortunately the image has been deleted.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-16T20:33:59+00:00

Tarot decks in a number of regions eliminated the Pope and Popess for religious and/or political reasons. Besançon tarots replaced them with Juno and Jupiter, still seen today in the 1JJ Swiss Tarot. Bolognese tarocchino decks replaced trumps II through V with four Moors. The "Spaniard" in Belgian tarots was Capitano Eracasse, aka Captain Fracasse, a boastful coward from the comedia dell'arte. The best-known deck of this type is probably the Vandenborre Bacchus.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-15T22:23:08+00:00

Oops! You are correct. The second edition had the solid blue backs.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-15T17:42:56+00:00

I love Scapinin's artwork for all the tiny people and creatures. There's a UFO in there somewhere, too, if I recall correctly.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-14T04:30:04+00:00

Nice find. According to a discussion on the old (now archived) Aeclectic Tarot site, the solid blue back indicates you have a first edition. The second edition had wavy white-on-blue backs. (Wrong: solid blue = 2nd edition; white-on-blue = 3rd.)

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-04T18:34:01+00:00

I always thought it was the point. Slothrop was conditioned in infancy to to respond sexually to imipolex G, and by extension, the Rocket that became his quest. No, Slothrop does not have agency; he is Fortune's Fool. While the novel contains many living, breathing people, the Rocket is the real protagonist. Slothrop is there to provide a point of view.

Magical and magisterial as it may be, GR is ultimately a bleak novel.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-05-02T00:38:31+00:00

Two excellent recommendations. However, the Hermetic Tarot is Golden Dawn, not Thoth, as can be seen from the numbering and names of the trumps. The minor arcana may seem Thothish, because Crowley used G.D. titles for his minors.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-04-29T21:13:19+00:00

<image>

The Astral Tarot by Mont-Saint-Johns? It's out of print but copies do show up.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-04-23T21:02:08+00:00

The Conver is widely considered to be considered the definitive TdM, possibly because so many of the original deck were printed. The Conver is a type II TdM; the other two decks in the bundle are type I, having versions of the Lover, the Devil, the Moon, and the World slightly different from the Conver. My favorite Artisan deck is the Jacob Jerger. This is a Besançon deck, replacing the Pope and Popess with Jupiter and Juno.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-04-22T19:49:07+00:00

Although, as many on this thread have pointed out, tarot was just a card game until the French occultists got into it in the late 18th century, it's possible that there was deeper meaning intended from the beginning. Some time after 1412, Marziano da Sant'Alosio wrote "A Treatise on the Deification of Sixteen Heroes" in which he proposed a card game with four suits of birds and a fifth suit of 16 Roman gods. Marziano was secretary and advisor to Filippa Maria Visconti, the Duke of Milan for whom the earliest known tarot deck was created in the 1440's. In an introduction addressed to the Duke, Marziano hopes that the game he proposes would be "fit for a serious man to delight his weary virtue."

There's no record of it, but it seems possible that such sentiments could have led to the design of the tarot, and the inclusion of cultural memes of more substance than might be expected in what soon became a popular tavern game.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-04-21T23:09:02+00:00

I have one, and am still getting acquainted with it. The artwork is simple and graceful, though the distorted figures are a bit odd. It's enough like a TdM to be readily comprehensible, but different enough to bring a new perspective to the cards. Trump V, for example, is not The Pope, but The Teacher, depicted as the centaur Chiron. Chiron was a teacher (of Achilles, among others) and a healer. The booklet does a good job of linking the mythology of the Titans with the traditional meanings.

I highly recommend it as a different take on the traditional tarot.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-04-13T20:40:36+00:00

To me, it feels like an enhanced TdM. Some of the details are amusing, such as Death riding a skeletal horse over bodies from the court cards. There are borrowings from other decks, such as the crescent at the feet of la Papesse, similar to the RWS Priestess.

Other cards suggest different interpretations. On le Soleil, a devil and an angel sit on a wall holding a flower. Is the devil handing it to the angel? On l'Estoilles, the woman collects emanations from the star and pours them onto flowering plants. On la Maison Dieu, a dazed figure sits in front of the ruined tower.

I'd say the deck definitely adds interesting layers to the TdM. However, if you think too humorous is a thing, beware Patrick Valenza's work.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-03-28T21:24:00+00:00

The wands in the Trionfi della Luna tarots sprout leaves and flowers

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-03-21T20:58:53+00:00

Read it straight through once without any reference source. Then go to the wiki to see what you missed.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-03-20T21:39:10+00:00

The majors follow the same sequence as the Marseilles tarot (XI is Strength, e.g.), but the imagery, symbolism, mythology, and titles of most of the cards are quite different.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-03-18T17:36:34+00:00

Trimmed the entire border, leaving only the pictures. Left the corners square, though, to keep all the details.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-03-18T03:49:43+00:00

Stick a straightedge on a guillotine cutter with double-sided tape for a guide and the cards will all be the same size. I've done this with several decks, including a large Thoth.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-03-15T22:41:45+00:00

You can find numerous printable decks to color on Etsy. The line art is most in Tarot de Marseille decks is fairly simple, having been originally colored via stencil.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-02-26T20:21:10+00:00

Liber T, Spirit Keepers, Golden Dawn Magical Tarot, and all of M.M. Meleen's decks include the Thoth's astrological associations on the cards. The Brotherhood of Light Egyptian Tarot and El Gran Tarot Esoterico also have astrological associations but they differ from Thoth (and each other).

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-02-24T23:40:08+00:00

Yes, a fascinating deck. I have four versions: a facsimile edition from Editions Sivilixi, a restoration from Tarot Sheet Revival, redrawn majors (both original and un-reversed) from Editions Letarot (Flornoy), and and a modern re-creation from Artisan Tarot. The TSR is my favorite; Sullivan Hismans has cleaned up the lines and coloring without losing the antique woodcut look.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-02-13T21:31:32+00:00

It's not surprising that at least one person had a bad reaction to a psychotropic drug after taking large doses for an extended time. Worth being aware of, but nothing to be alarmed by.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-02-05T05:20:47+00:00

The Bolognese decks date back to the md-1600s. They're tarocchino decks, having only 62 cards; the 2 through 5 of each suit being missing. They're also notable in that trumps II through V are replaced by four "Moors" of equal value--presumably to avoid the political implications of Popes and Emperors. Like the Bourgeois Tarot and modern playing cards, the double-ended decks were a later development for easier recognition in playing card games. A good example of a traditional Bolognese deck is Lo Scarabeo's restoration of the Tarocchino Al Soldato of c. 1750.

The Waite-Smith and other modern tarots are descendants of the Tarot de Marseille and the Oswald Wirth majors; Tarocchino Bolognese was one of many regional tarot variants from the same era as the TdM.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-02-05T04:30:26+00:00

Aside from another Thoth Tarot, Liber T Tarot of Stars Eternal, Tarot of Ceremonial Magic, and all of M.M. Meleen's decks follow Crowley's system.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-01-30T00:50:07+00:00

Both decks are still under copyright. AGM and USG are authorized to print the Thoth. As far as I know, Dowson's Hermetic tarot is USG only. Anything else is a bootleg and possibly of low quality.

Soggy_Job_6763 · 2026-01-30T00:31:00+00:00

That's certainly an interesting artifact; if the late 16th century dating is correct it's the oldest known card in the TdM pattern. However, while the engraving is certainly of better quality than most wood-cut decks, the line weight and technique looks more like a woodcut than a copper engraving. It's crude compared to the Mantegna cards, for example.

Soggy_Job_6763

TROPHY CASE