Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmites—new evidence

Gertrude Moakley (The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo, 1966) introduced the Tarot world to a possible original source of the Papess card. Maifreda (or Manfreda) Visconti da Pirovano was to be declared Pope in Milan on Easter 1300 in a new age of the Holy Spirit. Instead, Maifreda and others in the sect were, that year, burned at the stake, along with the disinterred body of Guglielma.

Maifreda was an Abbess in the Umiliati Order and first cousin to Matteo Visconti, the Ghibelline (anti-pope) ruler of Milan. Maifreda believed the Holy Spirit had manifested on earth in the form of Guglielma (d. 1281), a middle-aged woman with a grown son who claimed to be a daughter of Premysl Otakar, King of Bohemia, and, who on arriving in Milan in 1260, donned a “simple brown habit” and lived the life of a saint. To the Guglielmites, her arrival fulfilled a prophecy of St. Joachim de Fiore that a new age of the Holy Spirit would begin in 1260, “heralding the inauguration of an ecclesia spiritualis in which grace, spiritual knowledge and contemplative gifts would be diffused to all.” Although she vehemently denied it, “rumors of divinity already swirled around Guglielma during her lifetime.” And, “Her words about ‘the body of the Holy Spirit,’ together with her mysterious royal origins, Pentecostal birth, imputed healings and stigmata, coalesced to create a more-than-human mystique in the minds of her friends.” Immediately after her death dozens of portraits were painted and chapels were dedicated to Santa Guglielma. (Visconti-Sforza card on the right – her cross at top left is hard to see.)

Barbara Newman (aka Mona Alice Jean Newman) presented the most complete account in English of the Guglielmites in her From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature, but it is in her more recent paper, “The Heretic Saint: Guglielma of Bohemia, Milan and Brunate,” that we learn important details that make an attribution to Maifreda as Papess much stronger than previously thought (all quotes not otherwise attributed are from this article).

Many tarot scholars since Moakley have doubted Maifreda as source, nor do they give much credence to an older assumption that the card depicted Pope Joan (see article by Ross Caldwell). Instead, modern thinking proposes that it was always an allegorical image of Fides (Faith—see Giotto image to right), Sapientia (Wisdom), Ecclesia (Holy Mother Church) or the Papacy itself. Alternately, she could be Isis (see below with Hermes Trismegistus & Moses by Pinturicchio in the Vatican), the Blessed Virgin Mary or a priestess of Venus (below) —see especially Bob O’Neill’s “Iconology of the Early Papess Cards” and Andrea Vitali’s essay on “The High Priestess.” Even Paul Huson in Mystical Origins of the Tarot finds it difficult to believe the Visconti family would memorialize a family member burned at the stake as a heretic.

Certainly “Faith” and “Holy Mother Church” may be referenced in the Tarot image, but they were probably of a more heretical sort than the orthodox church has ever sanctioned. Andrea Vitali recounts a summary of the trial of Guglielma and her followers in which we find:

“As Christ was true God and true Man, in the same manner, she [Guglielma] claimed herself to be true God and true Man in the female sex, come to save the Jews, the Saracens and the false Christians, in the same way as the true Christians are saved by means of Christ.” [Tying her story in with the final cards of Judgment and the World, we find,] “She too claimed she would arise again with a human body in the female sex before the final resurrection, in order to rise to heaven before the eyes of her disciples, friends and devotees.”

O’Neill objects that “beyond the deck specifically produced for the Visconti about 1450, the local Milanese phenomenon of Guglielmites is unlikely to be the source for the image on earlier decks, for example, the 1442 deck mentioned in an inventory of the Este estate in Ferrara.” But, as Newman has shown in her recent paper, Guglielma’s story and veneration had been popularized in Ferrara by 1425 through a hagiography (saint’s life) by Antonio Bonfadini and in Florence through a popular late-15^th century religious play by Antonia Pulci—although they told a garbled version of her history. (15th century deck on the right is known as the Fournier/Lombardy II.)

Matteo Visconti’s son, Galeazzo,  married the sister of the Duke of Ferrara in 1300, and they lived there from 1302-1310, so Ferrara had its own early connection to this saint. Matteo himself, advised by his good friend, Francesco da Garbagnate—an ardent devotee of Guglielma—was at the center of a long battle with the Papacy, having expelled their inquisitors in 1311, and being himself excommunicated in 1317, tried for sorcery and heresy in 1321, and having Milan placed under interdict in 1322. Matteo’s grandmother and uncle (archbishop of Milan) had earlier been named heretics. (Pope/Papess? card, left, is from the “Cary Sheet” found at the Sforza Castle, Milan.)

From Newman’s article, we learn that Maifreda’s convent was in Biassono, but she fails to note that Biassono is only five miles from the small town of Concorezzo that in 1299 was home to 1,500 Cathars! It seems after the Albigensian crusade many small towns around Milan became refugee outposts of this faith, of which Concorezzo was the center, and may have inspired the order of nuns who called themselves the “humble” (umiliati).

The most compelling bit of data making the attribution of the Papess card almost certain is that between 1440 and 1460 Bianca Maria Visconti, wife of Francesco Sforza and duchess of Milan, frequently visited Maddalena Albrizzi, Abbess of monasteries in Como and Brunate, and gave aid and gifts to the Order. (Brunate is just north of Milan with Biassono between them). Even the stones for the Como monastery were donated by Francesco Sforza. The Visconti-Sforza deck (first picture in post) was probably commissioned by or for Bianca Maria. Around 1450 (the same period as the deck) a cycle of frescos were painted in the Church of San Andrea at Brunate that recorded the story of Guglielma:

“How she left the house of her husband, came to Brunate, and lived a solitary life here, wearing a hairshirt and ordinary dress . . . in the company of a crucifix and an image of Our Lady.”

Only one of these frescos, ornately framed, remains today near the original chapel that had been dedicated to Saint Guglielma (see above). It depicts Guglielma with two figures kneeling before her. She appears to be giving a special blessing to a nun. Newman identifies the two as Maifreda and Andrea Saramita (he was the main promulgator of her sainthood). Others claim them as Maddalena Albrizzi (a candidate for sainthood) and her cousin Pietro Albrici who renovated the church. Even as late as the nineteenth century, Sir Richard Burton, author of The Arabian Nights, noted that “Santa Guglielma, worshipped at Brunate, works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head.”

It seems reasonable to conclude that Bianca Maria Visconti may have had a special devotion to the woman whom, 150 years after being condemned by the Inquisition, so many Lombards venerated as a saint, and that she honored an earlier family member, Maifreda, who served as Guglielma’s Vicar—hiding her in plain sight as an allegory of Faith.

Let’s ask the question about the source in a slightly different way: Would it have been possible for Bianca Maria Visconti to have not seen this card as Maifreda? Likewise, would it have been possible for a church reformer of the time, familiar with Maifreda and Pope Joan, to have not seen this card as an allegory of Heresy instead of Faith? For instance, a monk wrote in Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis (c. 1450-1480) about La Papessa, “O wretched, in that she denies the Christian Faith.”

Acknowledgements: Huck Meyer pointed out this picture and Newman’s article at Aeclectic’s tarotforum last year – see discussion. I was then reminded of this material through reading Helen Farley’s fascinating book, A Cultural History of Tarot: From Entertainment to Esotericism.

2010 Readers Studio

I will be one of the three featured speakers, along with Robert Place and Elinor Greenberg, at the 2010 Readers Studio in New York. The website is now updated with all the information about this fabulous event. Hosted by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone from The Tarot School, Readers Studio is a unique event, geared to those who want practical techniques that will improve their reading skills. As a result, the 200+ attendees experience a community of tarot enthusiasts who share ideas, resources and connections. For instance, just the “give-away” table alone has hundreds of gems to swap, to say nothing of the seemingly “never-ending” raffle. The vendors tables offer books and decks that would be hard to find elsewhere and give you the opportunity to meet a deck artist or book author in person. Publishers send representatives to scout new book and deck possibilities and to give away freebies. Besides the main speakers you can choose among a variety of shorter evening lectures, the breakfast roundtables or get a reading from one of the luminaries. Several of the online tarot forums have found it a great place to meet other members. Come one, come all to a great event.

Tarot Jigsaw Puzzles

Like games? Check out these fun Tarot Jigsaw Puzzles based on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Each puzzle consists of two cards back-to-back so you will have to flip some pieces over. This is a great way to examine the card’s symbolism and its placement of elements far more closely than you would have otherwise.

Check out the other games including Solitaire with the Rider-Waite Minor Arcana (tough because there are no colors to go by).

If You Want Tomorrow To Be Different

Here’s an intriguing quote from G.I. Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous (1949), p. 100-101.

“In order to know the future it is necessary first to know the present in all its details, as well as to know the past. Today is what it is because yesterday was what it was. And if today is like yesterday, tomorrow will be like today. If you want tomorrow to be different you must make today different. If today is simply a consequence of yesterday, tomorrow will be a consequence of today in exactly the same way. . . .

“If a man wants to know his own future he must first of all know himself. . . . Knowing the future is worth while only when a man can be his own master. . . . In order to study the future one must learn to notice and to remember the moments when we really know the future and when we act in accordance with this knowledge.”

Any thoughts on this? It’s worth reading the whole section in Gurdjieff’s book (link to text above). How might these thoughts relate to our reading tarot?

For Shame – 30 Senators vote against anti-rape law

There are thousands of good causes and I don’t want to make this a forum that addresses them. However, in the spirit of the Hanged Man in its original intention of a shame portrait, I want the 30 senators who voted against the anti-rape law to explain why they did so, and I’m willing to hang them in effigy until they produce some good reasons. The bags in the hands of the Hanged Man in the Charles VI Tarot (see right) are there as the mark of Judas and indicate the selling out of trust, honor and goodness. Who is hurt in this case? Hundreds or even thousands of women who work for American companies overseas. Their contracts prohibit them from  suing or speaking out. Instead, they are forced into secret arbitration and most of the perpetrators are never punished. More insidiously rape becomes a practice that “should be expected.” Company arbitration has not been effective at deterring rape among overseas workers. Laws have to be enforced and the consequences severe enough to protect the women. The companies have proved themselves unwilling to do this. This is explained in the video of Rachel Maddow interviewing Jamie Leigh Jones and her attorney—here. You’ll find Jon Stewart’s commentary here, in which he points out that the Republican’ claim that it’s “political,” and that government should have no say regarding the company contracts of those hired by the government, is directly opposite to Republican arguments regarding other companies. By the way, the link to “Republicans for Rape” that pictures and names the 30 senators—with their phone numbers—is a spoof site, designed to show just how outrageous this situation actually is and to make it easy for you to contact the senators and tell them what you think.

Limited Edition Gaian Tarot

Joanna Powell Colbert’s full 78-card Gaian Tarot is now available in a limited edition in your choice of two sizes.  Both the deck and accompanying book are signed. In addition to a 20% discount, there are lots of extra goodies included if you order before Nov. 3rd. This deck has taken nine years to produce and it’s an amazing accomplishment. Llewellyn will be coming out with a commercial version in September 2011 (if you can wait that long), but Joanna’s limited edition will definitely be a collector’s item and the colors will probably be more vivid. See the cards here.

I asked Joanna some questions about her deck a couple of months ago. Here are her responses:

Mary: Is there a particular kind of question or issue that your deck is ideally suited to respond to?

Joanna: It’s designed for people who want to go into the depths of the issue at hand, and is not really a deck for superficial questions.  It’s for people who are walking a spiritual path, especially those who find sustenance through their connection with the natural world.  I’ve been told by readers who use the Majors-only deck with their clients that it cuts right to the heart of the matter at hand.  Because people recognize themselves in the figures on the cards, they also find inspiration in them and can envision solutions to their problems.

It also seems to lend itself quite well to Rachel Pollack’s “Wisdom Readings,” in which we ask about the larger issues of life.  Two readers that I know, James Wells and Carolyn Cushing, have developed Wisdom Questions for this deck that focus on what we can all do to heal the Earth in this time of global climate crisis.

Mary: If your deck could speak what would be its core message to the rest of us?

Joanna: To quote a familiar chant:

“The Earth is our Mother, She will take care of us.

The Earth is our Mother, we must take care of Her.”

Then it would ask us a series of questions:

- How can the wisdom of a particular card help you to heal yourself?

- How can the wisdom of a particular card help you to heal your community?

- How can the wisdom of a particular card help you to heal the Earth?

Self, Community, Planet: all are inextricably woven together.  Each one of us has a gift to give, and it’s our responsibility to discover that gift then bring it forth, for the good of the community and the planet.

Mary: Why no cities or city life?

Joanna: I think it’s partly because the cards are a reflection of my own rural island life, and partly because the cards are centered in the wisdom of the natural world.  As I meditated on each card before coming up with the concept for it, I asked myself: “Where is the voice of Nature in this card?”  Then ideas came to me.  I don’t think I consciously chose not to show cities; it was more intuitive than that.

Part of my ulterior motive in creating the deck is to encourage people who experience Nature mostly through metaphor and symbol to get outside and start experiencing Her directly.  If I remember the statistic correctly, most modern Americans spend less than an hour a day outside.  I’d like to encourage people to garden, to hike, to do field sketching, to spend more time with the Mother in whatever way works best for them.  I do believe that spending time in Nature heals us, and in return, we have a responsibility to heal Her.

Four Aces Spread

Most of you have seen or used a spread with four positions based on the four suits of the Minor Arcana. Usually it describes what is going on at four levels: body, mind, emotions and spirit, or some similar quaternity. I sometimes lay out four aces from one deck as position holders and then lay cards from a second shuffled deck on top of each ace. Sometimes a fifth card/position integrates the whole or offers advice.

But, there’s a much more interesting way of using the four aces that also offers far more information.

Four Aces Spread Instructions

• Determine the Spread Intent before you begin (see chart below).

• Shuffle your deck thoroughly, cut, restack and then turn cards over one at a time.

• When you get to the first ace, take the ace and the three cards that follow and place them on the table in a row (left to right). Continue turning over cards until you get to the next ace and the three cards following it. Place them on the table below the first set. Continue with the next two aces until you have four rows of cards on the table.

Exception: if one ace follows another without three cards in between, then the first ace will have less than three cards in its row. The meaning of the short row will depend on what you intuit it to mean in the circumstances. Sometimes it strengthens the card(s) that did turn up. If there are no cards it could indicate that area is not involved in the situation being discussed (consider whether it should be).

Spread Intent: The overall meaning of each row is determined by the ace that leads it. Decide on one of the following sets of meanings (or your own) before you begin:

The Order: The order in which each ace turns up is very important:

1. 1st Ace: The Main Character. The primary focus of your attention and energies right now.
2. 2nd Ace: The Complication. An area you have not been paying as much attention to but can interfere with what’s going on in the first row.
3. 3rd Ace: The Sidekick/Guide. A secondary focus or emphasis. It may help you resolve tensions between 1 and 2, or suggest helpful actions.
4. 4th Ace: The Upstart. Something new or “renewed” that will be assuming more importance, possibly as a result of your interactions in the other three areas.

Begin by considering just the four aces in terms of their order in the spread. For instance,

How are Love/Relationships the primary focus of your energies? How are issues around Money and Security interfering? How might focusing on Work and Creativity help? Will you soon need to think about Problem-solving to overcome a difficulty?

Then, read each row of three cards as a unit that describes what’s going on in that position. Ignore the Ace except as it sets that row’s meaning.

Special Cards: The Fool appearing in any row indicates that things are not like they seem; a trickster element is present. The highest Major Arcana in the spread trumps all. You can triumph best by paying special attention to the qualities and lessons of this card and its position.

Sample Reading

The sample reading I did was quite extraordinary. My intent was a “Life Sphere” reading. The deck is Kat Black’s gorgeous Touchstone Tarot (catch Kat Black’s interview about this deck on Tarot Connection). Notice that an angel designates each ace.

The Aces were, in order: Wands, Coins, Swords, Cups. The order tells me: Work & Creativity is the primary focus. I’m not paying attention to money (darn it!). I have some Problem-solving to do. Love & Relationships are upcoming—maybe (see comments below). Here’s the spread with a very brief commentary:

Row 1: I am feeling challenged and hemmed in (9 of Wands) by decisions I need to make (Queen of Swords) about the work I love (Knight of Cups).

Row 2: No cards! (The Ace of Swords followed immediately after the Ace of Coins.)

Row 3: I can successfully triumph (World) over the most extreme difficulties (10 of Swords) by calmly applying my wisdom and experience (Hermit) and by letting go of something that is not going anywhere (10 of Swords again).

Row 4: No cards! (The Ace of Cups was the last card in the deck.)

Summary: My overall feeling is that, in order to focus on the work that is most fulfilling to me I need to defend my choices of creative work (despite their not bringing in money) and weed out whatever I can from my list of obligations. If it’s a problem that can’t be solved then I shouldn’t continue trying to do so. While relationships are not at the forefront right now, they will eventually become important again. With the Queen of Swords as my standard Significator and the Hermit as my Soul Card, I’ve got two indications that this is more important than it may seem and the whole issue rests on my own decisions and clarity of purpose. The World as the highest Major Arcana suggests that I can triumph by eliminating what is not part of my Hermit path. Now’s not the time to worry about money or love—although I should be aware that what I’m doing is not helping either.

VITRIOL—in the Thoth Issue of Tarosophist International

The Tarosophist International: The Magazine of Tarosophy is a new journal put out by Tarot Professionals. The Special Annual Edition features the Thoth Deck—Issue Four (1:4). It’s available in hardback and consists of 146 fully illustrated pages with articles by Rachel Pollack, Lon Milo DuQuette, Mary K. Greer, Richard Kaczynski, K. Frank Jensen, Marcus Katz. A must-have for anyone (beginner or expert) who wants to know more about the Thoth deck, it features articles such as

• “Aleister Crowley Timeline” (Katz)
• “The Handbooks of Thoth (Katz)—a help in deciding which to purchase
  
• “Teaching the Thoth Deck” (Sunerton-Burl)
  
• “The Printing History of the Deck” (Gillis)—an essential resource for collectors!
  
• “The Deck & Western Esotericism” (Kaczynski)
  
• “The 10 of Disks is Screwed!” (DuQuette)
  
• “Qabalah of the Nine Chambers” (Crowley, with Greer commentary)
  
• “Four Things about the Fool” (Gibb)—illustrated by a fabulous early version of the Fool card
• Frieda Harris’ crayon sketches of the cards for the Thoth exhibition
  

and many more fascinating articles, illustrations and columns. If you join Tarot Professionals you can get the e-book version of all the journals—well worth the price of membership on its own, much less the additional benefits available.

My own offerings include “The Alchemical Cards of the Thoth Deck” in which I explore symbolism in the Lovers and Art (Temperance) cards. Here is a brief excerpt from my article concerning the Latin phrase inscribed on an egg, which first appears on the Lovers card and later forms the container for the work done in Art.

When alchemical mercury, salt and sulphur perfectly combine they form what is called the “universal solvent” Vitriol. V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is an acronym standing for the Latin phrase written along the inside edge of the egg: “Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem,” which translates as “Visit the interior of the earth; by rectification you shall find the hidden stone.” The “hidden stone” is the universal medicine or panacea. In Magick in Theory and Practice, Crowley explains that “the Universal Medicine will be a menstruum of such subtlety as to be able to penetrate all matter and transmute it in the sense of its own tendency, while of such impartial purity as to accept perfectly the impression of the Will of the Alchemist.”

Rectification means both “repeated distillation” but also “the means to finding a straight line that is equal in length to a curved [or crooked] line.” Crowley says, “it implies the right leading of the new living substance in the path of the True Will.” It is apparent that ART, being on the middle pillar, is the straight line to the Divine.

In alchemical psychology V.I.T.R.I.O.L. says we must re-enter the Mother’s body (or egg) from whence we came. That is, we must descend to the deepest cave of the unconscious and the most material world of the next Tarot card, the Devil (the Jungian “Shadow”), in order to put everything we discover about ourselves through the solve et coagula process. In this way we make straight whatever has become crooked within us. The seven letters also represent the seven planets and their metals, which represent those specific energies and emotions within the self that need to be freed from the “dross” so that they can function according to their true nature.

Source of The Kybalion in Anna Kingsford’s Hermetic System

Behind the occult tarot and especially the tarot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) lies a philosophical system called Hermeticism. This religious philosophy derives from a series of anonymous writers who used the nom de plume Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice-Blessed), a composite of the Greek Hermes, Roman Mercury, and their Egyptian counterpart, Thoth. In the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries C.E., the set of writings known as the Corpus Hermeticum brought about a brief renaissance of pagan thought. Most are in the form of dialogs between Hermes Trismegistus or Tot (Thoth) and a student seeking Wisdom. In the mid-15^th century, Hermetic writings were brought to Italy where they became influential in the Renaissance schools of the de Medicis. Translated from the Greek by Marsilio Ficino, they were important to both him and Pico della Mirandola and later Giordano Bruno, among others. Modern translators and explicators of Hermetic works have included G.R.S. Mead, Walter Scott, Carl Jung and Frances Yates. Some of the original writings were found among the Nag Hammadi library. The picture on the right is of Hermes Trismegistus on the floor of the Cathedral in Siena, Italy. He greets the faithful as they enter.

Generally speaking, Hermeticism involves an intuitive, rather than rational, search for personal knowledge of the soul and of God (a One God who might, nevertheless be known polytheistically). It counsels experiential processes resulting in the removal of earthly and cosmic restrictions to reach an essential unity with the Divine in an ecstatic knowing or gnosis. In fact, Hermeticism and Gnosticism are related philosophies in which the former is considered essentially optimistic in nature, while the latter tends toward pessimism. Among the most famous Hermetic writings is the alchemical work, The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, with its core idea, “As Above, So Below.”

While Hermeticism has had its influence on mystical Christianity, it is more of a philosophy than a religion. Its most direct effect has been on Western occultism including alchemy, ceremonial magic, astrology and tarot and on groups such as the Theosophists, Rosicrucians and Freemasons. It forms a major part of the base of a philosophical system known variously as the

• Secret Doctrine or Tradition
• Ageless Wisdom Tradition
• Perennial Philosophy
• Secret Teachings of All Ages
• Ancient Mysteries or Mystery Schools
• Western Esoteric Tradition
• Occult Metaphysics
• Underground Stream, and, more recently,
  
• is referenced in the Human Potential and New Age movements.

The Kybalion

A book called The Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece by Three Initiates was published in 1912. It presented seven fundamental working principles of Hermeticism. One of its authors (or the sole author) is most certainly the New Thought writer, William Walker Atkinson (see also my blog article), whose many books and magazines under various pseudonyms were published by several publishing houses having the same address. Atkinson was known to have worked with both Paul Foster Case and L.W. de Laurence (who plagarized A. E. Waite’s The Pictorial Key to the Tarot). Atkinson regularly quoted both Waite and the magician Eliphas Lévi in his more occult books. An earlier series of anonymous books, undoubtedly by Atkinson, called The Arcane Teachings (1909) contained some of the same material found in The Kybalion. In its latest incarnation The Kybalion was re-interpreted for a new age by Doreen Virtue, in Divine Magic: The Seven Sacred Secrets of Manifestation (A New Interpretation of the Classic Hermetic Manual The Kybalion) (2006).

No one seems to know the origin of the “Seven Hermetic Principles” (most assume it was with Atkinson), but I have found a major source (perhaps the source) in an introduction to a translation of Hermetic writings by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland called The Virgin of the World of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus (1885).

Anna Kingsford & Edward Maitland

Anna Bonus Kingsford (1846-1888) was one of England’s first women physicians (she got her M.D. degree in Paris as women could not attend medical school in England). Married to an Anglican minister, Kingsford converted to Roman Catholicism and lived separately from her husband and daughter. She promoted women’s rights, vegetarianism and anti-vivisection in magazine articles and books and, with her spiritual partner Edward Maitland, wrote on mystical Christianity and Hermeticism in The Perfect Way, Clothed with the Sun and The Virgin of the World. As first president of The Theosophical Society’s London Lodge Kingsford found she preferred the Western Tradition to Oriental teachings and adherence to a belief in the Mahatmas. So, Kingsford left the Theosophical Society to form her own Hermetic Society—“for the study of mystical philosophy.” Founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, William Wynn Westcott and S.L. MacGregor Mathers, regularly attended and spoke at Hermetic Society meetings. In fact, Anna Kingsford, who died the year the Order was founded, was behind many of the ideals of the Golden Dawn, inspiring the term “Hermetic” in its name and advancing the notion that men and women should work together as equals toward their metaphysical goal. And, when the Golden Dawn created its own tarot deck using the unusual imagery of Perseus and Andromeda for The Lovers card, it came directly from a mystical interpretation of the myth in Kingsford’s book The Perfect Way. (See also Alan Pert’s excellent biography of Kingsford.)

As a young man, Edward Maitland (1824-1897) followed the gold strikes from California to Alaska to Australia, returning to England in 1857 to become a humanitarian writer and novelist. He eventually met Anna Kingsford, twenty-two years his junior, and became her spiritual partner in the mystical journey, co-authoring many books with her and writing her biography after her all-too-early death. Maitland recounts how, sometimes, when they were simultaneously under divine inspiration Kingsford’s writing would suddenly end exactly at a point where Maitland’s own, supposedly separate, text would begin—as if it were one continuous piece.

In this short introductory essay to The Virgin of the World (1885), called “The Hermetic System and the Significance of its Present Revival” we find nearly the same seven (unnumbered) laws, doctrines or principles that are found in The Kybalion.

The Seven Laws or Principles of Hermetic Philosophy

Here are the seven laws or principles as given in “The Hermetic System” introduction to The Virgin of the World. Not all are named “Law of . . . ” in the text, although most are. I have included some succinct explanations from the text, with some additional information from later in the book.

• The Law of Unity of Spirit/Mind. “However various the manifestation of the universal consciousness, or being, whether as regards its different planes, or its different modes on the same plane, they all are according to one and the same law, which, by its uniformity, demonstrates the unity of the informing spirit, or mind, which subsists eternally and independently of any manifestation. For: “The Essence of all is One.” . . . [It is] not made or generated; but is unapparent and unmanifest. . . . It is not life, mind, substance, but the cause of these. [Kybalion: The Principle of Mentalism]

• The Law of Correspondence. From the oneness of original Being comes, as a corollary, the law of correspondence between all planes, or spheres, of existence, in virtue of which the macrocosm is as the microcosm, the universal as the individual, the world as man, and man as God. . . . An earthly man, is a mortal God, and the heavenly God is immortal man.” [Kybalion: The Principle of Correspondence]

The Virgin Revealing Herself

• The Law of Duality. It consists of principles inherently antagonistic; and also those which arise out of the kindred conception of non-consciousness as having a positive existence. . . . Total unconsciousness is thus not-being; and bears to consciousness the relation of darkness to light, the latter alone of the two being, however reduced, positive entity and darkness being non-entity. [Kybalion: The Principle of Polarity]

• The inexorable Law of Cause and Effect in things moral, in virtue of which man’s nature and conditions in the future are the result of the tendencies voluntarily encouraged by him in the past and present. [Kybalion: The Principle of Cause and Effect]

• The Law of Gravitation [or Affinity] pervades all planes, the spiritual as well as the physical; and it is according to his spiritual density that the plane of the individual is determined. . . . [The Soul] following the universal law of affinity, straightway gravitates to its proper level, sinking to its similars, and drawn to its analogues. [Kybalion: The Principle of Vibration]

• The Law of Gender/Generation. The relation of the sexes [symbolizes] the loftiest divine mysteries, and enjoins their exercise as a duty, the fulfillment of which, in some at least of his incarnations, is essential to the full perfectionment and initiation of the individual. The Hermetic system [is superior to pseudo-mystical systems] in its equal recognition of the sexes. . . . This law of generation is contained in Nature, in intellect, in the universe, and preserves all that is brought forth. The two sexes are full of procreation, and their union, or rather their incomprehensible at-one-ment, may be known as Eros, or as Aphrodite, or by both names at once. [Kybalion: The Principle of Gender]

Later in the book (not in the Introduction) we find the following:

• The Law of Eternal Movement in Equilibrium [& Recurring Seasons]. He has once for all bestowed life on all living creatures by an immutable law which I will expound to thee. The movement of the universe is the life of eternity; the sphere of this motion is the eternity of life. The universe will never cease from movement, nor will it ever become corrupt. . . . The effect of its motion is double; it is vivified by the eternity which encompasses it, and, in its turn, it vivifies all that it contains, diversifying everything according to certain fixed and determined numbers and seasons. All things are ordained in time by the action of the sun and the stars, according to a Divine law. Terrestrial periods are distinguished by the condition of the atmosphere, by the alternatives of heat and cold; celestial periods by the revolutions of the constellations, which return at fixed intervals of time to the same places in the heavens. The universe is the stage of time, the course and movement of which maintain Life. Order and time produce the renewal of all things in the world by recurring seasons. [Kybalion: The Principle of Rhythm. This was originally Atkinson’s Arcane Teaching Principle of Cycles, that included Kingsford and Maitland’s Doctrine of Rebirth. It later merged with The Principle of Rhythm so that Atkinson could add the Principle of Mentalism to The Kybalion.]

Importance to Tarot

Those interested in the tarot according to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Case’s Builders of the Adytum or the New Thought tradition of Eden Gray will find in both The Kybalion and in Kingsford & Maitland’s the Virgin of the World the core Hermetic principles that lie behind the conceptualization and interpretation of Golden Dawn and Waite-Smith-based decks and the “Secret” or “Ageless Wisdom” Tradition.

Cyndi Lauper – on Reading Tarot

Here’s an interview with Cyndi Lauper on her experience playing a tarot reader on the TV show Bones (Season 5, Episode 1) and on her own method of reading the cards. The role was well-written and tarot was treated respectfully (if with humor and despite the ubiquitous Death card scene). I love it that the first card drawn was Temperance – the first name of the main character, Temperance Brennan. It’s just the kind of “amazing coincidence” that I find happens so frequently in readings.

The opening tarot reading scene is especially good because it takes place in liminal (between the worlds) time—the eerie music, the park framed by trees as if peering into a magical space, and the fact that Temperance Brennan is just off the train, sleep-deprived, having been away on an extended trip and not yet re-connected with her ordinary world. The reading then recounts the events of the previous season’s finale and leads us into the new season. It’s a touch of magic carried over from the carnival episode and the dream-world that Bones and Booth also inhabit. [The video clip of this scene has been removed from youtube as it breached copyright.]