From: Baird Stafford <bstafford@bstafford.ess.harris.com>
Subject: Re: The New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 17:03:27 GMT

BEKKI LYN, blchapma@eos.ncsu.edu writes:
> Now that I've gotten my brain somewhat in gear and found out that
> the Golden Dawn deck that Kraig mentions in _Modern Magick_ (the one
> by Wang), and the New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot (by Cicero) are not
> the same deck (duh!), I now want to know how close the New Golden
> Dawn deck comes to Israel Regardie's descriptions, or if this newer
> deck is Llewellyn fluff and a waste of time unless one just wants a
> new deck to play with outside of GD symbolism.  Thanks for any
> enlightenment on this matter.

The Ciceros' deck was begun under Regardie's direct supervision and
completed from notes taken by the artist of discussions with him
before his death.  It includes not one but two Temperence cards, both
conforming to Temperence cards used in different GD rituals.  The
symbolism is absolutely accurate, as are the colors, which are in the
appropriate color scales for each suit and Trump. The Wang deck, on
the other hand, was a disappointment to Regardie: Wang reproduced
exactly the preliminary sketches Regardie had provided him (Regardie
had no opinion of his own draftsmanship) and the colors are
approximate at best.

The Ciceros' deck, by the way, is used in the rituals of the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn.

Light,
Baird
__
Baird Stafford  (bstafford@bstafford.ess.harris.com)
===

From: Paul_Hume@f235.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Paul Hume)
Subject: The New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 12:52:42 GMT

Bekki -
2 cents worth on New Ritual GD Tarot...
 
According to the Ciceros (who designed the New GD RT) Regardie thought
well of the designs for the trumps, which he saw before he died. I
don't know of anyone other than the designers who can corroborate
this, of course, and while I think highly of their probity, it is
hardly solid documentation.
 
I like it, myself. Wang's work is very sincere, but frankly not my
cuppa.  Sandra Cicero's art is often garish, an often heard critique
is "comic book," but the use of color scales is exact, and uses
"flashing" colors by design.  The deck is drawn "to spec" per the
instructions from Mathers.
 
Paul