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This journal is meant to be an explanatory journey into the symbolism and development of my Tarot of the Golden Serpent, which I am currently offering for sale on the Wizard Forums.
wizardforums.com
If you have any questions regarding the sale of this, please PM me.
I would like to give huge thanks to both @SkullTraill and @Yazata for your help and interactions with me on bringing the TGS to Wizard Forums.
If you would like to read Yazata’s wonderful review of the printed deck, please follow this link:
I would also like to thank the members of the Wizard Forums in general for your consideration and interest. Especially to those, of course, who have purchased decks. You all get psychic emojis
– you know who you are.
Now, the card deck I am selling, the Tarot of the Golden Serpent (which I will refer to as TGS) is based on a series of oil paintings which I first began in 2009 and finally completed after many winding twists and turns in 2023. My goal with this journal is to describe and explain the symbolism without going too deep. I also do not wish to interpret in any dogmatic sense for the reader, though description and interpretation may be hard to disentangle. This journal is a start at an evolutionary process of what will hopefully serve as a guide for understanding the TGS. My entries may come slowly at first, but I hope to gain some momentum over time. There are so many things in the TGS symbolism I can elaborate on, but these would lead to tangents of distraction. I also write this with some difficulty, because the varied emotional flakiness that just comes with my style of creativity. However, I think I owe it to the work, and those who have bought decks or are interested, to at least give some kind of verbal description. There are stories and personal reflections I would like to share along the way regarding the development of the TGS. Before I get to those I want to jump in with a what should be the most obvious and fitting symbol for beginning this task.
0 The Fool (18x24, oil on canvas)
“To go into all manner of situations where one may not have any sham virtues, where like the tightrope walker one either stands or falls or gets away.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
The Fool balances on a chain between statues of the opposing Egyptian gods Horus and Seth. The Golden Serpent is wrapped around the Fool’s legs, biting his thigh with its fangs. His clothing is that of a typical jester or harlequin, the former association being of the humorous nature, the latter being a somewhat more treacherous. The whole pattern of colors of his outfit is meant to suggest the alternation and scintillation of elemental forces, including the underlying Spirit. One may also note the alchemical symbols of Sulfur, Mercury and Salt dangling from his pronged cap, as well as the symbol of Air on his pendant.
The Fool’s face is black, in one sense referencing the nigredo phase of the alchemical work, but he wears a white blindfold which can suggest the blindness of folly or innocence in one sense, or the ecstatic state of divine wonderment. His smile indicates the knavishness of the harlequin as a dubious figure, but it can also suggest the deep satisfaction of the intoxication of a type of divine madness or inspiration, or mania as it is called by Plato.
His balancing pole has a figure of the Moon on the left and the Sun on the right. If one looks carefully one will note the small bands on the pole making it a reference to the “divided line”, a further reference to a figure in Platonic philosophy.
The blue lotus opening around the Fool signifies the “flower of mind” or consciousness in the Chaldean Oracles. The spiral in the background recedes back into the primordial point of the Monad, but can also refer to related symbolism generally denoting the supernal reality in its various figures.
Beneath the Fool is a red eyed Crocodile, in this case a symbol of matter or hyle, which serves as a figure of peril should the Fool fall from his balancing act.
Around the crocodile are bed of roses, a reference to Venus, who is sympathetic to Air via her rulership over Libra. There is an influence of an occult equation here that it would take too much to go into, though I could say that about all the symbolism throughout the series. This is an indication of correspondences of which I briefly address in a note after the end of this very basic description.
There are three eggs forming a triad. Between the Fool’s feet is a black egg with expanding fiery wings containing a diamond seated in fire, the “philosopher’s stone” in a more literal graphic representative sense. The crossing of this egg by the Golden Serpent is meant to suggest the Orphic pattern. In the lower left egg is a crawling infant, and on the right is an old man with a walking stick. Considering the position of the Fool in relation to the child and old man, and with the Sphinx appearing in the bottom center, one can see reference to the allegory of Oedipus.
The Sphinx herself is statue-like in color and holds a scroll with the initials “SAVT”, an acronym for Latin names for the Four Powers of the Sphinx given by Eliphas Levi: Scire (to Know), Audere (to Dare), Velle (to Will), Tacere (to be Silent). Under the clawed hand of the Sphinx is a crowned skull, which in this sense has a relation to the dissolving ego in terms of spiritual alchemy. Other associations may apply.
That completes the description of the Fool, though I could write many more paragraphs on the details. My plan is that this entry should set the format for future entries. As of right now I intend to go in the normal order of the Major Arcana, the Minors and the Courts. Hopefully I can condense some things for ease of reading. We’ll see where this goes.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON DIVINATION AND CORRESPONDENCES:
With regards to uses in divination, I will not be giving such interpretations at this time as I feel one could use any general guide to Tarot meanings. I myself have often referred to a simple list by MacGregor Mathers appended to Robert Wang’s Qabalistic Tarot. But these general meanings proved only a gateway to me. With time and experience I have learned to read Tarot for myself without consultation to books, though they can still prove handy. One thing I will say is that Golden Dawn rooted correspondences and positioning on their version of the Tree of Life have always proved a useful baseline for me, and having used these for years I have mostly committed them to memory. This certainly reflects in the TGS, though I have avoided direct graphic references on the cards themselves. For instance, Hebrew letters and elemental, planetary and zodiacal attributions are not printed on the card border-frames, nor are they directly referenced in the images... most of the time. I did this partly for the sake of the reader who may prefer other correspondences, or none at all, and did not want the distraction of a certain type of ideological systematization.
But there is a system in the TGS, which I will discuss when it becomes too hard to pass over. As to general ideological orientation of the TGS, I point to the precession of Hermetic-Kabbalistic-Neoplatonic-Gnostic-And So On... that parade like conceptual tatterdemalions through my mind. In In fact, as the creator of the series I can not claim to have yet seen all the implications or connections within. Sometimes I get surprised by an association that came through me that I did not realize my "subconscious" was making. So much of what I have studied has filtered into the TGS that I would have to actually re-research everything to give an accurate account of what I(?) was saying through the brush.
My hope, anyway, on the one hand is that these things do not get in the way of flexibility of another person's understanding. On the other hand I hope that those who can perceive will find reinforcement in their own work, or new doors to walk into. That said, I have never met a mantic system that did not cause me some doctrinal confusion or discomfort, but I have learned to compromise in the repeated revelation that these things are mazes of mirrors.
If you are interested in seeing the entire Tarot of the Golden Serpent in my DA gallery, please follow this link.
A note on the above is that I have tried to arrange the gallery itself into the proper order of images, but the system likes to shuffle them a bit on it’s own.
One other thing I want to add is that there are other online presences using the term "Golden Serpent" that have nothing to do with me. From what I can tell, that started independently and is a coincidence, it being such a pretty name and all. My conception was born in the dark stirrings of Yaltabaoth, who, BTW, is in the series along with a horde of other characters in their various phases and masks.
I apologize if the above is a bit rough. I am trying to keep this as simple as I can while chomping at the bit to add more and more. I've been chomping a bit too long...
Product Offering - The Tarot of the Golden Serpent
Greetings Wizard Forums, I am now selling my Tarot of the Golden Serpent card deck on WF! https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/tarot-of-the-golden-serpent If you are interested, you can purchase a deck at The Game Crafters website for $46.99* Here's a glimpse of what you'll be getting: The...
wizardforums.com
If you have any questions regarding the sale of this, please PM me.
I would like to give huge thanks to both @SkullTraill and @Yazata for your help and interactions with me on bringing the TGS to Wizard Forums.
If you would like to read Yazata’s wonderful review of the printed deck, please follow this link:
I would also like to thank the members of the Wizard Forums in general for your consideration and interest. Especially to those, of course, who have purchased decks. You all get psychic emojis
– you know who you are.Now, the card deck I am selling, the Tarot of the Golden Serpent (which I will refer to as TGS) is based on a series of oil paintings which I first began in 2009 and finally completed after many winding twists and turns in 2023. My goal with this journal is to describe and explain the symbolism without going too deep. I also do not wish to interpret in any dogmatic sense for the reader, though description and interpretation may be hard to disentangle. This journal is a start at an evolutionary process of what will hopefully serve as a guide for understanding the TGS. My entries may come slowly at first, but I hope to gain some momentum over time. There are so many things in the TGS symbolism I can elaborate on, but these would lead to tangents of distraction. I also write this with some difficulty, because the varied emotional flakiness that just comes with my style of creativity. However, I think I owe it to the work, and those who have bought decks or are interested, to at least give some kind of verbal description. There are stories and personal reflections I would like to share along the way regarding the development of the TGS. Before I get to those I want to jump in with a what should be the most obvious and fitting symbol for beginning this task.
0 The Fool (18x24, oil on canvas)
“To go into all manner of situations where one may not have any sham virtues, where like the tightrope walker one either stands or falls or gets away.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
The Fool balances on a chain between statues of the opposing Egyptian gods Horus and Seth. The Golden Serpent is wrapped around the Fool’s legs, biting his thigh with its fangs. His clothing is that of a typical jester or harlequin, the former association being of the humorous nature, the latter being a somewhat more treacherous. The whole pattern of colors of his outfit is meant to suggest the alternation and scintillation of elemental forces, including the underlying Spirit. One may also note the alchemical symbols of Sulfur, Mercury and Salt dangling from his pronged cap, as well as the symbol of Air on his pendant.
The Fool’s face is black, in one sense referencing the nigredo phase of the alchemical work, but he wears a white blindfold which can suggest the blindness of folly or innocence in one sense, or the ecstatic state of divine wonderment. His smile indicates the knavishness of the harlequin as a dubious figure, but it can also suggest the deep satisfaction of the intoxication of a type of divine madness or inspiration, or mania as it is called by Plato.
His balancing pole has a figure of the Moon on the left and the Sun on the right. If one looks carefully one will note the small bands on the pole making it a reference to the “divided line”, a further reference to a figure in Platonic philosophy.
The blue lotus opening around the Fool signifies the “flower of mind” or consciousness in the Chaldean Oracles. The spiral in the background recedes back into the primordial point of the Monad, but can also refer to related symbolism generally denoting the supernal reality in its various figures.
Beneath the Fool is a red eyed Crocodile, in this case a symbol of matter or hyle, which serves as a figure of peril should the Fool fall from his balancing act.
Around the crocodile are bed of roses, a reference to Venus, who is sympathetic to Air via her rulership over Libra. There is an influence of an occult equation here that it would take too much to go into, though I could say that about all the symbolism throughout the series. This is an indication of correspondences of which I briefly address in a note after the end of this very basic description.
There are three eggs forming a triad. Between the Fool’s feet is a black egg with expanding fiery wings containing a diamond seated in fire, the “philosopher’s stone” in a more literal graphic representative sense. The crossing of this egg by the Golden Serpent is meant to suggest the Orphic pattern. In the lower left egg is a crawling infant, and on the right is an old man with a walking stick. Considering the position of the Fool in relation to the child and old man, and with the Sphinx appearing in the bottom center, one can see reference to the allegory of Oedipus.
The Sphinx herself is statue-like in color and holds a scroll with the initials “SAVT”, an acronym for Latin names for the Four Powers of the Sphinx given by Eliphas Levi: Scire (to Know), Audere (to Dare), Velle (to Will), Tacere (to be Silent). Under the clawed hand of the Sphinx is a crowned skull, which in this sense has a relation to the dissolving ego in terms of spiritual alchemy. Other associations may apply.
That completes the description of the Fool, though I could write many more paragraphs on the details. My plan is that this entry should set the format for future entries. As of right now I intend to go in the normal order of the Major Arcana, the Minors and the Courts. Hopefully I can condense some things for ease of reading. We’ll see where this goes.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON DIVINATION AND CORRESPONDENCES:
With regards to uses in divination, I will not be giving such interpretations at this time as I feel one could use any general guide to Tarot meanings. I myself have often referred to a simple list by MacGregor Mathers appended to Robert Wang’s Qabalistic Tarot. But these general meanings proved only a gateway to me. With time and experience I have learned to read Tarot for myself without consultation to books, though they can still prove handy. One thing I will say is that Golden Dawn rooted correspondences and positioning on their version of the Tree of Life have always proved a useful baseline for me, and having used these for years I have mostly committed them to memory. This certainly reflects in the TGS, though I have avoided direct graphic references on the cards themselves. For instance, Hebrew letters and elemental, planetary and zodiacal attributions are not printed on the card border-frames, nor are they directly referenced in the images... most of the time. I did this partly for the sake of the reader who may prefer other correspondences, or none at all, and did not want the distraction of a certain type of ideological systematization.
But there is a system in the TGS, which I will discuss when it becomes too hard to pass over. As to general ideological orientation of the TGS, I point to the precession of Hermetic-Kabbalistic-Neoplatonic-Gnostic-And So On... that parade like conceptual tatterdemalions through my mind. In In fact, as the creator of the series I can not claim to have yet seen all the implications or connections within. Sometimes I get surprised by an association that came through me that I did not realize my "subconscious" was making. So much of what I have studied has filtered into the TGS that I would have to actually re-research everything to give an accurate account of what I(?) was saying through the brush.
My hope, anyway, on the one hand is that these things do not get in the way of flexibility of another person's understanding. On the other hand I hope that those who can perceive will find reinforcement in their own work, or new doors to walk into. That said, I have never met a mantic system that did not cause me some doctrinal confusion or discomfort, but I have learned to compromise in the repeated revelation that these things are mazes of mirrors.
If you are interested in seeing the entire Tarot of the Golden Serpent in my DA gallery, please follow this link.
A note on the above is that I have tried to arrange the gallery itself into the proper order of images, but the system likes to shuffle them a bit on it’s own.
One other thing I want to add is that there are other online presences using the term "Golden Serpent" that have nothing to do with me. From what I can tell, that started independently and is a coincidence, it being such a pretty name and all. My conception was born in the dark stirrings of Yaltabaoth, who, BTW, is in the series along with a horde of other characters in their various phases and masks.
I apologize if the above is a bit rough. I am trying to keep this as simple as I can while chomping at the bit to add more and more. I've been chomping a bit too long...
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