Taro as Color

The Taro as Color by Ithell Colquhoun may be one of the most remarkable decks to come out of the Golden Dawn system of initiation. It is striking because it is a Tarot without "symbols". Each card is a special color combination accomplished with enamel paint - but instead of offering us images and pictures, we are left only with the energy of those combinations - and the deeper system that supports it. Colquhoun's essay on this Taro articulates a highly cohesive logic of color - drawn in part from the G:.D:. Color scales (which can be found in Crowley's 777), with improvements from her own genius. The cards are given the mysterious titles that the Order assigned to them as Mantras - with the image itself operating as Yantra. Unusually the "new deck order" of the deck is driven by the courts and aces, rather than the Major arcana, and so students working with this system will catch glimpses of a different Tarot philosophy from what they are likely used to - but one that is very much an evolution of the mainstream Qabalah. Here are the 7s of her deck accompanied by another masterpiece - Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia Goetica by Jake Stratton Kent.