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A waste of paper September 13, 2011
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Jean-Louis de Biasi's "Divine Arcana of the Aurum Solis" is an utter disappointment, fraught with severe gaps in understanding of the Ogdoadic Tradition as outlined by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips. Nor does a shoddy editing job by Llewellyn do this book any favors. De Biasi dabbles with correspondences in order to fix some perceived error in the Tarot, which he then presents as the true and original version of the cards. Llewellyn would have done much better to reprint Denning & Phillips' "The Magick of the Tarot" than to release this book.
That the book reads like a bad high school essay would perhaps be understandable as a consequence of English not being de Biasi's primary language, but the complete lack of copyediting by Llewellyn is inexcusable. The reader must endure a barrage of bizarre, bold-faced factual errors such as "The Greeks used consonants exclusively" (p. 40), ".the Tree of Life that is traditionally used doesn't have paths thirty-one and thirty-two" (p. 44), "The Greek alphabet is composed of 27 letters" (p. 312), etc.
The key assertion of Jean-Louis' book is that the Tarot and the Tree of Life as previously employed by the major Western Esoteric Tradition is wrong. De Biasi's great secret which he unveils is that there should be 24 paths on the Tree of Life: two extra Paths associated with Earth and Spirit. Additionally, the traditional ordering of the Paths on the Tree is incorrect. What would lead the Grand Master of the Aurum Solis to "pull an Achad"? His primary reason is to retrofit the Greek alphabet onto the Tree of Life in an attempt to reconcile the use of both the Greek language and the Hebrew-based Tree - but the rationale that Jean-Louis provides is ludicrous and, frankly, offensive:
"It is surprising to note that the Hebrew Qabalah is disconnected from the traditional systems, omitting the two principles of Spirit and Earth. Perhaps the explanation for this omission lies in the fact that the Hebrew alphabet is limited to twenty-two letters. Of course, this limitation is reflected in more than the omission of the Spirit and Earth principles. Still, it is obvious that the principles of nature and the body were generally rejected (or were treated as obstacles) in Judaism and Catholicism." (p. 42)
To be clear, the issue here is not with exploring alternative configurations of the Tree: that spirit of innovation which builds upon tradition was core to the brilliance of The Magical Philosophy when the teachings of Aurum Solis were first unveiled. But de Biasi did not describe this book as his own innovations; instead, he chose to parade this system of contrivances as a hidden secret of the Ogdoadic Tradition and indeed, that this is in fact the "true" form of the Tarot as designed by ancient initiates. Whatever his intent behind producing this book, The Divine Arcana of the Aurum Solis is shamefully embarrassing and completely disrespectful of the masterful work of Denning and Phillips.
That the book reads like a bad high school essay would perhaps be understandable as a consequence of English not being de Biasi's primary language, but the complete lack of copyediting by Llewellyn is inexcusable. The reader must endure a barrage of bizarre, bold-faced factual errors such as "The Greeks used consonants exclusively" (p. 40), ".the Tree of Life that is traditionally used doesn't have paths thirty-one and thirty-two" (p. 44), "The Greek alphabet is composed of 27 letters" (p. 312), etc.
The key assertion of Jean-Louis' book is that the Tarot and the Tree of Life as previously employed by the major Western Esoteric Tradition is wrong. De Biasi's great secret which he unveils is that there should be 24 paths on the Tree of Life: two extra Paths associated with Earth and Spirit. Additionally, the traditional ordering of the Paths on the Tree is incorrect. What would lead the Grand Master of the Aurum Solis to "pull an Achad"? His primary reason is to retrofit the Greek alphabet onto the Tree of Life in an attempt to reconcile the use of both the Greek language and the Hebrew-based Tree - but the rationale that Jean-Louis provides is ludicrous and, frankly, offensive:
"It is surprising to note that the Hebrew Qabalah is disconnected from the traditional systems, omitting the two principles of Spirit and Earth. Perhaps the explanation for this omission lies in the fact that the Hebrew alphabet is limited to twenty-two letters. Of course, this limitation is reflected in more than the omission of the Spirit and Earth principles. Still, it is obvious that the principles of nature and the body were generally rejected (or were treated as obstacles) in Judaism and Catholicism." (p. 42)
To be clear, the issue here is not with exploring alternative configurations of the Tree: that spirit of innovation which builds upon tradition was core to the brilliance of The Magical Philosophy when the teachings of Aurum Solis were first unveiled. But de Biasi did not describe this book as his own innovations; instead, he chose to parade this system of contrivances as a hidden secret of the Ogdoadic Tradition and indeed, that this is in fact the "true" form of the Tarot as designed by ancient initiates. Whatever his intent behind producing this book, The Divine Arcana of the Aurum Solis is shamefully embarrassing and completely disrespectful of the masterful work of Denning and Phillips.
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