This book, explaining the symbolism of the B.O.T.A. Tarot Keys, is significant for a number of reasons. This was one of the first works in which several Occult secrets about the Tarot-- secrets which, until then, had been closely-guarded by a handful of secret Orders and Fraternities-- were revealed to the general public for the first time.

Perhaps most importantly, this was the first book that openly published the correct Hebrew letter attributions of each Key-- publicly linking Qabala and Tarot for the first time. Previous books on the subject had either employed blinds or blatant falsehoods to conceal the correct attributions. Publishing these correct Hebrew letter attributions was a bold step, and although it's hard to imagine today, Case's decision to go public with this information was extremely controversial among Occultists at the time.

This book also revealed the Tarot tableau, a pattern for laying out all of the Tarot Keys which reveals certain relationships and dissimilarities between them-- relationships which might not otherwise be apparent to the casual reader. This tableau was used by the American branch of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn when Case was Praemonstrator of that Order, and like the correct Hebrew letter attributions of each Key, it had never been openly published before.

Last, but certainly not least, this was the first published book to reveal ALMOST ALL of the Tarot attributions on the Qabalistic "Cube of Space" diagram. Until the publication of this book, most Occultists had never even heard of the Cube of Space, had no idea what its attributions were, and couldn't have guessed about how it related to the much better-known "Tree of Life" diagram. (To give you an idea about just how esoteric this subject really is, consider that until the mid-1990's there were almost no other books in print that even mentioned the Cube of Space!)

One of the things that I really like about this book is that it includes Paul Foster Case's only public commentary about his own "Pattern on the Trestleboard," which is sort of like a Qabalistic catechism. Granted, Case's comments are pointedly brief, but they also place "The Pattern on the Trestleboard" firmly in the public domain, where they can be openly discussed with people who aren't members of Case's organization, Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.).

Older editions of this work also include the B.O.T.A. method for Tarot divination-- something that many of its members would be surprised to learn about, since B.O.T.A. repeatedly emphasizes that Tarot is primarily a tool for meditation, not divination! The truth is that Tarot works rather well in either capacity, but using the Keys for divination might distract from a beginning student's more important task of discovering his or her own "Inner Self" through meditation. Case's method of divination is similar in many respects to various Golden Dawn and Crowleyan methods that I've seen printed elsewhere-- but with some interesting, and perhaps not insignificant, differences.

As if this weren't enough to entice the serious Occultist, however, Case's analysis of each of the twenty-two Tarot Keys is nothing short of masterly. This is really the one area in which Paul Foster Case's book towers above almost any other book about the Tarot! Each Key is considered in light of its imagery, the Hebrew letter to which it is assigned, that letter's attribution of the Tree of Life, that letter's mode of Intelligence from the BOOK OF FORMATION, that letter's numerological significance, the Key's astrological associations... and on and on and on. This isn't the sort of book that can be lightly read once and then set it aside-- this is a reference work which should be consulted frequently!

The Keys themselves are lovely. Although B.O.T.A. as an organization resisted printing colored versions of these Keys for many years (Paul Foster Case insisted that coloring your own Keys was an important step in memorizing their exact details), newer editions of this book depict each Key in full glorious color! Even the black and white editions of this book are lovely, however, emphasizing details which might be missed in colorized versions. Based rather closely on A.E. Waite's Tarot, the B.O.T.A. deck departs radically from Waite's designs on a few of the Keys.

If Qabala is the Key to Western Occultism, Tarot is surely the Key to Qabala! This is one of the best available works on Tarot, and Paul Foster Case's masterly analysis of the Tarot Keys can't lead you in the wrong direction. Highly recommended for any Tarot enthusiast!

For more information about B.O.T.A., see http://www.bota.org.

SHALOM!

I can not say enough about this book. I have had several copies over the last 30 years. Everytime I return to it, a new layer of knowledge is revealed. I keep a copy at work so that I can meditate on the Keys. The effects of these mediations are profound. This is the good stuff, that has stood the test of time, and comparison to other methods.