'The BOOK of KAOS' TAROT
DECK
The animated Fool on Uni-Vers-all TAROTA Uni-Cycle in the logo above appears on the backs of the cards, which also animate when flipped...
Although the artwork looks good
larger, a lot of people have found the deck difficult to shuffle so I
have now printed the first batch of smaller decks. The good news is
they are cheaper to print and post so as this counters rising postage
rates etc. they are actually a bit less than the larger ones were at
$24! Please use the Paypal buttons just a bit further
down the page to order ...
NEW Smaller Deck (10.5cm x 7cm/ 4" x 2.75") now
available (as of June 2019):
The Edition
has two alternate versions of ARCANA XV -PAN (see below) and the
HermAphroditic BAPHOMET, two alternate versions of ARCANA VI
-The LOVERS and The LOVER (both below)
ARCANA XI - STRENGTH/LUST
-Originally drawn for Orryelle's Book of Going
Back by Night, this Strength/Lust card shows the wo/man fully
integrated with the Beast. The traditional Strength card depicts
a woman holding apart the jaws of a lion -the self finding the courage
to confront the beast or shadow side of nature. Crowley updated this
image in his Book of Thoth deck with the fiery Goddess Babalon
riding on the biblical seven-headed Beast -not only facing but
having control of the animal side of herself.
(adapted
from the text Booklet that comes with the deck)
Right: Orryelle as
Odin and Yoka as the Norn Verdanthi in the 'Le Pendu'
Hanged Man Performance for The BOOK of KAOS TAROT new
edition Launch on June 1st 2004.
.
Ordering information and more pictures from the Theatrical Launch
follow the sample cards and text below.
(Any interested
retailers -wholesale discounts available- or distributors are encouraged
to contactiNSPiRALink. Multimedia Press:
[email protected]).
ATU XII - The HANGED
MAN
Norse God Odin/Woden hangs from
the World Tree, Yggdrasil, co-weaving with the three Norns (Past,
Present and Future) below Him the Rune of Gebo/Gifu - X
- representing Sacrifice and the Gift. This is also the
X-roads of the Lemniscate (infinity symbol) through which the tarot
trumps twist and turn. The Well of Mimir/reMembrance below the Tree is
formed by the coils of the World Serpent Jormungandr, whose body
contains the runes or glyphs which Odin sees after his ordeal (9 days &
9 nights) upon the Tree, whose axis mundi trunk the great Dragon of
Kundalini also winds up, caduceus-like.
Thus the Well of Wyrd
(Fate) is also the Wheel of Wyrd -ARCANA X- seen
from the other side of the Crossroads - the Norns another angle on the
three Fates (Spinner, Weaver and Cutter) who turn this TARO/ROTA Wheel,
and Yggdrasil is the Tree of Life the Serpent climbs (winding through
the paths or trumps of the Qabbala).
Hugin, raven of Thought
sits above Odin in the branches of the Tree, and is reflected by Munin,
raven of Memory in the Well below (where two-faced Hela also
dwells).
Odin has dropped his eye into the Well, sacrificing outer
sight for inner vision, to see the runes within the serpent's coils -the
book of symbols- with His inverted perspective...
-extract
from the expanded booklet.
Video still from 'Le Pendu' Tarot
Launch play.
MORE SAMPLE IMAGES and TEXT
BELOW INTRODUCTION
NEW: SMALL DECK (10.5cm
x 7cm/ 4" x 2.75") $24 plus postage (larger deck now sold out)):
THE BOOK of
KAOS
Originally titled, 'The Bohemian Tarot'
-(underwhich the original Major and Minor Arcana sets were published
seperately as A5 limited-edition (100 copies) folios around 1991) I
redrew about half of the major arcana a decade later to form the deck
into 'The BOOK of KAOS', an inter-sect-ion of ChaOrder Magick and the aeonic double current of Horus and Maat. The introduction of
these added layers of esoteric symbolism do not detract, however from
the deck's original appeal of directly emotive, pagan and tribal
imagery.
The 2001 Limited Edition was the first time
the completed BOOK of ChAOS Tarot Deck was published as a whole.
The 111 copies sold within 6 moonths.
The change of the 'ChAOS' of that edition to
the 'KAOS' of this one is for two reasons:
By traditional
Hebrew Qabbalistic Gematria (a system intimately related with the Tarot)
KAOS = 151 = QNA, The 'Double-Wanded One' or horned
hermaphrodite so prevalent in this decks imagery, especially the new
alternate ATU VI and ATU XV presented for the first time
in this edition, showing different aspects and interpretations of these
trumps.
But primarily because K in the Hebrew alphabet is
Kaph, the letter corresponding with ATU X, The Wheel,
which is the Cross-X-roads of the Tarot Lemniscate and
thus the fulcrum of the Major Arcana. Indeed the TARO itself is
this ROTA or Wheel of Fate. Thus the Book of KAOS is the Holy Book
(TORA) of the Wheel (ROTA): TARO, and the Gate (ATOR) Beyond (ATU
XXIII)...
The AOS of the title thus also pays tribute to
Austin Osman Spare,, the 'grandfather of ChAOS magick' who set
this K-AOS Wheel turning - founder of the Zos Kia Cultus whose legacy is
continued in Works such as this which promote Art as the prime menstruum
of Magick...
(also AOS =131 =Pan, Baphomet, Truth; thus KAOS is
the Wheel (K) thereof)
ATU VI - THE
LOVER/S
Union in love and lust, passionate sexual and
spiritual congress - divine ecstasy.
One cannot unite with another
with such rapture as portrayed in the first Lovers card above however,
if one has not first united with the self.
Atu VI is about
union with the anima (female within the male) or animus (male within the
female) within the self as much as about union with another being.
To demonstrate this more extantly I have included in the
edition a depiction of Ardhanarishavara-An, the Hindu horned
HermAphrodite, complete in HirSelf.
For this card was once called,
¥The Lover. Self-love is the foundation of Love. (The three
horns imply an active tantric sexuality rather than self-satisfied
isolation)
The Lovers card also implies Division (another
early name of the card was, ¥The Parting of the Ways'), as represented
by the Sword (symbol of the Hebrew letter Zain corresponding with this
arcana), but as Crowley wrote, we are ¥...Divided for Love's sake,
for the Chance of Union' (-Liber AL).
As written on the
arms of BaphoMet (the Knights Templars name for the horned
HermAphrodite) this card is the 'solve' of the Art card's
'coagula' -dissolving via sexual union into the spirit of the UniVerse
(OneSong).
And in the dissolution of ego in such union -whether
¥alOne or with a partner(/s)*- there is ultimately no 'self' or 'other'
anymore anyway, as Two become One, then None.
*{Crowleys
sex-magickal formula of 2=0 (Liber Al vel Legis) has been advanced by
Nemas formula of 2(+x)=0 (Liber Pennae Praenumbra) and my
HermAphroditic self-love formula of 1(=2)=0 (Liber
Pennae-Ultim-Atum)}
The
current Edition of The BOOK of KAOS was launched with a
performance of two short plays relating to the new Major Arcana cards in
this edition:
The ATU XV and ATU VI play was
'MeduZeus/BaphoMetis' -an exploration of the primal feminine,
hermaphroditic convergence and alchymic reification.
The ATU XII play was 'Le Pendu' (the Pendulum) -playing with the
old French name of this arcana, the piece swings between polarities of
Past and Future, Thought and Memory.
These performances and
Tarot launch occurred on June 1st 2004 at LaMama Theatre
(Melbourne Australia). Video stills selected by Orryelle from footage
by Matti. Black and White photographs by Kylee.
To see a short video extract from 'Le Pendu' Tarot
launch performance, go through
the mirrororrim eht
image at
right.
This piece was performed again at The FEAST of VALHALLA
at Montsalvat.
An entire Ritual Theatre journey through the Major Arcana developed
therefrom in PARZIVAL: The Fool's Journey on
Glastonbury Tor (UK), June Solstice '05.
ATU III - THE EMPRESS
(From
the Booklet:)
She is Mother Nature, abundance personified, and as
Goddess of Ma-tter she is also the Door (Hebrew letter
Daleth)-way to and from the Stars. Nurturing and fruitful, The
Empress blossoms with fertility, pregnant with potential, ever about to
birth another new form into the world of Ma-nifestation.
Her shield
is the 7 stars of the Pleiades and of Netzach, sephiroth of Love
and Victory, forming the seven-pointed Star of Babalon, the
life-force.
ATU XIV-
ART/Temperance
Iris, Ancient Greek messenger between
humans and the Gods, rides the rainbow, tempering the solar and lunar
essences in Hir two cups, mixing these male and female elixirs to
maintain balance. This is Hir alchymic Art. S/he is the double-chaliced
One.
The second face of this figure suggests both sunaJanus -
the rehctaWatcher eht who looks kcab dnand forth in timemit ; and also
Heimdall who guards the Rainbow Bridge Bifrost twixt realms of mortals and Gods in the
Norse pantheon. For this card offers passage to divine communication
with one's angel or future-self in the sphere of Tiphereth above. At
Heimdall's waist is the great Gjallar horn s/he blows to signal
Ragnarok, 'the end of the World' when the World Serpent rises -but the
microcosm of this is merely the blasting away of mundane perception for
cosmic perception beyond timemit when the kundalini serpent rises
through the colour spectrum of the chakras.
On the Tree of Life the
path of Art (the letter Samekh) leads from the lunar
sephiroth Yesod to the solar sephiroth Tiphereth, so Iris
is the mediator between these energies, whose essence she mixes in hir
cups.
The Rain-bow Serpent s/he rides is the Rim of the Wheel of
Fortune, the KalaChakra Wheel of Time -its colours or Kalas of timemit
from the yoni of the black Goddess Kali, refracted through the
peacock-feather-eye kteis of Netzach, and the Centaurian archer
(Sagittarius is attributed to this card) who draws the bow is the archer
atop the Blasted Tower (below), whose path intersects that of
Temperance/Art upon the Tree.
Temperance is the Art of
moderation, of knowing what proportion to include of each element, to
provide the necessary Alchemy for new forms to be born/divided.
'We are united for Art's sake. For the chance of Division' (-Liber
Pennae-Ultim-Atum)
(-from the expanded
booklet)
ATU VII - THE
CHARIOT
(From the Booklet):
Strength in
Motion. The balanced soul drives the Chariot through hir social
environment. This MerKaBa (light-spirit-body) is drawn by two
sphinxes, the double lions Sef (Yesterday) and Tuau (Tomorrow) which
later became the double lion Aker then HruMachis, the Double-Wanded One.
The charioteer has these primal powers reined in his control, his spine
has become the caduceus staff entwined with the double powers of Ida and
Pingala, the kundalini serpents which are the tails of the Sphinxes who
draw his Chariot.
The Wheels of his Chariot are the ROTA ChAOS Wheel
of the TARO cycle.
The two leonine-human beasts are separate beings
here rather than the composite HruMachis (see ATU 11), for they move
through the manifest world of form, the realm of duality. Thus they are
polar aspects, male and female, of the genderless essence or soul of the
charioteer which they draw forth andna kcab through timemit and space in
the realm of division.
If the soul has these forces in hir power,
s/he can move freely in the World. Balance in application, focused
motion, the Go-ing of the Gods.
ATU XV - PAN
Goat-legged Pan is
the primal pagan Horned God, (deer-antlered Cernunnos to the Celts). His
is the power of nature, physicality and sexuality, thus He is the Lord
of the Dance of the material world, the eternal lemniscate (infinity
symbol) of animal instinct.
In their condemnation of the body and
matter, the Christians turned this ancient archetype into the devil and
present Him as a negative archetype; But it is only materialism out of
balance with spirituality that creates problems. Ultimately they are one
and the same, for Pan is the primal force of nature itself, the forms
through which spirit plays. He who plays forever melodies of Earth, His
ancient music can bind (as in the traditional Atu 15 image of human
figures chained to the devil) or uplift according to perspective. The
figures in this picture seem bound to the music, but it is the music of
their own animal natures which leads them on to the dance of life. Pan's
seven-reed pipes play the seven tones of the seven chakras.
There is also the HermAphroditic form of the Horned One
-'Baphomet' to the Knights Templar, or Hindu
'Ardhanarishvara-An'. There is now an alternate ATU XV in the
New Edition depicting this form.Some MINOR
ARCANA Samples:
ACE of PENTACLES:
(From the Booklet): - The root of
the powers of Earth. The material, the physical. Practicality,
grounding, the manifestation of visions. Buried treasures, the fruits of
the earth.
QUEEN of SWORDS:
- A dark, clever woman, subtle, intelligent, an individualist,
highly perceptive. Confident and charming, a skilled diplomat good at
managing other people. Meticulous, quick to see any opportunity to
further her cause; can be devious, even insidious, bitter. She has a
severe countenance, the stone-face mask of the warrior, but can be
playful (as represented by the porcupine hidden in spiky hair).
This
card may represent sterility, deprivation and mourning, yet also
determination. 
6 of STAVES:
- Victory, Triumph. Success after strife or struggle -Strength has
prevailed. Not only the fulfillment of personal desire, but recognition
of this by others. Public acclaim, achievement of
goals.
QUEEN of CUPS:
-An intuitive, imaginative woman, fair, dreamy,
good-natured, calm and tranquil. She is very receptive to those around
her, and can sometimes be easily impressed or influenced. Her intuition
is faultless, she has the potential of an oracular priestess, open to
visions and communication with spirits. A medium between earth and
astral realities.
Success, happiness, pleasure.
Orders of KAOS now being
taken:
NEW: SMALL DECK (10.5cm x 7cm/ 4" x 2.75")
$24:
Email enquiries: [email protected].
All
Drawings and Text (c)copyright 2006 Orryelle
Defenestrate
Fill in the Subscription Box on the MAGICK EGG (Click Here) page of this Site to be
informed about the release of any other
iNSPiRALink Multimedia Press (IMPress)
publications.
Parzival -The Fool's Journey. Photos and verse
from the Tarot Ritual Theatre on Glastonbury Tor (UK), June
2005.
ESOTEROTICA GALLERY -Some of
the images from this deck (in the esoTarotica section) and other
esoteric erotica and erotic esoterica of Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule
viewable online and available as large signed prints.