The Keys Of Arcana
Practical Handbook to Crowley’s Tarot
by Maja Mandic
Belgrade 2008.
Copyright © 1994 Maja Mandic - http://www.arkonamaja.com
ISBN: 978-86-911203-0-6
Download size: 7,67mb


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This book is unique since it’s the first of its kind in the world! The fact that Crowley created a Tarot for the future is reconfirmed by rare and unsuccessful attempts to date to compose a practical handbook for it. Most of the books on Tarot in English are pure theory, therefore we can easily claim that this is the first original handbook for Crowley’s Tarot – not only as a synthesis of the existing tradition, but also a significant and fresh creative contribution to the development of occultism, Tarot and the Sacred Art of Magick.

The handbook is very conceptually formed – the basic idea is that each of the Major Arcana is assigned a practical technique and a spread which correspond to this Arcanum. This is not always easily seen, but if you penetrate deeper into the contents you will notice that, for instance, the technique of sexual magic is assigned to “Lust”, that regression, exploring of the past lives, is assigned to “Adjustment”, the Lady of Karma and Balance, and that the dream analysis is assigned to “The Moon,” the Master of the astral plane.

There are many other examples of creativity: “The Arrow” and “The Temple” are Maja’s personal techniques, developed through creative synthesis of the centuries-long tradition of the ancient Qabalists; “Seven Stars” is an example of an original ritual of a ceremonial magic; “Creative Fantasy” and 22 examples for the technique of “The Road” show Maja’s talent for writing occult and epic fantasy.

Some will notice that ‘creativity’ is frequently used in my preface. However, Maja’s creativity, which is her middle name in my opinion, would not be worth much if it were not based on her very detailed knowledge of Qabalah and Magick, since her literary talent would not do her much good, for instance, in creating 22 “Roads”, were it not based on knowledge of Tarot, Qabalah and a lot of meditative practice and spiritual experience with the Arcana.

The system on which this book is based is compact, well-rounded and each of its detail and Qabalistic correspondences must be well mastered in order for a Magickian to be able to move around freely and to distinguish what can be created and what not, all of which was very clear to the author. She developed this system in an exact and a self-disciplinary way, with a passion of a scientist, and there is no coincidence or arbitration in this system, all techniques have a precise key and it is clear from which planes and in what manner arrive the energies that one deals with.

“The Keys of Arcana” are thus the best example of how one should be creative in occultism, since the creativity in occultism is closely related to artistic creativity and occasionally requires greater and more numerous talents. The notions of occultism and creativity are magick synonyms and the equation:

occultism = creativity
should become an axiom of the New Age.