Book T

Book T was an instruction paper of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, usually credited to its co-founder S. L. MacGregor Mathers. It set out a title for each card, such as Lord of Victory for a Six, the astrological and elemental correspondences, the court-card ranks and a long divination method. Members copied it by hand; Aleister Crowley published a version in his journal The Equinox in 1912. Both main English-language decks drew on it: Waite and Smith borrowed many of its meanings, and Crowley's Thoth tarot follows its system closely. Readers who use decan titles or elemental dignities are working from Book T, often without knowing the name.