The Western Gate

The Tarot Architect
Lon Milo DuQuette
Weiser Books

It’s been on my radar for a while, no bookshop in the Uk had it in stock. Amazon had it but only imported from the U.S. and having previous issues from across the pond decided to wait. Eventually Amazon had it in stock with delivery from UK, sorry bookshops… sincerely.
So was it worth the wait, the hype, the constant feeds on social media?
You know, these book reviews, I have to emphasise, are purely subjective, they’re what matters to me, and my path may well be different to others. I, as everyone, am subject to bias or prejudice and things that irk me may be a source of wonderment for others.
I was quite impressed by Matt Auryn’s book The Psychic art of Tarot and though am usually loathe to consider delving into exercises and planned bloody syllabus books thought I’d try out this book.
I have not read Lon Milo’s books before, though have seen his name referenced many a time on vlogs and what-not. Indeed, heralded and applauded, the great and wonderous behind a curtain of mystique.
His style of writing is Didactic (Instructional)~ and yet his delivery, to some, maybe only me, can come across as patronizing. Do this! you need to listen! Here is wisdom ! did you do it ? well done.
He talks of Tarot and gives a brief introduction of its association with Qabalah and more importantly~ The tree of Life.
The tree has 22 paths, The Major Arcana has 22 paths~ Bingo! Can you guess where those 22 paths go, asks DuQuette?
Of course, he uses the Hermetic orders of the 19th century to tell us where they go, because apparently its not Taroroccket science. ho ho.
Well after explaining that Aleph and Mem and Shin are the three mother letters but makes no Taroroccket assumption they probably go on the three horizontal paths of the tree of life,( just as e/g/ as there are seven ‘double letters that probably go on the seven vertical paths.) But thats not where Don or the Dawn say they go…
Now the paths, are subjective, Don doesn’t say so because the Order of the Golden Dawn made a nice pretty glyph that everyone copies. We could analyse and research and debate.
Aleph, according to Don and the Dawn lays between Kether and Chokmah. Between 1 and 2, because that’s logical isn’t it (?)
However lets analyse the alternative;- with regards to the Mother Letters, Shin being Fire radiates upwards. Mem being water flows downwards and Aleph being air is the mediating force between them, that’s not Don or the Dawn saying this, its the commentaries, Sepher Yetzirah and the Zohar.. The books that first scribbled this philosophy adopted by the bohemians and elitists.
Aleph resides, between Shin and Mem, one of three mother letters, as there are three horizontal paths. It’s not Tarotrocket science to figure out where it goes. But Don and the Dawn don’t agree. And if they considered it, then ;-
It is a subjective science. Aleph could go between Kether and Chokmah, It looks like two Yods seperated into duality each a reflection of themselves, (albeit in mirror image to the way they are placed viz;- א, well this looks like the lower yod is actually at Binah ?)… well perhaps its best not to discuss and just nod our head and agree, or we’ll be here all night.

This is the book. Agree, nod and accept. Well I cant. Things are wrote as obvious fact, when its actually theory.

Some of the exercises, and there are quite a lot of hand clapping and visualising and patting on the back for being a good little soldier, are ok, some a bit goofy. If I had paid money for a retreat to learn this stuff and was being told to perform some of these exercises and accept the theory given I would have walked out before lunchtime and headed for the pub. Seriously, I mean, even as a beginners guide where this book would perhaps suffice, surely the novice would squint and raise a hand of objection? Even if to clarify.
Don, uses his own cards to explain things for the subsequent building of your own deck later on. Of course he does. There’s Knights instead of Kings ( a nod to Crowley’s deck) but Don doesn’t tell us why he beheaded the anointed one in favour of Crowley’s adopted measure, and if he did I must have missed it because I wasn’t paying attention. There are princes, and princesses as apposed to the knight and page of RiderWaite, and the Knight as explained, though Don doesn’t, is now crowned King. For the love of Arthur, you fiddle with one thing but don’t question the obvious meddling of the tree.
His Tarot deck shoehorns Greek, Egyptian and Thelemic influences, quite a few line art drawings of naked women, but not one naked cock on display, oh and a bit of enochian. A bit of mexican… ermm some i-ching, what other association can we throw in the fusion?
He uses his deck to explain the symbolism of each card, though doesn’t really explain the influence of the path wedged between the sephiroth he has subjectively placed it, instead just offering the title/intelligence assigned to it by, ironically, the Sepher Yetzirah.
Sometimes the associations work and other times the titles just leave a sense of bewilderment and doubt (i’ve attached some symbolism below ~ see figure 1 ). But question not why .
It is the unquenchable quest of some occultists to try and assimilate everything into one idea, the God particle. Shoehorn, associate, correspondence! but the universe and nature doesn’t play by them rules.
Consider the Fool Card. Don shows us some picture of a male (perhaps androgynous) ballerina jaunting in the air with a pine cone tipped wand. There’s symbols cobbled in and colours to concern yourself with. On a building site, we are told that it has been proven if there are too many warning stickers, the builder will ignore them, so it is here with a jamboree bag of distractions. We are building atemple and likewise, there’s too much information. And most of it is irrelevant.
The Rider Waite depicts the fool dancing carefree near the edge of a cliff with the dog barking at his feet, to perhaps warn the wayfarer, or perhaps encourage. Who knows. The fool card however is unnumbered. Therein is the advent of wisdom,
For imagine if in fact, this Fool card instead was blank. And that was it. No symbols, colours, images or associations to consider. It was just Blank. Possibilities from nothing to something, but not revealed. No number, nothing.
Imagine if every tarot card then, instead of this myriad complicated assortment of cobbled together correspondence was just simplistic design. Justice was just a pair of scales. The Emporer was just a crown. Death -the skull and crossbones. No pretence or trying to impress the viewer how wonderfully eclectic and masterly we are. Just a symbol. No visualising or ringing out the desired (and correct apparently) musical note- FFS !! (yes its in the book!). Simplistic designs and yet creative enough for the inner mind to expand, which is where the real work and magic happens.
Too much information is the bane of the student.~The tutor~ doth protest too much. Francis Bacon – Of Studies (1625): said “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested”
It is possible to be full of knowledge and devoid of wisdom, or in another way of saying ;- what good is it to count from 1 to a billion but cannot comprehend nothing and infinity in the same breathe.
I have no doubt DuQuette is knowledgeable in his knowledge. I am sure there will be information herein that is appreciated by the learner and well travelled as well. For me, and like the Fool who fled the crown in pursuit of Wisdom, I am but sacrificed in judgement, between severity and mercy, and thus choose to be silent.
Dorothy wore silver slippers (They were silver in the original book, not Ruby!) therein met the scarecrow~ who wanted to Know. Then the woodman, whose heart- the cause to desire and Will, and then the lion, who wanted courage, to Dare! Faced with the wonderous magician whose knowledge was profound, and whose legend was spoken of throughout the land, she could not keep silent! I am sure like most professors and masters, they are good people those masters and baton twirlers pointing to ever increasing formulae on the blackboard, well meaning ! but distractions do not guide me home.
We are told to create a tarot deck, to build our temple, perhaps that’s why Duquette has given us so many titbits of information, to pick and choose ? How’s about, seeing as we’ve ditched the king, we tear down the temple, and rest in the garden?
I have so much more to say and so little incentive to be bothered.
I should have just watched the trailer instead of sitting through the directors cut. The meat and bones, the best bits are always in the trailer.

fig: 1 correspondence, wordpress doesnt like text images. If it looks confusing and muddled, perhaps thats symbolic for what it is…

Header Image;- Hubert Robert – Imaginary View of the Grande Galerie in the Louvre in Ruins (1796)