¶A Note About the Tarot Cards
The original deck that Don Elkins used for questioning was the work of C.C. Zain, founder of the Church of Light.
C.C. Zain’s first deck was released in 1918. It was subsequently revised in the 1930’s, and issued as a monochrome deck in the 1960’s. It is the 1960’s deck that Don, Jim, and Carla used for questioning Ra about the archetypal mind.
This website features the first seven arcana in the series that were re-drawn by L/L Research according to Ra’s responses in Book IV.
Because L/L Research did not receive permission to publish the tarot images from the Church of Light deck, the remaining images, Arcana 8 – 22, come from a very similar deck made by George Fathman.
¶Tarot images used for The Law of One and Ra Contact books
¶Law of One: Printed in the front of the printed and PDF versions of Book IV
- The entire Arcana 1 – 22 George Fathman tarot deck.
¶Law of One & Ra Contact: Printed in the back of the PDF and printed versions
- The first seven images of the Church of Light deck, re-drawn according to Ra’s responses.
- Followed by Arcana 8 – 22 of the George Fathman tarot deck.
¶Actually used for questioning but unable to be printed
- C.C. Zain’s deck available from the Church of Light
¶Formerly featured in the PDF version on LLResearch.org
¶Predecessor
¶Full Explanation
¶C.C. Zain images
The original deck that Don Elkins used for questioning was the work of C.C. Zain, founder of the Church of Light.
C.C. Zain’s first deck was released in 1918. It was subsequently revised in the 1930’s, and issued as a monochrome deck in the 1960’s. It is the 1960’s deck that Don, Jim, and Carla used for questioning Ra about the archetypal mind. That deck is listed as the “BOL II” design on this website.
The Church of Light has since updated the black & white 1960’s deck with color, using computers to create the images instead of hand drawings. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between the current deck the Church of Light offers through their website, and the one Don used for Book IV in the early 80’s.
Lawofone.info has a gallery of the Church of Light images that Don originally used for questioning, except that the first seven cards are those that L/L Research had redrawn as a result of Ra’s responses in Book IV.
¶George Fathman images
Because L/L Research did not receive permission to publish the tarot images from the Church of Light deck, a very similar deck from George Fathman was printed in the front of the hardcopy and PDF versions of Book IV.
Also, in the back of the PDF version of Book IV is printed Arcana 8 – 22 of the Fathman deck.
¶Interesting Tidbit
In #89.14, Don asks the question:
I have here a deck of twenty-two tarot cards which have been copied, according to information we have, from the walls of, I would suspect, the large pyramid at Giza.
His response in the next question repeats this idea:
In other words, you might say that these were better than, say, 95% correct as far as representing what is on the walls of the Great Pyramid?
The notion of tarot images appearing on the interior walls of the Great Pyramid has puzzled those of us who followed Don as we have no awareness of any historical source making such a claim, and as there has been no documented evidence of any inscriptions on the interior walls of the pyramid (besides some grafitti that came later).
Our friend Gyergyói László, the Hungarian translator, tracked down the source. László read the book The Sacred Tarot (see footnote #1). This is the companion book of the tarot deck that the L/L group used for questioning. (The author is listed as Elbert Benjamine, which is the real name of C.C. Zain.) László found a digitally scanned version of the book.
On page 75, the author describes the “Tarot pictures adorning the walls of the ancient Egyptian initiation chamber.”
Also, Carla and Jim read the Sacred Tarot in order to formulate questions for Ra. A few examples:
#91.27 Questioner: “The cup may represent the mixture of positive and negative passions. Would Ra comment, please?”
Page 79, Zain: “The cup signifies the mixture of the passions…”
#91.31 Questioner: “I have listed here the sword as struggle. I am not sure that I even can call anything in this diagram a sword. Would Ra comment on that?”
Page 79-80, Zain: “The sword signifies the work, the struggle….”
#91.32 Questioner: “I have listed the coin as work accomplished. I am also in doubt about the existence of the coin in this diagram. Would Ra comment?”
Page 80, Zain: “The coin, sign of determined value, is the symbol of realized aspirations, of work accomplished…”
However, Don and group eventually stopped relying on a book.
#78.33 Questioner: “It seems to me that everything that I have read having to do with archetypes is, to some degree or another, distorted by those who have written, and the fact that our language is not really capable of description.”
And then:
#89.24 Questioner: Now as I understand it, what you suggest as far as the tarot goes is to study the writings that we have available and from those formulate questions. Is this correct?
Ra: I am Ra. No.
#89.25 Ra: We may suggest a conscientious review of that which we have already given concerning this subject [of the archetypal mind] as opposed to the major reliance being either upon any rendition of the archetype pictures, or any system which has been arranged as a means of studying these pictures.