https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/servants-of-the-light/

The Gypsy writes:

by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Josephine Gill and Anthony Clark

published by The Aquarian Press, Great Britain, 1991

traditional card titles

eight: Strength; eleven: Justice

suits are staves, crescents, weapons and spheres

courts are maker, giver, user and keeper

illustrated pips, no captions

backs non-symmetrical

     From Michele’s excellent website, (http://www.erols.com/jacksn/sol.htm) we learn, “This deck was conceived by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. The major arcana were drawn by Josephine Gill (of the Gill Tarot), while the Court Cards and minor arcana were drawn some years later by Anthony Clark (of the Magickal Tarot).” Also, that the staves and weapons swap elemental assignation. Also, that the courts are unexpected. The order in which a suit symbol occurs has to come this way: maker, giver, user and keeper. But the maker is the king; the queen gives the element; the knight uses it; and the page keeps it.

     From http://www.algonet.se/~sol_swe/index.html we learn, “Servants of the Light is a fully contacted Mystery School teaching through correspondence. We are a registered non-profit organization and have approximately 2600 students in 23 different countries. Servants of the Light was founded in 1965 in England by the well-known magician, psychic and author W. E. Butler. He had been a student of Dion Fortune's and a member of her Fraternity of Inner Light since its inception in the 1920's. His appointed successor, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, is the present Director of Studies.”

     The late W.E. Butler described the school this way, “The contact, upon which our course is built, is an Egyptian contact. We do not say much about that. That is something which the student grows into in the course of his work. But it is generally an Egyptian school. That does not mean to say we all float about wearing the robes of Osiris or the robes of Isis. We do not make of it a silly mythological thing. But we do say, that the forces which are working in our course, are the forces which were also working in the old schools of Alexandria at the time when the Mysteries were just drawing to their close and the new teaching of Christianity was emerging as a power in the land. The teaching which was given in Alexandria in those days, was a composite teaching. Alexandria was a city which faced upon the world; East and West met in Alexandria. There the great schools were formed. And it is with that contact that we are concerned.”

      About the name of the school, Butler continues, ”In the beginning of the Gospel of St John, it says, ‘the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.‘ Imagine a million and million of miles of space. Dark, dark space. But in that million of miles of dark space you light one small candle. And it shines in the darkness. And all the millions and millions of cubic miles of space cannot extinguish that one little candle. The darkness cannot overcome the Light, but the Light always will overcome the darkness. And that is the promise for us for the future; the Light shines in the darkness of this world, as it always has been shining throughout the Ages. It is within us and without us, and we have to work upon ourselves in order that that Light may shine forth and so reinforce the Light which shines around us, until everyone is aware that the inner Light in ourselves and the outer Light around us are aspects of the One Light in which the whole universe is bathed; of which indeed the whole universe is a manifestation.”

     The backs of the cards are Latin (Alexandrae Sigillum Sanctum Fraternitatis) around a hexagram enclosing a Seal of Solomon with flames in each of the triangles and a honeybee in the central hex. I find honeybees in the Prime and Maker of Staves, and the Prime and Maker of Spheres. The pips are astonishing. The trumps are predictable. Still, we can discover some surprises.

     This Fool steps from a painting into three dimensions. This Magician is Alexandrian. This High Priestess has all the classic signs in the lost Atlantean temple of Naradek. This Empress sits on a throne which overgrows. This Emperor sits on a cube which overlooks a grand canyon of volcanoes. This Priest has shaven his own pate and tattooed the Celtic cross on both hands and feet. These Lovers reach at seashore under a Lord of Flame. This Chariot has a seat. In a moebius strip of flowers, this Strength struggles with her red beast. This Hermit bows his head under the Tree of Life, with the face of Gill’s father, SOL supervisor for years. This triple Wheel is a gyroscope of Rings Cosmos, Chaos and Pass Not. This Justice is Hermanubis in the Hall of the 42 Assessors. This Hanged Man dangles by delicate flowers. This Death plays dice with a woman on the way to the void in a glass boat. This Temperance is seated, holding a scale which balances fire and water, and a red feather. The nudity in this Devil caused an American publisher to reject the deck in 1978. This Tower is built on a mountain top where the Tree of Life watches the disaster with eyes for sephiroth. This Star stands balanced among the elements. This Moon spurts eighteen tears which become eyes as gravity takes them. This Sun smiles on a young couple, dancing on a rainbow disk, spinning over mundane awareness. Without a horn, this Judgment calls the three aspects of self. This World is an androgyne with wings that suggest the Chinese yin/yang, cornered by the Chaioth Ha Kadesh or Lords of the Cosmos.