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Paul Foster Case
Paul Foster Case (October 3, 1884 – March 1, 1954) was an American occultist, Freemason, and writer of books on occult tarot and Qabalah. Perhaps his greatest contributions to the field of occultism[citation needed] were the lessons he wrote for associate members of Builders of the Adytum or B.O.T.A. The knowledge lectures given to initiated members of the chapters of the B.O.T.A. were equally profound,[citation needed] although the limited distribution has made them less well known.
A modern scholar of the occult tarot and Qabalah, Paul Foster Case was born on October 3, 1884, in Fairport, New York.
His father was the town librarian and a deacon at the local Congregational church. When he was five years old, his mother began teaching him to play the piano and organ, and later in his youth, Case performed as organist in his family's church. A talented musician, he embarked on a successful career as a violinist, and orchestra conductor. He had an honorary doctorate in music awarded to him. Case was early on attracted to the occult. While still a child he reported experiences that today are called lucid dreaming. He corresponded about these experiences with Rudyard Kipling who encouraged him as to the validity of his paranormal pursuits.
In the year 1901, Case met the occultist Claude Bragdon while both were performing at a charity performance. Bragdon asked Case what he thought the origin of playing cards was. After pursuing the question in his father's library, Case discovered a link to tarot, called 'The Game of Man'. Thus began what would become Case's lifelong study of the tarot, and leading to the creation of the B.O.T.A. tarot deck, which Case called a "corrected" version of the Rider–Waite cards.
Between 1905 and 1908 (aged 20–24), Case began practicing yoga, and in particular pranayama, from what published sources were available. His early experiences appear to have caused him some mental and emotional difficulties and left him with a lifelong concern that so called "occult" practice be done with proper guidance and training.
In the summer of 1907, Case read The Secret of Mental Magic by William W. Atkinson (aka Ramacharaka) which led him to correspond with the then popular new thought author. Biographer Paul Clark has proposed that Case and Atkinson were two of the three anonymous authors of The Kybalion, although the introduction to The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition (2011) presents considerable evidence for Atkinson as the book's sole author.
Case reported a meeting on the streets of Chicago, in 1909 or 1910, that was to change the course of his life. "Dr. Fludd", a Chicago physician, approached the young Case and greeting him by name, saying he had a message from a "master of wisdom who is my teacher as well as yours."
The stranger said that Case was being offered a choice. He could continue with his successful musical career and live comfortably, or he could dedicate himself to "serve humanity" and thereby play a role in the coming age. From that time on, Case began to study and formulate the lessons that served as the core curricula of the "Builders of the Adytum", the school of tarot study and Qabalah that Case founded and that continues today.
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Paul Foster Case
Paul Foster Case (October 3, 1884 – March 1, 1954) was an American occultist, Freemason, and writer of books on occult tarot and Qabalah. Perhaps his greatest contributions to the field of occultism[citation needed] were the lessons he wrote for associate members of Builders of the Adytum or B.O.T.A. The knowledge lectures given to initiated members of the chapters of the B.O.T.A. were equally profound,[citation needed] although the limited distribution has made them less well known.
A modern scholar of the occult tarot and Qabalah, Paul Foster Case was born on October 3, 1884, in Fairport, New York.
His father was the town librarian and a deacon at the local Congregational church. When he was five years old, his mother began teaching him to play the piano and organ, and later in his youth, Case performed as organist in his family's church. A talented musician, he embarked on a successful career as a violinist, and orchestra conductor. He had an honorary doctorate in music awarded to him. Case was early on attracted to the occult. While still a child he reported experiences that today are called lucid dreaming. He corresponded about these experiences with Rudyard Kipling who encouraged him as to the validity of his paranormal pursuits.
In the year 1901, Case met the occultist Claude Bragdon while both were performing at a charity performance. Bragdon asked Case what he thought the origin of playing cards was. After pursuing the question in his father's library, Case discovered a link to tarot, called 'The Game of Man'. Thus began what would become Case's lifelong study of the tarot, and leading to the creation of the B.O.T.A. tarot deck, which Case called a "corrected" version of the Rider–Waite cards.
Between 1905 and 1908 (aged 20–24), Case began practicing yoga, and in particular pranayama, from what published sources were available. His early experiences appear to have caused him some mental and emotional difficulties and left him with a lifelong concern that so called "occult" practice be done with proper guidance and training.
In the summer of 1907, Case read The Secret of Mental Magic by William W. Atkinson (aka Ramacharaka) which led him to correspond with the then popular new thought author. Biographer Paul Clark has proposed that Case and Atkinson were two of the three anonymous authors of The Kybalion, although the introduction to The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition (2011) presents considerable evidence for Atkinson as the book's sole author.
Case reported a meeting on the streets of Chicago, in 1909 or 1910, that was to change the course of his life. "Dr. Fludd", a Chicago physician, approached the young Case and greeting him by name, saying he had a message from a "master of wisdom who is my teacher as well as yours."
The stranger said that Case was being offered a choice. He could continue with his successful musical career and live comfortably, or he could dedicate himself to "serve humanity" and thereby play a role in the coming age. From that time on, Case began to study and formulate the lessons that served as the core curricula of the "Builders of the Adytum", the school of tarot study and Qabalah that Case founded and that continues today.
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