B.O.T.A. Tarot Pack a guest review by Jason Carr   The BOTA pack is a strange ugly duckling sort of pack, odd, and not particularly user-friendly.  Still, given the time and inclination, it can grow on you.   A brief historical note will make the BOTA pack easier to approach; many of the pieces will fall into place, and you may say "a-ha!" under your breath.   The Golden Dawn, the seminal late-19th century esoteric order, influenced most of the esoteric orders that function today.[0]  Among other practical experiences, each initiate made by hand a copy of the master Golden Dawn tarot as an act of devotion, meditation and instruction.   Three famous initiates, A.E. Waite, Crowley, and Paul F. Case left and later published versions of these personal decks.[1]  Although the Case and Waite packs resemble each other this is because they are both copies of the Golden Dawn pack (Crowley's version was much more colorful, cubist, and poetic).   The usual objections to the BOTA pack can now be discussed in light of its heritage.   *Black and white only:  The pack is black and white so that the BOTA member (or layman) may, after a fashion, have the pack-reproducing experience the GD initiates had.   In the course of coloring, the student is forced by necessity to color in tiny details, and these details are full of symbolism to occultists in general and BOTA members in particular.   The coloring becomes an aid to memory, in the medieval ars memoria tradition.   Although the coloring instructions may seem draconian, the colors are critical:  there are qabalistic and astrological attributions being referred to by the various colors.  In addition, hermetic tradition holds that (since everything is vibrating "light") looking at certain colors or sounding certain tones can have real effects on the student.   *The minors are pips rather than pictorial:  the Golden Dawn tarot was pips-only, and the BOTA pack follows suit (so to speak! :)   *The cards are not laminated:  true, and it makes them difficult to shuffle.  One may laminate the cards after coloring, I suppose.  Keep in mind, though, that BOTA students generally use the pack for meditation and pathwork rather than shuffling and dealing spreads.   I would recommend this pack only to students of esoteric teaching;  it's a specialized (and dry) pack most suited to practical occultism, and lacking for normal card readings.   [0] An esoteric order concerns itself with the Western Mysteries like mysticism, qabala, tarot, hermetics, alchemy, the Great Work, etc.   [1] Crowley and Case went on to adapt or create subsequent orders.  Case founded Builders of the Adytum, the primary users of the BOTA pack.   Bonus trivia:  The papal figure in Key 5 looks a good deal like Case, IMO.   Review Copyright 1998 by Jason Carr; used with permission http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/tarot/