A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
Knight of Wands Fire of Fire, this Knight and his horse are being almost blasted off the card from some massive force behind them! This is a fantastic fiery energy but! Imagine the Knight riding a horse rocket - if he can't control its direction he is going to crash and burn. From BOT: The moral qualities appropriate to this figure are activity, generosity, fierceness, impetuosity, swiftness and unpredictable actions. This Knight has the potential of being the strongest of the court cards but he needs to learn to grasp and hold on to this energy and use it wisely. Be sure to aim at your goals and know what you want before you fire up your horse rocket. Once you get going, this energy is going to take you to some awesome places!
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A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Universe This card has A LOT on it and I am still studying the symbology, so we will go with what I have so far. Which is what Crowley says about it LOL "In the card there is a glyph of the completion of the Great Work in its highest sense, exactly as The Fool symbolizes its beginning. The Fool is the negative issuing into manifestation; the Universe is that manifestation, its purpose accomplished, ready to return. The twenty cards between them exhibit the Great Work and its agents in various stages. We started with the Fool and took a long journey to get here - the Great Work. Finding out who we are and who we want to be. We went through alchemical changes and let go of outdated beliefs to keep up with our new Aeon. This card represents the planet Saturn and the element of Earth. Saturn sits in Binah on the Tree of Life and the path of the Universe leads from Yesod down to Malkuth. Highest and lowest - the journey of our Great Work. The main definition of this card is synthesis, patience, persistence stubbornness in difficulty and the crystallization of the whole matter involved. We have learned so much on our trip and now it's time to start again, ever refining ourselves as a dancing child of the Universe. **next up - Aces, Courts and The Small Cards** A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Aeon (Traditionally called Judgment) Crowley felt that Judgment was obsolete for this new Aeon, the Aeon of Horus. Nuit is again shown but this time in her usual form of arcing over the night sky. Her body is filled with stars and a milk of galaxies - her body forms the omega around a massive egg that holds the image of Horus. Shin is the Hebrew letter for the Aeon and one is found at the bottom of the card, holding 3 figures - flames are in front of a set of scales (allusion to the next Aeon of Maat, Goddess of Justice and balance) Crowley says of the New Aeon: The time for the birth of an Aeon seems to be indicated by great concentration of political power with improvements in travel and communication. General advance of philosophy and science with a need to consolidate religious thought. The general meaning of this card is Final decision in respect of the past, new current in respect of the future, always represents the taking of a definite step. The past echoes into our present and future - every cause has its effect. We need to look at what we have done and accept it - good or bad- and then let it go, forgive ourselves and be ready to move forward into a new Aeon with all we have learned. A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Sun Crowley says of this card. "This is one of the simplest cards; it represents the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical. He is the Lord of Light, Life, Liberty and Love. This Aeon has for its purpose the complete emancipation of the human race." And that is why I love this card - (usually I HATE this card in the RWS decks.) Freeing ourselves from outdated beliefs and moving ourselves upward and onward is such an awesome idea and that is this card! As the Sun constantly regenerates so do we. At one time people thought the Sun died each night but now we know that isn't true. Sunlight is perpetual and Death is an illusion and the night will end with another day of Sun. The twins on the card were the babies on the Fool card as well as the children/bride/groom on the Lovers. They represent the male and female, eternally young, shameless and innocent. They are dancing in the light, and yet they dwell upon the earth. They represent the next stage which is to be attained by mankind, in which complete freedom is alike the cause and the result of the new access of solar energy upon the earth. (BOT) A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Moon Let the Illusion of the World pass over thee, unheeded, as thou goest from the Midnight to the Morning. (BOT) One of my favorite cards, looks kind of spooky and unreal and perfect for symbolizing the night and dreams and also the nightmares that can take us while we sleep. While the Priestess has the happier aspects of the Moon, the Moon itself is a bit darker? Look at the colors on the card - the moonlight gives everything a twilight zone vibe. That light illuminates EVERYTHING - including the things we might be trying to hide from ourselves. But look closer - it is lighting up a path for us to walk, it may not be an easy path but it is there for us! Crowley says of this path: It is guarded by Tabu. She is uncleanliness and sorcery. Upon the hills, are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear. It needs unconquerable courage to begin to tread this path. The scarab/water spider is carrying the sun on its back - out of the water and that tells us this isn't never ending darkness and it will end. In The Book of Thoth, Crowley says, "Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: How splendid is the Adventure!" The darkest hour before the dawn, the brink of important change - yes! This is a time to let the Moon illuminate everything for us to see - to study it, to embrace it and not fear it. We have all sorts of things inside that make us who we are - don't shun the less pretty sides but be honest about them. If it is something to change, then stand firm and do so knowing you will become stronger for it. This is a powerful energy and magic! A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Star This Star is Nuit, not arched across the sky, but in Goddess form. Crowley also says she is the personification of Babylon/Scarlet Woman. The great globe behind her represents the entire heavens surrounding the Earth - so everything we see on the card transcends the concept of infinite space. Crowley writes: From the golden cup she pours this ethereal water, which is also milk and oil and blood, upon her own head, indicating the eternal renewal of the categories, the inexhaustible possibilities of existence. The left hand, holds a silver cup from which also she pours the immortal liquid of life. A card of hope and promise and rest and renewal, Nuit gives: Unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death, peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice." (Book of the Law) A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Tower Break down the fortress of thine Individual Self, that they Truth may spring free from the ruins! (BOT) Crowley describes this card as the manifestation of cosmic energy in its grossest form. It is the planetary trump of Mars and there is a lot of energetic destruction going on here. Flames blast from a mouth (the Hebrew letter Pe means mouth) and there is a huge Eye blasting out lightning. Crowley says the Eye refers to either the Eye of Horus or the Eye of Shiva. Shiva, God of destruction (goes well with Mars) and for him to destroy the Universe, he only needs to open his eye. What destruction we start here in the Tower, we finish The Aeon. This is a natural process that shouldn't be a massive cataclysm. It can FEEL like one but it is necessary to let go of things that no longer serve us or may be holding us back. In the main definition of this card we see "danger, ruin and escape from prison." Escape from prison. That is a great way of seeing this card. Whatever is holding us back from growing and moving forward needs to be destroyed. Trust this process. A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
The Devil Can we just pause to LOOK at this Devil? He is a happy smiling glad to be here Devil - the Trump of Capricorn - so a happy goat devil! Goat and scapegoat - the Devil card is much maligned - said to be the bad/evil card, but no. All cards have the potential to be good and or evil - just like we humans have that same potential within us. From the Book of Thoth: This card represents creative energy in its most material form; in the Zodiac, Capricornus occupies the Zenith. It is the most exalted of the signs; it is the goat leaping with lust upon the summits of earth... In this sign, Mars is exalted, showing in its best form the fiery, material energy of creation. Masculine energy at its most masculine. And the symbolism on the card shows just that. This Devil that people have been brought up to fear is life itself - happy, creative, unrestrained life. That wants to grow and unite with everything. This card then is the complete appreciation of all existing things. He represents the finding of ecstasy in every phenomenon and transcends all limitations. Blind impulses, ambition, temptation - are a few of the ways this card can be defined - but if we accept our "good" impulses as well as the "bad" ones, we can remained honest and balanced. We are free to choose! Embrace, don't hide your shadow side - by hiding it, it becomes something bigger or darker than it should be. The Great Work is to reconcile ourselves into wholeness - and we do that by facing all our disparate parts and uniting them together. A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
Art Looking closely at the symbolism here, Art and Death are closely intertwined. The cauldron is the Death card - the raven/skull is the caput mortuum and shows the alchemical process of putrefaction, taking place inside. It is also the consummation of the Royal Marriage that happened back in The Lovers. Art is the coagula to the Lovers solve. The White Tincture of the Empress unites with The Red Tincture of the Emperor. So, now we have from The Magus, The Empress and The Emperor - mercury, salt and sulfur. Combined and balanced creates the Universal solvent, Vitriol. So, what does Vitriol dissolve? Old life - to create new. Behind the figures on the card is the Orphic Egg. Everything we see on this card is actually happening inside the Egg -everything is combining together - all the alchemical trumps before this are merging into one being and creating a new one. Crowley says, "But this is only crude symbol of the spiritual idea, which is the satisfaction of the desire of the incomplete element of one kind to satisfy its formula by assimilation of its equal and opposite." I know this is a lot of alchemical information that can be confusing, but it comes down to this: combining, dissolving, creating something new. Everything that we were, that we are, that we have learned gets combined within us and makes something more. This is where we decide what it is we want and don't want and shape the life we want. This is our Great Work. A Walk Through the Thoth Tarot
Death The Universe is Change; every Change is the effect of an Act of Love; all Acts of Love contain Pure Joy. Die Daily! Death is the apex of one curve of the snake Life: behold all opposites as necessary complements, and rejoice! (BOT) Death and the next card, Art - go hand in hand from an alchemical point of view. It almost seems as if Art should go first as it gives us hints of the final stages of the Great Work and Death is the final stage! The Orphic Egg is now in its last stages of development, getting ready to hatch! Death is about putrefaction - and while that sounds absolutely disgusting, it is not. It is a vital part of the Great Work - putrefaction is the chemical changes which develop the final form of life from the Orphic Egg. This Death is nothing to fear - this one is happily stirring up the sea bed, churning up new life. "So also the formula of continued life is death, or putrefaction." Crowley. If we want to continue to grow and thrive, to finish our own Great Work, we need Death. Don't fear the reaper. |
AuthorMy Tarot Card Practice. I have been studying Tarot for over 20 years now and am still learning new things daily. Archives
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