Posts Tagged ‘aleister crowley’

Tarot Archetypes in Action
& How to Calculate Them
by L. A. Lothian

Archetypes are energetic imprints that exist in the psyches all of us, even though throughout history we have tended to externalize these archetypes as Gods, Goddesses, and planets. For instance, the 11 known celestial bodies of our solar system (Chiron included) are often misrepresented in astrology as forces out there, acting on us.

In truth, the planets represent archetypal forces within us–from Mercury our communicator/thinker to Neptune our inner mystic/dreamer to the Moon, our emotional nature. It is when we disown the energy of any particular planet within us, that we misconstrue the influence of that planet as a malefic trouble maker!

The 22 archetypes of the Major Arcana come to us from the shadowy realms of forgotten pre-history, in all likelihood part of a wisdom that once passed for general knowledge, yet was lost in the looting, pillaging and burning of Hellenic and Alexandrian libraries. That said, the tarot re-emerged in medieval times, was fortified in the late 19th century mystery schools a la Aleister Crowley, and with the mass distribution afforded by modern games companies, have seen a major resurgence.

Although Tarot cards have long been used as a parlor game and fortune telling device, Tarot archetypes are a key to 22 expressions of soul energy, and to the 21 steps we take on the journey of soul growth. The 22nd archetype is the Fool, who represents the vagabond traveler we all are through out the cycles of incarnations on the physical plane.

Twenty-two might seem like an awfully crowded room, a giving us a psyche of Sybil-plus proportions. However, there are really 10 core archetypes, with the remaining 12 representing a deeper level or another layer of one of these primary archetypes. One way to imagine our psyches is as a room full of 10 pregnant women, two carrying twins. The room IS crowded, it just doesn’t seem unmanageable because the other 12 are nascent and dormant beings that have yet to be born. It is an evolutionary challenge as a species, then, to begin to express the 12 Higher Archetypes by giving birth to and nurturing them in our lifetimes.

So who are the all star cast? In order of appearance: Magician, High Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgment, World, and Fool.

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In 1904, Aleister Crowley commissioned, edited, introduced and released an English translation of The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King, the first of five magical texts known as the Lemegeton. Although various editions have remained in print over the years, relatively few individuals have actually participated in an evocation of a Goetic Spirit. The reasons for this are many, but perhaps the single, most compelling excuse is rooted in the mistaken belief that t… More >>

Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia

A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians, Equinox Volume III, No. V
This book describes the philosophy and the use of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, a deck of Tarot cards designed by Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris. A classic in the field, and used by students of the Golden Dawn, as well as by those who want to understand Crowley’s tarot. This is the definitive study of the Egyptian tarot and is used as a key to all Western mystery traditions.
The Thoth Tarot has become one of the best-selling and most popular Tarot Decks in the world.

From the editor:
The Tarot is a pictorial representation of the Forces of Nature as conceived by the Ancients according to a conventional symbolism. At first sight one would suppose this arrangement to be arbitrary, but it is not. It is necessitated by the structure of the universe, and in particular of the Solar System, as symbolized by the Holy Qabalah.
- Aleister Crowley

This book was originally published in a limited edition of 200 numbered and signed copies in 1944. In part one, we find the Origin on the Tarot; The Theory of the Correspondences of the Tarot, The Evidence for the Initiated Tradition of the Tarot; Eliphaz Levi and the Tarot; The Tarot in the Cipher Manuscripts; The Tarot and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; The Nature of the Evidence; Summary of the Questions Hitherto Discussed; The Tarot and the Holy Qabalah; The Naples Arrangement; The Tarot and the Formula of the Tetragrammaton, The Tarot and the Elements; The Twenty-two Keys, Atu, or Trumps of the Tarot; The Tarot and the Universe; Theories of the Ancients; The Tree of Life; The Naples Arrangement; The Tarot and the Tree of Life; The Atu of Tahuti; The Roman Numbers of the Trumps; The Tarot and Magick; The Shemhamphorasch and the Tarot; The Tarot and Ceremonial Magick; The Tarot and Animism; The Cards of the Tarot as Living Beings.

The Thoth Tarot Deck (or “Crowley Deck” as it is more widely known) is one of the most popular decks in current use- It is also one of the most original interpretations of the tarot, incorporating astrological, numerological, and Qabalistic symbolism. While there are many other useful-guides to this famous tarot deck, there are no others which explain the deck in its creator’s own words. The Book of Thoth has been used for many years by students of the occult for study of the tarot and as a -key to all Western mystery traditions. As such, this book is on the short list of must-have textbooks for modern students of the tarot and esoteric studies.

The Thoth Tarot codifies a wealth of wisdom and traditional lore in a suite of 78 miniature paintings of deceptive simplicity. While the Thoth Tarot Deck is today the subject of numerous books, there is no replacement for the designer’s own thoughts on the cards, and their underlying esoteric philosophy. The Book of Thoth is an indispensable companion to the deck, and the most authoritative and reliable guide to the Tarot in the New Aeon.
-Hymenaeus Beta, Frater Superior, O.T.O.
MASTER THERION (Aleister Crowley)

The Book of Thoth

Excerpts & Reviews
- The Twenty-Two Keys, ATU, or Trumps Of The Tarot
- The Naples Arrangement

Aleister Crowley’s Thoth tarot—one of the most respected yet enigmatic tarot decks of all time—offers rich rewards for those who can penetrate its complex symbolism.
Written by ceremonial magician and tarot expert Michael Osiris Snuffin, The Thoth Companion is the key to understanding the true symbolic meaning of the Thoth deck. This comprehensive reference work examines all seventy-eight cards within the context of Thelema, Qabala, and ceremonial magic—the spiritual foundations upon which the deck was built. These detailed interpretations reveal valuable insights, significant correspondences, and Crowley’s encoded secrets.

Once you’ve mastered the meaning behind this legendary deck, The Thoth Companion shows you how to use the Thoth tarot for divination, meditation, developing intuition, and pathworking. Straightforward and user-friendly, this guide also includes a glossary, bibliography, index, and an extensive appendix featuring correspondence tables.

The Naples Arrangement
(from The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley)

The Qabalists expanded this idea of Nothing, and got a second kind of Nothing which they called “Ain Soph”-”Without Limit”. (This idea seems not unlike that of Space.) They then decided that in order to interpret this mere absence of any means of definition, it was necessary to postulate the Ain Soph Aur-”Limitless Light”. By this they seem to have meant very much what the late Victorian men of science meant, or thought that they meant, by the Luminiferous Ether. (The Space-Time Continuum?) All this is evidently without form and void; these are abstract conditions, not positive ideas. The next step must be the idea of Position. One must formulate this thesis: If there is anything except Nothing, it must exist within this Boundless Light; within this Space; within this inconceivable Nothingness, which cannot exist as Nothing-ness, but has to be conceived of as a Nothingness composed of the annihilation of two imaginary opposites. Thus appears The Point, which has “neither parts nor magnitude, but only position”.

But position does not mean anything at all unless there is something else, some other position with which it can be compared. One has to describe it. The only way to do this is to have another Point, and that means that one must invent the number Two, making possible The Line.

But this Line does not really mean very much, because there is yet no measure of length. The limit of knowledge at this stage is that there are two things, in order to be able to talk about them at all. But one cannot say that they are near each other, or that they are far apart; one can only say that they are distant. In order to discriminate between them at all, there must be a third thing. We must have another point. One must invent The Surface; one must invent The Triangle. In doing this, incidentally, appears the whole of Plane Geometry. One can now say, “A is nearer to B than A is to C”.

But, so far, there is no substance in any of these ideas. In fact there are no ideas at all) except the idea of Distance and perhaps the idea of Between-ness, and of Angular Measurement; so that plane Geometry, which now exists in theory, is after all completely inchoate and incoherent.. There has been no approach at all to the conception of a really existing thing. No more has been done than to make definitions, all in a purely ideal and imaginary world.

Now then comes The Abyss. One cannot go any further into the ideal. The next step must be the Actual—at least, an approach to the Actual. There are three points, but there is no idea of where any one of them is. A fourth point is essential, and this formulates the idea of matter.

The Point, the Line, the Plane. The fourth point, unless it should happen to lie in the plane, gives The Solid. If one wants to know the position of any point, one must define it by the use of three co-ordinate axes. It is so many feet from the North wall, and so many feet from the East wall, and so many feet from the floor.Thus there has been developed from Nothingness a Something which can be said to exist. One has arrived at the idea of

Matter. But this existence is exceedingly tenuous, for the only property of any given point is its position in relation to certain other points; no change is possible; nothing can happen. One is therefore compelled, in the analysis of known Reality, to postulate a fifth positive idea, which is that of Motion. This implies the idea of Time, for only through Motion, and in Time, can any event happen. Without this change and sequence, nothing can be the object of sense. (It is to be noticed that this No.5 is the number of the letter He’ in the Hebrew alphabet. This is the letter traditionally consecrated to the Great Mother. It is the womb in which the Great Father, who is represented by the letter Yod which is pictorially the representation of an ultimate Point, moves and begets active existence).

There is now possible a concrete idea of the Point; and, at last it is a point which can be self-conscious, because it can have a Past, Present and Future. It is able to define itself in terms of the previous ideas. Here is the number Six, the centre of the system: self-conscious, capable of experience.

At this stage it is convenient to turn away for a moment from the strictly Qabalistic symbolism. The doctrine of the next three numbers (to some minds at least) is not very clearly expressed. One must look to the Vedanta system for a more lucid interpretation of the numbers 7, 8 and 9 although they correspond very closely with the Qabalistic ideas. In the Hindu analysis of existence the Rishis (sages) postulate three qualities: Sat, the Essence of Being itself; Chit, Thought, or Intellection; and Ananda (usually translated Bliss), the pleasure experienced by Being in the course of events. This ecstasy is evidently the exciting cause of the mobility of existence. It explains the assumption of imperfection on the part of Perfection. The Absolute would be Nothing, would remain in the condition of Nothingness; therefore, in order to be conscious of its possibilities and to enjoy them, it must explore these possibilities. One may here insert a parallel statement of this doctrine from the document called The Book of the Great Auk to enable the student to consider the position from the standpoint of two different minds.

“All elements must at one time have been separate.—That would be the case with great heat.—Now, when the atoms get to the Sun, we get that immense, extreme heat, and all the elements are themselves again. Imagine that each atom of each element possesses the memory of all his adventures in combination. By the way, that atom, fortified with memory, would not be the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from anywhere except this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time and by virtue of memory, a thing could become something more than itself; thus, a real development is possible. One can then see a reason for any element deciding to go through this series of incarnations, because so, and only so, can he go; and he suffers the lapse of memory which he has during these incarnations, because he knows he will come through unchanged.

“Therefore you can have an infinite number of gods, individual and equal though diverse, each one supreme and utterly indestructible. This is also the only explanation of how a Being could create a world in which War, Evil, etc., exist. Evil is only an appearance, because (like “Good”) it cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply its combinations. This is something the same as Mystic Monotheism; but the objection to that theory is that God has to create things which are all parts of himself, so that their interplay is false. If we presuppose many elements, their interplay is natural.”

These ideas of Being, Thought and Bliss constitute the minimum possible qualities which a Point must possess if it is to have a real sensible experience of itself. These correspond to the numbers 9, 8 and 7. The first idea of reality, as known by the mind, is therefore to conceive of the Point as built up of these previous nine successive developments from Zero. Here then at last is the number Ten. In other words, to describe Reality in the form of Knowledge, one must postulate these ten successive ideas. In the Qabalah, they are called “Sephiroth”, which means “Numbers”. As will be seen later, each number has a significance of its own; each corresponds with all phenomena in such a way that their arrangement in the Tree of Life, as shown in the diagrams (pp.266, 268, 270), is a map of the Universe. These ten numbers are represented in the Tarot by the forty small cards.

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