Posts Tagged ‘Thoth Tarot’

When the King of Swords card appears in your reading, it can represent an actual person in your life. It usually signifies a Gemini, Libra or Aquarius man over the age of 30, with fair or grey hair or a light-skinned complexion.

If this card in your reading signifies someone important who fits this description, you will know intuitively that it’s him. However, the King of Swords does not always represent a specific person. The King of Swords card also very often appears when his energy and personality have a special message for you at this time in your life.

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 [intlink id="39" type="page"]Thoth Tarot Deck[/intlink] (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

Three of Cups

A joyous celebration, perhaps a wedding is indicated. Great joy and revelry accompany the favorable conclusion to some task. The happiness results from the fact that what was set out to be done is achieved.

Reversed: A situation comes to a speedy and reasonably fortunate end or is dispatched in a very agreeable way, but no cause for wild celebration. Another meaning of this card is a warning against too much indulgence in sensual pleasures of sex, food or drink.

(Click here for a free Card of The Day reading!)

Or: The Twenty-two Trumps of the Tarot

(from “[intlink id="1" type="post"]The Book of Thoth[/intlink]” by Aleister Crowley)

[Atu: House or Key, in Ancient Egyptian. Tahuti: Egyptian God of Wisdom, magick, Science, also Illusion. In Coptic, Thoth: in Greek, Hermes: in Latin, Mercury. The Hindu and Scandinavian Gods corresponding are debased forms.] Twenty-two is the number of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the number of the Paths of the Sepher Yetzirah. These paths are the paths which join the ten numbers on the figure called the Tree of Life.

Why are there twenty-two of them? Because that is the number of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and one letter goes to each path.

Why should this be so? Why should these paths be arranged on the Tree in the way that the diagram shows? Why should there not be paths connecting the numbers 2 and 5 and the numbers 3 and 4?

One cannot answer any of these questions.

Who knows “How A got leave an ox to be, No camel, quoth the Jews, like G”. (Browning)? One knows only that this was the conventional arrangement adopted by whoever it was that devised the Tarot.

What is worse, it seems very confusing, very annoying; it shakes one’s faith in these great sages. But at least there is no doubt that this is so.

The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are twenty-two. There are three ” Mother” Letters for the Elements, seven “Double Letters” for the Planets, and twelve “Single” Letters for the Signs of the Zodiac.

But there are four Elements, not three. Or, including the element of Spirit (an important matter to initiates), there are five.

There are therefore two letters of the alphabet which have to do double duty. The element of Fire is very close kin to the idea of Spirit; so the letter Shin, belonging to Fire, may be taken to mean Spirit as well. There is a special reason why this should be so, although it only applies in later ages, since the introduction of the dogma that Spirit rules the four elements, and the formation of the “Pentagram of Salvation” connected with the Hebrew word IHShVH, Yeheshuah.

With regard to Earth, it was considered adequate to make the letter Tau, belonging to Saturn, correspond also to Earth.

These additions are clear evidence that the Tarot took definite and arbitrary steps to assert the new discovery in Magick some two thousand years ago; for no system is more rigid than a Hebrew system. And the system of the Sepher Yetzirah is the deepest rooted of all the elements of the Hebrew system, the most dogmatic of them all.

The Tarot is justified not by faith, but by works. The departures from the original bone-dry Qabalah have been justified by experience. The point (raised above) about the way in which the paths are selected to join certain numbers and not others, is found to express important doctrines connected with the facts of initiation. It must always be borne in mind that the Tarot is not only an atlas for recording facts, but a guide-book showing one how to travel through these countries previously unknown.

Travellers in China are somewhat bewildered at first when they are told that it is 100 li from Yung Chang to Pu Peng, but only 40 li from Pu Peng to Yung Chang. The answer is that the li is a measure of the time of marching, not of miles. The difference of calculation informs one that Pu Peng is a long way up the hill.

It is very much the same with the Tarot. The 6 of Wands is referred to Jupiter in Leo, and called the Lord of Victory. This dictates not only what victory is like, but also the conditions to be fulfilled in order to obtain victory. There is need of the fiery energy of the suit of Wands, the balance of the number 6, the stubborn courage of Leo, and also the influence of Jupiter, the little bit of luck that tips the scale.

These considerations are particularly important in dealing with the Atu, or Trumps. The Planets are already represented in the numbers or Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. But they have also attributions to certain of the Paths.

Some etymologists of a singularly idle disposition have tried to derive the French word “atout” from the ATU meaning House. It may seem simpler to suggest that “atout” is short for “bon atout”, meaning “good for anything”, because a Trump will take any card of any suit.

The Atu of Tahuti, who is the Lord of Wisdom, are also called Keys. They are guides to conduct. They give you the map of the Kingdom of Heaven, and also the best way to take it by force. A complete understanding of any magical problem is necessary before it can be solved. Study from outside, and action from outside, are ways abortive.

It is of the utmost importance to understand this extremely specialised character of the Trumps.

To say that the Trump numbered III, called The Empress, represents Venus, means something much less and also much more ‘than appears if Venus be studied from a strictly astrological standpoint. One abandons the contemplation of the whole in order to take practical advantage of a part. Just so Tactics differs from Strategy. A great general does not think of war in the abstract, but confines his attention to a minute part of his perhaps vast knowledge of the subject by considering the disposition of his forces at a given place and time, and how best to employ them against his adversary. This is of course true not only of the Trumps, but of all the other cards; and it must be true of any specialised studies. If one goes into a shop and asks for a map of a certain country, one cannot get a complete map, because any such map would necessarily merge into the Universe as it approached completeness, for a country’s character is modified by the adjacent countries, and so on for ever. Nor would even any useful map be complete in the most vulgar practical way without leading to confusion. The shopman would want to know whether his customer wanted a geological map, an orographical map, a commercial map, a map showing the distribution of population, or a strategic map; and so on for ever.

The student of the Tarot must not therefore expect to find anything beyond a careful selection of the facts about any given card, a selection made for a quite definite magical purpose.

However, the Tarot does try to resume, in a single pictorial symbol, as many as possible of the useful aspects of the idea. In studying any card, one ought not to neglect any of the attributions, because each class of attribution does modify the form and colour of the card, and its use. This essay will endeavour, in the section describing each card in turn, to include as many of the correspondences as possible.

With thy right Eye create all for thyself,
and with the left accept all that be created otherwise.

[tab: Thoth]

Blind impulse, irresistibly strong and unscrupulous, ambition, temptation, obsession, secret plan about to be executed; hard work, obstinacy, rigidity, aching discontent, endurance.

This card is attributed to the letter ‘Ayin, which means an Eye, and it refers to Capricornus in the Zodiac. In the Dark Ages of Christianity, it was completely misunderstood.

Eliphaz Levi studied it very deeply because of its connection with ceremonial magic, his 4 favourite subject; and he re-drew it, identifying it with Baphomet, the ass-headed idol of the Knights of the Temple. [The Early Christians also were accused of worshipping an Ass, or ass-headed god. See Browning,The Ring and the Book (The Pope).] But at this time archaeological research had not gone very far; the nature of Baphomet was not fully understood. (See Atu 0, above.) At least he succeeded in identifying the goat portrayed upon the card with Pan.

On the Tree of Life, Atu XIII and XV are symmetrically placed; they lead from Tiphareth, the human consciousness, to the spheres in which Thought (on the one hand) and Bliss (on the other) are developed. Between them, Atu XIV leads similarly to the sphere which formulates Existence. (See note on Atu X and arrangement.) These three cards may therefore be summed up as a hieroglyph of the processes by which idea manifests as form.

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. The sign is ruled by Saturn, who makes for selfhood and perpetuity. In this sign, Mars is exalted, showing in its best form the fiery, material energy of creation. The card represents Pan Pangenetor, the All-Begetter.

It is the Tree of Life as seen against a background of the exquisitely tenuous, complex, and fantastic forms of madness, the divine madness of spring, already foreseen in the meditative madness of winter; for the Sun turns northwards on entering this sign. The roots of the Tree are made transparent, in order to show the innumerable leapings of the sap; before it stands the Himalayan goat, with an eye in the centre of his forehead, representing the god Pan upon the highest and most secret mountains of the earth. His creative energy is veiled in the symbol of the Wand of the Chief Adept, crowned with the winged globe and the twin serpents of Horus and Osiris.

“Hear me, Lord of the Stars, For thee have I worshipped ever With stains and sorrows and scars, With joyful, joyful Endeavour. Hear me, O lilywhite goat Crisp as a thicket of thorns, With a collar of gold for thy throat, A scarlet bow for thy horns.”

The sign of Capricornus is rough, harsh, dark, even blind; the impulse to create takes no account of reason, custom, or foresight. It is divinely unscrupulous, sublimely careless of result. “thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.” AL. I, 42-4.

It is further to be remarked that the trunk of the Tree pierces the heavens; about it is indicated the ring of the body of Nuith. Similarly, the shaft of the Wand goes down indefinitely to the centre of earth. “If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.” (AL. II, 26).

The formula of this card is then the complete appreciation of all existing things. He rejoices in the rugged and the barren no less than in the smooth and the fertile. All things equally exalt him. He represents the finding of ecstasy in every phenomenon, however naturally repugnant; he transcends all limitations; he is Pan; he is All.

It is important to notice some other correspondences. The three vowel-consonants of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Yod, ‘Ayin, these three letters form the sacred name of God, I A O. These three Atu, IX, 0, and XV, thus offer a threefold explanation of the male creative energy; but this card especially represents the masculine energy at its most masculine. Saturn, the ruler, is Set, the ass-headed god of the Egyptian deserts; he is the god of the south. The name refers to all gods containing these consonants, such as Shaitan, or Satan. (See Magick pp.336-7).

Essential to the symbolism are the surroundings – barren places, especially high places. The cult of the mountain is an exact parallel. The Old Testament is full of attacks upon kings who celebrated worship in “high places”; this, although Zion itself was a mountain! This feeling persisted, even to the days of the Witches’ Sabbath, held, if possible, on a desolate summit, but (if none were available) at least in a wild spot, uncontaminated by the artfulness of men.

Note that Shabbathai, the “sphere of Saturn”, is the Sabbath. Historically, the animus against witches pertains to the fear of the Jews; whose rites, supplanted by the Christian forms of Magic, had become mysterious and terrible. Panic suggested that Christian children were stolen, sacrificed, and eaten. The belief persists to this day.

In every symbol of this card there is the allusion to the highest things and most remote. Even the horns of the goat are spiral, to represent the movement of the all-pervading energy. Zoroaster defines God as “having a spiral force”. Compare the more recent, if less profound, writings of Einstein. [Compare Saturn, at one end of the Seven Sacred Wanderers, with the Moon at the other: the aged man and the young girl -see "The Formula of Tetragrammaton". They are linked as no other two planets, since 32=9, and each contains in itself the extremes of its own idea. (See also Appendix: Atu xxi.)]

(*from the Book of Thoth A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians, Equinox Volume III, No. V)

[tab: Rider-Waite]

The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several motives mentioned in the first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous with those of the fifth card, as if Adam and Eve after the Fall. Hereof is the chain and fatality of the material life.

[tab:END]

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.