John the Baptist and The Chariot

It may be strange to connect John the Baptist to VII The chariot, but there is good reason for doing so. The Nativity of John the Baptist, celebrated each June 24th, roughly coincides with the transition into the sign of Cancer on the 21st. Cancer, of course, is the sign associated with VII The Chariot. Cancer also being the cardinal sign of water represents the initial onrush of that element. Remember that John baptized with water, as opposed to Christ, whose coming John foretold, but who baptized "in the Spirit."

The Chariot is associated with the Holy Grail, the womb of life, the cup of the Goddess, in which is poured blood. In Christian symbolism blood and water are synonymous, which is particularly interesting given Cancer's watery nature.

The transition into Cancer on the 21st, coinciding with the Summer Solstice, represents the pinnacle of the sun's strength throughout the solar year. The solstice is the longest day of the year and all subsequent days steadily shorten. On this day the sun is at the height of its power, and in the scheme of the solar year, is when it seems most indestructible. This is a theme carried out in the Roman celebration of Sol Invictus, though this holiday was celebrated around the time of Christmas (around December 24th when the sun seems to "regenerate" after its steady decline in force through the fall).

Perhaps what remains mysterious is why the Church decided to place John the Baptist's Nativity a the same time as the transition into Cancer and the Summer Solstice. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that John himself "was not the light, but came to testify to the light." Because of this we can see his connection to Cancer (being watery), and a more general connection to the sun (as Cancer is not ruled or associated with the sun directly in any way). Therefore John's association is more aquatic than solar. In some ways we can see John as the Cup Bearer, he who bears the Grail filled with the Blood, which is solar, which is synonymous with Christ. Perhaps we can even vaguely associate John with a form of Binah, the Goddess. Indeed, John the Baptist is often depicted as an effeminate youth in Renaissance art. John conveyed the solar redemptive message, but was not the essence of redemption itself.

Let us also take note of The Chariot's associations with paths and directions. Being the bridge between Binah, the Mother of Form, and Geburah, the Power of God, The Chariot represents the form of power, or rather form being empowered. Really the distinction is irrelevant. Regardless, the energy of Geburah is given form through the Understanding the Soul is capable of. Enlightened by Wisdom, the Understanding first begets Mercy, whose main operation is to generate, but so that all things may be balanced Understanding also begets Power, whose primary function is to energize and destroy. The Chariot therefore destroys all other paths but the One True Path, which is True Will, which is Destiny, which is the cornerstone of personal Salvation, which is the Holy Guardian Angel, which is Christ.

Remember, too, that John the Baptist is always associated with the prophecy of Isaiah that says, "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, 'Prepare, ye, the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" John prepared the way, clearing it for the future sowing and reaping represented in Christ's Life, Death, and Resurrection. John made the path straight, much like the path of the Chariot. In other words, the Chariot represents a direct route for energy to take. It teaches us that the most potent energy, the most triumphant energy, is that which is grounded to only one direction and purpose. Ultimately that purpose must be solar in nature (and therefore connected to Light, Life, Love, and Liberty), must be geared towards Self, and must therefore be self-redeeming. Baptism, as we know, destroys original sin. It washes away our transgression and wipes us clean. Clearly this is a reference to Geburah's destructive and cleansing quality. Sin is the condition of life in which the consciousness is swept side to side by distractions, impulses, and desires. It is the condition of multiplicity, of disorder, and disobedience. It is to have no power over the world because one does not have power over oneself. The only recourse is purification through destruction. Through metaphysical baptism (which the ritual and sacrament of Baptism reflects), one may transcend to the victorious state of the Chariot. This is a state of being in which one becomes a vessel, a conduit for the Living God, and follows His precepts. And to follow His commandment is to Love Him, and truly "there is nothing that can unite the divided but love." The Chariot therefore also represents a condition of intense love in which the individual is lost in the mystery of the Eternal Self, which is the God of the personal Universe - the architect of one's experience over the Aeons. "There are love and love. There is the Dove and the Serpent Choose ye well!" Love, we must remember, must eradicate differentiation. In The Chariot, one is so knit to the Path of God by the power of love that one becomes as the prophets Elijah and Enoch, and "goes to walk with God." To do so is to never be known again and is akin to Nirvana. 


This condition is thus a state of grace and perfection - remember that the Chariot's number is 418, ABRAHADABRA, the cipher of the Great Work, and the word that opens all doors. When one delves deeper, one also draws the connection between ABRAHADABRA and Harpocrates, the god of Silence, the Babe in the Egg of Blue, whose Silence is the secret key to all locks, whose amorphous essence is the answer to all mysteries. Being associated with Kether, Harpocrates is also the Spirit. 


Everything connects. Baptism through water, which is blood, leads to grace, which is victory over the world and the self (an interior version of the exterior projected world); the path of grace leads to baptism in the Spirit, which is Salvation. Salvation is love of the Eternal Self to such a degree that one commits to following the path laid out by the Eternal Self in all things. Their path becomes straight, though surrounded on all sides by the desert. 

"He was despised:" Christmas and the Messiah

Madonna and Child with St. Anne

I would like to begin this post by noting that it took me a long time to figure out exactly what I wanted to write about for this post, but I also knew I could not let Christmas go by without writing something about it. I thought I would simultaneously revisit a previous topic on this blog – the nature of Atu XV The Devil from the tarot. While this seems like an unlikely subject to bring into a discussion about Christmas, there’s, as always, a reason for doing so.

As I get older (and one would like to imagine, wiser), I keep feeling this deep urge within myself to search out the religious experience with greater enthusiasm. For me, the holiday is not so much about presents, food, or celebrations, but has become more about meditation and penance, as well as great hope. I recognize that I am a contemplative person naturally, but this season in particular – perhaps because of the increasing cold and barrenness, the way nature wants to make us slow down – seems geared toward greater introspection.

Advent, if you may be aware, is a penitential season, not one of celebration. We are reminded that Christ is “coming” in order to die a wretched death, not to be coddled and cooed over like every other baby. This is why it is so important in Luke’s Gospel that Christ is born in a manger, shunned by everyone in Bethlehem. Christ comes into the world undesired and for the most part unloved. He dies hated for being a rebellious religious upstart, after having healed many who did not necessarily deserve His blessing.

Therefore, I cannot help but feel that there’s something profoundly bittersweet and sad about Christmas. Part of the Christmas celebration is about recognizing the salvation that comes with the Nativity, but we conveniently forget that that salvation comes at a tremendous price. I also think of the old Renaissance paintings of the Virgin and Child, where Mary looks slightly melancholy in her contemplation of the God she holds, and the Christ Child restlessly squirms in her embrace, nervous but anxious to do His Father’s Will. Both of them know what will happen. How is it that we seem to have forgotten what will happen?

The true joy of Christmas then, cannot have anything to do with transitory things that grant momentary pleasures. The pure blessings of happiness the season is supposed to bring must be received in acknowledging that we are entirely unworthy of so great a gift. It is through humility and fear of the Lord that we come to appreciate the religious significance of the holiday.

But instead, the holiday has been degraded into a time when children look forward to receiving endless things, and adults (myself included) struggle and grope to recreate the Christmases of their youth. And while there can be beautiful aspects of these as well – that is, the ideas of charity, innocence, nostalgia, and tradition – they seem to reflect only parts of the central idea without laying it bare and honestly. I sympathize with the people who want to “put Christ back in Christmas,” but also with the people who want to celebrate the holiday with exciting parties alongside their families. But if we are to be realistic with ourselves, these things make Christmas a chore, not a joy. By distracting ourselves from the main source of joy in Christmas with several other little and transitory joys, we have missed out a great deal. And we have also created an awful lot of stress and financial burden for ourselves.

I promised that I would somehow include XV The Devil into this post, and now might be a good opportunity to try. Of course, your average Christian will look at the Devil’s presence in the tarot and immediately jump to irrational conclusions about the practice of divination – “it’s satanic!” or “you’ll go to hell!” etc. All of these are of course entirely false. First of all, XV The Devil (at least in Crowley’s tarot) represents an initiated individual who has recreated their own morality based on the nature of their divine True Will. People label something as “a devil” or “evil” if they are afraid of it, or if they do not understand it. An individual who has questioned set modes of morality and made up their own mind on the subject may be unconventional or less inhibited, and could in that case be considered such absurd things by others. But at the same time, psychologists argue that real maturity comes from being able to dissolve morality learned from parents, societies, and religious institutions, and reassemble it back into a better understood, more flexible, and unique framework. The individuals who never take steps to question morality never fully develop as people, and remain in the darkness of ignorance. They are also the people who are most likely to not understand why something is right or wrong. Let this be clearly understood by those who would irrationally and rashly jump to conclusions about the Devil trump card, or tarot in general.

This is a significant aspect of the Devil card, as Crowley writes that he is a symbol of the Messiah revealed to the initiated. Indeed, some Gnostic Christians (albeit “heretical” Christians) believed that Satan and Christ were two sides of the same coin. For them,  Satan lead man to truth and wisdom and thereby redeemed man from his state of ignorance. But Christ Himself fits the description of the Devil card’s personality: He is rebellious; He disobeys the Law of the masses because He possesses greater authentic understanding of it; He advocates preaching of the Gospel by all, despite their ability to do so or not; He is hated by many, and is condemned from the moment of his birth until his Passion; He wields miraculous power over natural substances, whether it be the body, food, or wine; and He is “the Word made flesh.”

I will try to explain this last bit as succinctly as possible, since I realize it is probably the most esoteric part of this post so far. XV The Devil represents the reconciling of the highest with the lowest – the incarnation of the spirit in the flesh. In Kabbalistic term, it is the notion that Kether (IAO, the masculine Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is contained in Malkuth (the body, the Bride of Christ, and the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit). Kether is the First Mover of the Aristotelian cosmology, and is seen as the First Logos (Word or Will) as well, since a God is synonymous with its Will. In fact, a God may only be contemplated by understanding of its Will, since His name is ineffable and His presence concealed – hence why we come to know the Father through the Son, who represents the Father’s Will. But of course, Christ was made incarnate in the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the womb of the Virgin Mary. It is said that in this moment, God reconciled the difference between the highest and lowest, and thereby granted salvation. The Devil card is therefore a representation of the Messiah – the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts descending in joy upon the earth, Malkuth, or the lowest aspect of an individual, and thereby anointing him/her (“Christ” means “anointed one”), granting them prosperity and fertility.

There is nothing “Satanic” about this. Satan in the form Christianity has given him – the glowing red, black-winged, pitchfork-wielding human-devourer – is a fallacy invented by the ignorant in their fear of death. But the image of Satan as the fusion between the Spirit and the animal self that we cannot deny we bear, is entirely relevant.

To return to the matter of Christmas. XV The Devil in its most negative connotation is seen as materialism, and indeed as we have seen he does represent that to some extent, as it represents the incarnation of the spirit in the bowels of the earth. But there is a danger to this, as we are all too aware. When we become too materialistic, we breed egotism, ignorance, and evil. This is the real “Devil” of Christianity, whose force is exhibited in the Seven Deadly Sins, each of which is based on some base desire of the body. These, then, are the meanings contained the spectrum of meanings for the symbol of the Devil. On one hand we have Godliness and the birth of the Messiah – on the other hand, materialism and wickedness. Christmas itself contains both these polar meanings; one is superior, the other far less desirable. In our eagerness to turn Christmas into a meaningless celebration of consumerism, we have substituted the benevolence of God’s gifts with our own, and these could, based on what I have previously written, be considered “evil.”

Once again, it seems that we have rejected the Messiah because we do not try hard enough to understand Him. Like the image of the Devil in the tarot, He is despised for His independence and almost foreign nature. What Christ brought with His message was almost revolutionary. The idea of divinity incarnating as man, thereby coming to understand human suffering, and thus developing enough sympathy for man so as to grant him salvation was not new. This was the basic premise of the Dionysian mystery cult, after all. But the notion that God comes into the world hated and shamed, but still willing to sacrifice Himself out of love even for those who hated Him, was truly unheard of. What Jesus did through His acts was unheard of. His idea of morality was not understood by the majority of people, and because he resisted the power of the moral authority, He was targeted, labeled by many who feared Him as "evil," or even "demonic," and was ultimately slain. 

But of course, there are shades of gray to my argument as far as Christmas is concerned. I don’t mean to suggest that all material aspects of the holiday should be abandoned, only reevaluated. When we place all our expectations for the season in its abundance, we miss out greatly. And frankly, there is an allegorical value to the prosperity Christmas celebrations are supposed to represent. As I mentioned before, the Devil/Messiah is also a symbol of fructification and fertility, success, ecstasy, and supreme happiness. It’s as if all our cultural materialism in regards to the holiday is a reflection of God’s humor; we’re close to understanding it, but simultaneously disastrously distant from it. 

I’d like to end in the same witty vein: XV The Devil represents the sign of Capricorn, which is the sign the sun enters on the 22^nd of December. That’s right – Jesus is a Capricorn.

Da capo section of "He was despised" from Handel's Messiah

[I hope this post did not offend anyone, and only offered some points to meditate on. I would like to include as a disclaimer that I do not consider myself a Satanist in any capacity. I am simply an anti-dogmatist, and I believe in the value of pushing people outside their bounds of “right” and “wrong.” Otherwise, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a blessed New Year.]

The Story the Thoth Trumps Tell

Here is my attempt to read the trumps as a circle, given their esoteric meanings. I hope it's relatively clear! I tried to keep it simple.

0 The Fool
The Universe as complete Nothing. The sum potential of existence before it has manifested itself as something.
I The Magus
The Masculine Will of the Universe. Presents the doctrine that the unmanifested Being is a unity, or God. This Will is capable of organizing the original chaos of Nothing into categories, though at this stage it is difficult to say that there is concrete differentiation between these categories. There is only the potential for these categories to exist.
II The Priestess
The Feminine counterpart to the Will, or the image of that Will. She is the body of light the Universal Will will shape its creations from. She is therefore the Truth of form - all form is an illusion of the Divine Light.
III The Empress
The result of the affinity between the Will and the Light - impregnation. Because the Will has moved within the Divine Light, there is a concrete something waiting to be born.
IV The Emperor
The sovereign individual point who is Lord of his own Universe. This is a point of perspective and consciousness that may conceivably distinguish itself from the macrocosmic Universe. It itself is a Unity, and therefore a God.
V The Hierophant
The individual learning through experience. Alternatively, this individual point is master of its own knowledge and truth.
VI The Lovers
The doctrine of duality. There is a firm distinction between microcosm and macrocosm. But the two could be considered twins, as they bear the same attributes. Because of this separation, the individual point is capable of drawing insight from the Whole and vice versa.
VII The Chariot
The point endowed with a soul for a vessel. This allows the point to move within the body of the Universe as is its will. Because of duality, the illusion of space and time is now possible. The idea of indestructibility is also implied.
VIII Adjustment
Now that the point is capable of motion and experience, it must now learn the virtue of Free Will, and the karmic repercussions of that. For every action there is a reaction.
IX The Hermit
Now we finally have the concept of the physical body, which, perhaps because of Free Will, has fallen into a less desirable state. But the Godhead (the point), which dwells secretly within the body, is the initiator of the True Will - the path of Rectitude and Virtue for that given point of consciousness. It has inherited this from the Will of the Universe. In secret the Godhead of the individual works to "redeem" the physical body from its state of disobedience, and guides it towards maturity and self-understanding.
X Fortune
The resulting combination of all these forces. The various parts of the human being vie for supremacy, and thereby create various events in the individual's life. The point remains the axle of the wheel, and therefore does not move. It is perpetually the center of its own universe.
XI Lust
A particularly interesting response to Fortune. One reading shows that it is the fusion of all the individual's components through the act of "love under will." The energy contained in each part can be guided toward the realization of a desired outcome - i.e. a magickal act. Another reading reveals this to be the Red Tincture, or lion, of the alchemists. It is the masculine, solar, creative energy bound up in the individual. At its most basic level, this stage represents the sexual act in general.
XII The Hanged Man
From the perspective of ritual magick, this represents the sacrifice of the potential life in the male semen as a result of orgasm. It may also appear as the illusion of the creative urge being stifled as a result of the orgasm. If the sexual act is used for procreation, however, the card can represent the infusion of the spirit in a new life form. Being associated with water, both acts are seen as a kind of baptism; the former is a baptism for the magician, the latter is a baptism for the newly conceived physical being.
XIII Death
The mystery of Resurrection on several levels. Firstly, it represents the recovery of the male after the "death" of orgasm. Despite the supposed "death" of the libido after its release, it eventually returns. The libido is immortal, and can only be transformed into various guises. Secondly, it represents the reincarnation that took place in Atu XII, in which a baby was conceived. The idea is that this infant is at its core is an indestructible point itself, and that whatever form it decides to take in this life is a result of its experiences and choices in previous lives. Lastly, the card represents the White Tincture, or the eagle, of the alchemists. It is the feminine, lunar creative impulse, which is passive and destructive, as opposed to the masculine, which is active and creative. One must remember that both Creation and Destruction are polarities that makeup the general idea of Life.
XIV Art
Having undergone the process of Creation and Destruction, the individual is prepared for the actual moment of Resurrection. This is the culmination of the INRI formula (which I encourage you to look up). It is the representation of the doctrine of evolution; the positive plus the negative equals a third thing which is different from the original two, but bears some of their traits. This card is also the fulfillment of VI The Lovers and IX The Hermit. The individual has been able to fuse the masculine and feminine parts of his/her identity and has thus become androgynous. They have disintegrated the boundary between higher self and lower self, and has become whole, as well as an entirely new Being. By doing this, they are set on the path of the True Will. Lastly, the card speaks of the alchemical command to "find the hidden stone." This is none other than the original point of consciousness concealed in the physical being.
XV The Devil
The god Pan and the above-mentioned "hidden stone." In this stage, Pan is Pangenitor, All-Begetter. This is the newly created individual after having undergone the formula of Resurrection. They are complete, and have ascertained their original godhead. They also have discovered the nature of their True Will, and they set out to manifest it with utmost ambition and enjoyment, despite the response from other people. This person now may be misconstrued as "a devil" because they have attained autonomy, and therefore are not dependent upon the consent of others. They are unapologetic for fulfilling their purpose, and by doing so they infuse the material universe with prosperity. The union of the highest and the lowest has been complete, and the individual has begun his/her work to redeem the material universe.
XVI The Tower
This is Pan as Panphage, All-Devourer. Because of the individual's reformation process, their perspective on the material world has been entirely eradicated. They have learned that the material plane is one of illusion. The distinction between Self and Other has been destroyed, and all material events and things are seen as an extension of Self.
XVII The Star
At this point, the veils covering the Divine Self are removed. One realizes they are a unique conduit for the Divine Will of the Universe, and are allowed to be because they are a royal child of the Universe. Perhaps we could say that as much as the material universe is the full extension of the individual, so is the individual the full extension of the unmanifested Universe. This is the optimistic revelation that, through one's existence, the limitless potential of the Universe comes to be. Internal change results in external change. What seems impossible is possible with God.
XVIII The Moon
The revelation of the Universe as stagnant without the intercession of the individual's action on the path of True Will. The True Will is creative, and is culmination of the Divine Will. The Universe as a metaphorical womb is left stagnant and infertile as long as this Will is left unfulfilled. Sin is the result of inaction, or action taken in a direction away from that of the True Will.
XIX The Sun
Fertility reasserted. Triumph and victory over darkness. Light is brought to the darkness by the virtue of the individual. The realization of the True Will resulting in Love, Liberty, Light, and Life.
XX The Aeon/Judgment
As a result, stagnation is purged from the world, and the world is redeemed. The proper order of things is established. The beginning of a new era because of the work done by the individual.
XXI The Universe
The individual point of consciousness, having completed the Great Work, finally returning to the Origin of All, the Nothingness of unmanifested Being. But there is the implication that the sum total of All was always Nothing all along, and that the whole experience was but a game, or a play. As Goethe writes, "Alles vergängliche," "all is allegory." The process is now ready to repeat itself, not for any purpose, but for the sake of Universal evolution and enjoyment.

Eheieh: The Major Arcana and the Great Work

The Major Arcana are often seen as a representation of the individuation process, or the means by which man returns to God. There are of course 22 of them in total, but the last one, The Universe or The World, is numbered 21. Curiously enough, the gematria value for one of Kether’s divine names, Eheieh, equals 21 as well. Eheieh itself translates to “I am,” or “I shall be” – very interesting given what we have just said about the Major Arcana.

Another way of looking at the Major Arcana is by seeing their positions on the Rose Cross, depicted on the back of Crowley’s Thoth cards. Without getting too absorbed in an explanation of this complex symbol, I will simply say that it could be seen as another representation of the Sephiroth, or the way God manifests itself and then relates to its creation. From the single point of white in the center of the symbol emanates a rose and cross, followed by additional petals and a much larger cross. The single point represents Kether (Eheieh), the unity, or Hadit if you are thinking in terms of Crowley’s Liber AL. Surrounding this first small cross is a ring of three petals, followed by a ring of seven petals, and a third ring of twelve petals. Here is where we find our Major Arcana.

The first three correspond to the three elemental majors, which in turn are associated with the three “mother letters” in Hebrew (Aleph - air, Mem - water, and Shin – fire/spirit). These would be 0 The Fool, XII The Hanged Man, and XX The Aeon respectively. Technically there is a fourth elemental card, The Universe representing the element of earth, but since it does not correspond to one of the mother letters it is not placed in this first ring of petals.

The next ring of seven corresponds to the planetary trumps, these being I The Magus (Mercury), II The Priestess (Moon), III The Empress (Venus), X Fortune (Jupiter), XVI The Tower (Mars), XIX The Sun (Sun), and XX The Universe (Saturn).

The third ring of petals on the greater rose represents the zodiacal trumps. These are IV The Emperor (Aries), V The Hierophant (Taurus), VI The Lovers (Gemini), VII The Chariot (Cancer), VIII Adjustment (Libra), IX The Hermit (Virgo), XI Lust (Leo), XIII Death (Scorpio), XIV Art (Sagittarius), XV The Devil (Capricorn), XVII The Star (Aquarius), and XVIII The Moon (Pisces).

What this symbol tells us is that each ring is a subsequent emanation of the ring before it, a further distillation of the meaning inherent in the cards prior. What I propose is that we can group the cards in families based on element, and thereby come closer to pinpointing what the 21-fold path to God is intimating.

Fire:

First, let’s deal with the fire cards, since Kabbalistically, fire is the first element, followed by water, air, and earth. This set is governed by XX The Aeon, which stands for the element of fire and spirit simultaneously. We are told that this has to do with the consumptive and enflaming quality of spirit. Fire is also attributed to the letter Yod of Tetragrammaton, and Abba, the Father who is represented by Chokhmah on the Sephiroth. XX essentially represents the Second Coming of Christ – the divine Self – who destroys the individual’s worldview and comes to rule over the soul as a lord. This, as we will see, is the overarching theme to the fire trumps. It is echoed in the two fiery planetary trumps, XVI The Tower and XIX The Sun. The former symbolizes the destruction of the ego’s fortress by the spirit. It is akin to the Harrowing of Hell by Christ following the Passion, when the Lord descends to the depths to liberate those trapped in Hell who did not deserve to be there (namely the beatific characters of the Old Testament). XIX on the other hand represents liberation, particularly from self-deceit, victory and triumph, the return of innocence, the Crowned and Conquering Child. Both of these planetary cards can clearly be seen as further developments of the original main idea contained in XX The Aeon.

The three zodiacal trumps for fire, IV The Emperor, XI Lust, and XIV Temperance, all also deal with these themes, but in a more specific fashion. The Emperor speaks of self control and self-lordship. He is a man of war being also associated with the alchemical sulfur. He is sudden in his actions and occasionally destructive without care. We can see that this represents the war against the ego, which flies about with little sense of direction. To tame it, we must be equally sudden and sometimes ruthless in our governance. We must consider its losses as a delight, and not something to mourn for. This is man’s innate “will to power” put to good use; rather than using it to destroy one’s peers, we can use it to destroy our false selves and thereby attain true Power. XI Lust also has the same nonchalance when it comes to its potency – what it destroys in its unleashing is quickly forgotten about. Lust represents the erotic union between masculine and feminine energies that are both inherent in the human being. The energy generated by this is enough to cause the Kundalini serpent, coiled at the base of the spine, to rise. Being situated in that place on the body, the serpent represents a very wild, natural energy form that can be seen as an effect of our “lower sensibilities.” By causing it to rise, we are bringing these “lower” essences more in line with our divine energies. We allow them to be governed more easily by spirit, or the Divine Self. XIV Art again deals with the harmonization between masculine and feminine, itself being a depiction of the androgyne. These energies are refined to their purest forms and then fused back together into a unified androgynous being – a more accurate representation of the Divine Self.

Understanding this, we can see that the fire trumps all deal with the War against the false self, as well as the governing of the human being by spirit, the Logos as represented by Christ.

Water:

Next comes water, which represents the Divine Feminine, the Mother, Binah on the Sephiroth, Aima, the Heh primal of Tetragrammaton, etc. So while fire represents the Divine Will, water is the actual understanding or interpretation of that Will. Therefore, we should expect the water trumps to further explain the fire trumps in a more passive way. Its elemental trump card is XII The Hanged Man, which is a curious and sometimes frustrating card in my opinion. It’s one of the trumps that Crowley felt needed revision since it so obviously depicts the mysteries of the Aeon of Osiris which has supposedly now passed. Primarily, he rejects it as a symbol of sacrifice conflated with morality. But while sacrifice may no longer be a relevant action today, the card still represents the descent of the Divine Self for love – not love in the sacrificial sense of Christ, but in the ecstatic form described by Nuit in the Liber AL (“for I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union”). An important aspect of the Hanged Man is that he is upside-down, meaning that his perspective is seemingly opposite to our own. Yet, Crowley writes that water is an element of illusion, and it would seem that the Hanged Man’s perspective is actually correct, and our own is deceptive. Thus, we “understand” the effect of XX The Aeon. The Aeon rectifies our perspective, and demonstrates to us that we are actually divine beings.

II The Priestess, or the Moon, is the one planetary trump for the element of water. Again, the card represents the truth concealed behind illusion. Manifested existence is simply a lovely guise for the One Truth – the One God, who hides himself therein. Now, we must compare her to the fiery planetary trumps, XIX The Sun, and XVI The Tower. These two cards also represent the shattering of illusion by Spirit, the Second Coming. The Priestess is the passive version of this, secretly telling us through our intuition that the form represented by the Tower was false, and that the only Truth is that of the Sun. We must remember that in Neo-Platonic thought, the sun was the closest representation of the Monad man could conceptualize. Mystical experience with the True Sun in this philosophy was the first major step towards union with the Source, as the two are so similar. The fact that the Priestess hints at the secret unity of life shows that she is in a direct relationship to XIX The Sun. So far, both the fiery and watery trumps have expressed practically the same ideas within their specific hierarchic levels. (In other words, the elemental cards express the same idea, and the planetary trumps together express another idea.)

The zodiacal water trumps are a bit trickier, though our theorem is still applicable. VII The Chariot represents control over the soul by the hidden One God. Ultimately, all actions of the soul are set in motion by God. By further defining the Hanged Man, we can see that whatever agency we believe ourselves to possess is false, and the only real authority possible is divine. Additionally, the card’s meaning is similar to IV The Emperor, but we see that the Emperor’s agency comes not from man himself, but from God alone. The Emperor is the pure idea of divine authority, the Chariot is a deeper (and therefore less pure) interpretation of that governance. Another, more simple way of comparing them is by noting that both are images of war and conquest. Though, while the Emperor is more spontaneous and active as a conqueror, the Chariot is simply directed and does not have a specific target of conquest.

XIII Death is also a card full of illusions and misconceptions that must be wiped away by the Spirit. While unaware of divinity, we believe in and fear corporeal death. It also speaks to the Dying Man-God Formula espoused by the Aeon of Osiris and the Hanged Man, as it represents Osiris himself. Osiris is the closest analogy to Christ we can find in the Egyptian Mysteries, and was most likely the ultimate predecessor to the archetypal story of Christ’s Passion. This card seems to be the most layered in its relationships to the element of water and its complement, XI Lust. Lust, as we know, represents the erotic fusion between masculine and feminine archetypes within the individual. On one hand, Death could therefore represent the death of orgasm when the two halves no longer distinguish differences between each other. On the other, Death shows us that whatever manifestations our personality goes through, each one is ultimately brought about by our pure Divine Self, who seeks to rectify our nature. Death purges us of unnecessary things, which causes us to feel “pain.” But this pain is a sort of divine ecstasy as it brings us closer to God.

Lastly, XVIII The Moon is entirely about deception and fear of the unknown. Without knowledge of God, we flounder through life feeling lost and confused about the future, our ambitions, who we are, almost anything you can imagine. Yet, buried deep under all that muck lies the sun waiting to be reborn. Note that each zodiacal water trump has depicted the Divine Self or Christ in some form, almost always in a solar aspect. The Chariot represents the “blood of the Sun” contained within the Holy Grail; Osiris, a god of vegetation and rebirth is naturally quasi-solar; and Kephra, the beetle, rolls his solar disk through the underworld. But XVIII is once again a hieroglyph of truth concealed in illusion. It resonates with XIV Art in that both of them show a sense of direction. While Art shows the path to balance and the Divine Self, the Moon demonstrates the need to stay connected to that solar middle path. It also speaks to the confusion created by the separate needs and desires of our masculine and feminine halves, as the cards two towers stand darkly opposing each other. The path between them is tread by Kephra, the sun.

It seems clear now that the water trumps depict the passive side of the “War” against self. They show different sides of the fire trumps by giving them more definition.

Air:

Air is the element attributed to the Son, the Vav of Tetragrammaton, and Tiphareth (the sun) on the Sephiroth. This is the heart of the Divine Self and the active consonance between the Divine Will and the Divine Understanding (fire and water). It is primarily defined by 0 The Fool, the letter Aleph. The Fool represents the wandering prince/knight-errant, perhaps even the incarnated Christ. He stands for divine mania, innocence, purity, fertility, ecstasy, androgyny, etc. He is the result of the fusion of masculine and feminine – by doing so he has regained his divine nature, and life becomes less of a grim struggle and more of a playground with little intrinsic meaning other than enjoyment. He can also be seen as the opposite and real nature of the Hanged Man.

The two planetary trumps for air, I The Magus and X Fortune, both speak of power and agency. The Magus shows that, with the War being won, the individual is free to craft their reality as they choose, since they will have discerned the illusive quality of existence and transcended it. Also, the Magus represents the alchemical substance of merucury, which is considered to be androgynous and a hybrid of sulfur and salt. Fortune echoes this, for the card tells us that as long as we are not in control of our multiple personas and powers, we are equally not in control of our lives and the seemingly “random” events that occur in them. Being an aspect of the Fool, we learn that all of the events that we want to take seriously really are just neutral events that are there to instruct us. In the case of the Fool, however, he is in control of the hand that turns the Wheel. Note that the Wheel of Fortune has a clenched fist engraved on its rim at the bottom; from this radiate six violet rays. Six is the number of the sun, as it is the number of Tiphareth on the Sephiroth. Essentially, the “hand of fate” is our solar, divine, Christ-like True Selves. The Fool, having recognized this, is free to manipulate his own destiny. Additionally, the Magus may further be a representation of the incarnated Christ, as the god Mercury is also a psychopomp, meaning he guides the souls of the dead. He is able to connect the highest to the lowest (“As above, so below”) and thereby redeem the lowly. Perhaps the ultimate message is that our highest good in the material plane expresses itself through our desire for freedom without prejudice against others. The Fool is indiscriminate because he is too innocent to pass judgment.

Which, of course, makes VIII Adjustment so interesting. Adjustment has nothing to do with any moral evaluation, only equilibrium. I believe we will find that the three zodiacal air trumps deal with the power and agency of the incarnated Christ, though I admit the air cards are particularly difficult to pin down (which makes sense, given the nature of air). But Adjustment, coming as a reaction to the harmony between the Emperor and the Chariot, teaches us that any action taken will have its repercussions in nature. Now that the individual has gained mastery over themselves by attaining Divinity, their lower selves (the Heh final of Tetragrammaton, the Princess) have been rectified and equilibrated. Its usual pendulum-like behavior has been balanced, thereby placing the Daughter on the throne of the Mother, Binah. Remember that Crowley writes that this card depicts that moment prior to her enthronement. She holds the sword of the Magus because with it she has focused all of her being toward this one goal.

XVII The Star, interestingly enough, comes as a response to Lust and Death, and depicts the manifestation of Nuit, the goddess of infinite space and nothingness. The letter associated with the Star is Heh, the letter of the Mother and Daughter, or Binah and Malkuth on the Sephiroth. The Star tends to represent that infinite potential of the universe encapsulated within the divine human being. All events for her are representations of the universe’s love. Primarily, we can see how this is connected to the ideas of the Magus and Fortune – as a divine being, man can access the infinite power of Divine Will (note that she pours upon herself the liquid spiral energy of a golden, a.k.a solar cup or bowl). She herself has become the conduit for the Divine Will and dispenses her blessing on the manifested Universe itself. Remember also what Crowley says, that all events are “a play of Nuit.” So after the ecstatic union achieved in Lust, understood to be a sort of release from the false self in death, the Star sees herself not as a divided being, but as one who contains both masculine and feminine impulses within herself, or perhaps rather the potentials for both.

Lastly, we have VI The Lovers, which is the counterpart to XIV Art. The former represents the alchemical act of solve while the latter is coagula. Both represent marriages of some kind. Let us remember that all magical working deals with these two activities – one can either divide or assemble when it comes to the goal of a magical operation. In fact, these are the only two operations of the Universe as a whole. Again, we see the empowerment metaphor of the Fool/Christ as reigning Lord. In response to Art and The Moon, the Lovers seems to decidedly advocate for separation, as the Hermit or Logos stands in the Sign of the Enterer, as if to authorize the marriage between man and woman. But, remember that The Lovers has a strong female element, as it is the influence of the Mother Binah upon the Son in Tiphareth. Perhaps we can see this card as a reminder to the Son of what his primary goal is – to marry the Princess and redeem her. In this light, perhaps the Prince has been given all this power and agency to entice the Princess.

It intrigues me that even though the element of air is meant to deal with the Son of Tetragrammaton, the reigning Christ after his fiery return in XX The Aeon, there is a strong presence of femininity in the zodiacal trumps. While we can suggest this is only natural given the Fool’s androgynous nature, it may also be intended to remind us of the Tetragrammaton cycle and the process of apotheosis. The Prince is always intended to marry his sister the Princess and set her upon the throne of her Mother, whereby she awakens the Eld of the All-Father and becomes one with God. So in the air trumps, we see the actual goal or focus of all the activity in the fire and water trumps – the redemption of the Princess. It is as if the entire force of creation surges to save her in loving joy.

Earth:

The last of the elemental trumps is XXI The Universe, which represents the Daughter fully enthroned in the New Jerusalem or Eden. It is akin to the Assumption of the Virgin into Paradise. At this point in the apotheosis formula, the Prince, along with any sense of individuality, has been sacrificed, allowing the Princess to be a complete vessel for the One True God – or rather, to actually become one with God. It is the fulfillment of the prophecy that the Kingdom of Heaven shall come to reign on earth.

The Universe is also Saturn, and along with III The Empress, constitutes the planetary majors for earth. As definitions of the New Eden, they both possess a sense of longevity and eternity. The Empress is the alchemical substance of salt, which represents death, slowness, inertia, etc. Saturn similarly represents the heaviness of time and its procession onwards. So having attained Godhead, the individual has also become one with Eternity. There is only one moment in this state – an eternal present; the past and future are not relevant. Furthermore, what was begun by the Masculine (IV The Emperor) has found completion in the Feminine (III The Empress). Venus as a planet represents beauty and love, and thus we see once again that all the work of the Universe has been ultimately an act of love. Paradise has regained its greenness as Hildegard von Bingen would say, and is once again beautiful.

For Crowley, XV The Devil is a representation of Kether, the single and only true perspective in the Universe. He is a symbol of mastery and initiation, but is also ruled by Saturn. The card is also a representation of the incarnation of the divine in matter, represented by the large phallus depicted in the card. But the idea is that God chooses to manifest Himself for better or worse. Let us also recall the traditional Neo-Platonic mythology surrounding apotheosis. Upon returning the unity, the individual is expected to return their eros or life energy to the demiurge so that He can create new forms. This is what it means to “pour one’s blood into the Cup of Babalon” and to thereby “awaken the Eld of the All-Father.” One has completed the work of self-mastery set out in The Emperor, The Chariot, and Adjustment. By becoming one with God, one partakes in the profoundly beautiful act of creation.

V The Hierophant is the hieroglyph of teaching and spiritual guidance, of exoteric revelation. As Crowley would say, he has become Master of the Temple by reaching Paradise. It is his duty to now instruct others who have not received initiation, to guide them toward Truth. His letter, Vav, means “a nail,” and is again a phallic symbol. He must generate spiritual progeny by infusing others with his inspiration. Even though he has completed the Great Work, he must continue to participate in it.

One last card, IX The Hermit (phew). Let us recall that the mutable zodiacal trumps have tended to do with the direction of willpower. Sagittarius directed it toward the Divine; Pisces hid the divine goal from the will and let it wander alone; Gemini taught the will to cleave to the Divine, but also to embrace the properties of division inherent in the Universe. Now the Hermit is a representation of the Divine Will working silently throughout nature, as its sign, Virgo, is ruled doubly by Mercury. But Mercury as psychopomp also seeks to redeem the individual soul – hence the depiction of Cerberus in the card’s lower right corner. And in the Hermit’s hand, he bears a lantern containing the sun. Through the guiding hand of the Logos, the Universe is cultivated and returned to its paradisical state. Again, we have a call to continue the Great Work until the whole Universe is integrated. It is no longer about the will of the individual, but about the Will of God. Also, we see a spermatozoon in the lower left corner, demonstrating the impregnating effect of this Will. But it is of course yet another phallic symbol.

Therefore, the earth trumps deal with Garden of Eden, Paradise, the New Jerusalem on Earth. They complete the apotheosis of the individual, but by doing so makes them an even more integral part of the Great Work for existence itself. On a personal note, I must add that this is exactly what Hildegard von Bingen writes about. She constantly talks about the need to return Paradise to its original green state prior to the Fall and the Incarnation of Christ.

Wrapup

We have talked about every single trump, and I’m exhausted. But I believe I have touched upon something very important, and I hope it clarifies the apotheosis process for all of us. I also hope it shows us how the trumps are all thematically related, and do ultimately demonstrate Eheieh, the unity of life.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Knight of Wands in Nietzsche

Came across this interesting passage in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. I must say, it matches up pretty exactly with the description for the Knight of Wands in the Book of Thoth. Remember that the Knight is 1/3 Scorpio and 2/3's Sagittarius.

"He who can command, he who is by nature 'master,' he who is violent in act and bearing - what has he to do with contracts! One does not reckon with such natures; they come like fate, without reason, consideration, or pretext; they appear as lightning appears, too terrible, too sudden, too convincing, too 'different' even to be hated. Their work is an instinctive creation and imposition of forms; they are the most involuntary, unconscious artists there are - wherever they appear something new soon arises, a ruling structure that lives, in which parts and functions are delimited and coordinated, in which nothing whatever finds a place that has not first been assigned a 'meaning' in relation to the whole. They do not know what guilt, responsibility, or consideration are, these born organizers; they exemplify that terrible artists' egoism that has the look of bronze and knows itself justified to all eternity in its 'work,' like a mother in her child..."

-Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals

trans. Walter Kaufmann and RJ Hollingdale, Vintage Books Edition, pg. 86-87.

Cybele and the Queen of Wands

So recently I had to read about the cult of Cybele for one of my religion classes, and I was so intrigued by the description of her in our text book. In her book Religions of the Hellenistic Roman Age, Antonia Tripolitis writes that "In the earliest extant representations dating from ca. 6000 B.C.E., she is seated on a rocky throne, a woman of immense proportions. On either side of her throne stands a leopard, and on each leopard's head she rests a heavy hand protectively and triumphantly." This is quite clearly the same description of the Queen of Wands from Crowley's Thoth Tarot.

The connection is intriguing, as Cybele is a goddess associated with domination and ecstasy, and is revered with wild dancing and loud music. She is also incredibly magnetic and jealous, as her beauty alone caused her consort Attis to castrate himself out of awe. This would explain the Queen of Wands' swooning facial expression, as well as her Bacchic staff symbolizing the mysteries of bliss attributed to that god, and her hand placed on top of the leopard. Furthermore, Cybele was known as "the mother of the gods," and was associated with Chronos's wife Rhea. This matches perfectly with Crowley's Liber 777, in which he too equates Cybele to Rhea and places them in the sephira of Binah, as Binah is also the Great Mother.

This begs the question then: what are the attributions of the other queens in the Thoth deck? I have a guess that the Queen of Disks is a form of Juno, and that the Queen of Swords is Kali (which would explain the random sarong she's wearing), but I can't seem to nab the Queen of Cups. Could she be another iteration of Isis? Her lotus resting upon the ibis crane because she was the mother of all invention in the Hellenistic period? Perhaps.

If anyone knows of a source that explains this, either in Crowley or in Israel Regardie (these would be the first authors I would check), please let me know! I'd love to know if anyone has noticed this before, and if this kind of logic is useable for the entire court. Some of the Princesses are relatively easy to decipher, but the Princes are pretty difficult to pin down, perhaps for a reason.