As the wheel of Tarot turns from Strength at Trump 11 to the Hanged Man at Trump 12, The Fool, previously the Hero Hercules, appears to be brought low as a thief condemned to hang for his crimes. In traditional symbolism, he hangs holding the bags of gold he has stolen, although in some interpretations […]
To delve once again into Crowley’s Book of Lies, is to begin to completely unravel the hidden secrets of the Thoth tarot and is this author’s beginning point in deciphering the initiated meanings of the cards. Reading the book for the third or fourth time, after years of yoga and a week long initiation ritual […]
WHEEL AND–WOA! The Great Wheel of Samsara. The Wheel of the Law [Dhamma]. The Wheel of the Taro. The Wheel of the Heavens. The Wheel of Life. All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of the TARO alone avails thee consciously. Meditate long and broad and deep, O man, upon […]
We’ve taken somewhat of a pause is our exploration of the Trumps, in hesitation about having enough to say about the Hermit. This card is too simple in its initiated meaning and does not warrant a full essay. In one magical formula of The Hermit Crowley states it as: Yod Phallus Spermatozoon Hand Logos Virgin. […]
While most decks consider this card to be called Justice with its associated blind goddess weighing guilt and innocence and implying legal action and the courts, the Crowley deck takes a more Karmic view and associates the card with a different type of balance. In the scales of this goddess are Alpha and Omega, creation […]
The traditional image of The Chariot depicts the return of the conqueror to the great fanfare of the village. It is a card of victory and looked at on the path to enlightenment starting at the world, precedes the alchemical wedding of the lovers. In Rider-Waite and some other decks, the chariot is pulled by […]
The Lovers is interesting, because as a glyph it references the original vision/hoax responsible for almost all modern occult traditions. It is an artistic representation of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkruetz, one of the three original Rosicrucian manifestos. See previous article on Rosicrucianism. It is one of the alchemical cards, but much more highly […]
The mysteries of The Hierophant are a further elaboration of the alchemy described in the cards. The Holy Father or Pope bestows the secrets of the occult upon the Emperor and Empress leading them to their Great Work. There are many symbols in the card that reinforce this, but the primary symbolism in the Crowley […]
If The Empress is the higher representation of the feminine within tarot, then it stands to reason that The Emperor should be a very high representation of the masculine. Where she represents the mysteries of the vagina, then he logically represents the mysteries of the phallus. His color is that of flame, to represent the […]
The Empress is the complete embodiment of higher femininity within the deck and must be considered in her partnership with the masculine Emperor. She is Hera and Freya, and all the married goddesses of the male high Gods of their respective pantheons. She is also, considered in an exalted sense the Shakti of Shiva. […]
