"The lovers" THOTH TAROT CARD: ANALYSIS AND READING.

 

Here we see Aleister Crowley's more detailed Thoth Tarot card displaying his fondness for gnostic Christianity, of course the card follows, in a more symbolic detail, to the Rider Waite traditional depiction of "The Lovers".  But nevertheless, as the sixth Major Acana of the Thoth Tarot, it is one of the most difficult to read, only because of its double binding and reverse meanings.  The card is filled with a plethora of dichotomy concepts.  Crowley, when he wrote an explanation of The Lovers in "The Book of The Thoth", is what can be considered, I mean this respectfully, to be a ramble of the card's actual reading.  Once again, as noted by the difficulty, apparently of the Thoth cards as stand alone meanings, Crowley advised that the card should be read with another Thoth card.  Outlining that his version of "The Lovers" is that type of reading. And I would argue, the greater skill would to read the card as a single reading.  Yet, if you breakdown the gist for the summary of this card, via Crowley's written ambiguity, is that it is about the masculine and the feminine as one, while being separated, they are then reversed under the banner of love and lust.   Thus, the Moorish King marrying the White queen, below the wingless cupids are in reverse of each other, as a black and white duality.  White under the black King, Black under the white Queen.  

The coiled snake wrapped around the egg, which throughout the ages, has represented the sexual power of the feminine (yes, snakes have a clitoris).  Of its rebirth and transformation.  As you can see, the snake's head is pointing at the male King, as above the blindfolded cupid (love) is aiming at the Queen.  Is the cupid really blindfolded?   The representation here is very clear that the variants of love and lust have been reversed, as it is the Queen that holds the seduction through lust, and the King who is aiming for love.  Also interesting to note, is the lion at the bottom of the card beneath the King, and the white eagle under the Queen.  Which is the more strategic animal of prey?  The Eagle with its sharpened eyesight and power of heightened sense.  Has it already plotted fate?   To the upper right of the card is Lilith, the temptress and first wife of Adam (from Judaism and esoteric Qabalah).  Lilith stands over the King, as the innocence and naivety of Eve stands above the Queen.  Has the Moorish King already being tempted by Lilith?  As directed by the Goethe's 1808 famous poem, "Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy", the clever demon Mephistopheles, who works for Satan, warned Faust of the witch Lilith's resounding power,  "Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair. When Lilith winds it tight around young men She doesn't soon let go of them again."  In the foreground is Cain or The Hermit, either way, it seems to identify with corruption or a 'curse', as the mark of cain is indeed the wanderer and fugitive from the Judaic faith.   Are the couple ultimately cursed?  The below symbols either side of "The Lovers" are the Hebrew symbol "Zain" (left) meaning "sword", and on the right the astrological symbol for Gemini. 

Reading:   

Do you feel completed with the other?  And does the other feel completed with you?  If templetation was available.  Would you not indulge?   The masculine may indeed wish love and the feminine a moment of lust.  Which do you desire?  So, if we remove the duality.  We are truly one and the same.  Of all the contradictions and the blaming on the biological cue.  To which if one does plot towards a tryst?  Am I guided by the masculine or feminine?  Maybe the curse that we all live under could be broken, if allowed to transpire in a moment of contradiction.  The bond could be strengthened.     

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(A.Glass 2023)

All my Thoth card analysis and readings to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search?q=THOTH+TAROT