XXI "The Universe and 10 of wands "oppression" THOTH TAROT CARD: READING/s. These cards were pulled as a double reading, as a card has already been read in past tarot readings on chiasmus. The Order of this reading is from right to left.

 

"The Universe"  Major Arcana XXI (21) of the Thoth Tarot card deck is probably one of the most complex of Thoth cards, due to abundance of meanings instilled via its artwork onto the card by the incredibly talented Lady Frieda Harris (d1962).  Considering the Tarot pack was devised before Crowley's death in 1947, The Universe offers a cryptic and in some ways confusing mishmash of Crowley's occult philosophy and the merging of his Thelema religion with what was considered his breakaway from the once famed U.K. magic society 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn', which disbanded in 1978.  And in the early 1900s Crowley reformed the German version of the Golden Dawn, Ordo Templi Orientis, into his philosophy of what a Thelema order would look like.  Drawing in members from around the world, Crowley's notoriety rose into the 1940s and by the 1950s as the rumblings of an American counter culture began, Jack Parsons who invented the rocket engine for America's Space program, was one of Crowley's more admiring members.  Parsons died in a rocket explosion accident at his home in 1952.  So, what has to be said about Crowley despite his prolific and intricate writings and structured concepts of his occult beliefs, ultimately he was a heavy drug user.  A self professed addict of heroin and cocaine, and psychoactive drugs.  This all before the 1960s and 1970s counterculture became widespread, Parsons was also a drug user, following Crowley's assertion that drugs assisted the Thelema practitioner towards, as Crowley decreed, "The surplus of Will must find issue in the elevation of the individual towards the Godhead; and the method of such elevation is by religion, love, and art. These three things are indissolubly bound up with wine, for they are species of intoxication."  Amphetamines and opiates for Thelema members by the late 50s were the drugs of choice for opening up the mind for their rituals.

But, unfortunately what we now know today with the many artists, writers, musicians who have followed in the footsteps of creating art under the prolific use of drugs; concepts and even what might seem 'disorderly' creative structures, all go out the window.  The outpouring of expression therefore can become a rambled mess, if ceremonial drug use is replaced for self indulgence, to which the West has embraced with a keen resolve.  The cause and effect is predictable, and as mentioned Crowley created this Tarot card pre the psychedelic 60s in 1947.

I have read the meanings behind "The Universe"  in Crowley's 'Book of The Thoth' and like all other Thoth cards, the fusion of esoteric Christian, Judaism, astrology and Egyption concepts are predominant throughout, some more concise than others.  In the case of "The Universe", its concepts are all over the place, yet the card, from an artistic perspective appears balanced, despite the artistic intricacies. The 'hard' fusion of the said themes, of what would now be outdated aspects of Golden Oder and Thelma's Egyptology, Qabalah and astrology, to create what may have been exciting and exotic at the time in the 1800s and 1900s. Maybe seen comical by today's standards, but nevertheless, one should show respect to the awe that ancient Egyptian civilization offered aesthetically to the renaissance of 1800s England and Europe.  Which we may take for granted, the Western esoteric orders that surfaced, like Crowley's 'Thelema', helped fill that need to explore other concepts of spirituality and beliefs.

"The Universe" card, if one chooses to delve deeper into its analysis, requires some advanced understating of Hermeticism and Crowley's mathematical equations relating to Qabalah and Gnostic Christian beliefs, such as the significance of the numbers 72, 666, 888 and 92.  Which according to The Book of Thoth reveal key perspectives of "The Universe" card.  But, as mentioned its ramble dialogue via The Book of Thoth is with mostly to do with Egyptian/Christian esoteric romanticism, summarised that our structured Universe is in a constant state of renewal.  With Saturn, the card's astrological symbol,  balanced to the Earth, the card overall shows a relationship quality to it, where we are part of the cycle of our Solar System, within the overall Universe, that is in a constant state of perpetration.  And in Astrobiology, Saturn's astrological stableness in relation to the Earth, has allowed our planet to flourish with life.

The Universe card is closely related to "The Fool" (zero) card, as a perspective that from the beginning (The Fool), there becomes the end (The Universe).

Reading:

Don't make this card too complex, than what it already is, if you require an answer to its symbols I will explain.  But, allow the mystery of The Universe to be just that, a mystery.   We have a tendency to overstate meaning, science can be at fault with this too.  Do we hold all the answers?  When we look above, the night sky in all of its brilliance, it is both of creation and also destruction.  And in this beauty that you perceive, it may seem like a completion, that is of one part, as what must become, must also end.  Why not begin again?  Have no fear of time.  As she is eternal.  Marvel in it, question it if you may.  Yet, the answer may create only more questions.  For now, rest as the journey, at this point in time, is complete. 

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10 of Wands "Oppression"  

From Aleister Crowley's more Proto-Fascist Thoth Tarot cards of order and control, there is, what appears to be a apocalyptic Christian ethos within the 10 of Wands "Oppression" explanation, rather than Gnostic beliefs, as early Christians didn't believe in the end of the world per se, but rather the apocalypse of the spirit.  Crowley claimed that the card is Saturn influencing the star sign Sagittarius, under the Jewish mysticism of the Qabalah Malkuth (10) from the Tree of Life Sephiroth, which refers to spiritual detachment (Malkuth) of the remaining nine Sephiroth.  And that the star sign sagittarius is of the antipathy, the rebel, in Crowley's words "spiritual, swift, light, elusive, and luminous, and Saturn is heavy handed and "oppressive".  Possibly eluding to that one cannot oppress oneself under, Crowley words again, the "lust of result", will end up destroying itself or the host.  Which may suggest the card is influenced from John Milton's (1667) Paradise Lost poem, of Satan being the rebellious spirit cast out of heaven, and hosting a democratic forum in Hell, with other fallen angels, to take back heaven and corrupt God's creation, man.  As noted in previous analysis of Crowley's Thoth Tarot is the ambiguity, and often confusing elements to the card's meanings.  Yet, the gist can be seen for this card, that oppression of the self, via an obstinate construct, will end up engulfing all.  Setting everything alight and ultimately destroying creation, note the flames and the burning Wands, with two Tibetan Buddhist Dorje's as indestructible 'masculine' concepts of reality, yet it is balanced in Buddhist ritual by a Bell, which symposises the balance of the Feminine (wisdom).  Therefor the card appears unbalanced, and does indeed refer to the destructive, and oppressive energies of fire.

Reading:

When the Light Bearer was cast down into the darkness of Hell, the rebel of the angels, the swift and elusive, be it that he/she is marked with the Aleph, the Hebrew letter which has no sound.  Such is, that you may not see all its intentions. It is the Malkuth of the Qabalah, the detached spiritual realm, of all meditation it is the most disconnected and afar.  But, the rebel must be balanced, in that lust for result and antipathy of order.  Otherwise the destructive fires of annihilation, will consumer and destroy all.  Better, that the masculine Dorje's, which shows strength of reality and purpose, as the Tibetan Buddhist decree, must also sit with a Bell, the wisdom of the Feminine.  Do not be too hasty in rebellion, reaction to oppression may also lead to further oppression.  Without balance, destruction begets destruction.    

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All Thoth Tarot card analysis and readings to date:  chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Thoth%20Tarot%20reading

(A.Glass 2023, 2024)