"XVII The Star" THOTH TAROT CARD and "6 of Cups. Pleasure " THOTH TAROT CARD analysis/reading. These cards were pulled as a double reading, as a single card has been read in past tarot readings on chiasmus. The Order of the reading is from left to right.
"The Star" XVII (17) of the Major Arcana Thoth Tarot cards, is one of the main cards that encapsulates Aleister Crowley's Thelema belief system, crossing over from the Golden Dawn and Western esoteric societies of the 1800s, that were heavily influenced by Freemasons and medieval Hermetic alchemy. With a deep fascination of ancient civilizations such as Egypt, as they marveled at the engineering feats of the Egyptians in their construction of the great Pyramids, which predated Western engineering feats. In turn, offering at least in philosophical and spiritual jutexpo, that the Egyptians may had also developed a sophisticated belief system, which accompanied their advanced and progressive attributes, to create such structural wonders. Also, extremely relevant to Crowley's Thoth card's is the fusion of Jewish esoterica, that being the Qabalah. With its sophisticated numerical and letter system, via the Hebrew alphabet, as a code like representation and its association with the mystical Qabalah Tree of Life. All served to instil Crowley's vision of a new order of Occult practice under his banner of Thelema.
"The Star" is certainly a powerful symbolic representation, showcasing Crowley's interpretation of an Egyptian goddess (Seen on the card as the Thelema goddess of the Stars Nuith, which came from the Egyptian goddess "Nut"), and Hermetic Qabalah and Astrology. Undoubtedly, representing his longing to delve more into the ritualized occultism side of Thelema and/or Crowley's Left Hand Path influences, which lie predominantly in esoteric Hinduism and Buddhism. That digression is also a path to enlightenment. And after Crowley passed away in the 1947, the Left Hand Path became a centrepoint to late 1950s and 1960s interest in Satanism, as a counter culture trend to offset 50s Christian conservatism. Yet, the modern day commercialization of Satanism as a societal backlash against rigid monotheistic beliefs, has very little to do with Western and Eastern occultism which dates back over 500 years.
Note the goddess Nuith on the card, utilizing the Left hand pointing towards the Earth and the Right pointing upwards, both are holding vessels with liquid being released, flowing downward. The left, according to Crowley's ambiguity via the 'Book of the Thoth', appears to represent the Hindu tantric path of Matrika Bheda Tantra, combing menstrual blood and semen with wine. An important alchemy belief of Indian Tantric practitioners. The right, holding a tipped vessel, which Crowley aligned with the "Sea of Binah" from Jewish Qabalah, that represents light flowing to the lower worlds. Also, note the upper left hand star of Babalon, from Thelema mysticism, where Crowley advised sex magik to evoke and manifest the 'Scarlet Woman'. Further pointing to his influence of ancient Tantric sexual rites.
But, one of the most striking and interesting aspects of the "The Star" is the spiral elements within the artwork, and the large Celestial Globe that sits in the background. With the planet Venus represented with its seven triangular formulations. Crowley also had a keen interest in science, where he quotes Einstein in 'The Book of the Thoth', in his removing of antiquated astronomical beliefs that the Universe and planets are flat (Eucidian). That it is gravity that shapes the Universe, hence the spiral shapes within the card.
Bottom symbols of the card, are the Hebrew letter "he" and the astrological symbol for Aquarius. 'He' representing words and actions, and Aquarius "flow".
"The Star"
Do not fear the Left Hand Path, as she finds balance between the clockwise spiral, which is also the orthodox. Holder of the Celestial Body, manifester of the Stars to be elevated and free from the self. The Goddess represents the flow of the Universe, the restriction of the Euclidean has now been cast aside. We are molded by gravity, but not restricted by it. Yet, I am the one that does not want to be worshipped, as I have my back slightly turned to you. I can offer you liberation through the unorthodox action, the powerful rituals of the sexual realm. The star of Babylon, and its digression, may help you find peace in its flow South of the heavens, in the dark, the light emits from the Right hand, the Left rejoices in the deviation. Indulge in your practice and exult in its meditation.
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"6 of Cups. Pleasure" represents Aleister Crowley's fascination with the 10th Century Tantric or more specifically Kāmakalā sexual practises to evoke a meditation towards attaining "Godhead", by ingesting the transmission of the "Bindu" (sacred fluid) from the male and female Hindu deities, also seen in Tibetan Buddhism between Yogini female 'Buddhist' cults and their sexual rituals in understanding and freeing oneself from the restriction of transcendence, that being of the material body and its realm of suffering. Sexual interactions in unorthodox Buddhism were also seen as a way of attainment. Crowley during the 1900s traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia, as from era that was the 'Age of Enlightenment', the West began to draw in ideas from the East. However, antinomianism had already been prominent throughout the Christian domination of Europe and America even as its theology began to split. So, it wasn't a new practice in challenging the taboo within Christian/Judaic and Muslim theocratic belief structures. Yet, it was the Hindu/Buddhist/Taoists that took it further as a ritual of sexual alchemy, to which Crowley was heavily influenced by, reverting the ritualized ingesting of sexual fluids into his "Sex Magik" requirements from his own Thelema religion. And interestingly, as discussed with numerous studies of Crowley's Thoth tarot, is his contradiction of aligning himself with Proto-Fascist metaphor of strength and control under a masculine guise. As Tantric and Kāmakalā were very much in revering the power of the feminine deities, combining the masculine seminal fluid, with her sacred elixirs (Bindu) into an alchemical potion.
As also mentioned in this analysis of the Thoth Tarot, is Crowley's influence by Occultist and Western/Russian mystic Helena Blavatsky (d1891), who devised the Theosophical society in 1875, which later petered out in the 1920s, was very influenced by Eastern religions. But, criticized the Tantric, by deeming it as a transgressive "Left Hand Path", possibly showing up as Western Colonisation and its moral standards over the East. This can also be seen with Crowley's Thelema beliefs, which may have been a way of selling these Occultist practices/societies to a conservative 1800s and early to mid 1900s, pre the countercultures of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
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Reading:
View the Six Lotus flowers tilted South, as they point towards the divine transgression, that is the Earthly realm. Allowing the flow of the feminine elixir to fill the equal amount of ceremonial glasses, but also see, that they are never overflowing. As Six is the perfect number, equal to itself. Balanced between the infinity of Three, that is both of the masculine and the feminine, combined it is of the most powerful fluid. Created by the mortal, like a primordial Earth, it gives life. So, do not waste it, and do not take it for granted. The ritual of joining two, to create the flow of one from the eros, is metaphoric in its action. A practice of mediation, may pleasure be attained, but not for its own sake. This is of the highest calling, and it is from the self, a release from the material realm and its burden of the material body. Enjoy the sexual transcendence, the pleasures of meditation, albeit fleeting in its climax, it is however sustained by flowing back into body. Taste its desire, be released and nourished.
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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)
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