4 of Swords "Truce" THOTH TAROT CARD: ANALYSIS AND READING.

Unfortunately "4 of Swords. Truce", is another one of Aleister Crowley's (d1947) proto-fascist Thoth Tarot cards, and one has to be aware that Crowley and his artist Lady Frieda Harris (d1963), began work on the Thoth Tarot in 1938, when Peace Through Strength, with new found Italian Fascist idealism gained ground not just in Italy, but also America and Europe.  Which was essentially a rekindling and/or dormant desire of political leaders who read Plato's "The Republic" (380 BC), in which Plato believed that democracy (he hated it) and 'social equality' would ruin civilization.  The classical educated, and elite, like Crowley and Harris, also relating back to their occultism societies, all had similar connections to structure and control through order and strength, would have followed the proto-Fascist decree of the fin-de-siècle intellectual movement (1880 - 1914), which laid down the groundwork for Social Darwinism.  Even though, the UK and America fought against German Nazisim during World War Two.  The Thoth Tarot is very much a representation of its time.   

Crowley has attached the Qabalah Chesed from the Tree of Life to the card.  Which represents the fourth Sefirah, attributing to the numerical "Four", meaning via Crowley's version of Chesed as a an anchor for the intellect, and, quoted from Crowley's own proto-Fascist and muddled representation, "Chesed refers to Jupiter who rules in Libra in this decanate. The sum of these symbols is therefore without opposition; hence the card proclaims the idea of authority in the intellectual world. It is the establishment of dogma, and law concerning it. It represents a refuge from mental chaos, chosen in an arbitrary manner. It argues for convention."  When in fact in Hebrew, and Jewish mysticism, means mercy, kindness, and compassion.  The Four swords, in the shape of the St Andrews cross representing Crowley's love of militarism and Peace Through Strength beliefs, pointing towards the middle Of the rose, which, again Crowley is blatantly obvious here, "Their shape suggests fixation and rigidity. Their points are sheathed — in a rather large rose of forty-nine petals representing social harmony..." 

Other hints at how Far Right this card is, is this conclusive passage from Crowley, "Minds too indolent or too cowardly to think out their own problems hail joyfully this policy of appeasement. As always, the Four is the term; as in this case there is no true justification for repose, its disturbance by the Five holds no promise of advance; its static shams go pell-mell into the melting-pot; the issue is mere mess, usually signalized by foetid stench. But it has to be done!"

In other words, neurotic Fascists do not like prime numbers?  Are they too chaotic?  We all await Trump 2.0 rewrite of  the alphabet and numerical tables.  Yes, I am being sardonic here.   

Reading:

"4 of Swords. Truce" is a cursed card, which represents Peace Through Strength, the rigidity of the male, as a broken vessel.  They are in fact the weak, who issue strength as a resolve over peace, but cannot endure chaos. There are not warriors, as the masculine and the feminine melded is power, and beautiful in its strength,  shared with compassion and empathy for the flaws of humanity, it does not condemn us too order.  Yet, it may seem paradoxical, rather this melding of two as one, serves to set you free, not from society, but from yourself.  And bliss, is the pathway to transcendence, away from the burden of structure and control.  Are you brave enough to taste the forbidden?  No war is waged and we are not battlefields, despite the scars we carry.  We are only defending ourselves from the rulers of the land, and know that our conjure will evoke the mighty to fall on their own swords.  As we forever reign within the Earth, the wind and the trees.  For the curse to be reversed, of absolute power trying to control your body and mind, either draw another card or place this card underneath you and your lover, and ritual fuck over it.   

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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, 2025)