"9 of swords. Cruelty." and "Princess of Swords" THOTH TAROT CARD: READING/s. These cards were pulled as a double reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

Aleister Crowley's (d1947) simplistic Thoth Tarot cards, are at times his more cohesive, precise and interesting.  There is no doubt that this study of Crowley's Thoth Tarot has a flow akin to a bipolar peak and rise, with its depressive lows.  Mixed with a mishmash of meanings, esoteric conjoing, all within the realm of structured Western secret societies, which leaned towards early Fascist idealisms, beginning in the late 1800s via Helena Blavatsky's "Theosophical society" and onward onto the1950s with various occult offshoots.  That thankfully took a major backseat, when the late 50s counterculture began to offer more inclusion and less rigidness to alternative spiritual beliefs.

The "9 of Swords: Cruelty" is one of Crowley's doomsdayism Thoth cards, where he has encouraged, paradoxically, a resistance of the 'stability over change' ethos of Proto-Fascism. Which, in its early manifestation, favoured the extremities derived from the Age of Enlightenment, be it with its renewed imperialism and colonisation of conquering the world through techno-authoritarianism.  Leading to poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's (d1944) 1909 precursor to the Futurism art/writing movement and then later, Italian Fascism; titled the The Manifesto of Futurism. And as history has taught us, Proto-Fascism encourages, war, technological advancement through controlling of resources and conquering of nations, all for the expansion of Western power throughout the word.  Does it sound like it is happening again?  Re: Donald Trump 2.0?

Crowley's "9 of Swords: Cruelty", as mentioned, offers that break of rigidity and control of the individual, when overly structured realms only allow individualism for the greater society.  That the rebellious spirit will always defy, and will view doomsday as a conjuring power, that reminds man and his mortal realm, that nature always has the final word.  And arrogance and visions of grandeur will come undone, thus when cruelty is inflicted, in the name of progress onto the individual, than cruelty, in reflection, will be used in return.  Not as a forever cycle of violence and destruction, but a rebuttal by understanding the nature of the beast.  And its capacity to devour itself.  From the Book of the Thoth:  

The symbol shows nine swords of varying lengths, all striking downwards to a point. They are jagged and rusty. Poison and blood drip from their blades. There is, however, a way of dealing with this card: the way of passive resistance, resignation, the acceptance of martyrdom. 

So, the card could be seen as a reading of resistance under Fascist control, be it the dissident, freedom fighter or martyr. And I do like the wording, "passive resistance",  to which I will base my reading around.

Reading:

When the oppressor offers structure through control, peace through destruction, power through exploitation.  From the obsessive, crazed idealism of the techno-authoritarian.  With his grand ideas of authority, a paranoid vision that they will lose the future, to the dissident, the antithetical, the ones who turn their backs.  This is freedom of the individual, who chooses to not contribute to a society that has not yet learned to care.  And if cruelty is inflicted onto the ones who reject, then cruelty in turn will be conjured from the Left Hand Path, as we shall seek the opposition of man, to teach the controller a lesson.  The fallen, who despises the arrogance of stupor.  The 9, turned upside down becomes a 6, the swords remain at 9, the number that rules Mars, the dead realm.  Where ego will be obliterated.  The Swords point upward, rusted and chipped, but they are weapons of the freedom fighter.  Who offer resistance till the end.  Against the cursed, the rulers using the heavens as their guide.   But, despite this, it is the metaphor of defiance, and its passivity against control.  See this card in its meditation, as a hex against the cruelty of man.  Through the end, from the destruction brought on by the oppressor who uses destruction.  May, we know its nature.         

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"Princess of Swords" is one of Aleister Crowley's more sexist and degrading cards of the feminine.  The quintessential male trait of writing off the misunderstood female as an unruly and misaligned with an orderly patriarchal society.  Lies mostly in structured Abrahamic belief systems that she is chaos personified, and needs to be tamed.  And also in the historical content of Aleister Crowley is that he was not a Satanist, or interested in witchcraft, he was part of Proto-Fascist occult societies that were more aligned with a Western take on the Eastern esoteric.  So, when Crowley passed in 1947, he was of course unable to see and even perceive the counterculture years of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s 'spiritual' concepts that were more aligned with the feminine, and yes, her rebellious nature, to defy the restraints of the male oppressor.  And to be free, to rule over her own body.

The card has the mythos of Prometheus and/or Lucifer written all over it, as a defiant entity, staring up at the heavens, while being banished from it, pointing her sword downward, with her right hand, towards the Earthly realm, with her left, towards the darkness of the Earth.  Indicating, from Crowley's critique of the card, that the Left Hand Path is the antithesis to the occultist, as decreed by 19th Century occultist Helena Blavatsky Theosophical mysticism that it is an "immoral path", which assisted in laying down the groundwork for Nazism in the 1930s, as quote from The Book of Thoth, re: the unruly, defiant feminine: "...The explanation is that a Princess as such, being “the throne of Spirit", may always have the option of throwing everything overboard, “blowing everything sky high”. Such action would account for the characteristics above given for the card when well dignified. Such people are exceedingly rare; and, naturally enough, they appear often as “Children of misfortune..."  Crowley also offers a paradoxical insight to the card.  "...The character of the Princess is stern and revengeful. Her logic is destructive. She is firm and aggressive, with great practical wisdom and subtlety in material things. She shews great cleverness and dexterity in the management of practical affairs, especially where they are of a controversial nature. She is very adroit in the settlement of controversies..."  Possibly Crowley being seduced by the rebel female's qualities or the Lucifer myth.  Either way, I will make the card the way the image is depicted as a homage to the Left Hand Path, feminine power and wisdom, and her ultimate defiance against male control over her body.

Reading:

Reclaim your defiance against the omnipotent, the male oppressor.  Who bares down on all, guided by the illusion of order, rule and control.  The body is not a battlefield, and it is mine to claim.  Not yours.  It soothes and it gives me pleasure, these are my temple scriptures, that you do not take, unless I allow for you to view.  And I choose to defy, view the sword, it is drawn as a warning, pointing South of the Heavens, and my left hand point down towards the Earthly realm, the darkness below.  The Left Hand Path is my path, and you may see me as the sinister, the antithetical, the neurodivergent.   But, I am free in my inverted world, that I rule, and I rule alone.  So, let be know, it is better to reign in chaos, than serve.  I am not a slave.

___

(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

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