"4 of disks. Power" and 10 of Swords "Ruin" THOTH TAROT CARD: READING/s. These cards were pulled as a double reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

"4 of disks.  Power" is another one, of so many, Proto-Fascist Thoth Tarot cards.  And as mentioned in my numerous analysis of the late British occultist, Aleister Crowley (d1947) was a product of his time, that thankfully was reshaped, restructured and done away with when the late 1950s, 1960s, 1970s including the 1980s (Yes, with the 'Satanic Panic' in tow) that held back any conservative inkling of desire for Fascist stability, which swept the world in 1920 via Benito Mussolini, landing with the horrificness of 1930s, 1940s Adolph Hitler's Nazi Germany, but politically festering underneath the years after World War Two, that it could actually work, if conducted in a different way (?), and yes, to have the trains run on time, while looking nice and clean and modern, just don't question it they don't actually run on time and are dirty (and broken),  Sound familiar?  Well it is, Fascism has returned with gusto, via President Donald Trump 2.0, who was voted in again, mostly assisted by podcast conspiracy theorists and a crazy Billionaire, as an unelected advisor to Trump, who controls America's space program, accentuating that desire, maybe in all of us, to have stability over change.  So, equality movements, environmental/human/animal concerns, the freedom to choose any sexual orientation you wish, believe in any spiritual path you wish, everything that the said counterculture years gave to us, has been wiped off the face of the map. One must ask the existential question here; Who's is really to blame?

"4 of disks.  Power" is a very cursed card, I will do my best in redefining its meaning and relevance.

Reading:

This is a cursed card.  And we must meditate on its flawed foundation.  Power is restriction, suppression and compression.  It will end up destroying itself via destroying its own self importance, this only happens within humanity, not of the natural system.  When we go, nature will remain and absorb our human folly and biology, without a care of our existence, back into what is the true 'power'.  The jungles, forests, deserts will consume us, our structure of grandeur buried as a memory of error, those archeological relics of a self destructive entity, rare in the cosmos.  The image you see is of a square fortress, with a watery moat that surrounds, on each of the four towers is the sacred symbols of nature. from left to right: Water (inverted pyramid) Fire, Air (pyramid and pyramid with horizontal line within it), and the finally, Earth, the inverted pyramid with its horizontal line.  Human fanaticism to control nature though power.  So, be wary of power, open the mind, the free and less powerful are the most powerful, be it, their act of enduring life.  Faith in structure, and you will collapse with it.   Meld with nature, and be part of nature.  The human being that embraces conquering nature, looks weak and defeated, and is dying from its own confusion and self annihilation.  We must curse the "4 of disks.  Power" and flip the card over, so it faces the Earth, South of the Heavens.  And give praise to the spirit of wind, it will beautifully erode all arrogance.  For  the leader who is obsessed with power, will face death.

___

10 of Swords "Ruin" is one if Aleister Crowley's (d1947) more interesting cards, with its incredibly detailed by Lady Frieda Harris (d1963) cubism/futurism style art, displayed with such a poignant representation of Crowley's occultism, which was his own Thelema region.  Yet, as discussed with these studies and readings to date of the Thoth Tarot, was Crowley mishmash of Age of Enlightenment's fascination with Egyptology, Western and Eastern esoterics, including the Western take on Jewish mysticism via the Qabalah or Tree of Life, which if one is to delve deeper to see how all these fusions originated, the name Athanasius Kircher comes to mind.  A Jesuit priest of the 1600s, who wrote about 3rd and 4th BCE Hermetic Syncretism, and was a pioneer as an early Egyptologist, able to read and translate Hieroglyphics, while studying how the Greeks of the BCE era began to incorporate Egyptian gods/beliefs to Greek philosophy and their gods, to form medieval Hermetic structures.  Which further lead to alchemy, and then Western occultism and secret societies.  That had all petered out in the 1950s.

And also discussed in this study, is Crowley's background and development of the Thoth Tarot and his Thelema religion, was his extensive drug use of mostly amphetamines, which shows the ebb and flows of rambling connotations and more placid explanations of the Tarot.   And when in analysis of his own explanations is tedious to say the least.  10 of Swords "Ruin" is a card that represents a mental breakdown, at least according to Crowley's The Book of Thoth, is connected to his Qabalah interpretations and astrology, with, although not as pronounced in other Thoth Tarot cards, Chinese Taoism (as an underlying reading for "Ruin" offering that water in Taoism is calming, Crowley maybe inscribing it as a warning of having unstructured thoughts).  Hence, the chaotic fiery background, and the swords representing the Tree of Life (Qabalah) splintered (Tenth sword) within disorder and confusion, with the Sixth 'central' sword being the sun, also broken.  Appearing as a reflection of Crowley's own psychotic reworking of what the Qabalah actually represents, which is knowledge and stability.  Most likely this card would be read with another Thoth Tarot.

Reading:

Overthinking leads to ruin, and internal disturbance.  Unruly thoughts, will evoke fire and destruction of the mind.  Be calm, be like water. 

(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

All Thoth Tarot card analysis and readings to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search?q=thoth