"Prince of Cups" and "4 of cups. Luxury" THOTH TAROT CARD: READING/s. These cards were pulled as a double reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

"Prince of Cups" is one of Aleister Crowley's anti-hero or antithesis cards, which may have aligned, and I am being speculative here, with what he wanted to be, albeit in a theatrically manifestation, which was later stipulated by French psychiatrist from the early 18th Century Philippe Pinel, who described patients exhibiting a "madness without delirium" or later the "moral insanity" to which one could have, according English psychiatrist, James Cowles Prichard in 1835,  characteristics that are morally antithetical to society, without the hallucinations or delusion.  Yes, what we now know today, as a term which has been over used in an overstimulated world of digital media relays from the many keyboard 'armchair' therapists, based more myth than not, that being; Psychopathy.  But, the early mythology of the 'mad one' who shows no delusional fears, may have been attractive to Crowley, as the ultimate rebel.  From Crowley's own analysis of the card:

"The moral characteristics of the person pictured in this card are subtlety, secret violence, and craft. He is intensely secret, an artist in all his ways. On the surface he appears calm and imperturbe, but this is a mask of the most intense passion. He is on the surface susceptible to external influences, but he accepts them only to transmute them to the advantage of his secret designs. He is thus completely without conscience in the ordinary sense of the word, and is therefore usually distrusted by his neighbours. They feel they do not, and can never, understand him. Thus he inspires unreasonable fear. He is in fact perfectly ruthless. He cares intensely for power, wisdom, and his own aims. He feels no responsibility to others, and although his abilities are so immense, he cannot be relied upon to work in harness."  

Am I close?   As mentioned, I am only speculating on the correlation of 18th and 19th Century psychoanalytic theory on the said, so called, disorder.  Yet, it is a clever card, with a plethora of poignant symbolism, from a lotus flower, pointing down, held in the left hand of the male figure, and a ornamented cup, held in the right hand, with a serpent in it, to which the figure is looking directly at the snake.  The figure is naked, except for the helmet with a eagle atop, while sitting at a chariot, flown by an eagle, as it looks down.  Symbolic in its intensity, with the bird of prey and its eagle eyes.  As the figure is also looking downward.  The "Prince of Cups" represents water, and the flows of rain and is serene in its presence, according to Crowley the card is ruled by Libra and Scorpio.

Reading:

Be paradoxical, ride the eagle in all its metaphor, the eagle's eyes maybe sharper than yours.  Yet, you can craft your intuition to be even shaper.  Naked to the world, your armour is only what you'll wear, in its symbolism, to shield the mind, not from the external, but to ensure ambiguity is maintained.  You may never know, what you do not see coming.  As you tilt the flower downward, towards the Earth, to which it came from, it is now part of the left hand path, where even weeds are valued, and the moss covers the arrogance of mankind.  The rain is persistent, the air pure.  You hold the cup, with your right hand, staring into the serpent's eyes, and you will know no fear, nor delusion, no hysteria.  Be calm in your actions, without the moral standard.  Therefore you have no one to blame for your actions, your past, your parents and the greater society.  What you do, you do by being aware of the self.

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"4 of cups. Luxury" is on of Aleister Crowley's (d1947) instability cards, or forewarning of collapse, more so of the individual.  In similarity to "5 of Cups. Disappointment", relating to 17th Century geomancy, which is an early manifestation of symbolic occultism, where random shapes, in both nature and structure could indeed foretell fortune or a warning or at least offer an aesthetic vibe, that may lift mood (or decrease it).  Which is based around basic number sequencing, with Crowley, from The Book of Thoth, attributing the number 4 as an "awkward number", also identify the 4 of Cups to be aligned with the Latin "Via and Populus", Via meaning "change" or "movement", "clear direction" and Populus, the "crowd" "without clear direction" .  According to geometric lore, both are inverse to each other.  In which, as discussed, Crowley like many of the post Age of Enlightenment era, saw the utmost of structural stability over change, which indeed lead to elements of proto-Fascist beliefs in the Century that followed, that individualism could lead to social disorder and collapse, as quoted by Crowley, from "The Book of Thoth" :

"...For although the number Four is the manifestation and consolidation of the dyad, it is also secretly preparing catastrophe by emphasizing individuality..."

Possibly Crowley referring to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and: 

"...The card refers to the Moon in Cancer, which is her own house; but Cancer itself is so placed that this implies a certain weakness, an abandonment to desire. This tends to introduce the seeds of decay into the fruit of pleasure..."

Very much aligned with Crowley's proto-Fascist beliefs (which holds large doses of contradiction) of a moral collapse.

I will attempt to redeem the card.

Reading:

The mind at times may sense that turmoil is near, in the inner waves of thought, contentment and thinking about a future that has yet to arrive, when these clash, you may find yourself sinking.  And this is when the individual, the self becomes afixed on the self, and when things go awry, the self connects to the other selves, to form the crowd, which can become an aimless, ruckus, mass controlled by fears.  The instability, although real, will pass, best let it go, then reconnect to other.  And even though you may feel balanced on these 'waters' of thoughts, if one can detach from the structure, one can see transcendance, that numbers, shapes are all temporary, moments in time, interpret them as you will, use them for comfort, but realise that once utilized they must be left as pure symbolism.  Not as entities.  The material world fades, and "luxury" is a flower, which will wither and die.      

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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

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