"VI. The lovers" and "7 of swords. futility" THOTH TAROT CARD: READING/s. These cards were pulled as a double reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

Here we see Aleister Crowley's more detailed Thoth Tarot card displaying his fondness for gnostic Christianity, of course the card follows, in a more symbolic detail, to the Rider Waite traditional depiction of "The Lovers".  But nevertheless, as the sixth Major Acana of the Thoth Tarot, it is one of the most difficult to read, only because of its double binding and reverse meanings.  The card is filled with a plethora of dichotomy concepts.  Crowley, when he wrote an explanation of The Lovers in "The Book of Thoth", is what can be considered, I mean this respectfully, to be a ramble of the card's actual reading.  Once again, as noted by the difficulty, apparently of the Thoth cards as stand alone meanings, Crowley advised that the card should be read with another Thoth card.  Outlining that his version of "The Lovers" is that type of reading. And I would argue, the greater skill would to read the card as a single reading.  Yet, if you breakdown the gist for the summary of this card, via Crowley's written ambiguity, is that it is about the masculine and the feminine as one, while being separated, they are then reversed under the banner of love and lust.   Thus, the Moorish King marrying the White queen, below the wingless cupids are in reverse of each other, as a black and white duality.  White under the black King, Black under the white Queen.  

The coiled snake wrapped around the egg, which throughout the ages, has represented the sexual power of the feminine (yes, snakes have a clitoris).  Of its rebirth and transformation.  As you can see, the snake's head is pointing at the male King, as above the blindfolded cupid (love) is aiming at the Queen.  Is the cupid really blindfolded?   The representation here is very clear that the variants of love and lust have been reversed, as it is the Queen that holds the seduction through lust, and the King who is aiming for love.  Also interesting to note, is the lion at the bottom of the card beneath the King, and the white eagle under the Queen.  Which is the more strategic animal of prey?  The Eagle with its sharpened eyesight and power of heightened sense.  Has it already plotted fate?   To the upper right of the card is Lilith, the temptress and first wife of Adam (from Judaism and esoteric Qabalah).  Lilith stands over the King, as the innocence and naivety of Eve stands above the Queen.  Has the Moorish King already being tempted by Lilith?  As directed by the Goethe's 1808 famous poem, "Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy", the clever demon Mephistopheles, who works for Satan, warned Faust of the witch Lilith's resounding power,  "Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair. When Lilith winds it tight around young men She doesn't soon let go of them again."  In the foreground is Cain or The Hermit, either way, it seems to identify with corruption or a 'curse', as the mark of cain is indeed the wanderer and fugitive from the Judaic faith.   Are the couple ultimately cursed?  The below symbols either side of "The Lovers" are the Hebrew symbol "Zain" (left) meaning "sword", and on the right the astrological symbol for Gemini. 

Reading:   

Do you feel completed with the other?  And does the other feel completed with you?  If templetation was available.  Would you not indulge?   The masculine may indeed wish love and the feminine a moment of lust.  Which do you desire?  So, if we remove the duality.  We are truly one and the same.  Of all the contradictions and the blaming on the biological cue.  To which if one does plot towards a tryst?  Am I guided by the masculine or feminine?  Maybe the curse that we all live under could be broken, if allowed to transpire in a moment of contradiction.  The bond could be strengthened.     

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"Seven of Swords.  Futility"  Unfortunately is another Thoth Tarot card that represents Aleister Crowley Proto-Fascist beliefs, even pre and post World War Two, as the Thoth Tarot was devised in 1937 and Crowley passed away Ten years later in 1947, he did see the interest and emergence in Fascism throughout 1920s through onto the beginning of World War Two and the murmurings of the New European Order movement in 1951, with South America being a haven for ex-German Nazis and Italian Fascists (who had been there since the 1920s).  It shows how attractive Fascism can be, that if implemented differently to what Benito Mussolini imagined, may indeed offer stability and technological advancement to the human race, or a certain race within the human race, that mainly is European and white.  However Fascism as a political structure, unlike Nazism as German Aryan superiority, can be multinational and racial.  Crowley did not show direct racist overtones from his writings or Thoth Tarot, using Jewish mysticism extensively which was an extension of the Hermetic Qabalah Hebrew, that early alchemists used a way of coding and numbering their alchemy experiments.  Yet, Crowley was  very much aligned with 'Peace Through Strength' Western militarist theory, and that stability is better than change, from the Book of the Thoth re: "Seven of Swords.  Futility": 

"...There is vacillation, a wish to compromise, a certain toleration. But, in certain circumstances, the results may be more disastrous than ever. This naturally depends upon the success of the policy. This is always in doubt as long as there exist violent, uncompromising forces which take it as a natural prey..."  and "...The symbol shows six Swords with their hilts in crescent formation. Their points meet below the centre of the card, impinging upon a blade of a much larger up-thrusting sword, as if there were a contest between the many feeble and the one strong. He strives in vain..."

There is no doubt, as discussed with this analysis of Crowley's Thoth Tarot, and his Thelema religion would have not held much ground during the counterculture years of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.  Crowley's legacy ended when he passed away in 1947, and the methamphetamine user Jack Parsons, who invented the rocket engine, was to be Crowley's successor, accidently blew himself up.  The 'other', was L. Ron Hubbard, as the story goes, ripped off Parson's wealth, stole his girlfriend at the time and started his own religion of "Scientology", which its basis maintains some of the Proto-Fascist overtures and rituals that Crowley implemented within his Thelema religion.

I will now claim the "Seven of Swords.  Futility" card. 

Reading:

Unfortunately this is a cursed card, that is, if you wish peace through strength and domination, you may indeed impale yourself and the expectations of others upon your sword.   "Futility" is self destruction.  Annihilation of weakness, and you may annihilate life.  Do you wish this?  We are born weak, yet become strong.  Vulnerable, but able.  The human being was given the gift of light and fire, to be torch bearers within the realm of darkness.  Not become the darkness.   Only the deepest of meditation can one see into the dark, and know its mysteries and conquer the fears.  The layman cannot.   So, why hold the sword?  When you are not skilled to use it?  Are you a master?  If you say 'yes I am', than I know you are not.  The honesty of the self, is the control of the self.  Aware of this, and the card may not be cursed and you may invert the card, so that the larger sword is pointing down, and the sacred number 6, counting six smaller swords will point towards the heavens, in defiance of tyrannical power from the higher throne, which wishes to control the individual.  The choice is yours, defy the collective, defy the rule.  No king or idol can rule you.  Under no structure will I be truly be free.  I know darkness, and with the weapons I have been given, they stay sheathed, and yet I will defend my existence against the Imperialist.  

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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

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