"III. The Empress", "1. Ace of Swords" and "4 of Disks. Power" THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

"The Empress", III of the Major Arcana and one of the most beautifully defined cards of the Thoth Tarot, and certainly one of the less confronting and occultish.  Which offers an insight into Crowley's philosophical template towards the feminine, without reading into it too much.  He does see, maybe in his own mind, the contradictions of the feminine to the masculine and how it related to his merging of esoterica studies from the East and West.  And The Empress card, with his interpretation from The Book of Thoth, attempts to do away with these contradictions and over focalized representations of duality, rather he deemed this card as symbolism of "Love." 

As mentioned in my previous Thoth card studies, is Crowley's constant attachment to Qabalah and Egyptian esoterism as template to his Thelma region.  Indicative, of how much medieval Jewish mystics had on the 15th Century alchemists, and the beginning of Hermetism as a philosophical foundry throughout Europe and England, to which Crowley was heavily influenced by.  So, the  variant infusions of Crowely's esoteric can at times seem like an ad hoc display on the Thoth cards, whilst being defined by Crowley's creative impression.   Yet, if you strip back some of the reasoning of Crowley's decree  that the card represents Love, to which Crowley said, in relation to 'The Empress', "This is the Harmony of the Universe, that Love unites the Will to create with the Understanding of that Creation: understand thou thine own Will. Love and let love. Rejoice in every shape of love, and get thy rapture and thy nourishment thereof", further clues are revealed.

Thoth's The Empress card, in lieu of other Major Arcana cards, holds an overall simplicity in its aesthetics.   The delicate line and textured art by  Lady Frieda Harris (d1962) gives it a subtly and gentle appearance, which is what Crowley had intended for the card to be.   As is the symbolism, and as mentioned, is not as confronting or harsh as the other Thoth cards.  The Pelican at the bottom left of the card, which has it roots in Christian iconography, as symbolism of redemption.  Piecing its chest with its peak to feed its young, note the chicks looking up at the mother.  From by Psalm 102: "Similis factus sum pellicamo"  (I am become like the pelican in the wilderness)  and more importantly in Christian ethos  Corpus Christi or Body [Blood] of Christ.  Which I have noticed with Crowley's Thoth Tarot, despite the occult overture, there is, at times Christian elements throughout, more so Gnostic in its representation.  The White Eagles of the shield are from Crowley's homage to Middle Ages alchemy, the visual and verbal code for sal ammoniac or salt.  And The Book of Thoth, Crowley elaborates that The Empress card, as a feminine symbolism is the conjuring of salt, which in mythology of pre-Christian religions, represent a goddess of the the sea.   That we were derived from salt.

The two birds perched either side of The Empress are of a Sparrow (left) and a Dove (right), representing the Roman poets Catullus and Martial, which would very much align with Crowley's classical educational and an interesting overlay to his occultist foundation.  However, they do seem out of place.  Nevertheless, the Sparrow and Dove in Greek mythology represent Love, further instilling the softness of The Empress card.  Other symbolism on the card, portraying the desired  passiveness of Crowley's feminine, are the Lotus flower, the fleurs-de-lys, Bees and astrological symbols.  As The Empress sits in front of the Door of heaven, hence the Hebrew letter Daleth ( bottom left), meaning door and on the right the symbol of Venus, once gain as noted throughout the Thoth cards, Crowley's fascination of the feminine.

Crowley's duality and contradictions of femininity can be irritating and certainly outdated.  He did claim, from The book of the Thoth that The Empress is, ."..no contradiction; such opposition as there seems to be is only the opposition necessary to balance".  Which falls into most monotheistic religious beliefs, that the feminine must be balanced under the eyes of God, while in a rather spiteful manner, Crowley's sexist analysis of women, from The Book of The Thoth where he claims, "Many-throned, many-minded, many-wiled, daughter of Zeus, as the unruly female.

As opposed to the Rider-Waite "The Empress", she is powerfully represented as a strong willed creator.

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"1 Ace of Swords"

Aleister Crowley's (d1947) more rambling interpretation for the Thoth Tarot card which represents the 'Root of Air', where Crowley attaches mostly the Qabalah explanation in describing the sacredness of wind/air, quoting it as an "all-embracing, all-wandering, all-penetrating, all-consuming"  And in his spiritual interpretation of air and wind, Crowley demotes the element of air as a secondary directive to Fire and the Earth.  When in fact, air and wind, are powerful cleansing meditations, particularly when a spirit is needed to be released.  And by walking into the wind, it is one of the most intense ways of confronting and being purifying by the natural construct.  The wind, particularly in Middle Eastern nomadic tribes, was worshipped as an entity that either brought luck or misfortune.  In Gnostic and Christian literature the wind and air, it is Satan, that controls the power of air, residing on the Earthly realm.  The Sword pointing upward, also holds a defiance towards the omnipotent and that burden of nature brought the human condition.  That we are indeed are own light bearers.  As Crowley does offer the Phallus as a potent symbol of strength, to which the masculine as an entity, when trained through the male and female mortal, may weld with discipline be it a symbolism of liberation.   The light, through darkness albeit temporary, could be an interpretation of the orgasmic bliss towards radiance.  That I may transcend, and see through the darkness.  From The Book of Thoth, "Sends forth a blaze of Light, dispersing the dark clouds of the Mind". 

Reading:

It is the wind, the power of air, the most cleansing comes from the South West, which carries that scent of self awareness, the light of phallic and its climax piercing through the confusion.  For you may view this light, and let it ascend into the clouds.  Be those details, like the cat, which only requires a very slight  illumination to see through the darkness.  And yet, it does not miss any angles.  So let the wind pass through you, and be purified, breath the air, take in the ages and exhale, release the wandering spirits, the relestess ghosts.  And mediate within the chaos.

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"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.

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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

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