"XI. Lust", "6 of Cups. Pleasure and "2 of Disks. Change" THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

"XI Lust" is certainly Aleister Crowley's (d1947) more sexual orientated Thoth Tarot cards, which is solely attributed to the divine feminine, and its carnal energy.  Although Crowley was not an anthropologist, he was however a keen purveyor of Eastern Religions, and it's variations of antinomianism.  To which his own religion "Thelema" did encourage sexual rituals, with his "Sex Magick" techniques as a way of awakening the Age of Aeon.  While offering a plethora of contradictions to Crowley's conservative and Proto-Fascism beliefs, seen in other Thoth Tarot cards.  The height of Crowley's Sex Magick practices were held in late 1940s within the Californian branch of Ordo Templi Orientis, under its assigned senior member, instilled by Crowley, rocket engineer Jack Parsons who can be credited for developing a stable rocket fuel that NASA used to send astronauts to the moon in 1969, yet was tragically killed in 1952 in an accidental explosion at his house, while developing rocket fuels.  Many of the Occult societies of the late 1800s, and throughout the 1900s did encourage a degree of open sexuality, as way of conjuring or seen as a ritualizing technique, borrowing heavily from  Tantric Hinduism, and Tantric Buddhism in viewing the female as conduits of energy and thereof able to transmit this esoteric knowledge, through sexual rites.  These sexual rituals had nothing to do with satanism or Left Hand Path practices, or even free love and later sexual liberation/hedonism of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.  Although one could argue that Tantric, albeit unconsciously, did have an impact of the West, as a sexual ritual, be it a Friday night out, and a one night stand, with very little ego involved.  It was sex, for sex's sake, whether it was also used to conjure or release spirits, would be up to the individual.

Crowley passed away before the counterculture years that followed after his death, and would have most likely not approved of the more open sexuality that society became renowned for at that point in time, for Crowley, sex was a ritual performed to evoke his "Scarlet Woman", which was a 1800s occult reworking of the "Whore of Babylon", also portrayed in Gnostic Christianity as the "Great mother" and Western Jewish Qabalah teachings as the "Binah" from the Tree of Life, attempting to, in a theological sense, at redefining Babylon as not seductive or evil, but misunderstood.  And Crowley saw Babylon not as a metaphor, but as an entity, hence he requested that Jack Parson's and L.Ron Hubbard (of Scientology fame) commit to a series of Sex Magick rituals, under the influence of amphetamines and psychedelics, in the Mojave Desert, to manifest this Babylonic red haired woman.  Which according to lore, had Parson's and Hubbard mastubting and ejaculating on ceremonial Thelema seals.  And a woman had indeed been manifested from these 'rituals' as that "Scarlet Woman", and it was the red haired socialite, bohemian and artist Marjorie Cameron who coincidently turned up at Parson's house one day after these rituals, and they ended up marrying.  Who, after Parson's death, Cameron became mentally unstable and ended up trying to form doomsday, UFO cults of the late 1950s, before her death in 1995, she was very much part of the early 1960s counterculture years and the California art and underground movie scenes of the 1970s and 1980s.   

I will attempt to rework the reading of this card, and make it more open and nonduality.

Reading:

View the divine self pleasuring, unaffected, in rapture, disconnected and in bliss.  Synchronized with the other, but unrelated.  The ecstasy is of the same, the sacred energy prolonged, she mediates on a thought that radiates from the sexual realm, while the male requires the imagery.  She does not.  As the feminine holds the key in unlocking lust, and controlling it, without viewing it.  See her riding the Chimera, the fluidity of desire.  For she may be aroused by all, but selective, of who she requires to fulfill that need.  Do not assume this as an invitation, but be enthralled at her energy.  And yet, she may indeed conjure herself, if the position shifts and faces the direction of the other.  The connection, and transfer of energy may be required.  For the ultimate transmission, and the Two may become one.  So, saviour her elixir, while she holds in her left hand the wand of pleasure. 

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"6 of Cups.  Pleasure" represents Aleister Crowley's fascination with the 10th Century Tantric or more specifically Kāmakalā sexual practises to evoke a meditation towards attaining "Godhead", by ingesting the transmission of the "Bindu" (sacred fluid) from the male and female Hindu deities, also seen in Tibetan Buddhism between Yogini female 'Buddhist' cults and their sexual rituals in understanding and freeing oneself from the restriction of transcendence, that being of the material body and its realm of suffering.  Sexual interactions in unorthodox Buddhism were also seen as a way of attainment.  Crowley during the 1900s traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia, as from era that was the 'Age of Enlightenment', the West began to draw in ideas from the East.  However, antinomianism had already been prominent throughout the Christian domination of Europe and America even as its theology began to split.  So, it wasn't a new practice in challenging the taboo within Christian/Judaic and Muslim theocratic belief structures.  Yet, it was the Hindu/Buddhist/Taoists that took it further as a ritual of sexual alchemy, to which Crowley was heavily influenced by, reverting the ritualized ingesting of sexual fluids into his "Sex Magik" requirements from his own Thelema religion.  And interestingly, as discussed with numerous studies of Crowley's Thoth tarot, is his contradiction of aligning himself with Proto-Fascist metaphor of strength and control under a masculine guise.   As Tantric and Kāmakalā  were very much in revering the power of the feminine deities, combining the masculine seminal fluid, with her sacred elixirs (Bindu) into an alchemical potion.   

As also mentioned in this analysis of the Thoth Tarot, is Crowley's influence by Occultist and Western/Russian mystic Helena Blavatsky (d1891), who devised the Theosophical society in 1875, which later petered out in the 1920s, was very influenced by Eastern religions.  But, criticized the Tantric, by deeming it as a transgressive "Left Hand Path", possibly showing up as Western Colonisation and its moral standards over the East.  This can also be seen with Crowley's Thelema beliefs, which may have been a way of selling these Occultist practices/societies to a conservative 1800s and early to mid 1900s, pre the countercultures of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Reading:

View the Six Lotus flowers tilted South, as they point towards the divine transgression, that is the Earthly realm.  Allowing the flow of the feminine elixir to fill the equal amount of ceremonial glasses, but also see, that they are never overflowing.  As Six is the perfect number, equal to itself.  Balanced between the infinity of Three, that is both of the masculine and the feminine, combined it is of the most powerful fluid.  Created by the mortal, like a primordial Earth, it gives life.  So, do not waste it, and do not take it for granted.   The ritual of joining two, to create the flow of one from the eros, is metaphoric in its action.  A practice of mediation, may pleasure be attained, but not for its own sake.  This is of the highest calling, and it is from the self, a release from the material realm and its burden of the material body.  Enjoy the sexual transcendence, the pleasures of meditation, albeit fleeting in its climax, it is however sustained by flowing back into body.  Taste its desire, be released and nourished.  

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"2 of Disks.  Change."

One of Aleister Crowley's (d1947) more serene and simplistic cards, which has a straightforward and purposeful message.  Although, structured around Crowley's, at times, Far Right leaning conservative beliefs that "Change" supports "Stability", when instability actually creates change. One must be reminded, Crowley passed away a decade before the extremely important counterculture movements of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s began: Beatniks, Hippies, human/animal rights, environmental movements, sexual liberation and the freedom to choose your lifestyle, mixed with hedonism, which could be argued was akin (without being overly conscious of it) to the spiritual practises of sexual meditation and antinomianism.  However, Crowley was part of the 1900s 'New Age' movements, which had affiliations with Proto-Fascism of the 1920s, and forumulated aspects of early conspiracy theories that an unstructured society is a threat to human progression.   So, it is interesting to view the "2 of Disks.  Change." as a hippie-esque type card, however it would be more attuned to 1960s styled occultism, of fusing the Eastern and Western esoteric, into a sibyl inspired reading.  From the Book of Thoth, Crowley offers clues to the card, that it represents Earthy wisdom, reflecting the 2 of the Chokmah (Tree of Life) from the Qabalah.  Which in turn tries to hold its balance between the stability of Jupiter, the upper part of the card, and the lower Capricornus, Pan the unruly horned goat.  Also note, Crowley's interest in Chinese Taoism, with the Yin and Yang symbols, intertwined with a crowned snake in its number 8 configuration, consuming its own tail, indicating the infinity of the Universe.

Reading:

Let chaos bring in change, finding order through meditation.  Above is the stability of the planet Jupiter, the behemoth and its gravity, protecting the wisdom of the Earthly realm, from cosmic destruction; the remnants of dead planets.  Pan and the Capricornus maybe the god of the wild, but its mistrief offers a reprieve from the mundane, be it that stability is the opposite of change.  And change is what we require.  Balance is the harmony of the infinite, the number 8.  Yet, we are of the finite, so change will originate from the self, and will end with the self.  

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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

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