"Prince of cups", "9 of wands. Strength" and "10 of Disks Wealth" THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple 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.

___

Is the "9 of Wands. Strength" another Proto-Fascist Thoth Tarot card or a Tarot that represents a peaceful stability?  Oxymoron? Considering Aleister Crowley, who passed away in 1947, and was unable, obviously, to see the Beatniks, which he would have disliked, evolve into the Hippies throughout the 1960s.  The Italian styled Futurist artwork by Lady Frieda Harris, who passed away in 1962, certainly did not represent the coming Three decades of countercultures.  As discussed with this analysis of the Thoth Tarot, both Crowley and Harris were representative of their era, as the West within the context of over 100 years, began fusing Eastern esoteric with Western occultism and secret societies, was by its definition, as close as you could get to Fascist idealisms.  Even if some of these groups were in competition with each other, and at times did not all get long.  They were, very much one in the same.  Tolerated by the governments of their time, to an extent of how much political power could be directed their way, as Harris was a 'Chief Whip' with the Libertarian styled U.K. Liberal party, which could be seen with America's current political situation, become Far Right paleolibertarians very quickly.  And in paradoxical leanings, claiming that they uphold the rights of the individual, by surpassing and removing all social programs, which they believe should not be a government's responsibility.  Which will somehow encourage a productive self contained liberal, free market utopia, has never really worked apart from moving closer towards Fascism.  As seen as strength over weakness will keep it all in check, and that paranoia of 'Left Wing' governments by allowing all types of self expression, will be societies downfall.   Hence, what is happening in the U.S. where President Trump was able to fuse his cherry picked Libertarian and Far Right imperialist policies, as a way of gaining a populus, in their distrust of a Centralist and Left Wing government.  And encouraging Strength through Power.

Yet, from the Book of The Thoth, the "9 of Wands Strength" is one of Crowley's simple, yet positive cards, and reads like a reversal of what strength means under a more open society.  That it be enduring to see through the suffering and pain, for a more just world.  With Crowley offering this quote, "Moon on the Tree of Life. Hence the aphorism “Change is Stability”.  Rather than the now, 'Stability over Change' which has swept the world in our current timeline.   The card also has a renewing factor to it, with the Sun above and the Moon, below within a balance of the Night and Day, with flames directed at the Earth, being growth and sustaining life.  Also, note that the card is ruled by Sagittarius, who is seen as a symbol for enduring drive and detimnaton.  As Crowley has converted the Wands into arrows, piercing the crescent of the Moon.  To see through the day, onto a better day?  To begin anew, within the timeline of Life?    

Reading:

May you use the symbol of the wands, to become arrows.  Pierce the ignorance of the mind, allow the light to enter.  As the 9 arrows in balanced harmony, represent the sacred number 9, that being Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Ether, Time, Space, Soul, and Mind.  Meditate on each of them:

We come from the Earth, and shall return to the Earth. 
We are made up of water, so let the flow of the sacred liquids of the self, nourish the self.  
Breath the air, when one wakes from sleep.  Be grateful for that first breath, and then slowly exhale.   
Fire, is to be controlled within, burn too brightly and you risk losing it all, slow burn till the end, and you'll dissipate with longevity. 
Do not fear the Ether, as it is eternal.
Do not fear Time, but it ends.
Meditate on the Void of Space, as that is where the photons (light) of the self will be released.
Know the Soul.
Control the Mind through Meditation.

So, be at peace, and be determined, but do not race.  Stop, embrace the night with sleep, begin again the next day.  You are not at war or conflict, but you are a warrior.  Love the self, release the self.  Strength is a guide, be it strength over ignorance, strength over suffering and pain, strength with nothing, but everything.  May the sun rise in the East and set in the West. 

___

10 of Disks "Wealth" from the Thoth Tarot, is, as discussed in previous posts, one of Aleister Crowley's (d1947) more ambiguous, and rambled interpretation, if one was to use the Book of Thoth to decipher the "Wealth" card.  I have written extensively on Crowley's turbulent background as an occultist, which would be concluded, in a simplistic overview of his own personal version of occultism, on how significant Jewish Qabalah mysticism was to him and of the many occult societies that sprung up from the 1700s and flourished throughout the 1800s and 1900s, evolving from 16th Century Hermetic Qabalah.  All very distinct from witchcraft and so called devil worshipping, which was more akin to a theatrical novelty that manifested from the countercultures of the 1960s through to the 1980s.   Yet, the incorporation of Hebrew into occultism and ceremonial witchcraft, originated from the coded necessity of using secretive numbering patterns, which Hebrew as a language, also offers a numerical based alphabet.  However, Crowley like other Western esoteric occultists of the 1900s, mixed Hebrew lettering up within the context of devising occultist meanings, that can be at times very hard to understand to the point of being nonsensical.  Such is this particular card.

10 of Disks "Wealth" from the Thoth Tarot basically means to be wary of materialism. 


Reading:

See the gold coins stacked in a formation of Ten?  They represent the Tree of Life from the Qabalah.  Before I continue, I will offer you simple advice before venturing into the details of this card.  They are all meaningless, made of nothing.  This card is worthless.  Just symbols that you may, if you ask, I will interpret for you.  Otherwise, focus of the coins depicted and the name of the Tarot titled "Wealth".  Do you aspire it?  Do you believe in it?  If so, then the symbolism of this card will indeed materialize itself as a deceptive cue.  Wealth, and its desire, one can easily be lead.  Deluded by meaning, dragged around by that hopelessness for stability, which is not of the self.  The material world does not exist, you create its existence.  Everything begins and ends with the self, then why bother over emphasising.  Why bother assuming, that you should feel entitled to attain the wealth of ages.  Be it you, and everybody else.  The boulevard of restless spirits is endless in its suffering.  Know, that the material world will vanish. Like a vapor in time.  So, I say this again; "you are meaningless, nothing".  Meditate on this, and you will know "nothing" is of bliss, and "meaningless" is freedom.

___

(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025)

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

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