"Princess of Cups", "Five of Wands. Strife" and "1. The Magus" THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

Princess of Cups Thoth tarot shows Aleister Crowley's fondness for Hindu and Buddhist esoteric, with a dancing woman surrounded by a Lotus flower, representing purity and rebirth, upper right side of the card, the Swan above the Princess's head, which in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, particularly Tibetan, represents wisdom and enlightenment.  The river Dolphin, creation and life.  Finally she is holding, in her right hand, an ornamented bowel with a tortoise inside, which is another powerful symbolism of the esoteric, as the tortoise, once again, showing Crowley's affection for Hindu mythology, is seen as the supreme feminine deity that holds the world above its shell.    Yet, it is the Princess who holds the tortoise, announcing how powerful feminine wisdom and intuition can be, as a guide through the waves of life.     

What I like about the Princess of Cups, which comes under the "Princess" set of four cards in the Thoth deck, it is one of the more prominent cards that represent positivity, as opposed to the darker meanings behind the majority of the Thoth cards, although Crowley's dichotomy of light and dark are usually intermixed within its meanings.  The Princess of Cups is more blatantly light, I would read this card as supreme power of the feminine, with its nonchalant care, more so, its care for the self.  The feminine undoubtedly has an intrinsic ability to cater and be self sufficient to its own entity.  Through the great upheaval and turmoil of life, like the waves depicted in the card, she can dance, even if she is carrying the world.  It is carried effortlessly.  To reward the self with the power beyond the material world, can be at times be a material reward.  Such are the diamonds portrayed on the hem of her gown.  You are that diamond within the chaos.  

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Five of Wands, which is "Strife" of the Thoth Tarot, is correlated to, according to 'The Book of The Thoth' to be from the Fifth Sephirah from the Qabalah Tree of Life, Geburah.  And if you have been following my analysis and readings of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, you would know that he had a fondness for Jewish mysticism and its esoteric teachings from the Qabalah, which was utilized in 16th Century Western alchemy as a way using Hebrew to code and number explanations of alchemist practises.  So, essentially it was taken from medieval esoteric Qabalah and morphed into a non-jewish ritualized system, such as the various occult societies that formed in Europe during the Age Enlightenment.  

And these Western occult societies fused all aspects of Eastern practises into their beliefs, Crowley was very much a product of his time, before he passed away in 1947.  His own structured belief system Thelema, was heavily influenced by his tenure with the occult society "The Golden Dawn".  Where the new found exoticism of Egyptology and Middle Eastern estorica, including to a lesser degree Islam Sufis (Crowley spent time in Morocco in the late 1800s), were all these predominate occult aspects became infused with Western astrology, ceremonies and recent scientific findings.  

The Fifth Sephirah, Geburah of Jewish Qabalah represents "Fire" and "Judgement", and this would be as close as you would get to the similarities of Jewish and Christian esoterica.  That I feel Crowley had very much aligned himself within his own belief system Themela and the Thoth Tarot.   That being Fire and Judgment handed down by God, in which the human soul, if not guided by God's law and teachings, will be unruly and unbalanced.  Crowley's own interpretation, once again holds a vagueness to the card's overall meaning, but emphases that the card represents fire and strife though and though, if it was not balanced by the Horizontal Chief Adept wand (Golden Dawn ceremonial staff).  Indicating Crowley's desire for structure or control within his belief systems.  So, the symbolism holds a curiosity of Crowley's own definition to the Qabalah and Tree of Life, where he attempts to find balance in the card's artwork by Lady Frieda Harris (d1962) within her 1940s geometric cubism style.  By incorporating the balance between the masculine and the feminine to tame that fire in us all. 

Reading:

Is the spirit restless?  Does the fire, which lies deep within, burn in disarray?  Note the Qabalah Tree of Life, that it is the Geburah of Fire and Judgement, the Fifth Sephirah.  Also meaning, Power and Strength.  If the spirit is restless, you may need to learn these terms, that there is no Fire in Judgment and no Strength in Power.  Rather than tame the Spirit, free the Spirit.  Order can be an illusion and strife a clarity.  Do we not live in tumultuous times?  Yet, it is claimed that we have order?  Order over nature?  Order over our on folly.  Do we really need structure?  Use the fire within so that one may not be subservient.  If you do indeed seek control, than learn to master thyself.  Or be exploited by the structure.  Therefore "Strive" of the Five of Wands should be inverted.  So, we may praise strife and turmoil.  To reveal  the turmoil in ourselves, not to be judged by a flawed world or sent to hell.  Rather, to heal and overcome.  Blessed are the balanced.  

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1 "The Magus" 

Reading:

Don't take the mind or thoughts for granted, despite, at times the wandering logic.  The jungler, like the illusionist and the conjurer mock reality, in defiance against the predicaments of gravity.  Perched upon his tippy toes, he achieves the seemingly impossible, of great skills honed, timing and its coordination.  Yet, the juggler must be focused, when at perfect harmony, he may be able to set forth motion in an unconscious state.  But, be wary of the xīnyuán, the 'monkey mind', of the restless, lacking control, impulsive and obsessive.  It does not tempt, as it cannot control.  For it represents an erratic pitfullness.  But, the cultivation of mind would be juggling the symbolisms of reality, within a setting of chaos.

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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026)

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