"XVIII. The moon", "Knight of Cups" and "5 of cups. Disappointment" THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

 XVIII "The Moon" Is Aleister Crowley's (d1947) darker and more, if one can say, depressing cards,  in which I won't go into any further analysis of Crowley, you'll have to go through some of my earlier Thoth card readings (link in post) of my study of the man.  And what appeared at times, was his psychotic overview of his own created Thoth Tarot, and I am being speculative, may have related to his heavy drug use, particularly amphetamines and cocaine.  

Reading:

Tread carefully.   Are you afraid of the dark?  And when midnight strikes, does the imagination run rampant?   Within the shadows that are derived from the abyss of the night, if you are unable to contain your thoughts.  The shadows will move in mysterious ways.  Unnecessary fearful, is the tormented mind.  If you allow fear to be your guide.  Of no horizons, and boundaries that cannot be seen.   The beetle bares the Sun, but is unable to piece through the Night,  the Moon rains blood, in the shape of the Hebrew letter Yod, of a bleeding omnipresence.  Showing that even the gods can bleed.  Thus, they hold no protection from this darkness, that is of the human mind.  But, it is the Hebrew letter Qoph, seen also on the card.  Which means, the back of the head.  The fear, that trails behind you.   And the moon depicted is of a waning fixture, in its pure darkness.  The dead zone that it is, offers no relevance to life.  As it moves away from the Earth it draws the ocean tides with it.  Does it draw you further into its emptiness?  You may indeed need to transverse between the dark towers of doubt for this answer, it is of the unknown.  Guarded by the Jackals, either side.  They are the divine tricksters of the animal kingdom.  The desolate ones.  That live in the ruins of once grand cities.  Feeding off the carcasses, that fell prey to their own folly.  Yet, they do not fear what you fear.  As they lay, and wait in the dark.    Then why enter? I ask.  To which, you may reply.  "That it is the challenge that I seek."  If that is so, you must use fear, to destroy fear.  Only the most calmest mind can achieve this.  And thus, the Moon as a reading, will hold no meaning for you at all.

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Although a more passive card, as opposed to the abundance of militant and Fascist court cards from the Thoth Tarot, the Knight of Cups does however reflect Aleister Crowley's (d1947) judgey qualities when offering his saintly mythological characters, who are usually always male.  Which would be attune to Crowley's own gnostic and Christian beliefs that have been interfused with his version of Occult practises.  Which prior to the countercultures of the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s had moral standards that were more aligned with Judeo-Christian beliefs than not.  Occultists after and during the Age of Enlightenment saw themselves as proponents of elevated spirituality over the more traditional theocratic belief structures, while sharing the same moral principles.  So, with that being said, Crowley's irritating contradictions of his own moral standards maybe derived from his psychosis driven amphetamine use, who also advocated sexual rituals with his Thelma religion, which was mostly taken from Left Hand path Hindu and Buddhist Tantric practices of using sex as a way to enlightenment, when Crowley visited Tibet in 1905.

The Knight of Cups very much has a self resenting and self judging element to it, which is interesting when compared against the more aggressive Thoth Tarot cards advocating strength and aggression, as though Crowley is judging his passive or feminine side and interests in various intoxication and sexual rituals, he offers a clue with this explanation (Knight of Cups) from the The Book of Thoth :

"When the card is ill dignified, he is sensual, idle and untruthful. Yet with all this he possesses an innocence and purity which are the essence of his nature. But he is, on the whole, so superficial that it is hard to reach this depth. “His name is writ in water...Swiftness and violence ill suit a character naturally placid; it is rare indeed to meet with a person who has succeeded in harmonizing these conflicting elements. He tends to mismanage all his affairs; and unless sheer good fortune attend him, his whole career will be an unbroken record of failure and disaster. Often his mental “civil war” ends in schizophrenia or melancholy madness. The abuse of stimulants and narcotics may precipitate the catastrophe."

A little harsh, don't you think?  Considering the artwork for the card.  Let me see if I can redeem the "Knight of Cups".

Reading:

Who are the worst at judging others?  The ones drowning in sin.  Be honest, be free.  The Knight Holds the Cup towards the heavens, the crab representing Cancer, the sign of water.  Water being the great purifier.  If you indulge in the forbidden, then why do you hide it?  The Knight is honest, he is lead North by his desires, to taste the indulgence, let it be temporary.  Yet he may toy with you, ask what new sensations are to be had, and you may hide your wine and desire and say in feigned judgment, 'do not try and escape this reality'.  But, the Knight is astute, that his high is only for solitude, and to the layman it is for social confusion.   The Knight has already ascended from the material realm, and if he does face South and the card is reversed, he is indeed the fallen, and does so with wryly wit.  It's illuminating spirit is unmistakable, as it is of the great antagonizer and unsettler to the arrogance of man.  If you see the Knight of Cups sitting alone, enjoying sin.  Be wary of inviting the Knight to sit with you, he will play with your contradictions, make you judge his actions and question your own.  Unless you indulge as well.  The Knight of Cups represents freedom of choice.

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"5 of cups.  Disappointment" is one of the more negative of the Thoth tarot cards, akin to 5 of Disks "Failure", both representing the geomantic "Rubeus", from  17th Century geomancy, which many early occultis used as a way of discerning patterns in nature as divination and patterns that were devised to create a foretelling.  Rubeus being seen as an inverted glass, within its dot symbolism, and is latin for "Red" and essentially means evil if it is revealed to the participant of the reading.  The card shows five empty cups in the formation of an inverted pentagram, the lotus flowers leaves are falling from the "fiery winds" sitting above a "dead sea", and according to Aleister Crowley's (d1947) interpretation, the card represents the beginning of destruction.  "5 of cups.  Disappointment" is ruled by Mars over Scorpio, apparently also a bad omen.

Reading: 

Is the Earth, another planet's hell?  Is the hell state of the mind?  Do the unsettled thoughts, create the stagnant waters?  The dead sea within?  Did you expect that all would be well from a lofty heights, and you did not expect to fall?  Then you have entered the hell realm, and from here, one must face the fiery winds, the turmoil, as what points down, is the inversion of the will of the self.  But it can be ruled, overcome, and reclaimed.  Self destruction is not your only salvation.  Watch the Lotus flowers wither and die in this place, and see this as only temporary, to withstand is to elevate, and leave this place.  Like the Unorthodox Hindu Aghori sect, who meditate within a ring of fire.  Understand, that the five cups, being the fire senses, can be dulled, controlled and switched off, so I can endure.  And, when liberated, may the cups be filled again with the water of life, the sacred elixir. 

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

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