"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.
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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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6 of Wands "Victory"
Reading:
Do you wish for the autocracy of rule? Stability and its symbolism? Notice how the Three wands and Three adepts are positioned, within the Nine flames, all burning in unison. Order has been established. And the desire for structure completed. The war has ended, as the warring God Jupiter resides over this card. May you revel in Peace Through Destruction. Of a victory at all cost. Is this what you wanted? If so, I must warn you that the Pyrrhic is fleeting. And Empires do fall. Be it that arrogance, will be your final curse. The lust for total victory, in the end, also fails. Order turns to chaos. As the King and Knight must return to the same box. And the forces of nature, will have the last say. Meditate on victory as an ending, not a beginning.
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(A.Glass 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026)
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