"Knight of Disks", "10 of wands. Oppression" and "1. Ace of Wands". THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

The Knight of Disks is probably Aleister Crowley's most Right Wing or Conservative minded card relating to his political beliefs of his era, that being 1900s technological progress and the taming of natural environments, strength through conflict, whilst aligning with the Age of Enlightenment period of innovation.  Which, in its historic manifestation of humanism, did assist in heralding in new and modern techniques of warfare and killing technology.  I have covered a lot in my analysis of Aleister Crowley of his esoterica, spiritual beliefs that were formulated under what could be deemed the early aspects of New Age spirituality, which does have its roots in 20th Century Fascist ideologies.  Particularly throughout Europe in the early to mid 1900s.  Crowley was not a Satanist or practitioner of Witchcraft, he was heavily influenced by early esoterical societies and beliefs which were primarily  associated with gnostic Christian teachings, incorporating Egyptology, and Eastern and Middle Eastern metaphors.  Please refer to my earlier Thoth card readings for deeper analysis of Crowley.

I perceive the Knight of Disks as a negative, and-to-be wary of this Thoth Tarot card.

Reading:

To conquer, is appealing.  To change, feels powerful.  Do I have the answers for the generalist?  Is strength through superiority the ultimate progression?  At times you may ask yourself these questions.   Look into your past.  They told you to be strong, to be brave.  Is to cut through the unknown, with a hunger to change the world.  To slay the wrongdoers, and tame the unruly.  Force the knowledge of our civilization onto the primitives, show them the power of strength.  For this, is both of the male and female mindset, equal they can be deluded by the aggressive urge as time runs short, and that desire for structure will be at any cost.  To be ruled, and to rule.  So, I ask you to be wary of this path.  There has been never been a golden era, and no utopian dream has ever worked.  What was forced onto, is then forced back.  So if you wish, ride through the fields of victory, and it will be pyrrhic in reflection.  And as a mere mortal, you will suffer the forever torment of wars without an end.   To defy nature is to redefine the self, not the world.  That is of the truest bravery.

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10 of Wands "Oppression"  

From Aleister Crowley's more Proto-Fascist Thoth Tarot cards of order and control, there is, what appears to be a apocalyptic Christian ethos within the 10 of Wands "Oppression" explanation, rather than Gnostic beliefs, as early Christians didn't believe in the end of the world per se, but rather the apocalypse of the spirit.  Crowley claimed that the card is Saturn influencing the star sign Sagittarius, under the Jewish mysticism of the Qabalah Malkuth (10) from the Tree of Life Sephiroth, which refers to spiritual detachment (Malkuth) of the remaining nine Sephiroth.  And that the star sign sagittarius is of the antipathy, the rebel, in Crowley's words "spiritual, swift, light, elusive, and luminous, and Saturn is heavy handed and "oppressive".  Possibly eluding to that one cannot oppress oneself under, Crowley words again, the "lust of result", will end up destroying itself or the host.  Which may suggest the card is influenced from John Milton's (1667) Paradise Lost poem, of Satan being the rebellious spirit cast out of heaven, and hosting a democratic forum in Hell, with other fallen angels, to take back heaven and corrupt God's creation, man.  As noted in previous analysis of Crowley's Thoth Tarot is the ambiguity, and often confusing elements to the card's meanings.  Yet, the gist can be seen for this card, that oppression of the self, via an obstinate construct, will end up engulfing all.  Setting everything alight and ultimately destroying creation, note the flames and the burning Wands, with two Tibetan Buddhist Dorje's as indestructible 'masculine' concepts of reality, yet it is balanced in Buddhist ritual by a Bell, which symposises the balance of the Feminine (wisdom).  Therefor the card appears unbalanced, and does indeed refer to the destructive, and oppressive energies of fire.

Reading:

When the Light Bearer was cast down into the darkness of Hell, the rebel of the angels, the swift and elusive, be it that he/she is marked with the Aleph, the Hebrew letter which has no sound.  Such is, that you may not see all its intentions. It is the Malkuth of the Qabalah, the detached spiritual realm, of all meditation it is the most disconnected and afar.  But, the rebel must be balanced, in that lust for result and antipathy of order.  Otherwise the destructive fires of annihilation, will consumer and destroy all.  Better, that the masculine Dorje's, which shows strength of reality and purpose, as the Tibetan Buddhist decree, must also sit with a Bell, the wisdom of the Feminine.  Do not be too hasty in rebellion, reaction to oppression may also lead to further oppression.  Without balance, destruction begets destruction.   

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1 "Ace of Wands" 

In this study of the Thoth Tarot cards and my own interpretation of the Tarot readings, one can say Aleister Crowley (d1947) was not a contradiction or even a paradox in his creation of the Thoth Tarot cards and his religion Thelema, as society began to shift away from its Theocratic past throughout the later part of the 1800s into the 1900s, embracing technology, scientific enlightenment and newer ways of perceiving human spirituality.   He was reflecting that era.  The occult flourished 200 years ago and so did occult societies which evolved from manifestations of Hermeticism and Freemasonry, that in turn was inspired by the Knights Templar after the medieval Crusades.  Showing how the West absorbs parts of Eastern religious beliefs, reworking those beliefs, claiming them as their own.  Although, of the schisms in Christian Theological society between the many different Christian sects, Saints and Scholars in their reinterpretation of the Bible,  by the 15th Century more extreme antithetical versions of this biblical interpretation would be seen in Antinomianism, which, was loosely aligned with the 15th Century reformation that devout Christians may be exempt from moral law.  Therefor to sin, is acceptable.  Is not entirely the same, although showing similarities, with the iconoclastic elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.  Where practitioners would take in human vices, sexual encounters as a way of meditation, by practising ego death and seeking the oneness of the god within, devoid of fear of sin and breaking from their monastic vows; which lead to some of the extremes of Hindu, Buddhist Tantric yoga.  And within Islam, it would be Sufism and its various Sufi/Islamic mystics/orders who would further explore what means to be a human being under the Omnipotent, in some cases allowing alcohol consumption, dancing with women and ritual sex.  What was seen as forbidden under Islam, in their eyes brought them closer to Allah.  Crowley was heavily influenced by the Eastern Antinomianism, and as a homosexual he would frequent Marrakesh (Morocco) at the turn of the 20th Century, incorporating some of the Sufi aspects of Islam into his Occult practices, also including Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism.   Developing his own unique sexual rituals under his religion of Thelema.  The Ace of Wands card, very much aligns with Crowley's sexual metaphor and ritualization via the Thoth Tarot.

Reading: 

The chaos of the unruly phallus, as it emits the seed of fire.  That is the creation of birth and rebirth.  From blissful release, the conjuring of embracing destruction of ego through its sexual realm.  Study the bliss of the little death, so that one can live.   This mediation is both for the masculine and the feminine, for the visionary dreams from orgasm.   

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

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