"Knight of Cups", "10 of disks. wealth", "XII. The Hanged Man". THOTH TAROT CARD READING/s. These cards were pulled as a triple reading. The Order of the reading is from left to right.

 

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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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.

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Major Arcana card XII of the Thoth Tarot, "The Hanged Man", is indeed one of the most striking of the Major Arcana cards and one of the most charismatic cards of all the known Tarot collections.  As one would expect, the meaning of the card in "The Book of  The Thoth", which was published in 1944, three years before Crowley passed away in 1947, is cryptic and moderately, compared to the other Thoth "Major Arcana" cards, ambiguous in its overall meaning of the The Hanged Man.  And in my analysis of Crowley's Thoth Tarot, with his abundance of Hermeticism, Astrology  Egyptian mysticism, Gnostic Christianity, Esoteric Islam and Judaism, and a lesser degree, science.  The Hanged Man has all these influences inserted into its meaning, as a traditional rework of the Rider-Waite card.

And what a rework Crowley's "The Hanged Man" is, as the card itself is one of my personal favorites, as it revels in codemination, rejection and predicament as way of being reborn, but not redeemed.  However, there are key differences between the traditional Rider–Waite tarot deck and Crowley's Thoth or Thelema inspired Hanged Man.  Rider–Waite has the man with his hands, presumably tied behind his back, with his left legged tucked behind his suspended right leg and ankle tied to the gallows, which is a living tree.  With a halo around his head.  So, the card is seen as a positive reading, within its various interpretations, is not of the forsaken.  Crowley, who was obviously impressed with the original Hanged Man card, took the imagery further.  In its similarity, he has the male figure poised in a triangular configuration, with his left leg suspended by the ankle, balanced with an Ankh, and a coiled snake wrapped around the foot. The right leg is tilted Ninety degrees folded over the left leg.  The arms outstretched, like his right angled leg, have been crucified to three green orbs, representing Venus.  Below, sits a pool of darkness which lies another snake, this time in waiting at the man suspended.

The Hebrew letter "Mem", bottom left, and the alchemy symbol, an inverted pyramid, bottom right, both represent waters.  The card overall exemplifies water as being an abyss, from the light above, to the void below.  Reminding me of the Asian/Middle Eastern proverb, "He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain."  Yet, The Hanged Man appears suspended between both the Light and Dark.  Or is he slowly descending into the darkness?    Has he already fallen?  In reiterating John Milton's Lucifer as the antihero from "Paradise Lost" (1667), in accepting his predicament, as it is "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven",  to which Crowley hints when explaining the cards meaning from "The Book of The Thoth", by saying, "Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled and the consoler".  Also note, that in Crowley's crypticness, is his sexual rite "The Sleep of Shiloam", which he decrees, that the The Hanged Man is positioned in a ritualized sexual manner, thus the card, according to Crowley, also represents The Sleep of Shiloam.  To summarize the explanation named by Crowley as a sexual rite (possibly influenced by Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism), and if you have been fortunate enough to be able to conjure this technique, from your own intuition (without it being named).  All the power.  It is to deny oneself orgasm, whilst bringing up arousal - and then keeping oneself in a state of arousal (which is a power of the feminine, to prolong stimulation), eventually falling asleep.  This could last hours or even days.  You'll have visionary dreams.  For all intended purposes with the same technique, with a partner, is the possibility of also having an out-of-body experience, whilst in sexual intercourse without orgasm.

The explanation of the Two Serpents, of above, wrapped around the left foot, meaning Creation and Destruction, and below being the abyss of Death and Rebirth.  Both powerful in their symbolism, which keeps the card balanced.  Also, noting that the card was credited to being "The Dying God", which may allude to the appeal of the Occultist, that God or Gods are not immortal.  And within mythology, it also aligns that a God and a mortal can be reborn after dying.  But, I suspect that Crowley could be trying to find the essence of that mythical power, the omnipotent has over man.  In which both may perish.  Which essentially could be correct.  When humanity dies, our God will die with us.  The Dying God subtitle for The Hanged Man, could also instil the defiance aspect of the card and its acceptance of one's circumstance. 

Reading:

I am neither fallen or condemned.  And redemption is not what I seek, as it would be a debt owed.  And who would I owe that debt too?  To choose the position of the inverted pyramid is of the sacred, what points down into the void is also renewed by it, from Light to Dark and into Dark to Light.  The coiled serpent around the left foot shall be no curse nor burden, but a reminder of the cycle of Creation and Destruction.  And so be the serpent who lies waiting in the abyss, it is of Death and Rebirth.  And even if I have been crucified to the three orbs, representing Venus, to be seen only in the morning and evening.  I am the inbetweener of worlds.  I have resigned to no suffering.  No torment.  For let it be known; He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain.  That the concealed truth of god is a closed "Mem", then I shall request that it open, by visions of the divine, the practice to withhold the climax of bliss, is the lucidity of the feminine.

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

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