IDSing away here . . .
I need to get hold of that ritual. I bet it opens up some meanings in a powerful way!
Ok, here we go!
Fortune
Change, unexpected change. Not necessarily GOOD fortune, but it IS Jupiter, so good is likely.
Wheel has 10 spokes for card number 10 and Malkuth, earthly fortune. Plus the world is like a big wheel always turning.
The letter is Kaf, which means hand. There is a small hand of the bottom of the wheel, the hand of Lady Luck turning the wheel. (I’m picturing the Wheel card in T of the White Cats—the cat is turning a big crank and mice are running on the wheel.) Crowley mentions palm reading, too.
The three critters are the three qualities. In the selection in the Book of Thoth, he equates them with three things that keep people going around on the outside of the wheel so they never get to the still point in the middle.
Sphinx=Sulfur. A combination of masc and fem, woman with lion body, with masc sword. Raven, lust of mind. I finally noticed that the alchemical symbol for sulfur is a triangle on the top for fire and a cross on the bottom for earth, so a physical substance that has the qualities of fire.
Ape (Hermanubis)=Mercury. Hermes and Anubis are both psychopomps (take souls from life to death or the other side). So appropriately, he joins sulfur and salt (life and death, or spirit and matter) Even though called Hermanubis, doesn’t it look more like the Ape of Thoth on the Magus? Mercury here, too. Wolf, lust of body (life force).
Croc (Typhon)=Salt. Typhon killed Osiris, and so is shown separating the crook and ankh. Taking the life (ankh) from the shepherd (crook). Lamb, lust of purity? Here is an interesting criticism of Christianity. We like the lamb because it’s soft and white and gentle, but it is really white because there is no life in it. It is caught in duality, so it thinks some things are evil and others are good. By choosing only good, it has no + and -, masc and fem, opposites necessary to create new life.
It looks like the wheel is going counterclockwise, H going up and T going down. It’s important to note that Sphinx is also ON the wheel and will go down and up in her turn. Many people make the mistake (well, it looks like a mistake to me) that the sphinx IS Fortune, turning the wheel but not on it herself. That doesn’t work with the Thoth version, because she is one of the 3 qualities always joining and parting in different proportions.
It looks like the wheel is giving off plumes of energy into space. (Snuffin says it is drawing in energy like a whirlpool, but I can’t really see that . . .) Duquette says giving off like a fireworks pinwheel, which makes more sense to me.
The hub of the wheel is set in the upper part of a big triangle. This emphasizes the three qualities. But why in the upper part, not in the middle? Crowley starts talking about the eye of Shiva. A reference to the eye in the triangle on the dollar? I know it’s a Masonic symbol, but I’ve forgotten the meanings of it. Research time!
But I DO know about the eye of Shiva. I actually had a vision about this (ok, a dream when I was on the subway on the way to work!) Only it was the Goddess, not Shiva. When she is asleep, she is dreaming the universe. She is unconscious, and all things (that are actually part of her) act as if they are separate things acting and interacting, etc. But when she wakes up (opens her eyes, and in my dream stands up and opens her arms), she is conscious of all parts of herself, and all things are drawn back into her. From the viewpoint of one of the parts, this is end of the universe and much to be feared as the destruction of everything. But from the viewpoint of the Goddess, it is bringing everything to exist within her at the still point at the hub of the wheel. I’ll be right back here again when I get to the Tower!
But there in the center is where spiritually minded people are trying to get to!
I can’t understand much about the stars above the wheel. I need to study some more I guess. What is above is like that which below. I’ve got the lightning bolts of Jupiter. And Nuit is the mother sky so she is above, too. And every man and every woman is a star! Corny or not, I like Duquette’s saying for this: It’s the 3-stroke engine that runs the mundane world of change.
In a reading: Here’s one card with its meaning on the surface. Change and chance. The only thing certain is change is constant! Things are about to change, probably for the better, but there’s no guarantee of that!
