Thoth, Tree of Life, and The Star

Dulcimer

I'd like to begin by saying that I'm sure I'm not the only person to have noticed this. But I've looked through all the threads on every page (phew!) and can't find a reference. I've also looked at a few books and found nothing about this either, but obviously I've not read them all. So, if someone out there has come across it before then please let me know. I am not trying to plagurize anyone's work. And if I am just repeating an old thread then I'm sorry about that too.
OK, here goes.

Lay the Major cards out in the pattern of the Tree of Life, starting with card 0, The Fool, at Kether followed by the rest of the cards in order through the other sephirah, INCLUDING Daath, to arrive at Malkuth with card X, Fortune. Now go back up the tree again, but in reverse order, starting with XI, Lust, alongside Fortune at Malkuth and finishing with XXI, The World alongside The Fool at Kether. You will have eleven pairs of cards in each sephiroth.
OK. Now take a look at the designs on the cards. Particularly those on the following:

The two cards at Malkuth, cards X and XI. Do you notice that on both cards there is a line drawn across them? As though there is a marked division on the cards themselves? For example, on The Wheel the division is behind the head of the sphinx and separates the lower wheel and the upper "firmament of stars"; on Lust the division is at the top of the card above the cup and separates Babalon and the Beast from the ten horns/serpents of the Beast.
I see these as separating the lower world of Malkuth from the worlds above it.
[I use the words "separates" and "division" advisedly. They can, of course, be seen as thresholds]

The two cards at Yesod are The Hermit (descending) and the Hanged Man (ascending). The division lines are plain to see so I'll leave those to you. I believe they serve the same purpose as those on the cards below them.

Now then, move your gaze up the Tree to the position at Daath. The cards there are The Empress (descending) and The Moon (ascending). Ignoring The Empress for the moment, you should be able ro clearly see the division on The Moon between the base of the towers and the rising sun. Note that unlike the previous cards refered to this line is at the bottom of the card. Turning now to The Empress it should be quite clear that this time there is NO lateral division that separates one half of the card from another.

If my theory is correct then there should be a division on this card. But there isn't. So does all this come crashing down like a, well, like a house of cards?

Actually there is one other card - and ONLY one other card - that has a lateral division on it. That card is card XVII, The Star. It sits, incongruously, alongside The Emperor at Chesed. Take a good look at it. You should be able to see it. It is the horizon of the "Great Sea" she is pouring the Amrita into with the celestial globe and abyss above it. Significantly it is at the bottom of the card. There is nothing forced in seeing this division I hope you'll agree.

OK, if you haven't done so already, change the positions of these two cards. Look at the arrangement now. What do you think? Is there not a natural division, drawn on the cards, of the supernals above and the Kingdom below the microcosmic "body" comprising sephirah 4 to 9?

As a piece of supporting evidence I submit the following; both the cards in Netzach contain Cups, those in Hod contain swords (Death's sword has become a scythe), those in Geburah contain the serpent and the dove (yeah, only the Hierophant has the wand, but read the relevent chapters in The Book Of Thoth to fully appreciate the significance of serpent and dove in both these cards), and those in Chesed now both contain shields.
The evidence in those, and other, cards is that Crowley meant his cards to be viewed in this arrangement.

Of course it throws the door wide open to that old chesnut about tzaddi is not The Star. Well maybe it aint The Emperor either!
 

Aeon418

I have seen these card pairs before, but not arranged according to the Tree of Life. The same sequence can be found by just laying out the Major Arcana in a double line, 0 - X, XI - XXI. Each of the card pairs adds up to 21 and the first two, The Fool and The Universe spell the hebrew word ATh(Ateh, the opening of the Qabalistic Cross).

I see what you are getting at when you suggest the swap between The Star and The Empress but there are other connections that suggest the cards should be left where they are.

The Emperor and The Star both share a diagonal symmetry. See the arms of The Star and the beam of light on The Emperor.
Both of these diagonals are supposed to symbolise the influence of Chokmah upon Tiphareth.

Also there is a link between The Empress and The Moon that corresponds to the dualistic sephira Da'ath. The Empress is pregnant, where as The Moon is a symbol of menstruation.

There's another card swap that could be made as well. The famous Adjustment / Lust switch. If you do that then you end up with Adjustment and Fortune in Malkuth. Both of these cards symbolise the Phallus and the Yoni. Note the point within the circle in card 10 and the Sword in the Diamond in card 8.

On the flip side XI Lust and XIII Death both share diagonal lines of symmetry. Of course if you start changing the cards around the pairs don't add up to 21.
 

Dulcimer

Aeon418 said:
I have seen these card pairs before, but not arranged according to the Tree of Life. The same sequence can be found by just laying out the Major Arcana in a double line, 0 - X, XI - XXI. Each of the card pairs adds up to 21 and the first two, The Fool and The Universe spell the hebrew word ATh(Ateh, the opening of the Qabalistic Cross).

For sure. But putting them on the Tree arrangement not only gives them a context, which I believe was Crowley's original intent, but also gives the extra added ingredient of a descending and ascending flow to the cards. Thus, for example, the downward, materialising, flow of energy through Daath is represented by The Star; whereas the ascending, spiritualising energy is shown by The Moon. Similarly for all the cards, the left card may be seen as materialising and the right as de-materialising - if I may use such a word.

I certainly take your point concerning the pregnant Empress, and at first sight would seem an equally good position for her to be situated at the point of manifestation into the lower worlds, i.e. Daath. My arguement against that would be that Daath is not the place of manifestation. That place belongs to Chesed.
Daath's position has long been ascribed to the sword-bridge across the Abyss. As I understand it, it has not been given the title of sephiroth because it does not receive, alter, then transmit energy. It instead acts as a "filter" through Knowledge and Judgement as to what and how energy transfers across the Abyss - in both directions. That is a function I can see more in keeping with what The Star represents than with The Empress.
Also, regarding the conection you are making between The Empress and The Moon; you aren't losing that connection because in this arrangement The Moon follows The Empress in the Tantric sequence of Tower-Empress-Moon-Sun-Aeon.

You make many good arguments. There is geometry in all the cards. But the point with these six is that they have distinctive lines drawn across the cards, from one edge to the other, which serve to divide off one portion of the card from the other. The significant thing about them is that they only have relevance when the cards are arranged in the above fashion.

I must admit to not putting to much store in the fact that the pairs of cards add up to 21. I see it as coincidental and meaningless. But then I would, wouldn't I!

As for the Adjustment/Lust switch; a question often posited on this forum is why Crowley didn't put his cards in the order which he advocates in his books. He even returns Cards 8 and 11 to their pre-Waite arrangement. I think, and it is only a theory, that it would be quite obvious that if the cards were arranged in the Tree of Life that card XI, Lust, would be out of place in the sephiroth of Hod.

Don't forget that we are dealing with an effort on Crowley's part to create a visual description of his teachings. It is not meant to be seen as an attempt to produce an objectively and studied "true" rendition of the Tarot (if there is such a thing) or Qabbalah.
 

Aeon418

I've been thinking about the relationship between some of the various card pairs in their respective Sephiroth.

The cards Fortune and Lust in Malkuth make a lot of sense when viewed in the context of Crowley's theories about Sex-Magick. Fortune is attributed to the Hebrew letter Kaph. As Crowley points out Kaph is KPh, Kteis and Phallus. The second correspondence, Jupiter, is related to the demiurge. The god of the four elements. Lust is attributed to both the letter Teth and the sign of Leo. Both are symbols of the Lion-Serpent that Crowley equated with Sperm.

Kaph(20) and Teth(9) add up to 29 which Crowley claims is the number of magical force.

In Tiphareth The Lovers and The Devil both represent division and union. Also The Devil could be viewed as the real driving force behind The Lovers. Of course we don't like to admit that do we ? We prefer the tawdry rags of romance to the naked truth. ;)

The three pairs of cards in Kether, Chokmah and Binah all seem to show the Thelemic pantheon in different forms. Nuit, Hadit and Heru-Ra-Ha in the dual form of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat.

The cards in the sephira Chokmah are interesting. The Magus symbolises Mercury/Hermes the messenger of the Gods. The Word or Logos. Crowley claimed that he was the Logos of the Aeon with the word Thelema.

If we take on board the suggestion that The Star should be in Daath we are left with the letters Heh(5) and Qoph(100). I can't find any real esoteric significance in the number 105. The entries for this number in Crowley's 777 don't seem to point to anything important.
But if you add the individual digits together you get the number 6. (1+0+5. It may be nothing but a coincidence that Hadit = 1, Nuit = 0 and Horus = 5 ;) )

6 is the numeration of the word HA, the final word in The Book of the Law. Ha is Hebrew for Window, which is also the meaning of the letter Heh. As we all know Crowley claimed that this letter was the correct Hebrew letter for The Star.

It's also interesting to note that Kenneth Grant claims that the sephira Daath is the place of entrance to the reverse side of the Tree of Life. It is the "Window" into the subconscious (The Moon). ;)

In Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia I see that the word HA means Lo. That's quite interesting when you remember the chapter in The Book of Lies pertaining to the Tarot and it's reference to the Abyss and Lo.
WHEEL AND--WOA!

The Great Wheel of Samsara.
The Wheel of the Law [Dhamma].
The Wheel of the Taro.
The Wheel of the Heavens.
The Wheel of Life.
All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of
the TARO alone avails thee consciously.
Meditate long and broad and deep, O man, upon this
Wheel, revolving it in thy mind
Be this thy task, to see how each card springs
necessarily from each other card, even in due order
from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins.
Then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny
complete, mayst thou perceive THAT Will which
moved it first. {There is no first or last.}
And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.
 

Dulcimer

Aeon418 said:
...It's also interesting to note that Kenneth Grant claims that the sephira Daath is the place of entrance to the reverse side of the Tree of Life. It is the "Window" into the subconscious (The Moon). ;)

In Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia I see that the word HA means Lo. That's quite interesting when you remember the chapter in The Book of Lies pertaining to the Tarot and it's reference to the Abyss and Lo.

OUTSTANDING work Aeon418! Piecing together some of the pairs and applying them to Crowley's ideas is exemplary work. I am glad someone is taking it seriously enough to actually put some study into it. It is fascinating to see that there is something smoking in there.

I've been studying this arrangement for something like 20 years and it never occured to me that HA could be taken across with The Star. Well, of course it can! Excellent work too with HA meaning "Lo!" I've known for some time what the word can mean, but hadn't linked Lo with the window and the Abyss. Nor to what he may have been hinting at in that piece of prose I'd read so many times. Marvelous!

Regarding the Gemetria, maybe I can help. Sepher Sephiroth gives, for 105, the Hebrew root word HPK which means, "to change, to overturn, subvert," and is the root of a word meaning, "the opposite, the contrary", as well as TzYH which means "desert". Not a bad word to describe the Abyss perhaps.
It also mentions that it is the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 14, i.e. 1+2+3...+14=105. The number 14 is signicant because it is the number which equals YD. Amongst other things it is also the sum of HDH meaning "to stretch, direct, grind out", and; DVD which means "friend, love, beloved" as well as "kettle, pot", and "David" of course.


It means we must finally take a look at the correspondences between card and letter and can I justify the obvious conclusions? It can be done. These were my thoughts before you pointed out that The Star may still equal HA.
A brief outline then:

If The Emperor = *Heh*; a window lets in light = LUX (with all that that implies) as well as being the symbol for consciousness, awareness and of course sense perception - none of which is far from The Emperor's functions as paternal authority.

The Empress = *Tzadi* is trickier. The problem (more so if The Emperor = *Tzadi*) is that it is difficult to define what "the fishook* really means as a symbol. The act of "drawing up" is ok, but we do have to deal with the trapping, deception, temptation (bait) aspect of the symbol. [see below]

The Star = *Daleth*; threshold or door. I actually find this an easier concept than The Empress = *Daleth*. Simply because a "door" (originally a "tent flap" which generally remained open) implies a coming and going whereas The Empress seems a one way journey, i.e. birth (regardless of the rather Freudian interpretation of later opinion). There is also the, not so small, matter of "crossing the threshold". Which I find easier to assimilate with The Star at Daath - especially in regard to your findings re Kenneth Grant - than with The Empress.
The truth is the Abyss is part of The Star's picture: "...between sea and land is the Abyss...hidden by the clouds, which swirl as a development of her hair..." [Book of Thoth] Is he telling us himself where the card belongs?.

The Empress and the "fishook" as a means of drawing out through deception, etc., needs an extra word or two. Such a concept, in myth and legend, is a universal archetype. If you're not familiar with it you only have to look at the Celtic/Arthurian concept of the Goddess of Sovereignty, of Ygerne, Morgan le Fay and Lady Ragnell, or the Egyptian stories of Isis vs Ra. Then there's Lilith, Pandora, Penelope, Frigg, and so on. They are not representations of the Earth Mother. They are representations of the Sovereignty of the Land and they do whatever it takes to get their desires fulfilled. And Her Desire is to unite with the best "champion" in order to conceive the new King of the next age.
I believe that that is who The Empress is. And that is why she is in the acsending not descending side of the Tree. She is going to give birth to The New Aeon.
 

Aeon418

Dulcimer said:
I am glad someone is taking it seriously enough to actually put some study into it. It is fascinating to see that there is something smoking in there.
Actually when I first saw your idea I dismissed it as nonsense. But then I began to see patterns in the cards that were suggestive of certain aspects of Crowley's magical philosophy and The Book of the Law. I'm still not 100% convinced that this was Crowley's original scheme for the Tarot, but there does seem to be "something" there anyway.

For example the cards that make up the middle pillar are very suggestive of a certain verse from The Book of the Law that relates to the raising of the serpent Kundalini and Sex-Magick.
Chapter 2, verse 26.
I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring : in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.
Note the suggestive position of The Devil, The Hanged Man, and Lust. There is a definite symmetry between The Devil and The Hanged Man suggesting a division between these two cards. The winged wand of Osiris in The Devil seems to link up with the inverted Ankh in The Hanged Man perfectly. According to Crowley The Devil represented PAN and the positive affirmation of Joy and Life. The Hanged Man, the card of the dying god, is the polar opposite. He represents self-sacrifice, suffering and death. But there is a sexual and a mystical connection which is important because the next card is Lust. Here the goddess Babalon sits astride the Beast holding aloft the Cup of Abominations/Holy Grail in which see has collected the sacrificial Blood of the Saints.

My earlier reference to the Thelemic trinity being represented in each of the supernals has brought to my mind a quote from Frater Achad's, Liber 31. Achad saw the number 31 as being representative of the 3 in 1 deity as well as the secret key to The Book of the Law.
And now I see the mystery of 93 is complete and perfect for Kether is 31 and Chochmah is 31 and Binah is 31 which is 93 the Numeration of Thelema, Aiwaz, The Word of the Neophyte, Agape, etc. And this is the Mystery of the Three Persons in One God of which it is written.

Liber 31 by Frater Achad.
It may be a coincidence, but the the Hebrew letters attributed to the cards in Chesed, the first real Sephira below the Abyss, add to 94. (Tzaddi + Daleth) 9 + 4 = 13. The reverse of the 31 attributed to the supernals by Achad. 13 is also the numeration of the Hebrew word, AChd, Unity. Quite appropriate considering the two cards involved.

Dulcimer said:
I've been studying this arrangement for something like 20 years and it never occurred to me that HA could be taken across with The Star. Well, of course it can! Excellent work too with HA meaning "Lo!" I've known for some time what the word can mean, but hadn't linked Lo with the window and the Abyss. Nor to what he may have been hinting at in that piece of prose I'd read so many times. Marvelous!
I thought the reference to The Book of Lies might be stretching it a bit too far. But Crowley is well known for his fondness for word games. And The Book of Lies is one big word game. It might be a link, it might not. But I have to say that it does seem characteristic of the way that Crowley likes to drop hints instead of just giving you the answers.

Dulcimer said:
With The Emperor = *Heh*; a window lets in light = LUX (with all that that implies) as well as being the symbol for consciousness, awareness and of course sense perception - none of which is far from The Emperor's functions as paternal authority.
The Emperor = Heh correspondence is one that I have always had problems with. To me it's always seemed like a huge mismatch. Heh is an essentially feminine letter being the dual feminine component in the Tetragrammaton, IHVH. Heh also means the identification of a star. Tzaddi with it's associations with hunting seems a much better match for the masculine Emperor.

As for your suggestion that The Star = Daleth.... well... I'll think about it. I'm reluctant to accept anything so radical though. It would make a real mess of so many other correspondences. I can see what you are getting at with the swap, but Crowley already tells us that The Empress is NOT the Mother. In the Table of Vital Triads in The Book of Thoth he lists The Empress as the Wife and The Star as the Mother.
 

Dulcimer

Aeon418 said:
Actually when I first saw your idea I dismissed it as nonsense.

I don't blame you mate. It took me a very, very, long time - years in fact - to become convinced that the arrangement is deliberate. There are just too many meaningful coincidences for it to be pure chance.

Aeon418 said:
But then I began to see patterns in the cards that were suggestive of certain aspects of Crowley's magical philosophy and The Book of the Law. I'm still not 100% convinced that this was Crowley's original scheme for the Tarot, but there does seem to be "something" there anyway.

Exactly.
Even now I wonder if I'm tipping at windmills. The trouble is it is so circumstancial. Clues here, hints there.
Like you I was drawn into the patterns the cards reveal. I thought I'd exhausted them but you have shown several new insights that hadn't occured to me. No doubt there is still much more to find.

I started this as a thread, not to convert anyone to some supposed hidden truth, but to expose it to the "sword of intellect". If this is all nonsense I figured someone out there with far more experience of Crowley's philosophy than I would be able to show it to be so (I may even have secretly hoped that that would happen). I suppose you might say I set myself up to be shot down!

You refer to this as my idea, but I feel I have been led by the nose to these things. I don't think I've invented anything. I've tried not to force the issues which I feel have raised themselves of necessity. I feel I have uncovered only what was already there. I don't think I am fooling myself. But if I am then I hope I am an honest fool. (Oh dear, I'm getting prosaic again - definately time for bed)

So is it just a curiosity? A peculiar happenstance of meaningful coincidences too many to count? Or is there really "something going on". Something he didn't tell us about in his books. But then, Tarot is a book too.

So, I thank you again; for not believing in it but still willing to take a closer look - and for finding that there "does seem to be something there".
 

ravenest

Dulcimer said:
I don't blame you mate. It took me a very, very, long time - years in fact - to become convinced that the arrangement is deliberate. There are just too many meaningful coincidences for it to be pure chance. "

This is great guys, I've tried the layout once, but need to do it again with reference to these notes and give it a lot of time,

.
"Even now I wonder if I'm tipping at windmills. The trouble is it is so circumstancial. Clues here, hints there. "

But that seems to be the nature of things. I've been studying Rosemary Clarkes Egyptian system and previous to her, it all seems mixed muddled and varied. Things depended on what, when, where and how you refered to them, Egyptologists kept telling us it was a confused system but Rosemary has tied it all together into this neat amazing package. Now I am begining to see the first emergence of this same process happening with the wide range of diverse (and seemingly different) subjects and views in Aust. Aboriginal mythology / wisdom tradition. I'm pretty, sure the development wasnt a concious process, yet when we view the whole system holistically we see the picture and not the pieces.

The trick is knowing when one is off on a self referential tangent

There seems to be a very interesting process here, I can only put it down to the 'celestial beings' archons, secret masters, whatever, constantly dropping hints in as many ways and forms as possible.


"I started this as a thread, not to convert anyone to some supposed hidden truth, but to expose it to the "sword of intellect". If this is all nonsense I figured someone out there with far more experience of Crowley's philosophy than I would be able to show it to be so (I may even have secretly hoped that that would happen). I suppose you might say I set myself up to be shot down! "

Or, perhaps, like the Tower, you are invoking the Eye of God, and you set yourself up to be struck by lightening, so that your truth may spring free from the ruins?
 

Dulcimer

ravenest said:
This is great guys, I've tried the layout once, but need to do it again with reference to these notes and give it a lot of time,

Thanks dude! It's nice to know someone is still looking and finding something positive in it.

The whole idea of putting these cards on the Sephiroth originally came about because I could not understand why the Higher Arcana were relegated (as I saw it) to the paths whilst the lesser pip cards were given the exalted positions in the Sephiroth. OK, so the pips had numbers on them while the HA corresponded (allegedly) to the Hebrew letters, and the letters belong to the paths. But do they only belong to the paths? The 22 letters can be put into the 11 sephiroth, if you include Daath, as well as the paths. So why not the cards?
I originally used the RWS. I noticed some interesting correlations but not enough to be certain of any "truth" abiding there. It was only when I used the Thoth deck that I was thunder (and lightning) struck by what I saw.

I have been avoiding putting down my own research into this thread as I wanted others to approach it without me contaminating their thoughts. To see if others saw it too. As I said, I'm not trying to sell it to anyone, just putting it out there. But I do think it is of interest and I'm very glad that you think so too.

That said, I think maybe it's time I began to mention a few thoughts of my own. Maybe it will show some approaches others have missed or not thought about. After all, nearly all of Aeon418's observations were new to me.
So then, as examples of where I've been going with this:-

[Disclaimer - all interpretations of the cards are brief and crude and are selective to the purpose I'm putting them to. But they are interpretations from creditable writers and are NOT invented by me. Also I am taking a broader approach rather than limiting myself to Crowley's system]

The Three Supernals:

KETHER
The Fool represents the first step into manifestation after the realm of Limitless Light. So it comes as no surprise that it has a meaning of chaos and innocence, about to step off the cliff into Material existence. Poor thing.
The ascending card, The World or Universe or what have you, means the Perfect Whole, the Completion of Experience, or "Life, The Universe, and Everything"!
A no-brainer finding these two cards here in Kether.

CHOCKMAH
The Magus/Magician on the descending side, brings down the raw, "unprocessed" spiritual energy and brings it under control; diverting it into a usable, i.e. manipulatable form (the four elements).
Aeon/Judgement, on the ascending side, represents the final step in the transforming, or rather, transfiguration, of material energy back into the spiritual. The reverse of the magician's act.

BINAH
On the descending side of Binah is The High Priestess. In Her womb develop all the various natural laws and substances; the organised energy from the Magician becomes formative. The point is though that it is done in secret; her womb is a dark and secret place. She is Persephone in Hades; unrevealed, dark and mysterious Her wonders to perform.
The Sun, on the ascending side, is the reverse of this; the Divine Law revealed in the brilliant light of day! Crowley shows the sun passing through the Zodiac - the Laws of Creation. The Sun-King, Child of the New Age, is born out of the dark and into Light. The card is the birth of the incarnated spirit from the womb of matter below the Abyss into the supernal worlds of the Divine. The return to Our Mother.

HOD
Further down the Tree, and on a different tack, the cards at Hod (Adjustment/Justice and Death) are easily related to this Sephirah because Mercury rules here. Mercury or Hermes is the psychopomp, conducting the souls of the dead to the underworld. Thoth is connected with the underworld as well but he is also responsible for the Balance in which the heart of the deceased is weighed. He is the divine regulative force and Maat, goddess of justice and truth, pictured on Adjustment, is closely associated with him.

DAATH
Don't suppose I can get away with avoiding mentioning The Star.
In Daath we reach the point when the influence from the Supernals enters into the microcosm (Chesed to Yesod); the psyche.
I would expect to find a card representing that influence on the descending side while on the ascending some kind of reverse of this. Well, we have The Moon on the ascending side which represents a "drawing up" of what is below; the yods can be interpreted as rising to the moon not falling from it and the sun-rolling scarab is being attracted from out of the Lower Water (this card is much better realised in the RWS deck for these purposes, but I suppose the Thoth will have to do lol).
The reverse of this would be a card meaning a descent of energy into the Lower Waters. I leave you to to decide whether that applies to The Empress or The Star, or indeed to either. I may of course be fitting the meaning to support my own view. So I guess the question is, am I forcing a square peg into a round hole or does it slip in easily? And if it does fit, does it make sense?

ravenest said:
Dulcimer said:
Or, perhaps, like the Tower, you are invoking the Eye of God, and you set yourself up to be struck by lightening, so that your truth may spring free from the ruins?

Oh yes!