My IDS!
This is a very busy, and very orange, card! Like the Emperor, who is Aries. And this is Mars. Makes sense. A great open eye in the sky shoots a large lightning bolt which strikes a tower, throwing out 4 people, who are depicted as geometric forms (Cubist?). Below is the mouth of hell, with teeth!, shooting forth flames. Are they going to fall into the mouth? To the left of the eye is the dove with an olive branch, the dove of peace; and to the left is a snake/dragon with a sun-like halo.
Crowley gives this card the alternate name War (presumably for Mars). (We also have to remember that WWII was going on when the deck was created.) The card is also referred to in the Book of Law as the House of God, an old name for the card. The Hebrew letter is Pe, meaning mouth, thus the mouth of hell here (and not in the Devil?). In the too much information department, Snuffin says Crowley used the letter Pe in his diary to refer to oral sex. And points out that the card can refer to a sex act—tower, shooting out, mouth. And I think I saw something about the eye, too, in nicky’s thread . . . But are we brave enough to use this info in a reading?
This is obviously a card of destruction, and it’s not just fluffy to say that the old has to be destroyed before the new can come about. Like Death. The poor people are just geometric forms because they are dead. They are just earth now with no life in them. 4 people for the 4 elements?
Some folks see it as a “bolt from the blue,” and enlightenment or at least rude awakening. The eye reinforces this. There is also a connection to the third eye of the Devil. When your third eye is opened, you don’t see your old life in the same way, and you may go so far as to “destroy” it.
I know I’ve told this story before, but I will again very shortly. I had a vision of the Goddess sleeping. As she slept, the universe went on around her, but when she woke (opened her eyes), the universe was absorbed back into her. She is all, and when she is awake, she knows it and embodies it. In a way the Universe is destroyed.
The dove and serpent come from the Book of the Law. Both are love. Crowley says they are will to live and will to die. And if you know that life and death are just two sides of the same continuum, you don’t have to choose between them. Practically, the dove is always useful in a reading. “This card shows an unwanted or upsetting change or shock, but when the shock is over, peace will come.” I don’t know if that’s the intent, but it works! The truth is probably more that life and death, shock and peace, always exist and are always replacing each other in everyone’s lives.
Snuffin, on the other hand, says the dove is Christianity’s Holy Spirit chased away by War, and being replaced by the lion-serpent (Beast) of the new aeon.
In a reading: A sudden unexpected turn of events that might be uncomfortable or upsetting at the time, but that may clear the way for a better future. The time to let go may soon be at hand. Things will go better for you if you let go!