Arcana Titles

Aeric

Part of the reason I picked up Thoth was the attractive titles Crowley attributes to the Majors and Aces.

I haven't read the book yet, and I'm confused by some of them. The more obvious ones like Lovers "Children of the Voice Divine" and Hierophant "Magus of the Eternal Gods" are dutifully represented, while others are extremely peculiar. For instance, Major 2 is "Priestess of the Silver Star." As far as I can tell, there's no graphic silver star, except perhaps the five-petaled flower. And her attributes are the Moon and Cancer, not Aquarius or anything stellar.

Major 9 is "The Magus of the Voice of Light", by far my favourite of the titles. Yet, the card is most concerned with silence and keeping mysteries, perhaps more than the Priestess, and not broadcasting secrets.

Lust is called "Daughter of the Flaming Sword", of which from the card I fail to associate the title with anything besides phallic nature.

I won't ask for a card-by-card analysis, but does Crowley give any context for the selection of the titles, or are they metaphors up to the reader's interpretation? They seem very enriching, but very elusive too.

EDIT: Pffft ok I'm an idiot, I completely forget about the A∴A∴, how I could is beyond me. So I guess that solves High Priestess. Any others?
 

Lillie

I love these titles!
The ruler of flux and reflux.
The lord of the hosts of the mighty.

They are not actually Crowleys.

I believe he got them from the golden dawn.

The so called key words on the minors are part of this system of naming.
The 2 of cups is 'the lord of love' etc.

Though Crowley did change a few of these names. It ha always been my belief that he was going for one word names for each card, as the only ones he seems to have changed were the two word names, and he changed every one of them.

Example.

The lord of Material gain became just the lord of gain.
Shortened force becomes interference.

You can find the whole lot of GD titles in Wangs GD tarot book (and many other places too). But I have never found anything that says why or how these titles were decided upon.

Personaly I just like them. they sound nice.
 

Abrac

Glaucus said:
For instance, Major 2 is "Priestess of the Silver Star."
The Silver "Star" is the Moon.

Abrac
 

ravenest

Glaucus said:
Major 9 is "The Magus of the Voice of Light", by far my favourite of the titles. Yet, the card is most concerned with silence and keeping mysteries, perhaps more than the Priestess, and not broadcasting secrets.

Here's one:
Magus = 1. In the begining was the word and the word said, let there be light.