XIV- Art!

Owl Tarot

And welcome folks, welcome- to another Thoth Trump! I am Owl Tarot and here we are with the Part 2 of The Lovers, Art! As some of you already know, I decided to start weekly threads about some of the thoughts and interpretations, as they come to me the moment I am writing, of the Trump I am currently studying. It is the third time I undergo this process (of weekly Trump study I mean) because in the previous two I gained further insight about the cards so I decided to follow this process yet again, but with a slightly different twist in it, which is to create weekly threads about the Trump I work with! So, anyone willing and available to provide some thoughts and opinions for me to work and contemplate about would be appreciated! I also hope that the few of my thoughts as of this post and moment help you! Without further addo, let's hit Art, which not suprisingly is one of those Trumps for which the already existing threads aren't so well developed, and I hope that this thread may change that!


XIV- Art

Zodiacal Trump of Saggitarius

25th Path, connecting Tiphareth to Yesod. Hebrew letter: Samekh (Prop-Tent Peg)


In this case, we have a letter with a female type of shape, but which is pointy and long (that's what she said) and therefore it's shape goes with a female assosiation (circular shape) while it's meaning is more phallic. So, right off the bat, we have a mixed sexual meaning. Ohh wait, what a surprise, our main figure is an androgyne! This card depicts in many forms the Unity caused by the Alchemical process of Coagulation, which combines opposites.

Sagittarius is the opposite sign of Gemini on the Zodiac. Gemini is depicted in Atu VI, The Lovers, which is also a pretty important Alchemical Trump describing the Alchemical process of Solve, while Art depicts a different Alchemical process, Coagulation. In The Lovers we see the necessary division into opposites that attract each other and eventually get married. After the Hermetic Marriage of Atu VI, we get to our happily married couple, The Emperor and The Empress, sharing the same body and becoming a whole! Even their clothes have been united and so, the serpents of The Emperor's robe and the bees of The Empresse's robe both exist on the green robe of our combined figure.

Book of Thoth said:
Diana is primarily one of the lunar goddesses, though the Romans rather degraded her from the Greek “virgin Artemis”, who is also the Great Mother of Fertility, Diana of the Ephesians, Many-Breasted. (A form of Isis-see Atu II and III.)

Diana is a female Goddess indeed, but on her breast we have a Lamen which contains six spheres. Six is the number of Tiphareth. Lamen is the Magickal weapon of Tiphareth and the breast is the part of the human body assosiated with Tiphareth. Thus, while we have a female Goddess assosiated with our figure, all those symbols suggest again, the Unity of the Masculine (Tiphareth) and the Feminine (Yesod). Yesod is the Sphere of the Moon and Tiphareth is the Sphere of the Sun.

Diana is also a form of Isis. Isis is depicted in Atu II, The Priestess, which is the 13th Path connecting Tiphareth to Kether and is the Path right above this one. Our androgyne has cresent moons on his/her head which also hints that fact, since Atu II is also the Planetary Trump of the Moon.

Book of Thoth said:
The Red Lion has become white, and increased in size and importance, while the White Eagle, similarly expanded, has become red. He has exchanged his red blood for her white gluten.

We saw the Red Lion in Atu IV and VI and the White Eagle in Atu III and VI. In one possible meaning, those symbols refer to the sexual fluids of the male and the female. It is important to notice that Paracelcus in his Tincture of the Philosophers states that those two are the necessary ingredients to form the Tincture of the Philosophers which is the Philosopher's Stone. What does it lead to? Well, the Stone was said to be able to extend life and turn metals into gold. Gold is the metal of the Sun, Tiphareth. To understand the concept behind it's creation here, we need some Alchemy:

Paracelcus said:
Take only the rose-coloured blood from the Lion and the gluten from the Eagle. When you have mixed these, coagulate them according to the old process, and you will have the Tincture of the Philosophers, which an infinite number have sought after and very few have found.

The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians said:
Let these hints be sufficient! It is neither a metal nor a mineral, but the mother of all metals and minerals, and their Prima Materia. It is nothing else but the coagulated blood of the Red Lion, and the Gluten of the Eagle. IF you DISCOVER IT, BE SILENT AND KEEP IT SACRED.

The second quote regards the First Matter of the Alchemists. The First Matter is usually reffered to in riddles through Alchemical literature but a hint combining the Kabbalah is:

Esoteric Keys of Alchemy said:
Qabalists declare that Limitless Light, Ain Soph Aztr, condenses itself in Kether, and sets up a whirling motion which is the beginning of manifestation. Thus the initial activity of the Life-power is represented as the selection of a point at which to begin, so that Kether is termed Nequdeh Rashuneh, the Primordial Point and this point is said to be the root of all manifestation. Like the First Matter, it is also called the "Existence of Existences," and the "Concealed of the Concealed."

With those Alchemical ideals in mind, we have our figure throwing the blood of the lion and the white gluten in the Cauldron in front of them, which is also the Orphic Egg from Atu VI. The blood is thrown from a torch and the gluten from a cup, Crowley tells us. Those are a masculine (torch) and a feminine (cup) sybols accordingly.

The robe of our figure is green. Green is the color of vegetable growth, Crowley tells us, but metals do not grow so the Alchemists regarded them as dead. With this in mind, our figure, by performing the Alchemical process described above is creating the Philosopher's Stone. With the power of the Stone, all metals can be transmuted, and they will become "alive"thereoff. They will be able to evolve into the metal of the Sun, Gold.

The fire and water on the bottom of the card are interconnected and collaborating to achieve a common cause, heating the cauldron.

The lion and the eagle have exchanged their colors. In Atu VI we see them separated, a red lion and a white eagle. Here their colors have been exchanged through their union. The Red Tincture of the Emperor and the White Tincture of the Empress have united through Mercury (The Hermit in Atu VI) who is present in the form of the rainbow me thinks.

Esoteric Keys of Alchemy said:
Finally, Paracelsus, like the rest of the sages, tells his readers that the Great Work is performed by the aid of Mercury, and that the only other agencies entering into the art are the powers of the Sun and Moon. In like manner, the yoga system recognizes two agencies.

Crowley goes on to describe the cauldron itself, in which the process of distillation is done.

Book of Thoth said:
This state of the great Work therefore consisted in the mingling of the contradictory elements in a cauldron. This is here represented as golden or solar, because the Sun is the Father of all Life, and (in particular) presides over distillation. The fertility of the Earth is maintained by rain and sun; the rain is formed by a slow and gentle process, and is rendered effective by the co-operation of air, which is itself alchemically the result of the Marriage of Fire and Water. So also the formula of continued life is death, or putrefaction. Here it is symbolized by the caput mortuum on the cauldron, a raven perched upon a skull. In agricultural terms, this is the fallow earth.


Air rises above the cauldron in the form of the Rainbow, in which an arrow is moving. It is over the Androgyne's genitals, the area of the body corresponding to Yesod, towards the Lamen of Tiphareth. The Path of the card is the Path of the Arrow. It is also the Path of True Will, since it moves towards Tiphareth, the Sphere of Hoor, the HGA. Putrefaction as a process was depicted in the Death card, and it is taking place within the cauldron. Life changes vessels, but through the process of Atu XIII it remains continuous.

The cauldron also has a cross on it. Tau means a cross, and is the Path directly below the one we are currently examining.

The rainbow as a natural process is caused by the rain (Water) and the Sunlight (Fire). Qesheth, the wrd which means a bow, also means a rainbow. Crowley tells us the importance of the rainbow, the coat of many colors worn by Jesus, suggesting to me a symbol of enlightment.

On the top of the card we have "Visita interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem" which translates to "Visit the interior of the Earth; by rectification thou shalt find the hidden stone.". The word Vitriol is formed by the first letters of the Alchemical motto, and vitriol is sulphuric acid. Vitriol has the ability to dissolve all metals except Gold. It was used by the Alchemists to create the Philosopher's Stone. In the context of the individual, the Philosopher's Stone represents one's True Self I would say, with whom one connects through his HGA who lies in Tiphareth.

There are more to be said, but this post is, like most of my threads, getting too big.

Okay, it was yet another good exercise in itself for me, and I hope it both helps you and motivates you to give me some food for thought! That's some of the things I could say about this card as I see it today of course, I hope it you found it nice and I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts as well!