Magic symbols on the seven of swords - HELP

Help! Are there any hardcore Crowley students out? I need to know what the magic symbols mean on the handles of the seven swords. They have very curious shapes, and are screaming *SYMBOL**SYMBOL**SYMBOL* He doesn't say anything about them in the Book of Thoth (I've noticed he doesn't give away much of the cards secrets).

Hi Firemaiden,

I got this out of DuQuette's book
Quote 'Harris chose to illustrate this as a planetary battle: six planets versus the Sun. Look closely at the swords. The hilts of the six small swords arrayed in a crescent near the top of the card carry the symbols of (from left to right) the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn. The large central sword is the Sun itself, outnumbered and battle-scarred.' Unquote.

Hope this helps.

Fantastic, Emily. Thank you!!

six of them at least are the symbols for the planets.

The sword on the right is saturn, next to that mercury, then jupiter, sun the central uppointing one, mars and venus. The last sword on the left I am not sure, but by a process of elimination the moon, the two circles crossed give a stylised representation of both the waxing and waning moon. Also is there any significance to the order?

Kwaw

Ah, thank you kwaw. A moebius strip! That interests me.

I wonder what myths lie behind the concept of "planetary battle".

firemaiden said:

Ah, thank you kwaw. A moebius strip! That interests me.

I wonder what myths lie behind the concept of "planetary battle".

Click to expand...

You posted a reply to a post I was editing at the same time, taking a second look at the card it struck me it was the two crescents of the moon, not a moebius strip Taking a quick first glance at the card I confused the central sword with the moon because the symol for the moon is above it, but obviously the central sword is the sun, the symbol on its hilt at the bottom. The moon at the top references the decan of aquarius ruled by the moon.

Kwaw

Well, I've found an interesting site which shows the symbols for the seven planets arranged in a septagram.

http://www.byzant.com/symbols/septagram.asp

Not all the symbols match the ones here well.

Could the planet second from the left be Pluto rather than Mercury?

http://www.draknetfree.com/moonmagic/symbols.html shows the pluto symbol with arms curving up.

The symbol for the sun on the central hilt is clear, but is there not also the symbol of Mercury beneath it?

Don't the shapes behind the planet symbols also look a bit like pawns in a chess game?

Re: Mercury/Pluto - There is no question to me that it is the symbol for Mercury. The symbol for pluto linked to has the crescent below the circle, and also I am not sure old this symbol of Pluto is or if Crowley would have known it. In the diagrams in the BoT he uses the English symbol for Pluto, which is basically a combination of the letters P and L. Also why would he leave out Mercury from the seven ancient planets and insert Pluto?. I can't see any symbol for mercury below the Sun symbol, only the symbol for aquarius. I see the similarity to pawn pieces in the hilts of the downpointing swords, the hilt of the Sun is more like the top of the Queen or King in some chess sets. The pawns attacking the King would fit the battle analogy; it looks more like the top of the Queen chess piece though, we still have the battle analogy but the Queen chess piece would suit the title of card 'Futility'. In a game with King piece against six pawns then the King is in pretty dire straits, six pawns going against the power of a queen piece though stand little chance. It depends upon whose actions are being considered 'futile', the one or the six it battles against?

Kwaw

Given that the other planets/celestial objects illustrated by the swords are the so-called "old planets", I'd expect the planet in question to be Mercury (an old planet) rather than Pluto (a "new planet").