Aeon418 said:
I come from an engineering background, so my primary focus is always, "does it work." Tradition and history have their place. But often when it comes to working with this stuff in a practical hands-on-way it does not matter so much.
Fair enough.
But it sounded like you were trying to paint Jim as some sort of dogmatic Tzaddi-funddie just because he
may not have had the opportunity to see the strange Tzaddi in the manuscript at an early enough date in his career. The implication being that if he had seen it early on he wouldn't be so sure of the switch today.
Well, look at this way, what EXACTLY in the functioning component of the The Star? As a rule, what would be the best, most integrated material for that component to be made of - heh or tzaddi, or some other?
One thing is clear, The Book of the Law, does not say "Tzadi is Aries" - I can find nowhere where this switch of these traditions needs to be made. It PERHAPS implies that "Aquarius" is not the Star. The ATBSh cipher would render this to Aries being the Star, and the Emperor being Aquarius. This would change the order number of the Trumps, which is PERSONALLY the way I would work with that. However, I am still not totally convinced it it is a Tzaddi. I generally think Crowely's switch is still up for debate in no less than five ways. I generally, however, do reject the interpretation as "Tzadi is Not, The Star" as simply too convenient, and in the context of the passage, redundant and obviously would not require any change but the name of the Trump.
As for Crowley wirting other languages, he was clearly not bothered by the switch to Greek for "Thelema" in the approriate verse detailing the "word of the Law."
Just an observation. We're all a little guilty in this thread of refering to the notorious switch as the Tzaddi-Heh switch. When in actual fact Crowley never describes it in such terms. He only talks about counter-changing card positions. Crowley seems to have connected the zodiac signs to the cards first and foremost. The attributions to letters seem to come via the cards and not the other way around.
Connecting the Letters to the Signs of the Zodiac is the Sepher Yetzirah.
Connecting the Letters to the Trumps is the revision of Eliphas Levi.
The verse corrects Levi, [Tzadi] and The Star, not Tzaddi and Aquarius. There is no cause, by the verse, to alter the association of Aries and Aquaruis to the traditional letters from the Sepher Yetzirah. The Card order could change, for every number is infinite; there is no difference. The Associations could change, from Trump to Letter, but the fact is "Tzadi as Aries" is not refuted in the Book of the Law.
If in fact, Heh is the Star, and Heh is STILL Aries - it reconciles easily. The Star is now Aries, and is attributed to Heh. The result is The Emperor is now Aquarius, and is STILL Tzadi. The transition to the Tarot does not mean it switches all attributes. It simply requires a reordering (and perhaps recoloring) of the Trumps in question.
As for the idea of Heh, and thus Aries, or Taleh, to The Star, this is quite sublime. Even moreso is the notion that Tzadi, and thus Aquarius or D'li, is now on the Throne of the Emperor. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs, indeed. And look how it changes the linear tale of the Major Arcanum is these are switched. If it isn't enough to have the Star between The Empress and the Hierophant, then how about the fact that The Emperor emerges from the Fall of the Tower. Is this the real intent, I do not know. I wasnt' there.
The "open expanse" of the star, and the theme of Ganymedes as the bearer of he Grail is then brought to bear in the Emperor; as well as another Grail Bearer - Parzival. I personally REALLY like that idea, and implement it in my own deck, which is still under development - and REALLY needs to get underway. (At least my artist is almost free)
Like I already said, Crowley didn't go public with the switch until the 1940's with the publication of the Book of Thoth. Up until then it was a secret that was only communicated to initiates within Crowley's circle. In all publications up to that point he stayed with the Golden Dawn attributions, while dropping a hint here and there occasionally.
Most of Crowley's Inner Circle, to hear tell, did not even focus on Tarot. It is clear We know it was not a passion of Lady Frieda Harris, Jane Wolfe, or Germer. Of all his inner circle, it seems the I Ching was FAR more favoured. Even Crowley preferred it. Tarot is not the largest component of any form of Magic I have ever seen, and certainly not even Crowley's own Qabala.
In the Book of Thoth Crowley did try to update the correspondence tables. We all know it wasn't a complete success. Whether Crowley simply made a hash of it, or was trying to communicate something indirectly through deliberate mistakes is an open question.
I sense that he simply is trying to still convince himself, so he is getting a bit mixed up in that. I think he created a different working assumtion, and all have their own merits. I just don't see any definable merit to the idea of changing Tzadi to Aries and Heh to Aquarius. I can rationalize it, but do not see how it changes much for the better. Do you?
