The Aeon

knightofrainbows said:

I have just received my new thoth tarot, and was imediately drawn to the aeon card. I feel as though i`m in the middle of a spiritual transition, like i`m being reborn.
Could this card be a lesson showing us, that, with positive visualisation of your inner being, you can let go of your insecurities and confusion and enter a new age.
The goddess knows where he`s gone wrong.
The card is telling you, dont face your left palm backwards, the left hand is for receiving energy. the right hand for giving energy.
Listen to your inner guide, and the gods will watch over you. It will soon manifest in the material world.

knight of rainbows.

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I rather like your comment.. I have had a thoth for a long time.. my previous was one of the earlier 80's and then the ugly green deck, I didn't really even love thoth for a long time.. when I decided to give the thoth a try again, I bought the US Games version -- it then took all the problems I had had with it away.. the colors were bright and bold and the borders were something i could live with.. the cards were small enough for me to shuffle with ease (being small handed -- I have this problem A LOT) .. the first card I pulled in a reading for myself was the Aeon..

One of my favorite art works in the deck, and also kinda left me onto a new experience with the thoth... before I didn't really even LIKE the thoth and now i love it.... in fact, today I went crazy when I thought I had lost it... low and behold.. who did I find? the Aeon!

LWB: Final decision concerning the past. New current for the future. Always represents the taking of a definite step.

This got me thinking.. to me the child looks like she is walking forward and in thought about which direction to choose.. I always thought of the child in this card as myself or the questor.. transparency = transcendence?

Reading your reply gave me pleasant shivers

New Aeon

The Aeon card is a difficult one to understand if you haven't delved into Crowley's Thelemic philiosophy and The Book of the Law.

Crowley believed that the image portrayed in the traditional Last Judgement card had taken place in 1904 when the Aeon of Osiris was replaced by the Aeon of Horus.

The Aeon card shows the Thelemic pantheon.
Nuit, the Sky Goddess. Symbolic of the entire manifested universe.
Hadit, the winged solar disk. Symbolic of the spark of life itself.
Horus, called Heru Ra Ha in The Book of the Law. Heru Ra Ha is a double god, two in one. Ra Hoor Khuit, god of war and vengence and Hoor Paar Kraat (Harpocrates).
Ra Hoor Khuit is the falcon headed war god sitting on the throne. In a very simple and general way he is a symbol for the times in which we now live.
Hoor Paar Kraat is, in one sense, a symbol for the new spiritual impulse of humanity. He/she represents a breaking away from old ideas and institutions. A sense of individual self discovery, like a child almost.

The whole card symbolises new beginnings and rebirth. Something new and fresh comming into a situation that has gone stale.

Where did Crowley get his ideas from I wonder?
It sounds more like an overlong magazine article.

Well, if you believe what Crowley said about how he "received" The Book of the Law you have your answer.
Almost everything that Crowley wrote relates, in one way or another, to that book. And that includes the Thoth tarot. He altered the tarot to make it fit with the Thelemic philosophy and worldview. The most obvious changes are The Aeon and Lust cards and the attribution of the the hebrew letter Heh to The Star instead of the The Emperor.

Aeon418 said:

The Aeon card is a difficult one to understand if you haven't delved into Crowley's Thelemic philiosophy and The Book of the Law.

Crowley believed that the image portrayed in the traditional Last Judgement card had taken place in 1904 when the Aeon of Osiris was replaced by the Aeon of Horus.


...
Hoor Paar Kraat is, in one sense, a symbol for the new spiritual impulse of humanity. He/she represents a breaking away from old ideas and institutions. A sense of individual self-discovery, like a child almost.

The whole card symbolises new beginnings and rebirth. Something new and fresh coming into a situation that has gone stale.

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All this makes intuitive sense to me. As I contemplate the whole picture of XX, I see the night sky turning into dawn -- dawn reds, golds, peaches inside and surrounding the blackdarkblue goddess of night. The open secret of something more alive , more inspiring, more transcendent entering into existence. The Universe putting on a new face. Away from fixation. New creation. Caterpillar-mind becoming Butterfly-mind. Epiphany.

The Aeon is the beginning that comes after the end shown in the last judgement.

The age of aquarius (or Horus as AC would have it)
All that stuff.

The christian view point is that we are all still waiting for that last trump to sound, but for Crowley it had come and gone (only he seemed to notice!). Therefore The last Judgement was outdated and inapplicable.

I don't actually agree with him on this one. I am still waiting for it, and I want it big. Seals being opened, angels blowing trumpets, the four horsemen riding across the world in all their terrible glory.

And before some one says that it has already happened, I want real seals, real horses, real angels. None of them tricksy metaphores. Real seals, and I don't care wether they are balancing balls on their noses or not.

The Aeon - ability to make accurate Judgements.

And what about Nuit?

Hello...? Anybody out there?

Okay, lets talk about Nuit/Nut ("noot"), and why Crowley chose to have her represented here, on what is usually the card of awakening the dead-- -- Card XX -- after all, she is the over-arching concept of this card. (so to speak )

See The Books of the Sky