Ross G Caldwell
Crowley and the G.D. seem to differ fundamentally on an important
aspect of Tarot-meditation -
How are the 78 cards to be listed in order?
Book T (Mathers?) lists them from Ace of Wands (1) through World (78)
http://www.tarot.org.il/Library/Mathers/Book-T.html ;
Crowley implies a different order in the Book of Lies chapter used at
the beginning of the Book of Thoth ("Wheel and Whoa!") -
"Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily from each
other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins."
Thus, Fool is the first (1) and Ten of Coins is the last (78), and
there should be a way to conceive of how each card generates the
next, "in due order". Crowley does an admirable job of this for the
pip cards (applying the "Naples Arrangment"), but for the rest he
doesn't do it.
So we have the problem - perhaps Mathers didn't intend his order of 78
to convey the "every card generates the next in due order" (how does
the Knave of Pentacles generate the 5 of Wands? Perhaps we can
speculate. But how does the 4 of Cups (number 56) generate The Fool
(number 57)? That is more difficult - thus it doesn't seem likely
Mathers had this exercise in mind);
but Crowley surely did have the exercise in mind, and so we must ask
which order he intended to be the "due order". In the Book of Thoth,
he starts with the Fool and goes through the trumps in the TdM order,
and then gives the 16 Court cards according to the G.D. elemental
hierarchy, Fire/Wands, Water/Cups, Air/Swords, Earth/Disks. Then he
goes Ace through Ten in each suit according to the same elemental
hierarchy.
Is this the order he is really suggesting? That is, does the Princess
of Wands "generate" the King of Cups? Does Fire always generate Water,
Water Air, and Air Earth? How does the Princess of Disks generate the
Ace of Wands?
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
(I was awake last night thinking about the history of symbolism
attached to cards, starting with John of Rheinfelden's 1377 report
that the deck represented "the state of the world now current" (status
mundi nunc modernis), and that two suits were "good" and two "evil";
this led me to remember Dummett's observation to the effect that it
was a pity that esoteric writers didn't know about the old Tarot rule
that two suits ran ace-low ten-high, while the other two ran ace-high
ten-low, since it would have given them a richer symbolism to draw on;
this led me to consider how it was a neat coincidence that, if there
were a hierarchy of suits in tarot games and it were the same as the
GD hierarchy (Batons/Cups/Swords/Coins), then the 10 of Coins would
indeed be the lowest and last card in the cycle.)
Ross
aspect of Tarot-meditation -
How are the 78 cards to be listed in order?
Book T (Mathers?) lists them from Ace of Wands (1) through World (78)
http://www.tarot.org.il/Library/Mathers/Book-T.html ;
Crowley implies a different order in the Book of Lies chapter used at
the beginning of the Book of Thoth ("Wheel and Whoa!") -
"Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily from each
other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins."
Thus, Fool is the first (1) and Ten of Coins is the last (78), and
there should be a way to conceive of how each card generates the
next, "in due order". Crowley does an admirable job of this for the
pip cards (applying the "Naples Arrangment"), but for the rest he
doesn't do it.
So we have the problem - perhaps Mathers didn't intend his order of 78
to convey the "every card generates the next in due order" (how does
the Knave of Pentacles generate the 5 of Wands? Perhaps we can
speculate. But how does the 4 of Cups (number 56) generate The Fool
(number 57)? That is more difficult - thus it doesn't seem likely
Mathers had this exercise in mind);
but Crowley surely did have the exercise in mind, and so we must ask
which order he intended to be the "due order". In the Book of Thoth,
he starts with the Fool and goes through the trumps in the TdM order,
and then gives the 16 Court cards according to the G.D. elemental
hierarchy, Fire/Wands, Water/Cups, Air/Swords, Earth/Disks. Then he
goes Ace through Ten in each suit according to the same elemental
hierarchy.
Is this the order he is really suggesting? That is, does the Princess
of Wands "generate" the King of Cups? Does Fire always generate Water,
Water Air, and Air Earth? How does the Princess of Disks generate the
Ace of Wands?
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
(I was awake last night thinking about the history of symbolism
attached to cards, starting with John of Rheinfelden's 1377 report
that the deck represented "the state of the world now current" (status
mundi nunc modernis), and that two suits were "good" and two "evil";
this led me to remember Dummett's observation to the effect that it
was a pity that esoteric writers didn't know about the old Tarot rule
that two suits ran ace-low ten-high, while the other two ran ace-high
ten-low, since it would have given them a richer symbolism to draw on;
this led me to consider how it was a neat coincidence that, if there
were a hierarchy of suits in tarot games and it were the same as the
GD hierarchy (Batons/Cups/Swords/Coins), then the 10 of Coins would
indeed be the lowest and last card in the cycle.)
Ross