Liber T: Tarot of the Stars Eternal - Two of Cups - Love

Liber T: Tarot of the Stars Eternal - Two of Cups - Love

You can see the card here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/wolfyjames/decks/libertbig/cups02.jpg

We can recognize like in the Thoth the two cups and the fishes/dolphins throwing water in a their respesctive cup which falls in the pond. These represent the union of female and male. But what about the rest? There is a third creature that stands between the dolphins, a woman, an Anubis-like person behind with a sun above with an inverted pentagram.

In Scion's note, Agrippa wrote for this card: "In the first face of Cancer ascendeth the form of a young Virgin, adorned with fine cloathes [clothes], and having a Crown on her head; it giveth acuteness of senses, subtilty of wit, and the love of men"

Scion also note an egyptian goddess Nekhbet for this card.

Is it possible that they mixed the young virgin with this egyptian goddess to do 2 with 1? Or is the woman for something else?

As for the inversed pentagram, it means descent into matter. Sublimation about love?

WolfyJames said:

Is it possible that they mixed the young virgin with this egyptian goddess to do 2 with 1? Or is the woman for something else?

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My guess is that the woman represents the goddess Babalon. She who accepts all and refuses none. For this she is labled a Whore and yet she represents unconditional Love.

WolfyJames said:

As for the inversed pentagram, it means descent into matter.

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In the New Aeon conception Spirit and matter are one. This is very important when trying to understand Thelemic/Thoth inspired decks.

Goat of Mendes said:

My guess is that the woman represents the goddess Babalon. She who accepts all and refuses none. For this she is labled a Whore and yet she represents unconditional Love.

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I found quite an interesting article about Babalon on Wikipedia. She appears on the Lust card and now here. Her name appears as well on the cup on the Ace of Cups. It's also possible that the beast between her legs is the same one as on Lust. She appears here as the Scarlet Woman, the universal feminine principle.

I wanted to say something last time but could not find the words in English about the inverted pentagram. That Love brings trancendance, that it transcend everything and makes everything better, higher.

But what about the canine in the back?

I just pulled this card in a reading yesterday... so it's fortuitous that y'all are discussing.

The Nekhbet reference is my typo (they are notes for the goddess on the THREE of Cups) sorry about that, made the correction in my doc for the next version).

The female figure on the 2 of Cups is absolutely Babalon creating the sign of Mulier (“the Woman”), Isis in Welcome; Sign of Babalon; Attitude of Baphomet (X, in the N.O.X. Signs): Arms form a 90 degree angle above head. Elbows are bent slightly upwards, with hands open; Feet are a little over shoulder width apart, facing forward

(from Crowley’s "Cry of the 12th Aethyr" in The Vision and the Voice) The startling, beautiful text that can accompany this gesture reads: “This is the Mystery of Babylon, the Mother of abominations, and this is the mystery of her adulteries, for she hath yielded herself up to everything that liveth, and thy weakness hath subdued their strength. For in that union thou didst understand. Therefore art thou called Understanding, O' Babylon, Lady of the Night! Oh my God, in one last rapture let me attain to the union with the many. For she is Love, and her love is one, and she hath divided the one love into loves, and her love is one, and she hath divided the one love into infinite loves, and each love is one, and equal to the One, and therefore is she passed from the assembly and the law and the enlightenment unto the anarchy of solitude and darkness. For ever thus must she veil the brilliance of Her Self. O' Babylon, Babylon, thou mighty Mother, that ridest upon the crown of the Beast, let me be drunken upon the wine of thy fornications; let thy kisses wanton me unto death, that even I, thy cupbearer, mayest understand."

Very sorry for the referential glitch... I'm sure Babalon understands. LOL

Incidentally, does anyone have a theory about why certain zodiac signs (Cancer, Gemini are the two obvious sets) are assigned iconic medallions that grow or shrink over the course of their decans?

For Cancer, it's a double dodecahedron (Zodiac in night/day?) with an averse pentagram within... which is a traditional Baphamet symbol and a sign of the New Aeon... as I said in my doc: "Crowley says the point down pentagram represents the descent of spirit into matter, in which the individual (microcosm) occupies a heliocentric as opposed to geocentric position."

Why is Cancer necessarily Heliiocentric? Or is it something about the Cups. Crowley says that the 2s are the perfect expression of the enbergy of the suit, the first actual manifestation that is perceivable as distinct. It occurs to me that you could read the Medallion shrinking as the closing of a pathway that leads upward on the Tree. So as Love (2 of cups) descends to Luxury (4 of cups), it is farther away from being a pure, powerful manifestation.

As for the jackal figure... I'm betting Anubis. And it's a jackal rather than the godform because this card is only connected to Anubis in some way. A possible visual link to XVIII The Moon? Wallis Budge in Gods of the Egyptians that Anubis is essentially 2 opposed gods (Anpu & Ap-uat) that are paradoxially one. So maybe this refers to the 1=2 experience that Love affords? Which also refers to the Babalon lines above.

Chokmah is the moment when Kether manifests as something other than itself, Self and Not-self. Which is the first step in all Love: awareness of someone or something other than solipsistic YOU. So, more than being about romance or snuggly-wuggling, this card expresses all Capital-L Love that forces the One to become Two and Two to become One.

Scion said:

The Nekhbet reference is my typo (they are notes for the goddess on the THREE of Cups) sorry about that, made the correction in my doc for the next version).

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Well, once your new version is over, send it to me please, always looking for your corrections and additions.

Scion said:

Incidentally, does anyone have a theory about why certain zodiac signs (Cancer, Gemini are the two obvious sets) are assigned iconic medallions that grow or shrink over the course of their decans?

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Sorry, can't help you with that one.

Scion said:

Incidentally, does anyone have a theory about why certain zodiac signs (Cancer, Gemini are the two obvious sets) are assigned iconic medallions that grow or shrink over the course of their decans?

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I'm not totally sure, but it may have something to do with the fact that Cancer and Gemini are Unity and Division. They are important concepts within Thelema.

Cancer being heliocentric might be related to the Cheth - 418 - Abrahadabra - 5=6 - Holy Hexagram, chain of correspondences.

The symbol on the Gemini decans is the symbol for the letter Aleph from the Alphabet of Arrows, but it is inverted. Possibly to indicate that it represents Air as division rather than unity.

Scion said:

So, more than being about romance or snuggly-wuggling, this card expresses all Capital-L Love that forces the One to become Two and Two to become One.

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Or maybe even the desire of 2 to become 0 ?

Oups! Posted something at the wrong place.

You know, with the late discovery of possible constellations/planets/stars being on the minors I searched on Wiki Sirius in hope to see the constellation then I checked the card nightsky carefully. Took me some sweet time until it hit with a brick. Sirius is not just a constellation, it's also a star, the brightest of them all and guess what big star shines at the top with the inverted pentragram in the center? Sirius!

Scion said:

Now having said all that, I'll give you a brief half-baked example using one of them. I think the Serio has taken the snake-dog-pinecone from the Hermetis and reinterpreted it on the 2 of Cups so that it speaks to Sothis/Sirius as the marker of the Nile's flooding (which gives Egypt the name "Khem") and the Dog days of summer AND to Anubis as the "lesser form of Thoth" (God of Moon, Magic and Writing) AND thereby a connection to double Anubis on the Moon Trump AND Isis as the Great Mother who is both beautiful and terrible. All of this sounds very complicated and heady except if yo9u think about it with a kind of mythological looseness. It's not equative, it's refractive. Together these symbols speak to "Love" (GD Title) as an overwhelming, fertile, cyclical force that isn't always logical or controllable.

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I prefer viewing Anput and Anubis as double Anubis on my side since Anput is Anubis' female side, it goes better with the whole female/male dark/light, etc. etc. elements that have to be harmonized within oneself showed on the Two of Cups and The Lovers. I often see these two cards as alchemical work between the male and female aspect within oneself, and I even consider that there are other aspects as well to be harmonized like the Shadow showed on the Devil card. On the Two of Cups, with Venus being in Cancer, the card shows harmony.

A couple of questions

Now I have looked and studied the card in light of what has been said here. I have an obesrvation that I am curious about. The woman, Babalon, it looks as if her wrists are cut with claw marks. Is that just me? If not then is there any significance?

Also I am a little lost but has any one discussed or identified the horned guy that is actually holding the two cups?

I assume that the jackal under discussion is the dog/serpent/pinecone in the back. I haven't been able to place the other figure. I was wondering if it might be an offspring of Babalon. In the stuff I read I can only think that it relates to Sirius, but that seems to also be the Anubis image.

Then I beleive that all these images work to illustrate how the spirit made matter then creates connection and then atmosphere of love and devotion grow out of that. Is that how I should read this card?

I've starting to think that maybe the pinecone on the image is related to evergreens (pinecone to pine). Pinecones are the fruits of evergreens. Evergreens must be hard to find in Africa but they might have the same meaning than we have here, as in something that last long, that persist, that is constant, immortality. So the pinecone on this card could mean a fruitful and constant love, everlasting and uncorruptable.