Ace of Disks

[Centaur]

I am noticing another set of wings, located in the middle of the card, just outside of the central golden disk....anyone see that? Feathers on top of feathers.....

Oh, I see those too now! I wonder what this could bring to our understanding of the card?

I can remember someone describing this card as looking as though someone had just chopped into a huge old tree trunk, and we are being provided with a top-down view of the stump.

 

[Phoenix Rising]

I read some where that 666=18/9 perfection. But it also represents "man and the tally of gold" or to manifest. Jesus number was 999/27/9. Reversed 666, but still adds to nine or perfection.
Although I don't have the Thoth deck, it seems so complicated. Wasn't that Crowley a bit of a weirdo, you know bit of a sexnut or something?

 

[lunakasha]

Wasn't that Crowley a bit of a weirdo, you know bit of a sexnut or something?

ROFL!!!!
Now there is an interesting question.....one that is not easily answered but...yes, that is the general consensus!!!

I am not a Crowley expert however.....

Maybe Centaur could elaborate on this???

Luna

 

[CreativeFire]

Great observations Centaur and Lunakasha with the wings! I think the artichoke looking things at the top of the wings are actually part of the wings themselves. When you look closely at a birds wing they often have a cluster of smaller feathers at the "elbow" connection.

You have inspired me to look up the meaning of the wings and also the 666 / I, after reading through this thread.

From "The Crowley Tarot - Handbook to the cards":

On the card we see in the center of moving spheres - a system of whirling wings and disks - a golden coin, the inside of which is inscribed with secretive signs. The innermost center of the coil is formed by three rings symbolising the law of life, whereby it is only through the union of opposites (1 + 2) that new life (3) is created. In this we find the "I" as the symbol of being at one with oneself, the unity, the world of archetypes, the world of soul, the highest wisdom, or the source of all life (Ace). There is also the enigmatic and unfathomable "666", termed the stigma of the Devil by many, which Crowley himself considers to be the "number of dazzlement" . . .

The Greek inscription TO META OHPION (To Mega Therion) means "The Great Beast" and was one of the many titles Crowley liked to use.

It is amazing how much detail there is actually in the image, all those fine lines of the feathers. Every time I look at the Thoth images I think of how much patience and time Lady Harris must have spent drawing them.

I am not an expert on Crowley either, so can't comment on the weirdo, sexnut thing either so someone else might light to jump in on that one! LOL

I have read some interesting stuff on Thelema from some of the threads here though which does explain a little bit about his beliefs.

CreativeFire

 

[lunakasha]

Great observations Centaur and Lunakasha with the wings! I think the artichoke looking things at the top of the wings are actually part of the wings themselves. When you look closely at a birds wing they often have a cluster of smaller feathers at the "elbow" connection.

It is amazing how much detail there is actually in the image, all those fine lines of the feathers. Every time I look at the Thoth images I think of how much patience and time Lady Harris must have spent drawing them.

Thanks CF for the additional info on this card.....there is a lot of detail to focus on here....as I find with all of the Thoth cards. The more time you spend looking at the image, the more you see things, tiny details, that were not visible to you before....this is why I love this deck! It does take some effort to figure them out sometimes, but it is definitely worth taking the time....fascinating!!!

I was also thinking that maybe the artichoke-things were part of the feathers too...wondering if other people agreed or saw something different there.....

Luna

 

[CreativeFire]

I am still wondering about the wings. Went to sleep last night thinking - why wings - what actually do the wings represent as the book did not explain that very well. What is the connection to the disks with the wings "whirling" around them?

Like you say Lunakasha, there is just so much to see in these cards and they are fasinating to try and work out. I will have to give some more thought to the wings. Anyone else see a connection here?

CreativeFire

 

[Centaur]

Thanks for the information CreativeFire. I think that this card is most fascinating!!

I was thinking about the 'wings' earlier today. And I am starting to think that they perhaps represent spirit, and higher pure energies. Crowley intended each Ace to represent the highest position on the tree of life... which is the purest, and the most spiritual (correct me if I am wrong!)... perhaps the wings serve to illustrate that connection?

What do you think?

I was thinking about the Crowley sex-nut thing too, and I think that a lot of the time he is very misunderstood and mis-represented. I do not know all that much about him as a person, but from what I have read, and I am reading at the moment (I am reading a biography of his... very interesting may I add!), he did have some weird ideas about sexuality, and also could be rather a despicable person.

 

[Dean]

U.k

The Coin like Disk is derived from the seal of Crowleys Mystical organization The Order of the Silver Star. Great good furtune in Finances and health matters.

 

[Aeon418]

666

This is probably my favourite Minor card in the Thoth deck. It sums up a lot of the ideas behind the Thoth tarot.

In the past the element of Earth was seen as the dead and evil element. It was the direct oposite of the Spirit. The Earth / Body had to shunned in order to gain a place in a Spiritual Heaven. The Earth itself was seen as something to be controled and exploited. Sanction for this exploitation was given by a invisible god in some remote spiritual realm.

Modern attitudes toward this element are different, or are at least changing. Nowadays we see this element as alive and vibrant. If we exploit the Earth and treat it as just another "thing", the Earth fights back like a living organism. Our old ideas about the sins of the flesh are fading away as the old superstitions and fears of a wrathful sky god, hell bent on punishing us for being human, lose their power in the face of more modern and enlightened ideas.

Crowley saw this card as an affirmation of the identity of the Sun and the Earth, Spirit and Flesh. He thought it important that this card should be green to symbolise the return of spring and the end of the cult of the sin obsessed, dying god.

This card is an affirmation of life itself, bearing as it does the graphic symbols of the Phallus and the Yoni. Also 666 surmounted by 1. The Beast and Babalon of Atu 11, Lust.
The wings of the spirit frame the card and their number, 6 the number of the Sun, reinforces the identity of the Sun and the Earth as whirling and mobile forms of energy, not dead matter.

 

[alphonsine]

pine cones

i believe those are pinecones

a wise tree of life