Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal - Queen of Cups

[BleuReynard]

Hey guys.

So, I got a good deal on the Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal deck and I expect it in the mail within the next few days.

My question is about my Birth Card, the Queen of Cups. Where's Venus?

The few court cards I have reviewed are almost like Liber T cheat sheets that out right show the personality of each card.

Random example:
Knight (King) of Wands - Sagittarius Mercury/Luna. Scorpio Venus.
You can see in the card how Sagittarius' symbol is linked to both Mercury and Luna. Where Scorpio is connected to one planet, Venus.

The Queen of Cups is different. Cancer is only connected to one planet, Mercury and an empty sphere. This empty sphere is where Venus should be.

Is this a flaw in the card? Maybe the few pics I found online actually have Venus in place but its hard to see due to the coloring? Could it be that the sphere is empty as the queen herself is the vision of Venus? Maybe it was corrected in newer decks?

Any incite would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Blue Fox, BleuReynard

 

[BleuReynard]

Allo,

So, the deck came in today right on time.

As I can see from the actual card there indeed is no Venus symbol attached to Cancer.

Something else; I'm not sure I would call this a clone deck of the Thoth. Ignorantly I could say this is as much a clone of the Thoth as the Gilded deck is a clone of Waite's deck. Ignorant only because I haven't studied them as I have the Thoth.

When we compare Andrea Serio's Queen of Cups to Lady Harris' they seem very much the same, minus the "cheat sheet" Gemini/Sol and Cancer/Mercury,Blank symbols (or lack of in the later) found in the Liber T.

Crowley states in BoT "The Queen of Cups represents the watery part of Water, its power of reception and reflection." later he says, "normally, people of this type have no character at all of their own, unless it can be called a characteristic to be at the disposition of every impact or impression.".
The Queen's face on Harris' card is obscured. She's hard to make out with the twisting mist around her. At first many people don't even know there's a person in the card. That's what Crowley intended given his description.

Andrea, on the other hand, has her Queen stick out like a sore thumb. Well... given that she's blue maybe a thumb with bad circulation. So, why? Why when Crowley made such a point would Roberto Negrini not enforce it? The Liber T.

Although the Liber T mentions the effect on ruling Cancer "emphasizes the layered shells of our existence" and "veiled mysteries" (to name a few), it never mentions how it reflects upon her appearance*. Thus since this is a Liber T deck he followed the Liber T using the Thoth as guidance... I would guess.

She still carries the shell like cup and Lotus of Isis mentioned in the BoT, but neglects the crayfish issuing forth from the cup. One could argue that Cancer's symbol is already shown, so why go to the detail of a crayfish in place of the crab's 69? I would like to say that only the more prominent details had been copied over.

Anyhow, that's my take on it.

*Note: The traditional Golden Dawn appearance is stated in the Liber T in the second paragraph of each card essay minus the Trumps. In this description the only comment on her face is that it is dreamy. Although they do talk about buskins (tall sandal like shoe) in the shape of an ibis with open wings that was neglected in both the Thoth and Liber T:ToSE.


Blue

 

[Richard]

......Random example:
Knight (King) of Wands - Sagittarius Mercury/Luna. Scorpio Venus.
You can see in the card how Sagittarius' symbol is linked to both Mercury and Luna. Where Scorpio is connected to one planet, Venus.

I'm trying to see the connections. Mercury is in detriment in Scorpio, but I don't see how the Moon figures in. Maybe it is supposed to be the glyph for Jupiter, which rules Sagittarius. Venus is in detriment in Scorpio. ETA. Got it! The Moon is in fall in Scorpio.

The Queen of Cups is different. Cancer is only connected to one planet, Mercury and an empty sphere. This empty sphere is where Venus should be.

Maybe the empty sphere is the new Moon. Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Mercury is the planetary ruler of Gemini, and the Queen of Cups rules the last decan of Gemini as well as the first two decans of Cancer.

 

[BleuReynard]

I understand your confusion.

If you have a copy of Lon Milo DuQuette's Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, go to page 209, table 14.

If not, I'll try to explain

The Zodiac as you know has 12 characters that spand the year.

Now what you might not know is that each is divided by element/suit:
Wands = Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Cups = Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Swords = Air: Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
Disks = Earth: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo

Our small cards, minus the aces = 36.
36/12 = 3.

So one member of the Zodiac can have power over 3 cards.

2,3,4 = Cardinal: Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn
5,6,7 = Fixed: Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius, Taurus
8,9,10 = Mutable: Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini, Virgo

Near every 10 calendar days are matched to a planet. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna in that order. These are matched to the cards above and repeat.

Now I don't have a table to show you so you'd have to take my word for it.

Anyhow, Court cards! The best way for me to describe this is
Knights (Kings) = 7 of the opposite suit, 8 and 9 of their suit.
Queens = 10 of the opposite suit, 2 and 3 of their suit.
Princes (Knights) = 4 of the opposite suit, 5 and 6 of their suit.

If I lost you, I don't blame you. It's awkward describing only in text.

Lets Look at the Knight (King) of Wands.
So, the 7 of Cups shows his bad side where the 8 and 9 of Wands show his positive side.
7 of Cups (Fixed) = Scorpio
8 and 9 of Wands (Mutable) = Sagittarius.

The planets go in order as I had shown previously:
Venus, Mercury, Luna

Thus:
7 of Cups = Scorpio/Venus
8 of Wands = Sagittarius/Mercury
9 of Wands = Sagittarius/Luna

And that's why the Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal shows Scorpio linked to Venus and Sagittarius connected to both Mercury and Luna for the Knight of Wands.
If you were born between Nov 13 (Scorpio) and Dec 12 (Sagittarius) your Birth Court Card is the Knight (King) of Wands.

 

[BleuReynard]

The Queen of Cups:
10 of Swords, Jun 11 - 20, Gemini
2 of Cups, Jun 21 - Jul 1, Cancer
3 of Cups, Jul 2 - 11, Cancer

The planets for this section on the calendar are Sol, Venus, Mercury in order.

I was born July 7. Thus 3 of Cups, Cancer and Mercury.

The Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal show the Queen of Cups with Gemini linked to Sol (10 of Swords). Cancer is linked to Mercury (3 of Cups) and a blank sphere.
This blank sphere is the 2 of Cups, Cancer and Venus.

 

[Richard]

Thank you for your patient explanation. I was not thinking about aligning the courts with the small cards, but now I understand how they relate to the decans. Fascinating. Thanks again.

 

[BleuReynard]

Oh, no problem. I just wish I could find the table on-line. It's easier to show then explain.

 

[Richard]

I think a merging of these two diagrams will work. I made the one on the left. The other is from Wang's Qabalistic Tarot.

 

[BleuReynard]

Yeah, seemingly so. I'm not going to verify each one, but they look like they match.

I'd scan my book if I could but I'm unsure the possible repercussions.

 

[Richard]

I need to get DuQuette's Thoth book.