Thoth Through A Klaiedescope Lens

[Always Wondering]

The time of the Artist was Art Deco which included Cubism. It is a decorative style that eclectically borrowed from many places and was considered the advance guard of streamlined modernism- because of the thrill of Air travel. Cubism is seen as looking at the subject from every possibly angle, the artist will piece together fragments from different vantage points into one painting. Both these styles seem so appropriate for modern Tarot.

Ah, thank-you Rasanne, I learned something.

I often see this as a feminine Sun card . . .

It doesn't surprise me that you see the feminine as I often see the Sun as our perfect counterpart.

The music going off in my head in regards to the Sun this morning was Led Zeppelin's Kashmir.

AW

 

[Grigori]

I was thinking about this card last night as I was going to sleep, and picturing myself inside a walled off grassy clearing, with the sun beating down on my face. You know what came to mind? The Twilight novel! Haha A vampire standing in the sunlight in a clearing in the woods, sparkling like diamonds and revealing what he really was. I find that aspect of self-revelation and "clear sight" quite fitting for The Sun. And Edward is a solar vampire if there ever was one. Quite Aurum-ish also that fella.

 

[Rosanne]

I thought I was the only one who dreamed The Thoth to music lol.
Me, it is Aussie's Midnight Oil- Dust and Dreams... Burning the Midnight Oil as I do here on AT, knowing full well I have the excuse that it is day somewhere on this planet and natural for me to be up. Or Queen and the housework music- 'Do you want to free' and others. I never think of War time music and the Thoth which interests me. I was a Daddy's Home! baby.

The Meditation angle of the Thoth is interesting. For me now after all these years, I say a card and up it will come in my brain clear as a bell. I have used the RWS longer, but I cannot do that with it. So I have always a deck wherever I go, cards or not.

I know that there is another meaning to to the tie around the Mound of Nun,(a benben) but have you noticed it is not a fence? It is the same as the scarves on the heads of the dancing pair. A celebration of life and survival. It also headgear that was very fashionable in the time of Harris. It also claimed a certain bohemian-ness.Dare to be different. It is called a Keffiya. Yassar Arafat wore a male one- Isabella Duncan the dancer wore them and they were called the Isadora Duncan scarves in the west. Much like barefeet and flowers was the sixties- the Hippie of the 30's and 40's wore knotted scarves around their heads that flowed out when they walked. I imagine behind the grass hill there is a bow or knot. I can just Imagine Harris later in India wearing Isadora Duncan clothes (Or no clothes actually ) Isadora was so admired by women for her emancipation. The ironic thing is she was killed by the scarf. I see nods to Isadora all throughout the deck.

~Rosanne

 

[Rosanne]

Oops I mean to add Isadora Duncan's death was her scarf been caught in the car wheel spokes- round her head and around her throat.
The scarf was hand-painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov, in rust and Gold. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous."
She also apparently said as climbing into the car (in French) "Goodbye- I am off to Glory" but I believe the words were truly "Good bye I am off to Love"
(too rude to comment publicly about sexual assignations) So here in the card, I see all this and women would have recognised this in the paintings. The dancing naked- the scarf- the choker lol. I wonder if Crowley did?

~Rosanne

 

[Rosanne]

In adding to post #14 Of course Crowley would have known... another duality shown in the card constriction and release lol. You would not have known by looking at this card there was another original card, that may have been clearer for all I know; that we a solar children, young in the Sun.Maybe the return to innocence.

~Rosanne

 

[Maskelyne]

This yellow gold on the card seems to throb and pulse when I look at it. It is the shape of a scarab and brings to mind the land of Egypt. The rays flow outward off the card toward me and around me. It looks like a piece of Art Deco jewelry with a naval.

One of the pleasures of this deck is the multiple layers of visual sense. Like many of the cards, The Sun provides a mandala for meditation. The pattern extends into three dimensions, with the twelve large rays coming up out of the central disc and the 24 small rays receding. (These small rays separate the zodiac into decans.) Look at it strictly 2-dimensionally and you see that scarab.

This card has an interesting presentation of the traditional wall. In many cards it appears to be walling the child[ren] in, but here, it is limiting our access to the summit of the hill. Having wings, these children may not be concerned (CS Lewis notwithstanding).

The band of color that frames the card is interesting in that it looks like an inside-out rainbow - red and violet together in the center, and yellow and green on its edges. The progression of colors goes from the yellow of the sun to the green of the Earth, from radiance into matter.

 

[Rosanne]

One of the pleasures of this deck is the multiple layers of visual sense.

Aye indeed! it is one of things I most love about it.

Like many of the cards, The Sun provides a mandala for meditation. The pattern extends into three dimensions, with the twelve large rays coming up out of the central disc and the 24 small rays receding. (These small rays separate the zodiac into decans.) Look at it strictly 2-dimensionally and you see that scarab.

I am annoyed- I have never counted the inner rays. Thank you for that.

This card has an interesting presentation of the traditional wall. In many cards it appears to be walling the child[ren] in, but here, it is limiting our access to the summit of the hill. Having wings, these children may not be concerned (CS Lewis notwithstanding).

Of course wings(make a note to hit myself) and the original card supposedly had a fairy circle.- yet the design on wings is the same as the wall? What can I deduce from that......

The band of color that frames the card is interesting in that it looks like an inside-out rainbow - red and violet together in the center, and yellow and green on its edges. The progression of colors goes from the yellow of the sun to the green of the Earth, from radiance into matter.

Yes I had noticed that, but not commented. Your radiance into matter is a great explanation.

~Rosanne

 

[Bernice]

Rosanne: I know that there is another meaning to to the tie around the Mound of Nun,(a benben) but have you noticed it is not a fence? It is the same as the scarves on the heads of the dancing pair.

The Isadora Duncan type scarf would indeed belong to this period. I have to agree that the 'fence' looks like no fence I've ever seen or envisaged. I hadn't noticed that it has the same pattern (or perhaps IS the same substance) as the wings.
I have peered at it through a spy-glass and am none the wiser. The sun-rays bend over it, like strands of shiny treacle.

Maskelyne: Having wings, these children may not be concerned...

How true, I also missed this . It is also very odd to have a 'wall' if it serves no purpose - unless it's meant to represent the upper horizontal 'path' from Hod to Netzach. So maybe it 'aint a wall.

The progression of colors goes from the yellow of the sun to the green of the Earth, from radiance into matter.

I like this, but am remembering that Hod is assigned Mercury, not the Sun... so perhaps Glory(sunshine) = Clarity in this respect?

It's just struck me now; With such ingenuity and artistic talent why didn't they create images especially for the aspects of the Tree. Why put in all that work to adapt and alter the existing tarot whilst trying to retain its' recognisable imagery (mind-bending!), when custom designed flash cards would probably have been a better way to go.


Bee

 

[Debra]

A classical myth, well known in medieval times through Macrobius and others ... Souls preparing for birth were said to come down from the heavens into incarnation on Earth through the zodiacal sign Cancer, which ws called the Gate of the Gods. The life of man on Earth might thus be regarded, in a sense, as a kind of pilgrim's progress through the signs of the zodiac, from the entrance of the soul into the body at birth in Cancer until its withdrawing from the body at death, in Capricorn.

So writes John Shephard in "The Tarot Trumps: Cosmos in Miniature," 1985. He's talking about the old decks, and especially the Viscontis. The bit about Cancer caught my eye since it's at the entry to the road the children are dancing down.

And another thought. Some people have noted that the Waite-Smith lovers card can be read visually, if you focus on the larger forms, as, um, spread thighs. Suddenly I'm seeing that in this Sun, and the sun itself, the same sun that the Fool has over his genitals...is this birth?

 

[Bernice]

Something I'm missing here. If you enter life at Cancer, then leave it at Capricorn, you will only have lived through half of the zodiac. See? What am I not grasping? However, the 'Cancer/gate into life' certainly looks to be obvious in this card.

Bee