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Page 1 of 61944 · PDF PAGE 106
XIX. THE SUN This card represents, in heraldic language, “the Sun, charged with a rose, on a mount vert”.1 This is one of the simplest of the cards; it represents Heru‐ra‐ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical. He is the Lord of Light, Life, Liberty and Love. This Aeon has for its purpose the complete emanci‐ pation of the human race. The rose represents the flowering of the solar influence. Around the whole picture we see the signs of the Zodiac in their normal position, …
1944 · PDF PAGE 213
…ficance, and this exquisite doctrine of the Three Mothers would be lost. and disordered. It is subject to change as is no other suit. It represents a general shak‐ ing‐up, resulting from the conflict of Fire and Water in their marriage; and proceeds, when Earth appears, to crystallization. But the purity and exaltation of Chokmah are such that this card manifests the very best idea possible to the suit. The energy abides above the onslaught of disruption. This comparative calm is emphasized by the celestial attribution: the Moon in Libra. The M…
1944 · PDF PAGE 68
…ymbols as the Bee and the Fleur‐de‐Lys, which are shown on this card. With regard to the quality of this power, it must be noted that it represents sud‐ den, violent, but impermanent activity. If it persists too long, it burns and destroys. Distin‐ guish from the Creative Energy of Aleph and Beth: this card is below the Abyss. The Emperor bears a sceptre (surmounted by a ram’s head for the reasons given above) and an orb surmounted by a Maltese cross, which signifies that his energy has reached a successful issue, that his government has been e…
1944 · PDF PAGE 223
RUIN TEN OF SWORDS The number Ten, Malkuth, as always, represents the culmination of the unmitigated energy of the idea. It shows reason run mad, ramshackle riot of soulless mechanism; it repre‐ sents the logic of lunatics and (for the most part) of philosophers. It is reason divorced from reality. The card is also ruled by the Sun in Gemini, but the mercurial airy quality of the Sign serves to disperse his rays; this card shows the disruption and disorder of harmonious and stable energy. The hilts of the Swords occupy the positions of the Seph…
1944 · PDF PAGE 164
PRINCESS OF SWORDS The Princess of Swords represents the earthy part of Air, the fixation of the volatile. She brings about the materialization of Idea. She represents the influence of Heaven upon Earth. She partakes of the characteristics of Minerva and Artemis, and there is some sugges‐ tion of the Valkyrie. She represents to some extent the anger of the Gods, and she appears helmed, with serpent‐haired Medusa for her crest. She stands in front of a barren altar as if to avenge its profanation, and she stabs downward with her sword. The heave…
1944 · PDF PAGE 158
KNIGHT OF SWORDS The Knight of Swords represents the fiery part of Air; he is the wind, the storm. He represents the violent power of motion applied to an apparently manageable element. He rules from the 21st degree of Taurus to the 20th degree of Gemini. He is a warrior helmed, and for his crest he bears a revolving wing. Mounted upon a maddened steed, he drives down the Heavens, the Spirit of the Tempest. In one hand is a sword, in the other a poniard. He represents the idea of attack. The moral qualities of a person thus indicated are activi…
1944 · PDF PAGE 168
QUEEN OF DISKS The Queen of Disks represents the watery part of Earth, the function of that element as Mother. She rules from the 21st degree of Sagittarius to the 20th degree of Capricornus. She represents passivity, usually in its highest aspect. The Queen of Disks is throned upon the life of vegetation. She contemplates the back‐ ground, where a calm river winds through a sandy desert to bring to it fertility. Oases are be‐ ginning to shew themselves amid the wastes. Before her stands a goat upon a sphere. There is here a reference to the do…
1944 · PDF PAGE 104
XVIII. THE MOON The Eighteenth Trump is attributed to the letter Qoph, which represents Pisces in the Zodiac. It is called the Moon. Pisces is the last of the Signs; it represents the last stage of winter. It might be called the Gateway of Resurrection (the letter Qoph means the back of the head, and is connected with the potencies of the cerebellum). In the system of the old Aeon, the resurrection of the Sun was not only from winter, but from night; and this card represents midnight. “There is a budding morrow in midnight”, wrote Keats. For th…
1944 · PDF PAGE 215
…th in The Vision and the Voice: Aethyr 14. Binah is here not the beneficent Mother completing the Trinity with Kether and Chok‐ mah. She represents the darkness of the Great Sea. This is accentuated by the Celestial Lordship of Saturn in Libra. This card is dark and heavy; it is, so to speak, the womb of Chaos. There is an intense lurking passion to create, but its children are monsters. This may mean the supreme tran‐ scendence of the natural order. Secrecy is here, and Perversion. The symbol represents the great Sword of the Magician, point u…
1944 · PDF PAGE 88
XII. THE HANGED MAN This card, attributed to the letter Mem, represents the element of Water. It would per‐ haps be better to say that it represents the spiritual function of water in the economy of initia‐ tion; it is a baptism which is also a death. In the Aeon of Osiris, this card represented the su‐ preme formula of adeptship; for the figure of the drowned or hanged man has its own special meaning. The legs are crossed so that the right leg forms a right angle with the left leg, and the arms are stretched out at an angle of 60° so as to for…
1944 · PDF PAGE 166
KNIGHT OF DISKS The Knight of Disks represents the fiery part of Earth, and refers in particular to the phenomena of mountains, earthquakes, and gravitation; but it also represents the activity of Earth regarded as the producer of Life. He rules from the 21st degree of Leo to the 20th de‐ gree of Virgo, and is thus concerned greatly with agriculture. This warrior is short and sturdy in type. He is clothed in great solidity of plate armour; but his helmet, which is crested with the head of a stag, is thrown back, for at the moment his function i…
1944 · PDF PAGE 194
SWIFTNESS EIGHT OF WANDS The remaining three cards of the suit belong to Sagittarius, which represents the sub‐ tilizing of the Fiery energy; and Mercury rules the card, thus bringing down from Chokmah the message of the original Will. The card also refers to Hod, splendour, in the suit of Fire, whence it refers to the phe‐ nomena of speech, light, electricity. The pictorial representation of the card shows the Light‐wands turned into electrical rays, sustaining or even constituting Matter by their vibrating energy. Above this restored uni‐ ver…
1944 · PDF PAGE 92
energy. From this it will be seen that this card is, in a very strict sense, the completion of the card called Lust, Atu XI, and Atu XII represents the solution or dissolution which links them. The highest aspect of the card is the Eagle, which represents exaltation above solid matter. It was understood by the early chemists that, in certain experiments, the purest (i.e., most tenuous) elements present were given off as gas or vapour. There are thus represented in this card the three essential types of putrefaction. The card itself represents t…
1944 · PDF PAGE 197
THE ROOT OF THE POWERS OF WATER ACE OF CUPS This card represents the element of Water in its most secret and original form. It is the feminine complement of the Ace of Wands, and is derived from the Yoni and the Moon exactly as that is from the Lingam and the Sun. The third in the Hierarchy. This accordingly represents the essential form of the Holy Grail. Upon the dark sea of Binah, the Great Mother, are Lotuses, two in one, which fill the cup with the Life‐fluid, symbolically represented either as Water, as Blood, or as Wine, according to the…
1944 · PDF PAGE 82
… lines, according to another tradition, the fortune of the owner may be read. It would be narrow to think of Jupiter as good fortune; he represents the element of luck. The incalculable factor. This card thus represents the Universe in its aspect as a continual change of state. Above, the firmament of stars. These appear distorted in shape, although they are balanced, some being brilliant and some dark. From them, through the firmament, issue lightnings; they churn it into a mass of blue and violet plumes. In the midst of all this is suspended …
1944 · PDF PAGE 75
…the King.) On this word alone a complete volume could, and should, be written. Cancer is the cardinal sign of the element of Water,2 and represents the first keen on‐ rush of that element. Cancer also represents the path which leads from the great Mother Bi‐ nah to Geburah, and is thus the influence of the Supernals descending through the Veil of Wa‐ ter (which is blood) upon the energy of man, and so inspires it. It corresponds, in this way, to The Hierophant, which, on the other side of the Tree of Life, brings down the fire of Chokmah. (See …
1944 · PDF PAGE 47
II 0. THE FOOL1. This card is attributed to the letter Aleph, which means an Ox, but by its shape the He‐ brew letter (so it is said) represents a plough‐ share; thus the significance is primarily Phallic. It is the first of the three Mother letters, Aleph, Mem, and Shin, which correspond in various interwoven fashions with all the triads that occur in these cards, notably Fire, Water, Air; Fa‐ ther, Mother, Son; Sulphur, Salt, Mercury; Rajas, Sattvas and Tamas. The really important feature of this card is that its number should be 0. It repres…
1944 · PDF PAGE 186
DOMINION TWO OF WANDS This card, pertaining to Chokmah in the suit of Fire, represents the Will in its most ex‐ alted form. It is an ideal Will, independent of any given object. “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.” AL. 1. 44. The background of this card shows the power of the planet Mars in his own sign Aries, the first of the Signs. It there represents Energy initiating a Current of Force. The pictorial representation is two Dorjes crossed. The Dorje is the Tibetan symbol of the thund…
1944 · PDF PAGE 198
LOVE TWO OF CUPS The Two always represents the Word and the Will. It is the first manifestation. There‐ fore, in the suit of Water, it must refer to Love, which recovers unity from dividuality by mu‐ tual annihilation. The card also refers to Venus in Cancer. Cancer is, more than any other, the receptive Sign; it is the House of the Moon, and in that Sign Jupiter is exalted. These are, superficially, the three most friendly of the planets. The hieroglyph of the card represents two cups in the foreground, overflowing upon a calm sea. They are fe…
1944 · PDF PAGE 156
PRINCESS OF CUPS The Princess of Cups represents the earthy part of Water; in particular, the faculty of crystallization. She represents the power of Water to give substance to idea, to support life, and to form the basis of chemical combination. She is represented as a dancing figure, robed in a flowing garment on whose edges crystals are seen to form. For her crest she wears a swan with open wings. The symbolism of this swan reminds one of the swan in oriental philosophy which is the word AUM or AUMGN, which is the symbol of the entire proces…