Court card confusion
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The Court cards are sixteen in number, four to each suit. There is thus a subdivision of each element into its own system. The Knights represent the element of Fire, so that the Knight of Wands represents the fiery part of Fire, the Knight of Cups, the
fiery part of Water. Similarly the Princesses or Empresses represent Earth, so that the Empress of Disks (Coins, or Pantacles) represents the earthy part of Earth.
These cards have many manifestations in natural phenomena. Thus, the Knight of Wands has the attribution of Aries, and represents swift violence of onset, the lightning flash. But the airy part of Fire is sympathetic with Leo, the steady force of energy, the Sun. Lastly, in the watery part of Fire, the harmony is with Sagittarius, which shows the fading, spiritualised reflection or translucence of the image of Fire, and this suggests the Rainbow. (See table of the Triplicities of the Zodiac).Crowley - Book of Thoth
Although the above quote is fairly easy to understand I'm having a hard time reconciling it with the usual court card / decan system. While the attribution of Kerubic signs to Princes works fine, giving Cardinal signs to Knights and Mutable signs to Queens seems to turn the decan system on it's head.
For example the Table of Triplicities on page 286 of the Book of Thoth tells us that Fire of Earth - Knight of Disks corresponds to Cardinal Earth - Capricorn and that Water of Earth - Queen of Disks corresponds to Mutable Earth - Virgo. But this is contradicted by the cards themselves. In the Knight of Disks there is a field of wheat which relates to Virgo. In the Queen of Disks there is a goat, obviously Capricornian.
Am I simply not seeing something here? Or do Crowley's comments on the relationship between the Triplicities and the court cards contradict the assignment of the decans to the cards?
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@Her said
"Although the above quote is fairly easy to understand I'm having a hard time reconciling it with the usual court card / decan system. While the attribution of Kerubic signs to Princes works fine, giving Cardinal signs to Knights and Mutable signs to Queens seems to turn the decan system on it's head."
I think the nature of the card completes the pattern of three. That is, natural assignment of the Knight (Yod) force would be to Cardinal - so these cards bridge Fixed and Mutable (everything except Cardinal). And so forth for the others. (There are more subtleties, but I think this is the basic part.) The elemental attribution, of course, is to the majority area.
"For example the Table of Triplicities on page 286 of the Book of Thoth tells us that Fire of Earth - Knight of Disks corresponds to Cardinal Earth - Capricorn and that Water of Earth - Queen of Disks corresponds to Mutable Earth - Virgo. But this is contradicted by the cards themselves. In the Knight of Disks there is a field of wheat which relates to Virgo. In the Queen of Disks there is a goat, obviously Capricornian."
Oh, no no no no. Mixture of planes of symbols. Fire of Earth means Yod of Earth. Don't confuse Fire with Cardinal, for example. The Knight is a primarily Virgo card, the Queen primarily a Capricorn card as you noticed.
I'll give an expanded analysis on one of these, from my Tarot book, so you can see how it works out.
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(Copyright College of Thelema, all rights reserved.)
THE KING OF THE SPIRITS OF EARTH
The Knight of Disks â King of Gnomes
FIRE of EARTHA dark, winged warrior with winged and crowned helmet, mounted on a light brown horse. Equipment as the Knight of Wands. The winged head of a stag or antelope as a crest. Beneath the horse's feet is fertile land with ripened corn. In one hand he bears a scepter surmounted by a hexagram; in the other, a Disk similar to that of the Apprentice Adeptus.
YOD of HEH-Final (FIRE of EARTH): Yod of Earth is the seed-power of earth - the vital, generative, procreative power of Yod seeding the receiving and fertile earth. From this we obtain the central idea of this card, expressed in the word "husbandry.: He is also Yod in Assiah, the aliveness of every detail of Creation, evident in every detail of our surroundings. The King is one with the land. Each thing that is, is right; for it is a consequence of an omnipotent and divine Will.
He rules from above 20° Leo to 20° Virgo. The first two decanates of Virgo, ruled by the Sun and Venus, are called PRUDENCE and GAIN. What better expression of the quality of husbandry than this careful, responsible nurturing of what is his domain? Sun and Venus are themselves representative of him; for, as the creative power in Earth, he is all that we mean by sunlight; and from Venus is his nurturing aspect reinforced. He cultivates - be it land, people, or ideas. The solar decanate indicates intelligence, skill, diligence, care to detail, and industry. With regard to Virgo in general, we recall that he is Yod, and all that this letter symbolically means to the Qabalist.
His shadow aspect is the last decanate of Leo, ruled by Mars and called VALOR. There are times his heart aches for heroism; but to indulge it is to abdicate his real focus of care.
In divination, the character is sage, skillful, diligent, attentive to detail, patient in material matters, hard-working, steady, and reliable; gain through prudence, attentiveness, intelligence, and labor; generative and procreative; cultivates what is his to develop. Unless well-dignified, he can be dull and material. If ill-dignified, he is avaricious, grasping, dull, and jealous. Tradition says he is not very courageous unless assisted by other symbols.
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Thank you, Jim. I think that's pretty much cleared that up for me. There is one minor point that is still nagging me though.
@Jim Eshelman said
"Oh, no no no no. Mixture of planes of symbols. Fire of Earth means Yod of Earth. Don't confuse Fire with Cardinal"
OK, but isn't this what Crowley did in the quote I posted previously? He starts off by talking about the elements as they relate to the court cards, but then he drops a bomb shell with his remark about the Knight of Wands being attributed to Aries!!!
Up till that point I thought I had a reasonable grasp of the tarot/decon system. But the mention of Aries and the Knight of Wands kind of derailed my train.
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Ah, I'd actually missed the point of confusion.
That's an unfortunate paragraph. I don't think it was a mistake, I think he'd gone on to explain another point of view - a way of talking about "fire unfolding" through three aspects or expressions and not exactly consequential to what he had been writing just before that.