Tarot & I Ching
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Is there anywhere in Crowley's writings where he explains his own personal correlation between the the Tarot and the hexagrams of the I Ching?
Unless I'm reading them wrong, the hexagram tables in 777 don't seem to provide a clear correlation with the 32-fold system found in the rest of that book. Crowley does identify a connection between the Court cards and certain hexagrams in The Book of Thoth, but his attribution of hexagrams to the rest of the Tarot cards is sporadic at best. When discussing some cards he draws attention to the corresponding hexagram, at other times says nothing at all.
I'm sure I've never seen a complete correlation in any of Crowley's books. So is there a method whereby I can work it out for myself?
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93 Heru,
I don't know about correlations between the Hexagrams & the Tarot, but in Crowley's version of Tao Teh King he gives an applaudable attribution of the Trigrams to the Sephiroth:
Kether=Tao
Chokmah=Yang
Binah=Yin
Daath=Heaven
Chesed=Thunder
Geburah=Lake
Tiphareth=Fire
Netzach=Mountain
Hod=Wind
Yesod=Water
Malkuth=Earth93 93/93
616
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The key thing to get is his correlation of the trigrams. Rather than the Chinese names, he equates them to the four Elements, Sun and Moon, and Lingam and Yoni. (The table is given in his version of the Yi Ching - when you compare it to the Chinese names. For example, "Mountain" becomes Qabalistic Earth.)
This, the, provides the means of correlating to the Court Cards of Tarot. Since each of these is equated to element of element, they are easy to map. Thus, the hexagram which is the Air trigram over the Water trigram (= "Air of Water") corresponds to the Prince of Cups (= "Air of Water").
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I already understand Crowley's correlation between Court cards and hexagrams. It's minor cards to hexagrams that throws me.
For example, how does Crowley attribute the 43rd hexagram to the 10 of Swords? He describes Sol in Gemini as the Watery modification of the Phallus. OK, that gives us the trigrams, Ch'ien - Phallus, and Tui - Water, and the 43rd hexagram. But where does Crowley get the water from? Surely Gemini is an airy sign. I don't understand it at all.
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I also though it was odd having half of a system of hexagrams evidenced in the complete system of YHVH i.e. the court.
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@Her said
"For example, how does Crowley attribute the 43rd hexagram to the 10 of Swords?"
Ah, that. Whole 'nuther story.
Hexagram 43 corresponds, in the Chinese system, to the third month of the year. Crowley didn't understand that this was the Chinese year (which begins a little more than a month before the Vernal Equinox), nor did he understand that it rightfully refers to a lunar calendar, etc. Because it relates to the third month of the year, he took this to be the time that the Sun is in the third sign of the Tropical Zodiac, Gemini.
We know better now. Roll that back a month (it can still be treated as if it were Tropical dates familiar to most in the West simply because of the time period when these aphorisms were composed), and you find that the Sun would be in Taurus; but, being in reference to a lunar calendar, it is referring to the time when the Moon was full in Scorpio. Hence "Breakthrough."