Thoth Tarot Questions
-
I have a few questions concerning the Thoth deck.
-
What is the significance of the "ten Stars of Assiah" depicted on the knight's armour in the Chariot card in relation to the nature of the card?
-
How can the Hermit card at once signify the male sperm & the female virgin? On another note, I was taught that it signified the clitoris.
-
Aside from the appearance of the rainbow during distillation & percipatation, what is the significance of the iridescence that accompanies the stage of the Great Work depicted in the Art card?
-
This one is no doubt going to sound silly, but I'm going to be as direct as possible. Is the Eye in the Tower card sopposed to be an anus? Is this where the card's connection to the 11th degree of O.T.O. drawn from?
-
Where is the Tree of Life form that supposedly springs from "wheel of Light" in the center of the Universe card?
-
-
@Red Eagle of Death said
"5. Where is the Tree of Life form that supposedly springs from "wheel of Light" in the center of the Universe card?"
I'll try to answer all of these when I have time, but this one was a quick answer: It tooks a good blow-up of the card (or a great magnifying glass on a good printing of the card), but... The dancing figure is androngynous, and the exact mathematical center of the card is a tiny but distinct penis. ("Hadit unextended," so to speak.)
-
@Red Eagle of Death said
"1. What is the significance of the "ten Stars of Assiah" depicted on the knight's armour in the Chariot card in relation to the nature of the card?"
This from reflection, not from teaching...
I don't know... it's an unusual wording to employ "star" in this context. But the immediate implication is that they are the 10 Sephiroth in Assiah. Since the armor is the outer semblance of One who is not material per se, and as the stars are embedded in the armor as if to declare its nature, one suspects that the show the armor to be composed of the stuff of the physical senses, and in fact to be the expression in Assiah of this obscured angel.
They are called "the inheritance of celestial dew from his mother;" in other words, that which has condensed or precipitated from the night air itself.
I had some other thoughts about why they were designated "stars" per se, but I think they would be a distraction.
I don't think these stars are essential to the core meaning of the card, but they embellish some of the subtext of this particular design, wherein the armor - the encasement or enclosure that brings the archetypal idea of Cancer to the foreground - is a relatively unique symbol. It isn't the being, though, but only that which veils him or contains (enwombs) him.
"2. How can the Hermit card at once signify the male sperm & the female virgin? On another note, I was taught that it signified the clitoris."
Yod, at root, signifies that which is the utmost purity and innocence, the seed-essence of oneself. This "seed" idea is perhaps its most common metaphor; and (though ova are seeds as well), historically (during the entire development of the Qabalistic model) "seed" meant "sperm." The Jewish idea is especially represented here, because the old idea as that a sperm cell was an actual whole, complete human being that was deposited within the woman's body, where it grew in size (but not necessarily in any greater complexity); and, unique among decks, in this rendition Harris has shown the overt sperm image to contain just exactly such a complete, tiny human curled in a fetal positon.
But, aside from the correspondence to the astrological constellaton Virgo (meaning a young maiden), the commonality of this sperm/seed and the young maiden is the idea of one's inmost simplicity and innocence.
"3. Aside from the appearance of the rainbow during distillation & percipatation, what is the significance of the iridescence that accompanies the stage of the Great Work depicted in the Art card?"
The rainbow is an important symbol in the lower stages of the Tree of Life. The first appearance is in the paths immediately rising from Malkuth; for Qoph, Shin, and Tav spell Q Sh Th, qesheth, meaning "bow" - both a rainbow, and the bow which shoots an arrow (it's the same word). What isn't usually consciously connected to this is that Qesheth is also the Hebrew name of the constellation Sagittarius, to which the Path of Samekh, and thus Atu XIV, is attributed.
There's a common, somewhat complex metaphor here. The bow Q Sh Th just above Malkuth is drawn by the "Secret Hand" - in Hebrew, Yod Sod, or Y S V D, Yesod. This "secret Yod/Hand" draws the bow Q Sh Th which launches the arrow of Sagittarius (Samekh) up the Middle Pillar.
There is some interesting numeric symbolism, too. Q Sh Th = 800, which is also Peh-final; and, since Q Sh Th = Sagittarius = Samekh, 800 is the number representing both Samekh and Peh, and thus especially their point of intersection.
Aside from all of this, there is the special significance of the rainbow, or evervescent cascade of color, in the Path of Samekh itself. The Adeptus grade of Tiphereth has the traditional title, "Path of the Chameleon," or (to pick one meaning of this) the path of many colors. Also, in the old G.D., the real unleashing of physical color encompassing the entire spectrum was in this admission to the Second Order (the First Order having only black and white, small touches of red, and very rare other color at all). Color was the real, important secret of the G.D.'s Second Order.
There are other associated ideas, but these ae the main ones. Perhaps the most important associated idea is that Malkuth represents the space wherein the One White Light is refracted into the greatest variety of colors (and shapes, forms, etc.). The remaining work of the First Order involves working with this differentiated spectrum one piece at a time before the Portal (or Dominus Lliminis) phase wherein those things correspodning within oneself to the different colors are brought into integration and equilibration - that is, the many colors, in their diversity and balance, are reintegrated into single, simple white light. In this language are many useful teachings.
"4. This one is no doubt going to sound silly, but I'm going to be as direct as possible. Is the Eye in the Tower card sopposed to be an anus? Is this where the card's connection to the 11th degree of O.T.O. drawn from?"
I'm sure that Crowley, in the Book of Thoth passage, means this partly by his reference not to the eye in this card, but to the eye in Atu XV. I always thought it was simply its representation of an exploding, erupting erect penis (the "tower" tumbling as it loses its turgor post-explosion). And, of course, one can't ignore the meaning of the mouth.
I trust you know that this reference is really just a passing aside, virtually a footnote, to AC's discussion of the card overall; but yes, that's part of what's being discussed. (I'd have to reread my copy of the Bagh for anything more specific to come to mind, I suspect.)
-
93,
One thing I discovered by blowing up the image on a color photocopier is that each of the 10 stars has a pentagram inside it. This isn't usually visible on the printed card. But it does connect the card to the sephirah into which this path leads, Geburah, sephirah five. And the pentagram is also a symbol of rulership over the elemental realm by Spirit.
93 93/93,
EM