Wheel and- Whoa!
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Ch. 78 of the Book of Lies says:
- {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Eta Omicron-Eta} WHEEL AND -- WOA!
The Great Wheel of Samsara.
The Wheel of the Law [Dhamma].
The Wheel of the Taro.
The Wheel of the Heavens.
The Wheel of Life.
All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of the TARO alone avails thee consciously.
Meditate long and broad and deep, O man, upon this Wheel, revolving it in thy mind. Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily from each other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins.
Then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny complete, mayst thou perceive THAT Will which moved it first. [There is no first or last.}
And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.COMMENTARY ({Omicron-Eta})
The number of this chapter is that of the cards of the Tarot.
The title of this chapter is a pun of the phrase "weal and woe". It means motion and rest. The moral is the conventional mystic one; stop thought at its source!
Five wheels are mentioned in this chapter; all but the third refer to the universe as it is; but the wheel of the Tarot is not only this, but represents equally the Magickal Path.
This practice is therefore given by Frater P. to his pupils; to treat the sequence of the cards as cause and effect. Thence, to discover the cause behind all causes. Success in this practice qualifies for the grade of Master of the Temple.
In the penultimate paragraph the bracketed passage reminds the student that the universe is not to be contemplated as a phenomenon in time.Has anyone tried this practice (treating the cards as cause and effect)? I'm aware of the "fool's journey" but a lot less aware of the progression of the minor and court cards. It seems interesting, almost like a zen koan. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
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Yes that was part of what I did in part of my Tarot work years ago. It's one of several meditation series for understanding the relationship of the elements of the circle.
For a resource in this, you might want to get a copy of my (free) book Liber Theta - see <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thelema.org/publications">www.thelema.org/publications</a><!-- w -->
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Cool, thank you. I actually did the meditations in Liber T last year (the looking at a card for 3 days one) and I just spread out the cards in the Liber Tav formation. I just got an Albano Waite tarot deck and I'm really excited about it again haha, I'm going through this other book 19 Lessons on Tarot at the same time.
I've been trying to think about the cause and effect relationship but pretty much all I end up doing is making a story of how the one card causes the next. Some cards seem very intuitive to me, like I think Wheel of Fortune>Justice>Hanged Man>Death makes a lot of sense, but others are not so clear. I've only been thinking about it for a couple of days though, I'm gonna keep going.
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@ld330 said
"Cool, thank you. I actually did the meditations in Liber T last year (the looking at a card for 3 days one) and I just spread out the cards in the Liber Tav formation. I just got an Albano Waite tarot deck and I'm really excited about it again haha, I'm going through this other book 19 Lessons on Tarot at the same time.
I've been trying to think about the cause and effect relationship but pretty much all I end up doing is making a story of how the one card causes the next. Some cards seem very intuitive to me, like I think Wheel of Fortune>Justice>Hanged Man>Death makes a lot of sense, but others are not so clear. I've only been thinking about it for a couple of days though, I'm gonna keep going."
Thank in terms of the planetary and zodiacal attributions of the minors and how these relate to the Majors for a start.
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@Takamba said
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@ld330 said
"Cool, thank you. I actually did the meditations in Liber T last year (the looking at a card for 3 days one) and I just spread out the cards in the Liber Tav formation. I just got an Albano Waite tarot deck and I'm really excited about it again haha, I'm going through this other book 19 Lessons on Tarot at the same time.I've been trying to think about the cause and effect relationship but pretty much all I end up doing is making a story of how the one card causes the next. Some cards seem very intuitive to me, like I think Wheel of Fortune>Justice>Hanged Man>Death makes a lot of sense, but others are not so clear. I've only been thinking about it for a couple of days though, I'm gonna keep going."
Thank in terms of the planetary and zodiacal attributions of the minors and how these relate to the Majors for a start."
I actually just set that up, I was using the tables in Book 4 to do so. I realize I don't know all that much about astrology outside the basics so I probably need to pick some of that up. Crowley actually talks about the "wheel of the heavens" in the chapter, I kind of skimmed that by and didn't realize it was referring to the zodiac. Thanks for the tip man.
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@ld330 said
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I actually just set that up, I was using the tables in Book 4 to do so. I realize I don't know all that much about astrology outside the basics so I probably need to pick some of that up. Crowley actually talks about the "wheel of the heavens" in the chapter, I kind of skimmed that by and didn't realize it was referring to the zodiac. Thanks for the tip man."You really don't need much knowledge of astrology as how it relates in tarot. Just think of the glyphs and sigils as an alphabet, not a language. The Tower, for instance, is Mars, and all you know about the Tower is all you need to know. And the Moon card is Pisces, and all you know about the Moon is all you need to know. Now, Mars in Pisces (not as in natal astrology, but just using an alphabet to create a new language) happens to land in Malkuth of Briah (ten of cups), how does one's ultimate emotional satisfaction relate to the Tower and The Moon? Meditate on this, I think you'll get it (especially helpful if you look at Arthur Waite's silly version of the tarot).
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The concept of the wheel as well as the zodiacal/planetary attributions remind me of
the path of Kaph as well as it's corresponding imagery used in Thoth/Waite Tarot decks.
Personally, I feel Kaph has a lot of planetary invocation involved (GRH/ 7 day Cycles) on the magickal level.
Understanding how these forces govern our reality and awareness is one of my takes on this.