Reply With QuoteI must correct my previous post, what I had meant to write was that Crowley had shortened the title to the single word Virtue, not Strength as I wrote.Originally Posted by Mohandas;8631 w
(Thoth Tarot) Aleister Crowley-Cokehead megalomaniac, genius.
I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the works of Aleister Crowley, specifically his Thoth Tarot and certain apparent differences between his deck and others rooted in the Golden Dawn and other traditions.
Though certain parts of Crowley's life story are somewhat dubious to say the least, he was a great revolutionizer, a prolific writer and a pychonaught daredevil of the highest order. He set records for mountain climbing which have yet to be bested to this day and went to the extreme edge of sanity and into the unknown reaches of the cosmos through the combination of formal ritual and the use of psychedelic compounds like mescaline.
He was a man way before his time in many ways. Cocaine addiction is never glamorous nor deserving of merit but consider that Crowley was experimenting with a substance in the late 1800's which was not to become mainstream until the 1970's! Whatever can be said about the abuse of such things, one cannot deny that it fueled the creativity of the music and entertainment industries for decades, long after ol' Aleister was dead and buried. Now, of course coke has been exposed as yet another scourge to mankind with growing use in many nations and a frighteningly real plague of addiction worldwide. Who might guess that in it's sorted history it has found it's place in the lives and works of distinguished men as Sigmund Freud to name but one example.
Let us not linger on the damning aspects of Mr. Crowley's life but move directly to the topic of our discussion, the Thoth Tarot and the changes Crowley saw fit to make to some of the 78 cards of the Tarot.
By the late 1800's, members of the Golden Dawn had compiled and structured a Tarot system which was for the most part complete and satisfactory. Planetary and zodiac attributions which were painstakingly compared and reordered using the Kabbalisitc tree of life. Each of the Major Arcana found its rightful place as one of the twenty two paths, each being assigned it's complimentary Hebrew letter.
Crowley adheres to much of the Golden Dawn's system although he did go his own way as he was often inclined to do. His falling out and subsequent high profile magician's battle with S.L. MacGreggor Mathers makes me wonder if he didn't change a few things just to spite the Order and it's founders.
In dealing with the differences between Crowley's and other decks, I would like to address each point individually so as not to create too much confusion. This could well become something of a heavy undertaking at length and I would most appreciate the input of other forum members. We shall endeavor to deal with one subject, one card at a time.
Let us begin with the card titles which Crowley used for each of the Minor Arcana from Ace to Ten in each suit. Here I have listed the classic esoteric titles accepted by the G.D. along with the titles Crowley used. As one can see, most of the titles are harmonious. Those which are not, I have marked with * and we shall deal with one by one hereafter. As I intend to illustrate, the meaning of the card in some cases is drastically altered by the title Crowley changed and the implied atmosphere is very different.
The Wands
Esoteric Title Crowley Title
Ace- Lord of the Root Powers of Fire - The Ace of Wands*
Two- Lord of Dominion - Dominion
Three- Lord of Established Strength - Virtue*
Four- Lord of Perfected Work - Completion*
Five- Lord of Strife - Strife
Six- Lord of Victory - Victory
Seven- Lord of Valour - Valour
Eight- Lord of Swiftness - Swiftness
Nine- Lord of Great Strength - Strength
Ten- Lord of Oppression - Oppression
The Cups
Esoteric Title Crowley Title
Ace - Lord of the Root Powers of Water - Ace of Cups*
Two - Lord of Love - Love
Three- Lord of Abundance - Abundance
Four- Lord of Blended pleasure - Luxury*
Five- Lord of Loss in Pleasure - Disappointment*
Six- Lord of Pleasure - Pleasure
Seven- Lord of Illusionary Success - Debauch*
Eight- Lord of Abandoned Success - Indolence*
Nine- Lord of Material Happiness - Happiness*
Ten- Lord of Perfected Success - Satiety*
The Swords
Esoteric Title Crowley Title
Ace- Lord of the Root Powers of Air - Ace of Swords
Two- Lord of Peace Restored - Peace*
Three- Lord of Sorrow - Sorrow
Four- Lord of Rest From Strife - Truce*
Five- Lord of Defeat - Defeat
Six- Lord of Earned Success - Science*
Seven- Lord of Lord of Unstable Effort - Futility*
Eight- Lord of Shortened Force - Interference*
Nine- Lord of despair and Cruelty - Cruelty*
Ten- Lord of Ruin - Ruin
The Pentacles/Disks
Esoteric Title Crowley Title
Ace- Lord of the Root Powers of Earth - Ace of Disks
Two- Lord of Harmonious Change - Change*
Three- Lord of Material Work - Work
Four- Lord of Earthly Power - Power
Five- Lord of Material Trouble - Worry
Six- Lord of Material Success - Success*
Seven- Lord of Success Unfulfilled - Failure*
Eight- Lord of Prudence - Prudence
Nine- Lord of Material Gain - Gain*
Ten- Lord of Wealth _ Wealth
As one may observe, there are twenty cards with Crowley's title changes or simplifications among the numbered cards of the minor Arcana. The Aces have not necessarily been changed in the Crowley deck but they do not show the original esoteric title. In his Book of Thoth he does give an explanation of the Root Powers of the elements pertaining to each Ace so his concept is indeed harmonious with that of the Golden Dawn.
Let's move on to the Three of Wands.
On the tree of life the number three completes the Supernal Traid, establishing the first stable blueprint of creation. The elemental attribution of wands is fire. Dynamic and energetic the wands go forth and arriving at the number three with the influence of the great sea of potentiality which is Binah, the third Sephiroth, thier arrangement is aptly titled Lord of Established Strength.
In my opinion, the shortening of the title as Crowley did to the single word strength [correction = Virtue, see posts below for further details], does not necessarily give the entire picture and leaves vague a very important concept, that of the actual process of the establishment of strength. Strength inherent, for example would be different from strength established as it would lack the preceding process. The title is specific for good reason and I believe that Crowley missed the point in omitting part of it.
Any comments before I continue onto the four of wands?
Mohandas
Last edited by Mohandas; 12-13-2008 at 10:34 PM. Reason: small addition
I must correct my previous post, what I had meant to write was that Crowley had shortened the title to the single word Virtue, not Strength as I wrote.
I will begin today by correcting my mistake of yesterday regarding Crowley's Title of the Three of Wands.
The original esoteric title is Lord of Established Strength. Crowley named the card Virtue and I am a little puzzled as to why. Especially considering that his explanation better suits the original title.
He writes "This card refers to Binah in the suit of fire, and so represents the establishment of primeval Energy"
This is a perfect line to sum up the Lord of Established Strength, but Crowley curiously enough, named it Virtue. He mentions the zodiacal attribution of the Sun in Aries which is in accord with the Golden Dawn system. He is absolutely spot on with the interpretation of this combination of forces, they are the force of springtime "the Sun has enkindled the Great Mother" he writes.
In fact, the archaic definition of the word 'virtue' is virginity or chastity. Now we begin to see that his title does not fit the concept. The celebration of spring is no event for the chaste and the 'enkindled mother' is everything but a virgin!
He was right about the symbolism of Sun in Aries being perfectly harmonious with the number three on the tree of life and the forming or 'establishing' of the Supernal Triad, Chokmah as the masculine 'Sun' and Binah clearly as The Great Mother. So one might ask, how is Virtue a more fitting title than Lord of Established strength? Perhaps only Crowley really knows, God rest his soul.
Mohandas
I was considering that possibly, could Virtue be a higher octave of Strength? Much as astrology considers planets to be higher octaves relative to others. I think Virtue does take upon itself a type of strength. From the thesaurus are words that show a link to strength in their meaning. Honor, Integrity, incorruptibility, excellence, generosity, goodness, prudence, righteousness, value, worthiness, quality...
Reading up on this card it seems that the sun is in his place of exaltation, in Aries, which is harmonious, where it's great power, and the will to use that power that was in the Two of Wands, is generated and ready.
I possibly think of "strength" often being first associated with lower desires, possibly even egoism, and attained through competition, whereas with the use of the word Virtue, it takes strength and identifies it as being a higher order of strength that comes from a place with more refined intentions, more noble, a more well behaved, ethical type of power.
The Meaning of Life is to Eat the Apple - Me
Wisdom comes from asking questions
Nothing really matters, love is all we need. - Madonna
I predict the weather will be unpredictable this year - Sylvia Browne
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind - Gandhi
If it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true. - Judge Judy
The Thoth deck is I feel one of the best commercialy available decks. I found it intially difficult to use for divination and used the rider-waite deck instead. It was only after I had used the major trumps of the Thoth deck as astral doorways that the richness of the the deck revealed itself to me. So only by using the deck in a magickal context was I subsequently able to use the deck accurately for divination.
Yes, I see what you are saying, Celtaur.
If the card had originally been named simply 'strength' then yes, Crowley's title would have elaborated on that vague idea and introduced the idea of a certain specific manifestation of strength, in this case virtue. But the original title was already quite specific and although I understand the idea of virtue also and it does have it's place, I think that he deviates too far from the original atmosphere of this particular card.
The reason that I am so rigid about such changes is that down through the ages the original meaning can be lost and I believe that it can take many generations to correct certain errors which are taken as truth early on.
It's not to say that other systems may also be valid and work for those who use them but in my own personal experience I have only encountered one Tarot system which is complete and satisfactory in all of it's attributions. This secret was unlocked by the Golden Dawn, using the Qabbalist tree of life.
The seventy eight plates of the Tarot were passed down through history and of course endured many phases before the Golden Dawn ever began to work with them. Until then, no one truly had a system to fully understand the symbolisms and how they connect and correspond. There were of course intuitive people who read Tarot and drew on the collective unconscious of mankind to guide them. There were none who could approach the deck with the combination of intellectual understanding and intuition which the adepts of old, who created the Tarot used. A unified and coherent system had yet to be successfully structured from the vague fragments of information passed down in loose oral tradition by gypsy nomads and such. Only the intuitive method was possible in those days.
Then in the late 1800's the necessity for method and intellectual understanding to compliment spiritual sensitivity and intuition was finally filled by the Golden Dawn system. Both sides of the coin come into play when dealing with the discipline of Tarot and are necessary if one is to to work with the plates in a balanced fashion. If you look at it like using the two halves of the brain or the masculine and feminine faculties together in one combined androgynous understanding, one is logical and one intuitive. Crowley touches on this in his Fourteenth Trump which he titled Art. The title was changed from the original Plate XIV, Temperance, this topic we will cover later in the thread.
It's quite amazing that the method to decipher the ancient system of Tarot was hidden in the Tree of Life diagram and in the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, waiting to be discovered. The Tree of life was as monumental a device to decipher the Tarot as the Rozetta Stone was to decipher the Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt.
These two systems, the Tarot and the Qaballa though both rooted in ancient Egypt, evolved independently of one another through the millenia. It was not until the members of the Golden Dawn like S.L macGreggor Mathers and William Wynn Westcott compiled and compared, coming up with a system which was all but flawless with a fitting place for each of the Major Arcana and planetary and zodiac attribution for each of the Minor. There exist only a few disputed points which I hope we can deal with later on in this thread also.
So you can see why I must challenge the changing of this well ordered system on the whim of one who cannot rightly explain the change.
Mohandas
Let's move on to Crowley's next Minor Arcana title change, the Four of Wands.
The original esoteric title is 'Lord of Perfected Work'. Crowley's new title is 'Completion'.
Crowley writes of the Fours "The connection between the number three and the number four is extremely complex. the important characteristic is that Four is "below the abyss"; therefore in practice, it means solidification, materialisation."
On the tree of life diagram the fourth Sephira is Chesed and is indeed bellow the abyss, the rift which exists between the Supernal Triad and the lower seven Sephiroth. The first three supernal emanations exist on a plane which cannot be grasped by and is above all conception of created beings.
Though numbered four, Chesed can be also considered as a number one in a certain sense, as it is the first of the Sepiroth which is truly manifested, though still far from actual manifestation in matter which does not occur until the tenth sphere of Malkuth.
So I can understand why Crowley may have been moved to title the card "Completion" as the Four is a certain completion or 'child' of the Supernals. The problem I have with this title is the finality of what it implies. The word 'completion' is really quite final and the concept cannot be taken in very many ways, it's either complete or it's incomplete.
The original title, Lord of Perfected Work leaves open the possibility of progressing or advancing further, the word 'work' can be taken as a verb, in fact. The Wands in their growing development are far from complete at the number four, the work has become perfected but is still an ongoing energetic force, striving ever onward. Thus the five appears as the next in the Wands sequence, Lord of Strife.
Once again I believe that Crowley erred in his changing of the title and has altered the mood and atmosphere of the card. This upsets the balance of the system and must be pointed out and taken into consideration.
Mohandas
Please consider that I am no expert in the Thoth nor of Qabalah, and I will likely remind you of this throughout this thread... but am an eager learner and greatly enjoying the journey.
I find this quite synchronistic as I've been pondering what is "perfect" for a couple days randomly. Just what is perfect? Is perfect "final" just as completion would be considered? Perfected to me signifies "done", thus the past of the "work" is now in its stage of completion - by being perfected, there is no need to progress beyond perfection in this sense. We often say in life that "we are not perfect, we are only human, that nobody is perfect." In that it signifies there can always be improvement.
Is there anything beyond perfect? Now in this case of completion I wondered, considering there is of course the progression of cards 5 and beyond, then "Work" must be what is considered. It could not the completion of all things that is considered here, I would suppose it is "completion of the work", the work has been perfected, but what this work is must be the context of that which is considered to be in this state. Perfect"ed" denoting something of the past, as mentioned above, shows us that a journey was, and now the state of that which is, is what is present, perceived now as being perfected or complete.
Could it be that this consideration of completion is that the movement into the realm of perception (below the supernal triad). These three being the necessity (the building blocks) in a sense, as Kether would be considered a sort of completion from the Veils, but in essence a beginning?On the tree of life diagram the fourth Sephira is Chesed and is indeed bellow the abyss, the rift which exists between the Supernal Triad and the lower seven Sephiroth. The first three supernal emanations exist on a plane which cannot be grasped by and is above all conception of created beings...
I would consider that complete is like that of "when one door closes, another door opens" Like the completion of a phase that allows and is necessary for the successive group of phases to exists, considered on a new level beyond the supernal triad, an important phase, so much so that it is considered that the Divine elements of the trinity have become as a force "that which allows" the fourth.
The Meaning of Life is to Eat the Apple - Me
Wisdom comes from asking questions
Nothing really matters, love is all we need. - Madonna
I predict the weather will be unpredictable this year - Sylvia Browne
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind - Gandhi
If it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true. - Judge Judy
The comparison of the Four as a completion of the Supernal Triad to the appearance of the primordial point of Kether from the Veils of Negative Existence, is brilliant! It is very fitting as both represent a certain beginning and ending, a completion of one phase and the commencement another.
I can see why Crowley named this card Completion and it is not too conceptually far off from the original idea.
Thanks for sharing you view, Celtaur.
Mohandas
The word lord is an ancient word meaning law the each suit is an earthly element the law of the elements. Crowley also is the author of the book of the law.
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