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Thoth Journal: Virtues I, Justice and Fortitude

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The so-called cardinal virtues of Justice, Fortitude (Strength), Temperance, and Prudence are all (well, maybe all) represented in the Tarot deck. Only three are explicitly given as cards, though. Between this post and the next, we’ll look at what’s visible, and what may be invisible.

We go from cool and cerebral to seriously hot and lusty in the Thoth. Crowley used the pre-Golden Dawn order for these two cards, so Adjustment (Justice) is number 8 and Lust (Strength) is number 11.

Justice (Adjustment)

justice, known as adjustment in thoth tarot

I got this definite sense of burden with the Adjustment card. Our lady Justice is perched on her toes, and those large scales are suspended from her headdress. She seems comfortably balanced with that phallic sword between her thighs (well, maybe the card’s not as cerebral as we thought!). The sense of perfect balance and the power of the feminine at the same time is palpable. She alone decides, but not without passion. Large and in charge, she is.

According to Lon Milo Duquette (Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot), there was a lot of debate on this one between Crowley (writer and mystical curmudgeon) and Lady Frieda Harris (the artist). He won on keeping it simple. She won on balancing on toes. The lady is supposed to represent Ma’at, the Egyptian goddess of justice, and I do get that Egyptian feel. Not sure there’s a way to escape Crowley’s sensuality in his cards, even in this blue/green cerebral sort of setting.

Fortitude (Lust)

strength card, called lust in thoth tarot

Lust is the ultimate example of Crowley’s worship of the power of the feminine in a way that’s kind of disturbing and apocalyptic in this card. Here’s a nude lady astride a multi-headed beast, orange and red all around, leaning back to accept the serpent’s desire (he’s staring at her vulva). She holds what looks like a red womb in one hand with rays coming out of it. The beast seems to trample traditional piety depicted by praying hands and what looks like a sad nun’s face. At first it looked like Lust might just be a slave to her passions, but with her hand firmly on the tether of the beast, she is definitely in charge even as she’s open to everything.

Balancing (oooh, reference to the previous card!) acceptance with direction seems to be the message. We have desires, can we direct them in a way that serves us at all levels? According to Duquette, this card is quite disturbing to a lot of people (mostly Western culture, I should think) since this lady is the archetypal whore of Babylon. But Crowley’s idea is that she is like the whore because she accepts all desires and transforms them in the grail/womb she holds in her right hand. Powerful stuff, as always with this deck. Challenging, and yet it all works together to form a singular vision from human archetypes found all over the planet.

And Crowley’s not the only one who uses the Strength card to depict taking control of one’s passions—the Druid Craft Tarot does also, along with other decks, I’m sure.

Patterns . . .

So, both cards speak to balance and the power of the feminine (illustrated in more traditional decks by a woman gently controlling a lion), which is kind of interesting since these two cards can be used in the 8th or 11th positions in the deck.

I love patterns; patterns are cool . . .

In the next post, you’ll get an opportunity to pick your candidate for the elusive virtue of Prudence.

Tarot Journal: Magicians Compared

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magician universal waite
© US Games, Inc.

Today, I’ll compare the Magus from the Thoth deck with RWS (Universal Waite version) and Druid Craft magicians.

The Thoth will always be a contrast to most other decks, particularly these two RWS types. Overall for the Magician card, it’s a contrast between concrete and abstract, working with objects in a scene in the real world vs. playing with alchemy and objects suspended in the unconscious dream world of Crowley and Harris.

The RWS Style Magicians

The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) and Druid Craft Magicians share the authoritative stance of a master. They hold their wands high in the right hand, and have a table in front with the tools of the suits, along with the infinity symbol. It’s over the RWS Magician’s head and on the belt of the Druid Craft one.

Pamela Colman-Smith in the RWS added roses and lilies. I found out that the frame of roses over the top of the RWS Magician originates in a Roman practice where that which was spoken of at the table framed by the roses was secret knowledge, not to be repeated elsewhere. So the Magician carries the secret of using magickal power in the world. Lilies usually indicate purity or possibly death. The Magician seems to have potential power over both sex and death in the symbolism of this card.

tarot magician druid craft
© St. Martin’s Press

The Druid Craft Magician is located at a central symbol of Druid power, Stonehenge, and has a hen looking on. The hen pulls in the energy of the feminine with its association with women tending chickens and gathering eggs at home. In some stories, the hen is a symbol for the female seer or witch. So, our Magician is not just a symbol of masculine power (we leave that to the Emperor). The Magician also wears a cloak of raven feathers, a power animal for Celtic myth and Druidry. No living plants, though, in contrast to the RWS. The color contrast is pretty profound between RWS and Druid Craft, with subdued colors in the Druid Craft and dawn just breaking. Compare this imagery to the recolored Universal Waite with its bright reds, yellows, greens and whites.

The Thoth Magus

Magus Thoth
© US Games, Inc.

The Thoth is in some respects, a whole different animal. While the other Magicians represent the usual aspects of mastery of magickal knowledge and tools and the ability to use them in the world, the Magus seems much more self-absorbed.

With the Magus, this absorption in the joy of his own knowledge and power to manipulate the universe is much more obvious. Like the Druid Craft Magician and unlike the RWS, he is looking up and not out of the card. He’s suspended in the air (a common phenomenon in the Thoth) by winged sandals and very much epitomizes the Mercury/Hermes, the Greco-Roman Trickster god. The trickster metaphor is also associated with other interpretations of the Magician, particularly the older Tarot de Marseille card style. In this case, though, there’s more of an alchemical theme of the mercury as that fascinating liquid/solid element with magical properties. And the Magus is the only one of the three that visibly portrays the negative side of this card, with the monkey god climbing up to disrupt our Magus’s fun.

In Summary

Ultimately, they all represent the power of ego tinged with the first awakening of wisdom leading the manipulation of energy and magick in the world. As with all things where the ego is involved, a shadow side appears, in this case the risk of becoming drunk on one’s own sense of power. The trick, as the Druid Craft Magician shows, is to allow the entire energy of the cosmos to channel freely through you, to listen as well as to speak, and to remember the virtue of humility.

Thoth Journal: Princesses and Potentials

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Taking a look at the Thoth Princesses (translate to Pages for RWS-style decks, or Knaves for the Marseille). Aleister Crowley and his artist partner, Lady Frieda Harris, have built a rich set of symbolism over the traditional archetypes in the Tarot, and the Princesses are a very special part of that symbolism. The inimitable Alison Cross, expert on all things court card, once posed some questions to help those of us in a little tutorial of hers to parse the significance of the Thoth princesses. Here are my answers.

Does he/she stand for beginnings?


Princesses. All young, each one very powerful-looking for her seeming age. Sweeping lines. Two in movement (Wands and Cups), two still, one seemingly in study (Disks), the other seemingly in defense against a threat (Swords). Not seeing obvious beginning symbols . . . checking DuQuette (Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot) . . . ah, here it is. The Princesses have a special relationship with the Aces. Crowley assigns each Princess and Ace to a quadrant of the Zodiac and a geographical region. It’s quite a web he weaves for the entire court.

Tentative steps in an untried direction?


Well, they’re young and sexy, I’ll give ‘em that (maybe not so much the Princess of Cups, but she’s still pretty cool). Untried directions, yep. The two movers (Wands and Cups) are headed off in new directions quite dramatically, as is the Princess of Swords to deal with whatever she’s swinging her sword at (something abstract of course). The Princess of Disks is the only one not moving, but light is shining on her from below, and she seems almost to be summoning something from the Earth.

Traditionally, they are also messengers – is that what you want them to be here?


Each seems to be conjuring something or presenting something to or leaving something for the viewer. A bright multi-petaled disk, an arc of light or a stone pedestal, a tiger or sun wand, and a sea turtle. Actually, the Princess of Wands may just be pointing you to the flaming Yellow Brick Road to Oz.

How do Pages relate to their suit?



Clouds, dark and billowy and shafts of light for Swords. The green of her body and clothing is not standard for the suit, but is likely dictated by the complex esoteric color scheme explained in the beginning of the book. She’s right out there ready to fight.
A semi-abstract forest of brown trunks, what looks like a large fur cloak, and green roots going down into the light from the Earth flank the Princess of Disks. She definitely looks well fed (or pregnant—my, my!?) and studious.

And the Wands thing is quite typical, all fire and red/orange/yellow, dragging a tiger behind her.
The Princess of Cups floats in an abstract blue and yellow sea with a fish, and the sea turtle (her skin is even green).

Are there common features to the beginnings of the Major Arcana, the beginnings of the Minor Arcana and the beginnings of the Court Arcana?

Commonalities between the Fool and the Princesses: A tiger and flames (in the Wands), the diamond crystal in the Princess of Disk’s staff, the reptile (turtle) in the Cups (vs. the crocodile in the Fool), the green clothing on the Princess of Swords.

And as previously mentioned, the Princesses are all wedded by astrology and elemental relationships (they are as a group in with the element of Earth, even though each also represents the element of their suit) to the Aces. The Aces are also the ground of being in the world, dense with matter.

Not your daily draw kind of deck, the Thoth, like I’ve said before. Each Princess carries a version of the Ace’s object with them, be it the disk, the torch, the cup or the sword, in similar style and color.

What’s Your Take?

Lots to look at without even cracking the book. And then, when you do, the Thoth Tarot gives you layer upon layer of symbolic meaning. Almost overwhelming, really, but also very, very fascinating. All hail the Princesses and all hail the power of potential!

I do recommend trying out these questions on the appropriate initial characters in the Court cards of your favorite deck. See what patterns develop. Let me know in the comments what you find out!

Thoth Journal: The Fool 0

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I’ve recently gotten back to my Thoth Tarot and thought it would be good to revisit and expand upon my initial impressions of this multi-layered take on the Tarot system. I find the deck both fascinating and challenging to use. It’s got this “in your face” very direct set of messages, and does not shy away from illustrating the negative as well as the positive. I will begin this series with my take on the Thoth Fool.

The Symbols on the Card

Thoth Fool

The Thoth Fool has plenty of symbolism to spare. Lots more stuff than in the RWS version. He fills the card and seems to have already stepped off the cliff, but is suspended, and not in free-fall, so that’s good, I think. He doesn’t seem concerned about his current situation. The animals (tiger and crocodile) don’t seem real friendly; the tiger is actually biting his leg. He seems to be carrying his star chart with him in the blue bag. The sun is not behind him but is shining out from his genitals. There’s a butterfly, Holy Spirit-like dove and a cadeucus swirling around his upper body. Below his crotch are three flowers, one upright, the other two fallen downward and pointing at what looks like two tiny intertwined babies. The Fool also has a weird crystal-looking cap and little horns on his head. His arms are up at head level, and he’s holding a diamond-shaped crystal in one, and what look like flames or a torch in the other. Also a bunch of grapes is hanging out just below one arm. Two symbols are on the bottom of the cards . . . Uranus and the symbol for Air.

Interpreting the Thoth Fool

So, what does it all mean? I get the sense that this Fool may not be so foolish. I get a feeling of power over all aspects of creation, as if all of creation is flowing from him into whatever journey he takes. Since he’s suspended in the air, there isn’t the same sense of moving along a path and off a cliff to anywhere. He carries the Universe (the last Major Arcana card) inside of him already and seems to be at the point of creating a new world and feeling the first aspects of that world, including fire, pain (from the tiger), the idea of life followed by death, change and process (the flowers). So, take that risk, step off that cliff, but do it knowing that you have the power to create the wings to fly across to the next adventure. It’s all within and you are ready to let it out.

The Mythology and Alchemy of the Fool

Lon Milo Duquette, the author of Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot (I will be using his perspective throughout this series) emphasizes the relationship between the Fool as the beginning and the Universe as the end; they have that egg shape thing in common. Life is a series of spiraling circles of experience. The Fool represents non-being, the Tao, prior to manifestation. Note the encompassing of myriad mythological symbols from various cultures; he includes it all. There’s also a certain focus on sexual, procreative energy related probably to Crowley’s interest in sexuality. The sun is right there in the sexual chakra. The babies turn up later, by the way, in other Major Arcana cards as part of the great archetypal Fool’s journey.

The Fool includes both masculine and feminine energies, but I get more of an impression of the masculine energy from this card. Something new is manifesting through your or around you, stepping into the new. Up to you how you accept that into your life. Ready for a change; ready for birth into the duality of existence, into pleasure and pain? Here it is.

Thoth Journal, Virtues II: Temperance and…Prudence?

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high priestess in thoth

Thoth is back! Back in September during my Tarot study group where I was taking the challenge to understand the Thoth Tarot, I wrote about the first two of the four virtues in the Adjustment/Justice and Lust/Fortitude cards. You can review that post here.

In my study group, we were asked to relate the High Priestess and Temperance to the cardinal virtues (Temperance, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude). The Tarot explicitly addresses Justice, Fortitude (Strength card), (see previous post) and Temperance (in the Thoth, it’s called Art–as in alchemical art), but Prudence is not actually visible as a specific card. So, could it be hidden in the High Priestess?

In the Thoth, which is the deck I used in this study, the High Priestess and Temperance/Art have lots in common, actually. It’s amazing how when I look at the cards, I see certain things, and then I read Duquette’s analysis (Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot) and find I’ve missed all sorts of symbolic details. Not sure how the High Priestess goes with Prudence, though.

In the Thoth, Temperance is called Art, and the High Priestess just Priestess. Temperance and the Priestess are linked through the Qabalistic symbolism amongst other things. There’s a strong link in terms of the use of symbols for Artemis/Diana, the virgin goddess. Art has abstract bows and and an arrow as well as multiple breasts (these are in a statue of Diana somewhere), and the Priestess represents the virgin goddess Isis and also has a bow and arrows in her lap.

In Art, the alchemical theme in Thoth and some other decks is paramount, with a transformation based on the union of opposites in the Lovers card earlier. The hermaphroditic person has two heads from the Lovers and is mixing fire and water (difficult feat to say the least), and has transformed the essence of the lion and eagle into each other (they are now different colors than they were in the Lovers card). Fire and water hang out in friendly fashion at the bottom of the card. A miracle of mixture has occurred!

The High Priestess guards the gateway to her sensual and spiritual secrets governed by the

art, better known as temperance in thoth

moon with a huge veil running across the card. With the help of her Hebrew letter symbol, Gimel, the Camel, she will carry you across the abyss of your mundane self to access the secrets of the soul.

Links to the other two virtue cards, Adjustment/Justice and Lust/Fortitude: Justice I can see because of the emphasis on balance in Temperance, and even in the Priestess as we couple the inner with the outer, so to speak. Lust is, of course, a vice and not a virtue in the usual interpretation, so Crowley has turned it on its head in a way. But it is about the fortitude to accept one’s entire self, both light and shadow, but probably hold the tether of the beast with the light of the high moon of the Priestess.

In a reading, these two, Priestess and Art, would call deeply to the inner self’s psychological/spiritual journey and maybe not so much to the events of the mundane world. One may be called to meditate (possibly by the light of the moon), integrate one’s shadow self (self-forgiveness) in order to become whole. And then, we presume, life in the outer world will improve.

Now, let me know what card from the Major Arcana is your candidate for the virtue of prudence. Comments are open!

Thoth Journal–The Yin/Yang Couple

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Empress, Thoth TarotComparing Empress (3) and Emperor (4) in the Thoth. Talk about your study in contrasts! Lady Frieda Harris, the painter, decided to go all out. I think I can see her feelings about men here, although Aleister Crowley dictated a lot of what went into the cards.

In total contrast to the cool greens, blues, and pinky reds of the Empress, the Emperor hangs out in only one area of the color spectrum: red (and more red), orange and yellow. It’s wild! She’s all cool moon stuff, he’s like all the Thoth Wand cards—sun, fire, large and in charge. They both also look to the side, so although the bodies face outward, their faces look in opposite directions. If you put them in numerical order, they gaze at each other. The Empress also has a more open cradling gesture as she holds her flower, whereas the Emperor grasps an orb in his lap and holds his ram-topped scepter across his body. Ready for battle at any moment. They do share the same double phoenix shield (different colors), and fleur de lis symbol. She has two crescent moons floating, he, two suns. He’s also got two rams looking over his shoulders, very testosterone-laced, this picture, while estrogen dominates in the Empress. The only soft touch in the Emperor pic is the sacrificial lamb (with flag and halo), lying down at the bottom of the card.

Emperor, Thoth Tarot

This is a very nice depiction of the feminine/masculine dichotomy. Very clear in all the lines, although Lady Harris’s Art Deco/Modern sympathies still put a lot of curvature in both pictures.

The Empress says comfort, birth of creative ideas, babies, nurturing, enjoying the abundance of nature. I see myself sitting in a comfy chair with a journal and pen, looking out on a beautiful garden, munching on the produce thereof. Just merge into it.

The Emperor seems to say, let’s take charge and defend our inner or outer territory. It’s his job to make sure there are walls around his Empress’s garden so she doesn’t have to worry about safety (although she’s not worried anyway).

This card would advise one to appreciate the structures built into life to keep one safe to carry on those creative efforts, but this attitude can also lead to rigidity, just as the Empress’s energies can get too passive. It would depend on surrounding cards as to which way one would read these, of course.

Thoth Journal–Three of Wands

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Just a quick one, but our lovely study group tutor for my Thoth deck exploration gave us a haiku assignment for our description of the Three of Wands (the keyword on this card is Virtue). So, herewith, my attempt at the haiku form:

gold lotus aflame
solar ram ignites the will
virtue tempers pride

Please feel totally free to comment and critique the haiku…:)

Thoth Court–Princess of Disks

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princess of disks thoth tarot

In Alison Cross’s lovely Tarot Kaizen group on Facebook, we’re still working our way through a deck to learn all its ins and outs, in my case, the Thoth deck. We’re busy with the court cards (Kings, Queens, Knights, Pages), so I thought I’d share my insights from the exercises we’re doing. First up, the Princess of Disks:

In the Thoth, we have a Princess of Disks, so definitely the female version, although even the traditional RWS Pages have an effeminacy about them. She rules Aries/Taurus/Gemini astrological quadrant. Earth of Earth. Lady Harris, the artist, wrote to Mr. Crowley that this Princess insists on being pregnant and that she says something about being mixed up with the Virgin Mary. A very complex young lady, then. So, that’s why she looks a bit chubbier than all the rest, as if incubating a world of her own. I find her looking much more empowered than other pages in other decks. She has a very long wand/staff with a big crystal on it, pointed at the Earth and light comes up from below, as if she’s conjuring all the power at the roots of the Earth Mother in order to create something new, and yet, her long red braids are down, and she is obviously very young. And she is draped in some sort of thick fur cloak that runs down into the earth below, crowned with a set of ram’s horns. In one hand she holds a huge, multi-petaled disk with the Yin/Yang symbol in the center. To Crowley, she represented the ultimate picture of woman, grounded yet ever-changing, visible, yet mysterious, integrated Earth to Earth, Spirit to Spirit. I can see why her picture is the one on the front of Duquette’s book. She exudes a power and beauty that belays her official position as low person on the court totem pole.

 

© 2013 – 2020 Joanne Sprott