part0038

We have already met Thoth as the god of Scribes, and Ma’at as the goddess of truth, justice and cosmic order. Ma’at also represented the concept of judgement. She carried out the weighing of the heart against the feather of truth. She is thus an order to which even the gods themselves must adhere. Her representation was usually a woman crowned with the Ostrich feather.

Nuit, Nuith or Nut, represents the stellar firmament, possibly the Milky Way. Hers is the body through which the Sun and Stars travel. She is the great mother and the firmament, and the body in which the deceased would be reborn, as was the sun each day. Her figure was often painted on the ceiling of tombs and chapels or on the under-face of coffin lids, so that the worshipper or the deceased achieved union with her.

Her role in the Book of the Law and in the Book of Thoth is ubiquitous. She is seen by Crowley on the High Priestess card as the “menstruum of manifestation” and the “possibility of Form”. She is ultimately the “Naught beyond Bliss” into whom the initiate finally unites and is wholly undone and remade as All.

Osiris is the most universal of the ancient Egyptian gods and the main god of death and rebirth. His story is one of betrayal by Set(h) and dismemberment – only to be reconstituted and brought back to life by Isis, his wife. Horus is their vengeful son.

He is thus the dying and reborn King – a myth that Crowley connected to the Aeon of Osiris, stating that the previous 2,000 years had been the time of the dying and reborn gods. Crowley saw the events of the early twentieth century, in agreement with the doctrines of his Book of the Law , as heralding a new Aeon of Horus. This scenario is primarily depicted in the card which Crowley renamed as The Aeon (rather than the Last Judgement) and which may be taken more than any other card as part of the “series of illustrations to the Book of the Law ” (p. 116, BoT ).

Despite this complex cosmological schema, we can apply this card simply in a reading; it is always useful to refer to Crowley’s own poetic summaries of the Majors (pp. 253-260) to arrive at divinatory meanings. Here we read for this card:

Be every Act an Act of Love and Worship

Be every Act the Fiat of a God

Be every Act a Source of Radiant Glory.

Final decision in respect of the past, new current in respect of the future; always represents the taking of a definite step.

Notice the three-fold nature of both the poem and the divinatory meaning? We should always notice this with Crowley – most of his work is structured on precise Kabbalistic or numerological models. Here we can quickly see that the three-fold nature of the wording references the three deities on the card itself; Nuit, Hadit and Horus (as Heru-ra-ha and Ra-Hoor-Khuit). The three lines of the poem correspond to these three deities and therefore also incidentally provide a summary of the three chapters of the Book of the Law :

The three parts of the divinatory meaning also refer to the three deities as aspects of Time (it is after all the Aeon card). In gnostic texts and earlier, the Aeons were not just phases of time, but divine forms in themselves. Here we see Nuit as the past, Hadit as the new current of the future, and Horus as the taking of a definite step. This latter relates to the Golden Dawn practice of taking a step forward in the sign of the “enterer” and a step backwards in the sign of silence, Harpokrates.

There are other three-fold divisions on the card itself; the three tongues of the Hebrew letter Shin; the three foetal babes of possibility awaiting a definite decision to be made; the three points of the triangle of Fire which corresponds also to the card. So, in a reading we can point out to the Querent (dependent on the position and dignity of the card, etc. of course):

“There’s three aspects of this decision – this figure here [pointing to the arching Nuit] represents the overarching past, everything that has led you to here. Of course, this is what has been important to you. But this is a card of decision – of judgement – both the action-orientated Hawk closing in for the kill [pointing to the seated Horus as Ra-hoor-Khuit] and the child knowing when to keep silent [pointing to the standing Horus as Hoor-pa-Kraat]. But all this comes from the central Will that you have [point to Hadit, the Winged Globe] and what grows from it like an egg [point to egg-shape within Nuit, coming from Hadit] and manifests itself in the world. Every decision is final – it is time to take a definite step with these aspects in mind…a new age awaits you.”

Nephthys was a funerary goddess who was sister to Isis. Her name means “mistress of the Mansion” and she was the daughter of Geb and Nut. Sometimes she was the wife of Seth as Isis was the wife of Osiris. She was foremost seen as a guardian of the dead and companion to her sister. [144]

Crowley refers to Nephthys when discussing the Empress card. [145] He is making the point that the higher cards on the Tree of Life, i.e. the Emperor and Empress in this case, are aspects of perfection. The Empress, he suggests, embodies not only the initial perfection of Nature, which he corresponds to Isis, but the final perfection of Art (Nephthys).

As an aside, he goes on to suggest this pertains particularly to VI (Lovers) and XIV (Art). We might compare those two cards as manifestations of the Emperor and Empress; both are highly alchemical in imagery and feature paired figures in various states. We could perhaps even be forgiven for sensing the presence of Isis and Nephthys in the two white female figures (statues, maybe) at the top of the Lovers card and as the dual figure then combined in the Art card.

We will return to these two deities in a short while, looking at the Wheel card. Maut, or Mut was a goddess originally represented by a Vulture and later a Lion, whilst Sebek was a Crocodile deity.

Khepra (sometimes transliterated Khepri) is the Sun at midnight but was also a primeval god. He is represented by the Scarab beetle and depicted on the Moon card, albeit somewhat differently to a standard hieroglyph or representation of a beetle. Nonetheless, it carries the Sun at midnight, and the card is suffused with menstrual symbolism.

Anubis is the jackal-headed guardian and guide in the underworld, so a suitable God of the thresholds depicted in this card. On the Tree of Life, the “mental echo” of this card is directly opposite the “definite step” of the Aeon card. One can either go around in circles and cycles, fearing the future and watching the Moon go around (merely rearrangement, not change – Crowley’s definition of Witchcraft as differing from Magick) or one can take definite action, make change and embrace the Aeon.

I will refer first to one example, looking at two specific deities referenced in the text for the Fool Atu. Within the sixteen pages – more so I think than any other card - dealing with the Fool, Crowley references seven ancient Egyptian gods & goddesses. The card was obviously troublesome - he himself rejected several drafts of the card, and Harris said “I shall struggle with the Fool. He does writhe about”. [146] It is impressive we have a card at all for this most enigmatic figure, never mind one which includes such a varied cast of energies.

Here I will also try and demonstrate how these meanings – some of which would have been known by Crowley, some of which we suppose were appropriate after the event – can be utilised in an actual reading of the card.

Crowley defines the Fool with the wonderfully evocative phrase, the “Gold of Air”. In this alchemical metaphor, startling in its simplicity and depth, we gain a measure of the Fool – both simple, like the three words “Gold of Air” and profound in that same simplicity, for gold is the alchemical purity and aim of the entire magnum opus or Great Work, and Air is a symbol of the Ruach , or Spirit. Thus, the Fool is considered here as nothing less than the simple spiritual truth.

However, in the manifold writhing of the symbolism on the card itself, we see some of the challenges for an initiate to gain that simple truth. Crowley remarks that the understanding of the bivalence of symbols is the mark of such an initiate – we must aim then to see in each symbol on this card both its meaning and its counter-meaning, for on this card of most, all things cancel out to Zero.

This is a good way of putting this card in a reading; “It really doesn’t matter. You are free. Whatever you do will cancel itself out in the end. So, choose what gives you joy”. It is perhaps an interesting thing to be teaching the mystical doctrine of 0=2 to the lady who has only come to you to find out if her son is going to pass his exams.

In this same context, we will look at the deities Mat (which is Maut, not Ma’at) and Sebek. These are represented on the card by the Vulture and the Crocodile. The crocodile appears to have a rose as an eye. The Vulture can be taken to be a symbol of the female principle, and a devourer, as is the Crocodile. The yawning mouth of the crocodile symbolises the Abyss – perhaps here the cliff over which the Fool is eternally poised. [147] Both Crocodile and Vulture were painted on the edges and underside of the ceiling blocks of temples to guard the way to the sanctuary.

So Maut and Sebek here are being utilised as both sacred and profane symbols – they are both the eaters of the dead and the guardians of the hidden temple. The Fool card then is both the exit and the entrance, and neither – as Philip K. Dick wrote as a title for one of his many Gnostic Science-Fiction stories, ‘The Exit Door Leads In’.

In a reading these two elements may prompt the reader to say “What is being destroyed needs to be lost to cross the threshold into the next phase of your life. Your decisions are irreverent, the drop into the abyss is already being enacted – you can writhe but the crocodile and the vulture are already waiting for you. The Fool is your new beginning. Deal with it”. The Fool should be the most terrifying and liberating card of the whole deck , and here in the Thoth deck it is.

Interestingly, the counterpart of the Vulture as female is more commonly the Beetle as the male principle. If we turn to our Thoth deck and find the Scarab Beetle on the Moon card, then superimpose the Fool (as female) and the Moon (here, male) we might like to see Crowley and Harris’s bivalence of symbols in action.

Having researched these deities, we can look at many further ways of interpreting their presence on a card. I will draw our research together by now looking at the Fortune card which features a revolving medley of three entities.

It is on the Fortune card (Wheel) that we encounter these creatures, along with a Sphinx of obviously ancient Egyptian heritage. Crowley, in his vision given in the first/middle appendix, says:

Now I see the figures on the wheel, which have been interpreted as the sworded Sphinx, Hermanubis and Typhon. But that is wrong … at the top seems to be the Lamb and the Flag, such as one sees on some Christian medals, and one of the lower things is a wolf, and the other a raven.

Crowley makes a correspondence of these three to the alchemical elements of Salt (the Lamb), Mercury (the Wolf) and Sulphur (the Raven) which is somewhat intriguing but impossible to pursue in the space we have available!

On the card then, we have the Sphinx, which Crowley subdivides into the four elements, corresponding to the magical virtues of “to Know, to Will, to Dare and to Keep Silence” (and the fifth, Crowley suggests in a footnote, “to Go”). We also have the composite God of Hermanubis, the Ape, and the strange figure of Typhon, who appears to be some form of crocodile with the tail of a snake.

The important thing about these three figures is that they are composite – perhaps even manifesting from one creature to another. This is the main message of the Fortune card – Life in constant motion. Change. A revolution of Form.

From a Kabbalistic point of view, using the Golden Dawn system of correspondences between the Tree of Life and the Tarot, and in this case the same system Crowley was also using, the Fortune card corresponds to the path between Chesed and Netzach on the Tree. These are often translated as “Mercy” and “Victory” but there are deeper meanings; Chesed is a “loving kindness” and means ‘good will’, ‘grace’ favour’. It implies that ‘good luck’ or ‘fortune’ is given by Grace and Favour, not by chance. Netzach also carries meanings such as ‘perpetuity’ and ‘eternity’. The card thus illustrates Fortune and the revolution of these three entities as the Grace of creation throughout Eternity – an idea Crowley taps into with the design of the card.

Similarly, from a Kabbalistic perspective, the card corresponds to a path which crosses the Veil on the pillar of Force. It is thus a creative card which meditates upon the process of the creation of Time itself. This is useful background in a reading of the card, for we should describe to the client how important the concept of time is within their life when this card comes up. It also challenges us as a reader to understand our own model of Time; for example, researching “granular time” in Quantum Physics. [148]

Crowley (or the transcriber or the printer or the editor) confuses the issue of the three alchemical correspondences in the Book of Thoth and I offer above my own version based on Crowley’s sketches and notes, although DuQuette’s version can be used with alchemical Mercury (not the planet) corresponding to Atu I: The Magus. Given the shape of these three alchemical components is taken by the figures of the three cards, I think it is the High Priestess who is in the form of the alchemical symbol for Mercury.

But what does all this mean for a reading? How can we use these strange Gods when all the client wants to know is “when will Dwayne come back to me”? Well, we must devolve these lofty concepts down to practical considerations. In doing so, we raise the client’s life into the mythic realm and then draw deeper learning and lessons before applying this back to everyday life. As the Golden Dawn suggested, one should always appeal to the highest name of God one knows.

Here’s how we can do this with the Fortune card. Suppose we had it in the “future” position of a spread which had asked about the success of a new project. We are given the presence of three ancient god-forms (using the term loosely for the three forms); the Sphinx, the Hermanubis and Typhon.

As we have seen already, the Fortune card embodies the constant change of the Universe, in all its forms – but particularly in these three – growing, balancing and dying; or going up; staying; and coming down. We can talk to the client of their project as about to undergo a period of constant change, and in three ways at the same time.

These are all part of the inevitable development of the project. They will see the Sphinx in the context of the riddles they must resolve to keep “on top of things”. They will encounter Typhon in the constant failings of the project - Crowley likens this card also to Atu XVI (The Tower) in its capacity to completely bring a perfection at the same time as a total destruction, in a moment of unity or insight. They will also benefit from their meeting of Hermanubis, both messenger and guide, one who teaches and brings insight from the motions of the other two forces.

We can provide this model, so they will be able to derive the best of the changes ahead, rather than be simply strapped to the rim of the Wheel as it revolves. If they see the interplay of these three forces, they will achieve the unity at the axle of the Wheel, and more likely success.

The more we come to learn and appreciate the nature of these ancient Egyptian entities on the cards, the more precise will be our understanding of the lessons of the card within a reading. Eventually, even the very Gods themselves may speak to us from the deck.

In this section, I hope to have provided some starting-points to understand the complex usage of ancient Egyptian deities and concepts within the Thoth deck. I hope to have extracted and presented more plainly the deities themselves as a catalogue for your own research. The booklist provided at the end of this book may also be useful as a starting-point.

We will now highlight two magical workings by Crowley which can be considered the first drafts or concepts of the Thoth Tarot, and then detail each of the Major Arcana.