part0058

Image : A red eye glares down upon an abstract scene of a collapsing tower. A strange circular mouth emits sharp tongues of fire across the bottom of the scene. Three geometric figures fall from the tower and we see a dove and serpent-figure in the background.

The chapter on the Tower in the Book of Thoth is one which reminds us that Crowley’s descriptions of the Major Arcana were surprisingly short and dense. As with many of the Majors, it is just two pages of text – particularly the latter cards in the sequence. Other cards are bulked up by separate sections in a mid-book Appendix, dealing with the Fool, Magician, Wheel, Lust, Temperance and the Universe. Crowley saw his original text as an “essay” and the appendix was a reference to his visionary work, from which he had drawn much of the symbolism for the deck.

He knew that the text was to be published as part of a gallery opening and seemed to be writing in an “essay” style for the likely academic audience. Although Frieda Harris’s report of the show mentioned how children were responding to the paintings - rather than academics. She notes that she is having a “funny time” with it, mainly “very stuffy old ladies & very ancient men”. [401]

One interesting note is that she asked the children about their favourite card and was surprised that many chose a card suitable for their month of birth. She also remarked on a 2-year old who chose the 2 of Cups, and remembered it when asked a little later, and having to explain ‘lust’ to children by talking about feelings about chocolate or a favourite sweet. We can imagine her stood in front of the Lust card saying, “this is a picture of how you feel about those chocolates”. [402]

Unfortunately, in the published version of the Book of Thoth , the “appendix” appears mid-book, before the section on the Court cards, so requires the reader to constantly read backwards and forwards for certain cards. It has been suggested that the book is an early example of hyper-textual writing, which would benefit from online publication and comprehensive cross-linking. [403]

When we look at the Tower, we see this complex interlocking of ideas from the first paragraph. Crowley notes the correspondences to the Hebrew letter Peh , and to Mars. He provides a simple interpretation - that the Tower indicates “the manifestation of cosmic energy in its grossest form”. [404] He states that the illustration shows the “destruction of existing material by fire”. [405] So far, so good. Then he writes that the card may be taken as “the preface to Atu XX, the Last Judgement”, and as such, “it seems to indicate the quintessential quality of the Lord of the Aeon”. [406]

There is a footnote to that sentence, which refers us to Liber Al. III. 3-9; 11-13; 17-18; 23-29; 46; 49-60; 70-72. This is where we might certainly introduce and be assisted by hypertext linking. Those references are to the Book of the Law , particularly the third chapter, corresponding to Horus, the hawk-headed god of vengeance we encounter throughout the whole of the deck. As the “Lord of the Aeon”, Horus corresponds to Mars, and to the Tower.

However, the links are more complex and far deeper than the surface correspondence. The verses to which Crowley is referring deal with the building of machines of war;

I quote these verses in full for this card as example of the depth of symbolism in the deck. We might also refer in full to sections of the Book of the Law referenced by Crowley throughout the Book of Thoth . My personal view is that it is essential to appreciate the Book of the Law to even get one level down into the Thoth Tarot.

In referencing those verses, Crowley is first making a correspondence between the card and a prophesy in the Book of the Law , written ahead of two world wars. He is making a correspondence between the nature of the card and the energy of the god Horus, through the corresponding planet, Mars. He is making a connection of the illustration itself to the “war-engine” literally stated in the Book of the Law .

There is yet another level of symbolism to be discovered, as we follow the links. In the “Old Comment” to the Book of the Law , Crowley offers a surprising key to these verses, one which is not obvious to a straight reading of either the Book of Thoth or the Book of the Law .

He reveals that the “island” is a Chakra – an energy-centre of the body. The following verses are instructions in a new form of meditation; the “fortification” is concentration, and the defences of “enginery of war” are the prevention of any new impressions reaching the mind. The “war engine” is a “new method of meditation” and “smiting the peoples” is the easy “suppression of invading thoughts”.

Then we are taken on another link; in the commentary on the Book of the Law , published in various editions, my copy being The Law is for All (1985), the 9th verse is referenced to Liber HHH , section 3. This is a short series of instructions for meditation. Section 3 is a mediation by which the spine and brain are visualised as the masculine energy and feminine receptive space. Through a staged series of visualisation, posture and breathing, a state of ecstasy or Samadhi is found through uniting the parts of the body and their respective energy centres.

This brings us back to the Tower, in that the third section of Liber HHH , continuing this chain of links, is prefaced by a verse from one of Crowley’s mystical prose-poems, Liber Lapidis Lazuli :

We can read the sexual symbolism within this verse, and the meditation itself. It is the same sexual symbolism we encounter in the illustration of the card; the tower rising up to the above, ejaculating white crystalline forms into the red darkness. The line “Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them!” also carries a sexual connotation.

All of this is contained in and unpacked here from just the first paragraph and footnote of the description of the Tower, which illustrates how the Thoth Tarot carries the density and interlinking of many decades of Crowley’s work.

In an everyday reading, we can simply refer to the card as a destructive energy; one which clears away the old and makes way for the new. However, it is ruthless and potentially vengeful. It is an energy which seeks a martial solution to an existing state. It does not take prisoners.

In the bottom of the card is the mouth called by Crowley the “jaws of Dis” from which issues angular flame against the stars and open entrance of the Tower. This is a reference to the Hebrew letter Peh , meaning mouth, and to the specific name Dis. The City of Dis is the city of hell as envisioned in Dante’s Inferno . The sinners in Dis are various but include the heretics who are imprisoned in red-hot tombs, and the violent. It is also one of the names given to Lucifer in Inferno, and we find in the “jaws of Dis” are three shades; the shade of Judas, who betrayed Christ, and the shades of Brutus and Cassius who betrayed Caesar. [409] It is a symbol of violent betrayal in this context and the card may be suggesting such in a reading.

The “broken figures” falling from the Tower are illustrated as geometrical and abstract figures. To Crowley, these represented the loss of attachment to structure – to the perception of reality in formation. He refers us to the various doctrines of Hinduism, particularly Shaivism, without referring to them by name. In these doctrines, particularly as they relate to the practice of Yoga, Shiva has a third eye, by which he burns desire to ashes. Crowley repeats this teaching, writing that “to obtain perfection, all existing things must be annihilated”. [410]

They are also symbols of semen, the unformed human being in basic form. We might utilise this symbolism in an everyday reading by saying that the eruption of one state is to eject the seeds of a new one. [411]

The above should make it clear that magical symbols must always be understood in a double sense, each contradictory of the other. These ideas blend naturally with the higher and deeper significance of the card. [412]

In the paired symbols of the dove and the serpent at the top of the card, either side of the Eye, we see further reference to the Book of the Law in the design of the Tower. In Chapter I, the goddess Nuith speaks:

Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God. [413]

The original title for this card was “The House of God Struck by Lightning”, of which Crowley was aware in 1904 when he wrote the Book of the Law .

Crowley sees love as “love under will”, neither a pagan licentiousness, represented by the serpent (also Kundalini) nor a Christian fear-based love. He comments that Love and Will have been as gladiators in a philosophical war, only to be harmonised by the Law of Thelema. [414]

These two forms of desire – a pagan and a Christian mentality - are depicted as the lion-serpent Abraxas and the dove carrying an olive-branch. Crowley also refers to them as the “Will to Live and the Will to Die”. [415] He expresses a belief that the renunciation of love was “constantly announced” as a requirement for initiation, but this was now an outdated and rigid view. As he puts it, “This Trump is not the only card in the Pack”. [416]

In summary, he refers us to Atu XIII, Death, where we should learn that “life and death are understood as phases of a single manifestation of energy”. [417]

It may be that in a reading we refer to the dove and serpent as two apparently opposite pulls, which are bringing down the tower of belief. A client may be wrestling with their own desire and fear which, without changing their long-held belief about themselves, will come to ruin.

We can see this in the position of the card on the Tree of Life. It bridges Hod and Netzach, sometimes seen as the mind and the emotions. I liken these to Mr. Spock – the pure logician - and Jim McCoy – the emotional healer -on Star Trek, with Captain Kirk as Tiphareth, the captain. There is often a conflict between these two characters, and their equivalent states within ourselves.

We have introduced and discussed the basic tenets of sexual magick throughout our journey into the Thoth Tarot, and in the Tower, we see it as explicitly stated as anywhere else in the Book of Thoth . Crowley writes of the symbol of the eye which is atop the card:

The dominating feature of this card is the Eye of Horus. This is also the Eye of Shiva … [418]

Shiva, the Destroyer, is asleep, and when he opens his eye the universe is destroyed... But the "eye" of Shiva is also his Lingam. Shiva is himself the Mahalingam, which unites these symbolisms. The opening of the eye, the ejaculation of the Lingam, the destruction of the universe, the accomplishment of the Great Work - all these are different ways of saying the same thing. [419]

We can see again that the sexual symbolism is symbolic of universal processes as well as spiritual processes of inner transformation; they are all different ways of saying the same thing. The eye is a symbol of knowing, of truth, of seeing things exactly as they are – all the same.

Key Phrase: Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor anything. [420]

Keywords: Ruin, destruction, desire, sexual energy.

This card is the destruction necessary as a prelude to the Last Judgement card. If the Blasted Tower comes up in a reading, a useful trick is to go through the rest of the deck and see how far away the Last Judgement card is down the remaining deck. This will give some indication of how extended or compressed the damage will be wrought by the Tower until a turning point is reached. One always hopes the Blasted Tower will be accompanied by the Last Judgement in a spread!