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This is one of the simplest cards; it represents Heru-ra-ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral and physical. [463]

Image : A bright solar disk casts rays out from the centre of this scene. A green hill is below the Sun, and two naked figures with wings hold their arms up in joy. The signs of the zodiac surround the whole illustration. There is a little wall towards the top of the hill.

In the Book of Thoth , Crowley provided poetic couplets (p. 219-20) for each of the Major Atu, and the one for the Sun is:

So, on the surface the card appears as it would on many other decks, bright, joyful, full of light. However, this is Aleister Crowley at work, so if we expect some form of devious subversion we will probably soon locate it.

In the case of the Sun, it is in the small decals underneath the two dancing figures that we find Crowley’s joyful disregard of previous convention playing out. They contain an image of the crucified Christ, counter-changed as opposites as are the dancing figures above.

The Sun is seen by Crowley as a re-extension of the symbol of the Rose Cross, which itself derived from the symbolism of the sun. The Self (the Sun as the centre) is manifest in the light of the sun and through the twelve signs of the zodiac. The Rose Cross emblem in the Golden Dawn illustrated this symbolism by correspondence of the zodiac and planets in a rose upon a cross of the elements. In the Sun card, Crowley has twelve rays emitting from the sun, between each of which is a sign of the zodiac.

He makes a correspondence of the twelve to the sacred name HUA, which references his earlier work, KONX OM PAX. In that collection, within the ‘Stone of the Philosophers’ is a poem entitled ‘The Devil’s Conversion’. At the end of the poem, a satirical take on Lucifer being the punisher of saints, Crowley writes:

It is in this connection that the card is the light-bringer, the “complete emancipation of the human race”. [465] If the Moon is one of the most negative cards in the Major Arcana of the Thoth Tarot, then the Sun is certainly the most positive.

The convoluted and only partially-explained text for the Sun, “the simplest of the cards”, contains an injunction that “it is also most important to observe that the formula of the Rose and Cross (indicated by the wall-girt mound) has completed the fire-change into ‘something rich and strange’”. [466]

Crowley either deliberately or accidentally misquoted two lines from Shakespeare’s The Tempest sung by Ariel:

However it may be quoted, he is further suggesting the change of Aeon in these two lines. The formula of the Rose and Cross – sexuality and suffering, in basic – is transformed by acknowledging its nature (the mound) against the constraints of convention (the wall). The colouring is changed because one has been made active in the past; convention, and the other made to be passive; sexuality.

Crowley goes further, to remark; “Man has advanced so far from the social system, though it was not a system, of the cave man, from the primitive conception of property in human flesh”. [468] He advocates freedom in all respects – the closing lines of the short ritual, ‘The Mass of the Phoenix’ which relates to Horus and the Sun, enjoin us thus:

The Mound is our natural inclination to aspire to the divine, our natural evolution. The wall suggests that even in freedom there is a natural control. [470] Crowley returns to the symbol later in his text, noting that whilst the formula of suffering still applies in most “terrestrial matters” at this time, there is a new connection; “a close and definite alliance with the celestial”. [471]

We can say that the event is growing of its own accord when the Sun appears in a reading. Also, that whilst a situation may have started out with some restriction, it will outgrow any constraints that may be presently the case. Literally, ‘make hay while the sun shines’ is the message of this card.

The card itself shows the “old aeon” god relegated and the twin children taking his place. They dance in the light outside the “garden”, which is now the mountain of initiation.

Crowley writes, “They are dancing in the light, and yet they dwell on the earth. They represent the next stage which is to be attained by mankind, in which complete freedom is alike the cause and the result of the new access of solar energy upon the earth. The restriction of such ideas as sin and death in their old sense has been abolished”. [472]

In the mnemonics for this card we are advised to “Love and play freely”, in the knowledge that the Sun is our sacred soul and delights in life and light. [473]

Simply put, this card is a ‘get out of jail free’ card. It is a call to awakening much as the Aeon card, however it is more a call to complete freedom in self-responsibility. It is a call to awaken to an enlightened self-interest. Crowley believed “the word of sin is restriction” and this card shows no restriction – other than one’s own knowledge and will, symbolised by the serpent wall. [475]

It suggests in a reading that the person or situation is to face up to the light and do it all, without restriction. As Crowley again brazenly put it, “There is no grace, there is no guilt; This is the Law: DO WHAT THOU WILT!” [476] Dare we face the open challenge of this card and burst through to the light?