LIBER CCXXXI

One further publication on the tarot is omitted by Crowley in this introductory piece, which is Liber CCXXXI . This is an enigmatic and short piece of work which nonetheless is a “Class A” publication graded by Crowley, the most ‘inspired’ type of writing which “may be changed not so much as the style of a letter”.

This work is a short illustration and list of the 44 “genii” or spirits of both the Serpent and the Qlippoth (shells) assigned to the Hebrew letters and paths of the Tree of Life. It also includes a piece of text likely added later, “a technical treatise of the Tarot”, wherein “the sequence of the 22 Trumps is explained as a formula of initiation”. The book is entitled Liber Arcanorum (‘book of secrets’) and was originally written in 1907 and 1911. It is thus dated after the writing on Tarot in Crowley’s 1904 notebook and some thirty years before he started the Thoth tarot. The textual piece draws heavily on the earlier AMBROSII MAGI HORTUS ROSARUM.

Further to his original writings on the tarot, based on the Golden Dawn, and then his 1904 notes, where he was working up his own pre-Book of the Law cosmology in the Tarot, followed by the initiatory descriptions in 1907, we now see, by 1911, a re-rendering of AMBROSII MAGI HORTUS ROSARUM with a fully-developed Thelemic system.

It commences with this description of the first four letters:

1. The lightnings increased and the Lord Tahuti stood forth. The Voice came from the Silence. Then the One ran and returned.

2. Now hath Nuit veiled herself, that she may open the gate of her sister.

3. The Virgin of God is enthroned upon an oyster-shell; she is like a pearl, and seeketh Seventy to her Four. In her heart is Hadit the invisible glory.

4. Now riseth Ra-Hoor-Khuit, and dominion is established in the Star of the Flame.

Interestingly, the switch between Strength and Justice is not made by Crowley at this time, as Strength appears in position 8, as per the Golden Dawn:

8. Also came forth mother Earth with her lion, even Sekhet, the lady of Asi.

…

11. Also the lady Maat with her feather and her sword abode to judge the righteous. For Fate was already established.

It is intended to return to this piece in the second volume of the present series, with practical tarot work to unlock its mysteries.

There are several other sections of Crowley’s writings and poetry that are structured on the tarot which can be found by the reader and are impossible to fully list; if there are twenty-two lines in a verse, ten items or concepts listed, or twelve (zodiacal) or seven (planets), etc. then it is probable that they will correspond to the tarot and Kabbalah.

We will now present three methods of card readings, using the Major Arcana only and the whole deck and conclude this present volume on the Major Arcana of the Thoth Tarot.