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In the centre of the spread is the STAR. This represents your central issue at this time and to be considered throughout the reading.

The Star is a central symbol to the philosophy of Thelema, as illustrating the nature of the individual and the Will in manifestation. Our will is “poured into” manifestation and crystallises into action and reality. It is in constant transformation, as the butterflies show in the card; there is a constant movement to Will, as it directs itself in time, which Plato defined as “the moving likeness of eternity”.

Your individuality and will, your position and relationship, are presently central to your consideration. You are at a particular point where your direction must be entirely clear and direct – “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”, with consideration to love – the unification of your soul to the divine.

This card is about decision; it is about transformation from one life to another. It picks up on the STAR card and indicates that you are facing a crucial point of choice about further enabling your life. It may require the fire which is a correspondence of this card.

Crowley gives a very direct and succinct description of this card, as may befit its nature. He also gives general advice should the card appear which is “to go forward quietly without any attack upon existing situations”. [513] He states that people signified by the card “possess the finest of the quieter qualities”. [514] They are ambitious, “but only in useful directions”. [515] The whole nature of the card is quiet, practical, sensible, and hard-working. Whilst on the negative side, there may be a tendency to dullness and a mechanistic view of the world; a laziness in being comfortable in one’s place.

The resources or approaches to be adopted when this card appears are to draw upon one’s affectionate side, kindness and generosity. We can afford to give of ourselves in order to raise ourselves to a better station.

We see that perhaps you have given too much to your situation and feel stuck in a particular service that you seek to go beyond at this time.

In your reading, the upper blocks are very different to each other, and thus the one on the upper right is the unattended outcome – and given the initial reading of the central block, I feel this is negative.

In readings the Universe card symbolises completion and a new beginning following that completion. It is perhaps also a time for a well-deserved rest, such as Keats described for Saturn - who corresponds to the card - in Hyperion ;

The card recommends synthesis, the bringing together of a team, combining projects, simplifying life, down-sizing, putting ideas together rather than going it alone. As such, it holds the opposite significance to the Hermit, who has withdrawn from the World.

You do not need to rest – quite the opposite – the Universe awaits you. You might like to perform the reading about working with others or alone, as I felt this was the relevant extract of book text to present to you.

The tradition Christian triple-cross crozier has been replaced here by a “peculiar” Wand, bearing three interlocked circles. [516] These represent the Aeons of Isis, Osiris and Horus. Whilst it may not be too obvious in the printed card, they are meant to be marked with three different colours; scarlet for Horus, green for Isis and pale yellow for Osiris. These are three aspects of dark indigo, corresponding to Saturn, who rules time – and hence, the passage of the Aeons.

If this symbol is prominent in a reading, we might suggest that there are family issues that are bound together – either in the present, or from the past of the client or ourselves. The ‘formula’ of each Aeon is interlocked, according to Crowley.

The Aeons each have their “formula”, or magical word, and that of the Aeon of Horus is ‘Abrahadabra’, which to Crowley encoded the uniting of the microcosm and macrocosm, and the Great Work completed. It is in this card we see the Adept as Hierophant, crossing the Abyss between Chesed and to Chockmah.

We can see this card in two ways; the mundane and the spiritual. In a mundane sense, it carries more of the correspondence to Taurus. It can be read as hard work, support from others, and patience in a bullish and predictable manner. However, in a spiritual way, we can read this card as a liberation of the self from belief and expectation – a rebellion against the status quo . It has two faces; revolution or religion, depending on the nature of the question, the position of the card in a spread and its relationship to other cards in a reading.

In this most provocative of images, Crowley replaced the traditional image of a woman holding a lion with a drunken Babalon astride the Great Beast of Revelations. The card is now termed “Lust” to indicate the “joy of strength exercised”. [517] This is based on the location of the card on the Tree of Life, as it corresponds to the path between Chesed, ‘loving kindness’ or ‘mercy’, and Geburah, ‘severity’. Thus, it illustrates the relationship between those two aspects of existence, whether it be at a mundane or mythic level.

Crowley states that this card is the “most powerful of the twelve Zodiacal cards” and “represents the most critical of all the operations of magick and of alchemy”. [518] It can be compared with Atu VI and Atu XIV in terms of the symbolism of sexual magick. Here, the woman is ‘astride’ the Beast; she is “more than a little drunk, and more than a little mad”, whilst the Beast is aflame with lust”. [519]

The card further backs up that should you not attend to the present situation, you will continue to feel that you are repressing powerful aspects of yourself in relation to the world.

You have THE TOWER, surrounded by THE HERMIT and WORRY (5 of Disks). Initially, this does not look positive at all, but perhaps that is the point – the results of action may look worrying and destructive, holding you back from achieving a longer-term goal at the expense of a short-term shock.

This must not be regarded as something 'evil'. The natural feeling about it is really a little more than the reluctance of people to get up from lunch and go back to the job. In the Buddhist doctrine of Sorrow this idea is implicit, that inertia and in-sensitiveness must characterize peace. The climate of India is perhaps partly responsible for this notion. The Adepts of the White School, of which Tarot is the sacred book, cannot agree to such a simplification of existence. Every phenomena is a sacrament. For all that, a disturbance is a disturbance. [520]

This card shows the long-term stability of a situation which is always on the edge of disruption. It is the edge of a catastrophe cusp; the moment before initiation. Crowley points out that the disruption of this card is illustrated well by the inherent difference between Mercury and Taurus; the decan of the card. It is an earthquake in slow-motion; a slow seismic shift of attachment.

In a straight-forward way, it requires that intelligence (Mercury) is applied to labour (Taurus). It suggests a re-think of one’s effort and time, and subsequent – even if worrying – changes.

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. [521]

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. [522]

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”. [523] 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”. [524]

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”. [525]

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 like 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.

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.

Crowley starts his verse for the Hermit, “Wander alone…” which accords with most readings of the card as solitary pursuits, going it alone, being lonely, or as Crowley also says, “retirement from participation in current events”. [526]

The card also indicates silence, keeping one’s mouth shut, not getting involved and remaining separate from business or relationship. This might allow “illumination from within”, so is also a card that suggests the answer cannot be found outside or through others, it must be given space and time to dawn within oneself.

Crowley does note that it can indicate the potential for “practical plans” derived from such introspection, so it is important to note that the card corresponds to the very fertile Virgo, and can be encouraging to new plans that move us from one state to another, likely from the underworld to the brighter dawn – whose seed of light we already carry, if we can recognise it.

So, there is clearly a need to make a major change but perhaps ensure that you allow time to yourself to connect to yourself before enacting a radical solution.

The block of three cards in the lower left illustrates mechanisms by which you may best respond to a situation. They indicate your development of your Will. They might be considered as advice or provocation – even a warning.

In the centre of this block we have PRUDENCE, surrounded by two Court Cards; the Queen of Wands and Knight of Disks. It is in prudence that you will find progress towards developing your Will.

Here’s what Crowley says, of Prudence, the 8 of Disks; “there is a sort of strength in doing nothing at all” (BOT, p. 184). I’m not sure that Crowley himself understood that dictum, but it is certainly the one he puts for this card. He goes further to describe the atmosphere of the card:

One thinks of Queen Victoria’s time, of a man who is ‘something in the city’ rolling up to town with Albert the Good advertised by his watch-chain and frock-coat; on the surface he is very affable, but he is nobody’s fool.

He says this card is “intelligence lovingly applied to material matters” (8 = Hod, the Sephirah of intellect, in Assiah, the Material world). So, it has the sense of investment as well as engineering.

To either side of Prudence, we have the personality traits that you can develop to enhance your own Will, embodied as two Court Cards; the Queen of Wands and Knight of Disks.

The characteristics of the Queen of Wands are “adaptability, persistent energy” and “calm authority”. [527] She can be changeable and volatile, being the watery part of Fire, but when driven by creativity she has great capacity. Her presence in a reading indicates the need to reflect upon one’s impulses and develop a steady flow of action. Do not be quick to take offence or harbour revenge without due cause.

The Knight of Disks brings patience but many warnings; avoid unrealistic ambition, idle dreams, wasting time, a meddling about with small affairs. The lowly nature of this card gives a smouldering fire to productivity but can also be spoilt easily by simmering jealousy and resentment of one’s lot in life.

We see here that you must hold back but remain creative – slowly improve your situation by stages rather than resent a sudden or simple solution.

The three cards to the lower right are those influences arising in your relationship to the universe which are seen as external to your control. They are those to which you can adapt; incorporate and utilise. They cannot be ignored and are calls for your attention, time and resource.

The Cups to either side are strengthened together but dull the energy of the Ace of Wands. This is the card signifying WILL, so shows the external factors watering down your fire – being ‘full of fullness’, satiated with abundance.

Crowley repeats his teaching on the Aces when he writes about the Ace of Wands, saying “the great point is that all the Elemental Forces, however sublime, powerful, or intelligent, are Blind Forces and no more”.

The Ace of Wands is the essence of the element of Fire, is the “primordial energy of the Divine manifesting in Matter”, “at so early a stage that it is not yet definitely formulated as Will”.

Your potential power is being drowned at the moment – perhaps a better word is quenched – by a sense of fullness or completion – and something is still holding you back.

In the Golden Dawn, this card was called “The Lord of Perfected Happiness”, however Crowley goes for the fullness and finality of Water on its journey down the Tree of Life.

Harris picks up on this with her depiction of the card in the style of an Assyrian Tree of Life. The cups runneth over, all is full and beyond full. The word “satiety” comes from the Latin, ‘satis’, meaning “enough”. This card screams “Enough is Enough!”

The card has hidden depths. Harris complained when Crowley kept telling her such things as "Push the Cups deeper! Twist the whole card round" She responded, “Oh! But these things are all on one plane and, unless I start appliqué or sculpture, it can't be begun.”

Ten of Cups. This is admirable, but I can't tell much about the background; it ought to look menacing. There is something very sinister about this card. It suggests the morbid hunger which springs from surfeit. The craving of a drug addict is the idea. At the same time, of course, it is this final agony of descent into illusion which renders necessary the completion of the circle by awakening the Eld of the All-Father.

It is certainly a somewhat disturbed card, it shows that happiness is always precarious, and when gained is often destroyed in the gaining. This is a good example of how the Decans assist us picture these perspectives on life – in this case, we have MARS in PISCES. Have a look at the top and bottom cups for these symbols.

The fiery and destructive Mars is quite the opposite of the peaceful and reflective Pisces. Together they form a spectrum of chase and acquire, gorge and empty. It is this cycle that the 10 of Cups is at one end; there is happiness, but it is now at the completion of its enjoyment. What next?

Whilst commenting on the relative bounty of this card, Crowley also points out the dark side of abundance; “the lesson seems to be that the good things of life, although enjoyed, should be distrusted”. [529] On the surface the card illustrates the fulfilment of Will, received in Love, however there is potential to be lost in the underworld when pursuing that which has already been consumed. The card may be the “spiritual basis of fertility” yet it is also symbolised by the Pomegranate, beholding us to the lower world.

The Thoth Tarot contains a philosophy of Will and Action, of self-development and responsibility. It is therefore challenging and constant encouraging us to do more – and better. Crowley was very much aware of human nature and inclusive of both its light and darkness. The illustrations and text of the deck reflect this awareness and produce often brutal and provocative readings.

In this reading, there are several points where the Thoth deck seems to suggest that you hold back yet prepare for a major change. There are several exercises I have included for your cards and contemplation which may be helpful in preparation for this change.