Scrying the Thoth Tarot: The Ten of Wands

The Vision

I was trapped in the midst of a huge forest fire and took refuge in a round, black lake which was perfectly encircled by the flames. To escape, I waded into the waters, the skies above me ablaze, and the water growing hot as I became submerged. At the heart of the lake’s hollowed bottom, like a phiale and omphalos, lay a forgotten, black, stone monument. I pulled it free of the bed and passed through the dark, dry passageways that the stones was a portal to. Eventually, I emerged at the other side of the lake beyond the burning woods, though I could still feel the heat of its flames. In the sky, Sirius blazed bright, and the crows in the trees at the edge of the glowing wood stared at me blackly. Then, a dark figure in a tall stove pipe hat pulled up in a golden carriage with red velvet seats. He stopped and observed me and I sensed it was he who set the woods ablaze. I approached him and opened up the top of his hat to gaze upon what is inside of it. It was empty. He was of no substance. Then he drove his chariot away.

Notes

The ‘black man’ is the shadow of the Angel cast in Malkuth. In the early stages of initiation, this shadow or ‘evil persona’ can be mistaken as the object of the path of Initiation. But in truth it is merely the shadow the light the sun of Tiphereth casts from the Augoeides. Although he rides the Royal Chariot, at this stage the Angel is without solid substance as the man entirely embedded in Malkuth cannot perceive its true form. To see it as it is, one must adjust their angle of viewing and remove themselves from its shade. 

The perilous fire I perceived it as being responsible for was the magickal force made manifest as the ‘Oppression’ of the 10 of Wands. Its fire cast a circle around the water, just as the serpent did around the Sun, and the water provides the means of escape. The lake also represents the Oracle—a Lunar manifestation of the supernal waters in Malkuth, which are black, like the Work done entry stages of alchemy. Beneath the fires and waters were the refuge of Earth and its material security. The crows who watch balefully as I escape their domain at the other side of the tunnels are creatures of Air, and their position in the trees was in a comparative placement to Netzach on the Tree of Life as viewed from Malkuth. The Qlippoth of Netzach, A’arab Zaraq, is that of the Dispersing Ravens who manifest from the fires of a volcano. The star overseeing this scene, Sirius—known to the Greeks and Egyptian as ‘The Scorcher’—has a reputation for heat, rising before the sun in the dog days of summer, and is also associated with Shiva, who also appeared in the vision for the 10 of Swords. Sirius culminates at 14° Cancer, the constellation associated with the Chariot in the Tarot Trumps, and the appearance of the Saturnian driver of the Royal Chariot—another manifestation of the Shekinah—reveals the manifestation of another mystical link to that zodiac sign.