Scrying the Thoth Tarot: The Princess of Disks

The Vision

The dark charioteer from the last vision disappeared from view, leaving me in a sunlit wood. In the forest was a tree shaped like a woman which, despite appearing inert and motionless, was full of life. I moved closer to it and could detect the scent of morning mist on her breath as the breeze parted her stiff lips. I fell to the floor and touched the leaves at her feet where I sensed her sadness at being imprisoned in this way, for she was a divine force in a fixed state rather than the volatile state of the serpent and waters. I sensed the teeming life in the soil and the fauna of the forest floor and knew that life pervades everything, and that the tree is a totem for that life. The woman in the tree was the fallen daughter, and all that lives on the earth is of the same substance as her body. All physical life is one under the guise of flesh and earth. Then, just as the vision appeared to be ending, I found myself being brought back to make an offering of life to her. I was instructed to bury a sacramental seed in the soil around her feet and plant it with the knowledge that it is a gift that will enrich her, for her yields are greater to those who make such offerings.

Notes

From the Tree of Life to Yggdrasil, trees are a symbol of the entire web of spiritual and physical existence, and here it represents the Divine force bound by matter. The sadness sensed in the goddess trapped in this form reflects the metamorphoses of several nymphs into trees in the Greek myths. A common theme for this kind of transformation is violent male energies leading to a state of female retreat into a desexualised state, often with the assistance of the gods. Examples include Daphne’s transformation into a Laurel to avoid rape by Apollo, Lotis becoming a Lotus to avoid being raped by Priapus, Myrrha transforming into a Myrrh tree to escape her father after she tricks him into sleeping with her, and Pitys being turned into a pine to help her escape the pursuit of Pan. These ‘regressions’ of spiritual forces into matter are akin to the containment of those forces in the physical substance of Malkuth. Locked safely away in Malkuth, the energies are no longer wild and unrestricted, as they are beyond it, but are stowed into a material form that prevents calamity. The spiritual forces themselves survive, but do so in the restricted manner of the Fallen Daughter, who has descended from a state of grace into one bound by the density of matter. Its survival is detected in animistic principles, in which all life, be it that of inert plants or active animals, is an expression of the divine force.

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.

Scrying the Thoth Tarot: The Ten of Cups

“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." Liber AL, I: 57.

The Vision

A shaft of beautiful sunlight shone upon a golden cup filled with water. Around it, a serpent was entwined, its body spinning around the cup’s base until it detached itself from it and ascended up the beam of light until it reached the sun, which it encircled with its body. Once it was there, streams of venom dripped down from its fangs like dew and its tail dropped down into the waters of the sea far below. I understood the serpent’s venom to be the source of life and its spinning motion to be the driving factor behind the motion and activity that comes with that life. The light that shone from the sun that the serpent entwined itself around glimmered upon a golden crown that I wore on my head, and from those rays, which mingled with the serpents venom-dew, a dove appeared and descended onto my crown.

Notes

Here, the origin of the serpent sun seen in the vision of the 10 of Swords is explained. It represented the rising force of the Kundalini, which when attributed to the Hebrew word ‘Neshesch,’ takes on the same gematric value as the redemptive solar force as the ‘Messiach’ or Messiah. This equality of force is portrayed by the Unity portrayed in their binding together as one entity, which is symbolised by the image of the Orphic Egg. 

“I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy." Liber AL, II: 26

The serpent’s revolving motion around the cup represents the force of the Shekinah, the manifestation of the divine feminine in Malkuth, which is depicted as a force carried up and down the tree of life by the Merkabah Chariot, whose wheels are spun by angels known as the Galgalim and Ophanim. This revolving motion is the source of all energy and life in Malkuth, and is evidenced in the orbital motions of celestial bodies, the spirals of DNA, the Kundalini, the Caduceus and the naturally occurring mathematical principles such as the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci sequence. When it the ascends force from the Cup of Earth to wrap itself around the Sun, it takes on the symbolism of the Gnostic god Aion, which represents the cyclical nature of time, the Zodiac and the boundaries of the Cosmos. Its dripping venom is equated with the descending waters of alchemical ‘dew’ which symbolises the Waters of the Great Mother filling the vessels of the Tree of Life until they culminate in the material essence of Malkuth. The dove that appeared towards the end of the vision represents the force of the Shekinah or Holy Spirit descending from the Supernals to enter the Crown chakra, which was here represented by a golden crown that shines with the light of the Sun.

Scrying the Thoth Tarot: The Ten of Swords

The Vision

I saw an image of ten swords swirling before a malevolent, serpentine eye that gazed at me from the heart of a bright sun. Then, the rest of the serpent—which wore a ten-pointed crown on its head—extended out of its light as wind and clouds swirled before it, drawing me into the eye of the sun. Inside the eye, all turned black and I perceived tunnels of vicious, spinning machinery. On the other side of the tunnel was a sandy beach beneath a clear blue sky, and on its sands a circle of ten downward pointing swords was cast. Looking out to the sea from the centre of the sword-circle, I caught a fleeting glimpse of Shiva dancing above the waters. Then, as his form faded, I saw a boat filled with armed men crossing the sea. Above them, the serpent sun reappeared and lashed at their vessel with its tail, disturbing the ocean to a great tumult and forcing the men’s captain to blow a note on a horn to pacify it. Once the serpent was banished, the sun and the waters resumed their tranquillity and the boat sailed calmly to its destination across the sea. Crossing the water to follow the men, I saw that the land they arrived at was rocky and grey with ten terrible peaks visible on its horizon. Lightning forked down to the place where the sailors came to shore, destroying their boats and leaving them wishing they hadn’t banished the great serpent in the sun, for its intervention was a device to stop them coming to that terrible place. On feeling a very real and sharp pain in the right side of my head I perceived a sword thrusting being thrust into it. Then, another nine swords embedded themselves in my skull and the vision ended.

Notes

From this point on, many of the scryings begin to form a series of connected narratives, so a deeper analysis for this card is best done synoptically at a later stage. A more general interpretation of the vision is that the element of disruption apparent in the serpentine sun thrashing the sea with its tail is consistent with the card’s attribution to the Sun in Gemini. This placement brings disruption and disharmony to thoughts and decisions and can have ruinous outcomes. The decisions of the soldiers’ captain to quell the serpent’s disruption, for instance, appeared to be the wisest course of action in the heat of the moment, but no consideration was made of the fact that the course they were taking was ruinous and that the obstacle raised by the serpent was an intervention designed to prevent, rather than cause, their ruin. After acting rashly, they battled against adversity and triumphed. Yet the product of that victory was entrapment in a dark, ruined land where further peril awaits. Shiva’s appearance was a clue of forthcoming destruction which wasn't heeded. His appearance was also a signal to apply clarity of thought, as the crescent moon that he is often depicted wearing on his brow represents the clear-mindedness that is missing with the Sun in Gemini. 

Tarot	Name	Sign	Decan	Dates	Quinary	Angel	Goetia
10 Swords	Ruin	£	Q	June 11 - 15	20-24°	Lauviah	Botis
10 Swords	Ruin	£	Q	June 16 - 21	25-29°	Caliel	Bathin

Looking at the Shemhamphorash attributions of the 10 of Swords, some of the characteristics of the Goetic spirits Botis and Bathin are present in this vision. Botis is described as appearing as 'a Viper or Man with Great Teeth & Horns carrying a Sword,' while Bathin is 'a Strong Man with a Serpent's Tail sitting upon a Pale Horse.' With the appearance of an ominous Serpent’s Tail in the vision, Bathin seems of particular interest. Having previously worked with many of the Shemhamphorash Angels and Goetic Spirits in tandem (as per the attributions of Thomas Rudd), I was compelled to check back over my old notes to see what I had written about the pairing of Caliel and Bathin. In them, I discovered the following.

Caliel came as a human skeleton in a dark dungeon armed with a sword and sceptre. Bathin appeared in the undercroft as a pale, featureless spectre (no horse, but his body was very pale). He came forward when I bade him to and split me down the middle with a sword and asked to enter me. Caliel, who was already 'inside' me, came out and disarmed him with his weapons, then bound him and pulled him inside me. We then proceeded to fly across an astral landscape until we crossed a sea and came to another landscape, which was all blasted, lifeless, volcanic rock. This was what I assumed the meaning of travelling suddenly to foreign countries meant - astral journeying, though I also had the impression it was also to do with the sudden opportunity or expectation to travel. 

While there are arguments against attributing the spirits of the Goetia  to the zodiacal decans and Minor Arcana, the similarities of the things seen in this scrying and my previous work with Caliel and Bathin are quite apparent. Unfortunately, the plans I once had to complete the entire cycle of Angels and Spirits were forced to an early conclusion, with only 60 of the 72 pairings being explored, so a complete comparison of such similarities won't be possible. On top of that, many of the notes I made from those workings were lost due to clumsiness with data backups, so only a select amount of information is available. I will, however, analyse what I have, and if enough overlaps are noticed, I'll consider completing the cycle and filing in the gaps as time allows.

Scrying the Thoth Tarot:The Ten of Disks

This set of posts relate to an ongoing project to scry the entire Thoth Tarot, beginning with the 10 of Disks and culminating with The Fool. The end result will be a snapshot of my insight into each archetype as understood in a particular moment in time, but should still provide an overarching set of visions that can be drawn upon to develop a fuller understanding of them. Maybe others will find them useful or interesting, too, but essentially they reflect the viewer and the viewed in equal measure, so the best understanding will naturally come from: 

1. Scrying them yourself, and 

2. Scrying them more than once to see how your understanding shifts and changes according to time, context and experience. 

What would be interesting to see in response to these scryings, is other people’s experiments with them. Many of the examples present here were done during a period of devotion to Apollo, in which his name was invoked as the patron of the Oracle of Delphi, and a unique astral formula was followed according to instructions received during that period. Others, however, were done after a simple banishing ritual, such as the LBRP, followed by a period of astral meditation over the card’s image.

The Vision

I stood at a cliff top where the image of the card slipped through a thin crack in the earth, through which I pursued it. Plunging through the thin, dark air, I became lost and blind until I turned myself around to face the direction I was falling from to see a single shaft of light coming in through the fissure. Through the gap, a large, male eye appeared as the light penetrated the darkness. When my descent had finished, I came to a rest at the edge of a deep chasm, where I sensed the presence of something peaceful and beautiful. Before I could grasp what it was, my perception of it was disturbed by the sound of water trickling over rock. Following the sound, I headed down to the bottom of the chasm and saw that the thin shaft of light coming from above had spread out to cover the whole of its base. 

Then, I was falling again. Into a greater and senseless void now. On reaching the bottom again, I found myself in the clearing of a dense, damp night time forest where the light of the moon shone through a wide sky framed by the rocks of the surrounding caverns. A large waterfall cascaded from an immeasurable height. In the clearing, which was dense and green, a nude, mute and faceless woman awaited me and we lay together. The moon shone over us like a watchful eye, but I was more intrigued by the clarity and number of the stars in the heavens. I became aware that I was Adam like the woman – Eve – I had fallen. As we lay together in the glade, I became aware that the forest was closing in on us many dangerous animals, the most prominent of which was a leopard, were watching us from the eaves and waiting for to strike. 

Then I saw a glyph of the letter Shin –  ש – appearing, at first faint, and then materialising into a solid form, but as soon as I tried to focus on it, it disappeared. Looking into the skies after it departed, I became aware of the loneliness of our human state, bound as we are to a small grain of rock whirling through an endless universe. Yet I also became aware that there was some presence watching over us and became aware that, by the design of some force, we, as a species, were being watched over and protected and nurtured. As soon as these thoughts came, I found myself rejecting them, thinking them too close to religious doctrines that I dislike. But despite my protests and intellectual resistance, the feeling of being watched by a distant, nurturing eye remained. 

Before the vision ended, I realised that the eye at the start of the vision was that of the Father, which, with its beam of light that shone through the darkness, was the Sun. The second presence, I realised, symbolised by the watchful Moon, was the nameless, impersonal Mother. Finally,  I understood that the manifestation of the letter Shin was the Son, who was Spirit itself. Although it manifested amongst us in solid matter, being distant and distracted as we often are from it in our Earthly incarnations, it retreated back to the realm of the unseen once it was gazed upon.

Notes

Some of the most apparent interpretations of this vision come from Qabbalistic and Gnostic ideas. The Father watches, but is completely removed; the Mother is equally distant, yet retains an interest the Father does not have. In the symbolism of the Woods and the Leopard, there is similar imagery to the opening of Dante’s Inferno which was set in a dark forest, representing ‘sin’ and ignorance. The leopard is the first of the animals to block his path (also see Jeremiah 5:6). The Mother and Father are Chokmah and Binah. There is no awareness of Kether in the Vision (though it features as Alchemical Mercury in the imagery of the 10 of Disks card), while Chokmah and Binah are apparent as the Sun (Salt in the card) and the Moon (Sulphur). Below them, in Malkuth (represented by the chasm in the Earth), the Three Mothers – Aleph, Mem and Shin – are manifested as the elements of Air, Water and Fire, all of which were also manifested in the vision – the void being Air, the waterfall, Water, and Shin, Fire and Spirit.

The sexual act in Malkuth was a symbol and re-enactment of the Union of Father and Mother, who are separated aspects of Kether coming back together to forge that Unity. Crowley’s notes that the 10 of Disks card reveals Hod in the position of Netzach and the Holy Hexagram in the place of Hod because they have come together in Union to manifest the accomplishment of the Great Work in Malkuth. This is also present in the symbol of Capricorn that features in the card, as it’s this sign in which the Sun is reborn. This vision, therefore, was ultimately about rebirth, its cycles, and the Union of Two in One, whether that Union be of Venus and Mercury as divided aspects of the Sun reuniting in Tiphereth, where the Great Work is first ‘realised,’ or that of Chokmah and Binah uniting as the androgyne Baphomet, which is the symbol of the Great Work’s completion.