The Crowley

Tarot
Excerpted from The Crowley Tarot:
The Handbook to the Cards

By Akron & Hajo Banzhaf

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The Special Characteristics
of the Crowley Tarot
While the earlier Tarot cards illustrated their topic in the more
or less simple form of a pictorial narrative, Crowley “abstracted”
the motifs by expressing the meaning of the cards in complex
symbolism stemming from the world of magic, astrology, alchemy,
the Cabala, the traditions of Mediterranean cultures and Celtic
peoples, and particularly also the secretive mythology of Ancient
Egypt. His cards thereby gained a great power of fascination, but
they became difficult for the layman to understand. Crowley’s book,
in which he readily addressed dark allusions of the symbolism,
was published at the same time, yet it did not do much to help the
situation. The book raised more questions than it answered. The
illustrations of the Minor Arcana that Arthur Edward Waite had
introduced were not adopted by Crowley, since he had already
rejected Waite’s work and liked to ridicule it. Instead, Crowley
brought each card into close correlation with an astrological constel-
lation. However, since the significance that he associated with them
frequently diverges from the contemporary prevalent understanding
of astrology, this access to interpretation frequently tends to be too
confusing for the reader. This very popular contemporary Tarot is,
then, among those that are the least understood.

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 Additional Changes
Crowley called the cards of the Major Arcana “Atu” and gave some
of them new names: Justice (VIII) became Adjustment; the Wheel of
Destiny (X), which had always been termed the Wheel of Fortune in
the Anglo-Saxon usage is called Fortune; Strength (XI) became Lust,
Moderation (XIV) became Art, Judgment (XX) became The Aeon,
and The World (XXI) became The Universe. The only far-reaching
change was in the twentieth card (Judgment), the old redemption
topic of which gave way to a new age (The Aeon).
With the Minor Arcana, Crowley named the suit of coins Disks, a
term that had already surfaced in the older Tarot suits. An illumi-
nating, although unprovable explanation is the idea that the suit of
coins was traditionally associated with the earth element, which in
turn was considered to be a disk in the medieval picture of the world.
In contrast, the renaming of the Court cards is more significant and
creates considerably more confusion. The traditional order of King,
Queen, Knight, and Page corresponds in the Crowley Tarot to the
order of Knight, Queen, Prince, and Princess.

The Cabala and

The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is the central construct of the Jewish secret teachings,
the so-called Cabala. Cabala is the name of the Jews’ secret teachings,
(originally handed down orally) which gradually developed into its
own school and literature. Its roots reach back to the 12th century
and the first high culture in the Mediterranean region. In Egypt,
there were famous sites of initiation into the mysteries. Even if the

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origin of Egyptian knowledge is controversial up to this day—many
esoterics see an Atlantic heritage in it—it can still be ascertained that
the leading thinkers of all cultures were initiated into the Egyptian
teachings and took the spirit of this consecration home with them.
The best-known mediators who carried this knowledge into foreign
cultures, thereby expanding the thinking of other nations, were
without a doubt Pythagoras and Moses. Pythagoras was presumably
the first to call the world a cosmos. He saw the nature of things in
the number, the harmony of the spheres as the universal principal
of order and unity, and advocated the teaching of reincarnation.
Moses, raised as a foundling at the Egyptian court, is considered to
be the creator of the (exoteric) Torah, the esoteric side of which is the
Cabala. The first of the Five Books of Moses begins as follows:
In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of
the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light
from the darkness.

Between Root and Crown

When we consider the light as the divine or spiritual (Kether) and
the darkness as matter (Malkuth) into which the divine spark of
light falls, then we recognize in these two separated halves striving
to return to each other the spiritual idea of creation, the polar
tension upon which the physical laws are based. Or, formulated
in a more modern manner, a “perceptive model” that allows us
to interpret reality. The spark of light that has fallen to the lowest
level of matter naturally seeks to return to God. We are therefore
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already in the middle of the Tree of Life; more precisely put, some-
where between the root and the crown representing the reciprocal
exchange in the course of creation. For the Cabalists, the story of
Creation was neither pure fiction nor did they take it literally. It
simply served them as a map or timetable in order to consciously
anchor the incomprehensible. In the process they assumed—prob-
ably inspired by Pythagoras—that only the more extreme abstrac-
tion is fundamental enough to comprehend the inconceivable, and
that numbers are the closest approximation to the incomprehen-
sible. In the Tree of Life, the “last reality” is consequentially symbol-
ized by ten circles, which themselves do not form a direct statement
but rather describe general cycles, the conception of which is only
accessible when other levels of effect are added and combined with
them. The Cabala, then, is not just some philosophical or religious
system, but rather a model of the universe colored by Jewish tradi-
tion, the elements of which first appeared in the Pythagorean theory
of harmony. Its foundation, however, can probably be found in the
Oriental teaching of emanation. Papus, among the most important
of French esoterics and author of one of the best books on the
Cabala and one of the most controversial on the Tarot, wrote: “The
Cabala is the science of the soul and of God and all relationships
which occur between them. It teaches and proves that everything is
in one and one is in everything.”

The Ten Sephirot

The Cabalists believe that reality is the result of a perpetual process
of creation that incessantly connects the ten levels of effect like ten
spider’s threads with each other, “spinning” the woven pattern of
destiny. For it is not the people who form destiny, but rather the
collective spirit in humanity that runs through their deeds and at
the same time becomes the punishment upon which the collective

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conceptions (Zeitgeist) move. This network, which always expresses
itself in that the human psyche relates beyond the contents of
everyday life to a superordinate power working behind the scenes, is
the form of the eternal that is adapted to reality and corresponds to
the Sephira Kether (1) in the Cabalistic Tree of Life. We could also say
that Kether is the elemental force from which everything else emerges.
But since the forms of the eternal themselves remain invisible (0)
and it is only our desire to sense the shadow of the spirit that thrones
beyond the comprehensible expressed in all of our images, we want to
limit ourselves to the statement that Kether is a symbol of reality that
approximates the incomprehensible or the form of humanity that
approaches completion.
The visible origin (1) of the invisible divine (0) now develops the
self-awareness of the “form which recognizes itself ” and thereby
becomes Chokmah (2), the conscious, differentiative, and creative
power. Chokmah corresponds to the “rib of Adam” from which God
created “Eve” or Binah (3). Chesed (4), the expulsive form or fruit
of the spiritual principle of creation (1, 2, and 3) in space, originates
in this connection. Chesed is the power of growth and of stability.
Geburah (5) is the power of destruction, since it is only through
movement and changes in time that life can exist. Tiphareth (6), as
the mediator between the two, is the harmonic balance and emotional
mirror image of the spiritual Kether level. In the lower region of the
Tree of Life, Netzach (7) and Hod (8) embody the contrast between
dissolution and the legitimately organized structure. The Sephirot
(6, 9, 10) in the middle pillar of the polarities are each an expression
of the divine (0) on the corresponding level of being. Kether (1) is
equivalent to the harmonic middle of the universe, the center of the
soul Tiphareth (6). However, the middle point of the physical world
image on the lowest level is formed by Yesod (9) as an expression of
the belief in the sense of the creation (1), expressed in most strongly
concentrated form by the root or Malkuth (10).

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 The Ten Numbers
(Sephirot and the Minor Arcana)

In the association between the Tarot and the Tree of Life, the Ten
Sephirot are assigned to the Minor cards numbered from 1 to 10,
which are in turn divided into four suits corresponding to the four
elements (wands = fire, cups = water, swords = air, disks = earth). In
this manner, the Ace of Wands is equivalent to the formula “Kether
through fire” or, on a symbolic level, “the first creative spark as father
of the creative idea”; the Two of Cups corresponds to “Chokmah
through water” or “the polarization of the emotions”; the Three
of Swords is equivalent to “Binah through air” or “the endogenous
depression”; the Four of Disks corresponds to “Chesed through earth”
or “the visible form,” etc.

The 22 Paths
(Hebraic Alphabet and the Major Arcana)

In the Hebraic alphabet there are 22 letters. This is the number of

paths in the “Sephir Yetzirah” or the “Book of Creation,” the part
of the Cabala that relates to creation and its secret laws. This book
explains the creation of the world in analogy to the 22 letters of the
Hebraic alphabet. There are three “mother letters” for the elements,
seven “double letters” for the planets, and 12 “simple letters” for the
zodiac. The 22 paths are trails connecting the ten numbers in the
Tree of Life with each other. At the same time, these 22 connective
paths in the Tree of Life are associated with the 22 Major Arcana
cards of the Tarot. The Tree then becomes a multidimensional
image in which the connection of various cultures into a common
path is expressed. If, for example, we feel ourselves caught in the

8
ruling social structure (Hod) and our goal is the origin or new
beginning (Malkuth), then we must choose the path between these
two Sephirot, the “Path of Transformation”; a process illustrated in
the Tarot by “The Aeon” card and in the Hebraic alphabet by the
letter Shin. In the reverse case, “the Tower” and “PE” indicate the
“destruction of hardened structures,” because they connect Hod
(structure) and Netzach (dissolution) with each other: the stage is
swept free for a new play through the destruction of old values. The
paths are lines along which life develops. It is important to under-
stand these lines in relation to their meaning in respect to the whole
in which we are integrated. Human beings need models they can
believe in, and the Tree of Life itself is a mirror image of the cosmos
according to the Hermetic law of “as above, so below.”

Learning to Read With

the Tarot Cards
The cards speak in images, and images are the language of the soul.
Whoever wants to learn the language of the cards must—similar to
those who interpret dreams—learn the language of the soul. The
process of this development is similar to learning a new language;
after overcoming a possible initial self-consciousness, we have our
first spontaneous successful experiences. However, it is only the
practice that leads us to growing security and a differentiated
manner of expression.
The prerequisite for good interpretation of the cards is that the
language of the image becomes that of everyday usage. In this respect,
it is helpful to draw a daily, a weekly, and a monthly card, respectively.
This is done as follows: draw a card in the morning of each day (in
the beginning only from the 22 trump cards, later from all of the 78)

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and additionally a card at the beginning of the week and/or month.
Observe then where and how each of the themes is expressed for
you within that time period. In doing so, you will recognize that, for
example, “Death” can mean that you have lost something important
(involuntary departure) or that “Art” shows you are successful in
finding an important solution, that you have found the right attitude
(the right connection, the right proportion in a mixture) in a sensitive
matter. In this way, you will become playfully more familiar with the
everyday language of the cards on the various levels through direct
observation.
The key to the deepest meaning of the cards, however, lies hidden in
the myths that humanity has told itself for thousands of years. An
occupation with the old books of wisdom, with the oral and imagistic
tradition of early cultures, leads to the encounter with archetypes of
the soul and the Tarot.

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The 22 Cards of the
Major Arcana

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 0. The Fool
Instinct: Curiosity, interest in experimentation, search for change.
Goal: Setting out in life (a new loop in the spiral of eternity).
Guiding principle: Mystical union (striving for transcendence).
Light: Positive dissolution of structures and constraints, selfless
idealism, boundless fantasy, cosmic sensibility.
Shadow: Negative dissolution of structures and compulsions,
vagueness of goals, daydreaming, infantilism, irresponsibility.
Quality: Freedom from prejudice, astonished openness.

We see a demonic green figure entwined by four spiral-formed

loops, which are divided into four circles (spiritual levels). Various
symbols can be perceived on the rainbow-colored loops. The green
Fool (Bacchus, Dionysus, the April Fool) dominates space, whereby
the soles of his boots are pointing outwards. This shows that he
has no direct contact with the earth. At first glance, it appears that
he is holding onto the firmament with his raised and spread arms
(the corners of the card symbolize endless space). His lustful facial
expression is crowned by a pair of horns, between which a crystal-
line diamond cone rises up, touching the tip of the pyramid of light
surrounding him. His mad gaze goes past the observer (we cannot
look the Fool in the eyes because his visual axis is slightly shifted). He
holds an upside-down chalice in his right hand, and in his left hand
there is a flaming pine cone with flares of fire creating an arc over his
crown chakra. A plump cluster of grapes falls over his left shoulder;
beneath it, coins imprinted with astrological symbols are raining
down. Between his thighs there is a strange flower form, and in the
center of the figure, at the focal point of procreative power, a sun
is displayed.

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Archetype—The world egg, the Uroboros, or the number 0 as symbol
of original totality, or the paradox that nothing is something.
Astrology—Pisces in transition to Aries. On another level, also
Uranus/Mercury in the sense of openness, curiosity, spontaneity, and
craziness; in relation to Neptune as an expression of being guided.
Tree of Life—Kether on the threshold to Chokmah. Kether is the
unity beyond all contradictions, and Chokmah is the positive, mascu-
line power.

I. The Magus
Instinct: Assertiveness (will to act).
Goal: Self-realization.
Guiding principle: “I want!”
Light: Activity, strength of will, vital energy.
Shadow: Aggressiveness, egoism, misuse of power.
Quality: Drive, impetus, energy.

The focus of this card is a pleasant, youthful figure with great

dexterity (on tiptoe) standing on the mountain of the unconscious
and juggling with diverse symbols floating around it. His ankles are
encompassed by a giant pair of wings (symbol of Mercury) balancing
the youth in his enraptured, exaggerated pose. An enraged ape climbs
up out of the lower region. A golden net of rays spreads over the
entire card and disappears into the background. Behind the back
of the figure is a triangular space left open, allowing a glance into
the imagination beyond rational thought. The head of the youth is
crowned by the turban-like figure of two snakes entwined within each
other, developing into a winged symbol (Eye of Horus), with a dove
(symbol of the Holy Spirit) in the middle.
Archetype—The procreating masculine or the heavenly father.

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Astrology—Sun/Mercury in Aries. The Sun in the sense of strength
and magnetism. Mercury in regards to agility and skillfulness.
Tree of Life—From Kether to Binah. “Mercury is the Path leading
from Kether to Binah, the Understanding; and thus He is the
messenger of the gods, represents precisely that Lingam, the Word of
creation whose speech is silence.” (Crowley)

II. The High Priestess

Instinct: Longing for the inner sources.
Goal: Being guided, being touched, becoming one with the orig-
inal cause.
Guiding principle: Alma Mater (mother of the principle souls),
Matris Spirituale (spiritual mother), or the moon reflecting on the
surface of the water as a symbol of feminine wisdom rising from
the unconscious.
Light: Intuitive perception, spiritual wisdom, patience.
Shadow: Daydreaming, escaping from reality, moodiness, doubt,
phoniness, existential dread.
Quality: Lunar consciousness, wisdom of the womb.

In the depths of the picture we see a secretive manifestation that holds

a large veil. A fine mesh covers most of the picture, but collapses in
the upper portion. The background reveals a part of the goddess
loosening the veiling and showing herself to the observer. However,
she still cannot be clearly seen since between her naked upper body
and the eye of the observer there are “spheres of light” layered on top
of each other and a three-dimensional lemniscate (infinity symbol)
floats in front of her face. The crown on her head symbolizes the
three phases of the moon: the full moon in the middle, and the
waxing and waning crescents to the left and right. Behind this we see
seven moon crescents. The highest transparency, however, is shown
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in the elliptic-shaped lines that curve upwards, deepening the aura of
the High Priestess in time and eternity. The lower part of the Priestess
is completely covered by the net. There are a bow and arrow on her
knee, symbols of the Egyptian goddess Neith, who was then named
Isis of Sais. At the lower border of the picture (in front of the net) are
various symbols: crystals, flowers, fruit, and a camel in the middle.
Archetype—The mystery of the feminine.
Astrology—Moon in Scorpio in the twelfth house. The Moon as
an expression of our lunar consciousness, Scorpio as a sign of the
power of the unconscious, and the twelfth house as the mystery of the
unfathomable.
Tree of Life—The connection between Kether and Tiphareth. The
path from Kether (“the eternal”) to Tiphareth (“consciousness and
harmony”) correlates to Jacob’s ladder upon which the angels go up
and down. The angels are symbols of the exchange between divine
and human energy, representing the idea that is striving for form and
expression.

III. The Empress

Instinct: Devotion and motherhood (“to open up and let oneself
be penetrated...”)
Goal: Birth (“...and to create something new through the connec-
tion of the internal and the external”)
Guiding principle: Mother Nature.
Light: The positive side of the earthly mother: love, trust, growth,
touch, merging, fulfillment.
Shadow: Stepmother or the destructive mother: greed, avarice,
envy, self-indulgence, indolence, inflexibility.
Quality: Fondness of the body, sensuality, love of abundance,
security, safeness, revealing that which is new.

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The picture shows a crowned woman on a throne, the pillars of which
are suggested by blue, serpentine flames. The observer notices the
turned body: chest and arms are facing forward in comparison to the
face and lower body, which are turned to the left side, contrasting her
strong upper body (motherly strength), the rounded bottom (sensu-
ality), and the blooming lotus (fertility) in her right hand. Crowley
writes:
In her right hand she bears the lotus of Isis; the lotus represents
the feminine, or passive power. Its roots are in the earth beneath
the water, or in the water itself, but it opens its petals to the Sun.
Perching upon the flamelike uprights of her throne are two of
her most sacred birds, the sparrow and the dove; beneath the
throne is a floor of tapestry, embroidered with fleur-de-lis and
fishes. The heraldry of the Empress is two-fold: on the one side,
the pelican of tradition feeding its young from the blood of its
own heart; on the other, the white eagle of the Alchemist.
The two-headed eagle is an alchemical symbol of transformation and
rebirth, describing the cycles of creation. It underscores the inner
wisdom of the Empress that all life flows from the “sources of the
mother” and makes its appearance (birth) when all of the prerequi-
sites for it have been fulfilled. The pelican, which feeds its young with
its own blood, is a symbol of boundless devotion and motherly love,
even if this symbolism is quite easily explained. In order to cough up
food for its young it bends its neck so much that the beak touches
its chest. Since there is frequently still fish blood on the beak, its
white feathers turn red, giving the impression that it has pecked itself
bloody in order to feed the young on its own blood.
Archetype—Mother Earth, Mother Nature (the grain, the source).
Astrology—Venus in Taurus in the sense of fertility and growth, or
the Earth as the true ruler of Taurus (in the horoscope the Earth is in
exact opposition to the sun).

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Tree of Life—The horizontal axis between Chokmah and Binah.
Chokmah symbolizes the universal power and Binah represents
the Goddess of Heaven, which shows the creation to be in a state of
balance. Crowley writes: “Daleth is the path leading from Chokmah
to Binah, uniting the Father with the Mother.”

IV. The Emperor

Instinct: Rulership (of the mind over nature).
Goal: Justice and order (as opposed to arbitrariness and chaos).
Guiding principle: The structuring red thread.
Light: Creativity, perception, stability, perspective, realism, objec-
tivity, sense of responsibility.
Shadow: High-handedness, perfectionism, cleverness without
intuition. The restriction of reality, rationality as a prison. Order
as an end in itself.
Quality: Courage and leadership ability.

The card of the Emperor shows a mature, massive figure wrapped in

majestic garments and framed by two large ram’s heads that occupy
the pillars or backrest of a crystal throne. At the same time, he is illu-
minated by an invisible source of light. His head is turned to the right.
The crimson red mantle is embroidered with golden emblems, and
there is a mighty crown upon his head. He holds a scepter topped by
a ram’s head in his right hand, and an orb surmounted with a Maltese
cross rests in his left. The arms and head (from the elbows to the
hairline) form an equilateral triangle, and the legs are crossed to form
a right-angled T. His posture thereby corresponds to the symbol for
sulfur, which in alchemy is the expression of fiery, masculine energy.
A lamb and the double eagle of the Empress card rest at his feet.
Archetype—The father (the “controlled” world).

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Astrology—Aries.
Tree of Life—The axis Netzach—Yesod. From anarchy to structure:
from rampant chaos (Netzach) to fundamental strength (Yesod).

V. The Hierophant
Instinct: The search for hidden truth.
Goal: Knowledge and enlightenment as an experience indepen-
dent of science and dogmatic religion.
Guiding principle: Priest, teacher, dignitary (representatives of
spiritual laws).
Light: Search for meaning, revelation, search for truth.
Shadow: Intolerance, presumption, esoteric arrogance.
Quality: Belief, trust, illumination (guide to redemption).

At the central point there are various triangles set within each other,
which we could call crystallized cells, forming the surface of the
card into a labyrinth of time and space. Crowley called it the intro-
duction of the birth of the new Aeon: the divine child Horus (see
Atu XX). The complex geometrical forms in which the Hierophant
is embedded are pentagons and five-sided stars, symbols of the
quintessence and discovery of meaning. As a section from another
dimension of time and space, as the flaming of sexuality in the
pattern of repressed perception, or in the spirit of emotional
untouchability, the dark goddess stands at his feet. Immersed in
a beam of light in a brighter section of the card, she is the Great
Mother who never lets go of her son. Crowley himself has associated
the Hierophant with sadistic characteristics and thereby quoted the
Devil who befouled the beard of God the Father.
There is a panorama of archetypal pictures around the figure of the
priest: bull, elephant, and symbols of the four cherubim. In the

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“snake of redemption” (kundalini), nailed around the head with
nine nails like a halo, we find the spiritual mind that not only winds
around the aura of his head with erotic pleasure, but also indicates
the heavenly heights and presence of the gods at the end of the dove’s
tail. Crowley writes: The symbolism of the snake and dove refers to
this verse of the “Book of the Law”—Chap. 1, Verse 57: “There are
love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent.”
Archetype—God’s representative. The pontifex is the bridge between
human beings and God.
Astrology—Taurus. Crowley sees the Earth in its strongest and most
balanced form in this card. This is why the throne of the Hierophant
is surrounded by a bull and an elephant, through which the weight of
matter is reflected particularly well.
Tree of Life—From Chokmah to Chesed. The invisible as reality:
Chesed is growth and intensification, Chokmah the first manifesta-
tion of the invisible in the visible.

VI. The Lovers

Instinct: Devotion and unification of opposites.
Goal: Merging with totality; becoming one.
Guiding principle: Love as expression of totality and
completeness.
Light: Avowal and free decision from the depths of the heart.
Shadow: Unattainable ideal of love, repressive neurosis, self-sacri-
fice, indecisiveness, inconsistency within oneself.
Quality: Courageous decisions.

The Lovers, a card of poetic beauty connecting the external form

with creative contents, searches for meaning beyond everyday images
within the veils of the Story of Creation and the Fall of Man. This

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depth of focus is taken from the “Chymical Marriage of the Christian
Rosicrucian,” where drowsiness drunken with desire is stylized into
“being surrounded by love,” but behind which there is concealed
a dozing off into “no longer existing,” corresponding more to the
repressed soul part of dark spirituality. This card does justice to these
circumstances by portraying one pole of the two lovers with dark
skin color. In the middle of the picture we see the black or Moorish
king (with the golden crown and red lion) who is promised to the
white queen with the silver crown and the white eagle. This ardor of
humanness expresses the attraction of opposites, the love relationship
between man and woman, the striving to reestablish the lost unity in
the universe: the condition before the expulsion from paradise. The
corresponding Hebrew letter Zain means a sword, the instrument of
division, and therefore a symbol of polarity. This is why the frame-
work of the card consists of a dome of swords, beneath which the
royal wedding takes place. Crowley compares the male and female
rulers with acid and lye, with the inclusion of hydrogen and oxygen.
The cloaked, powerful figure behind the two of them protectively
holding its hands over their heads would, on this level, be the protean
element carbon, source of organic life. Invoked by the great magi-
cian, visualized by Cupid, and materialized by the snake (around
the winged “Orphic egg”), the Lovers could also be regarded as the
materialization of the eternal, developing itself into the continuously
new life seen in the two children.
Archetype—Eros.
Astrology—Venus/Mars (on a higher level Sun/Moon). The
masculine planets Sun and Mars and the feminine planets Moon
and Venus not only give insight into wishes and preferences in the
relationship, but also show us our self-image as well as the image
of what we are searching for and thereby describe how the union of
the four should appear.

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Tree of Life—The connection between Binah and Tiphareth. Crowley
writes: “From this point of view, he is a symbol of inspiration (Binah),
descending upon the hooded figure (Tiphareth), who is, in this
instance, a prophet operating the conjunction of the King and Queen.”

VII. The Chariot

Instinct: Desire for conquest, spirit of adventure, daring.
Goal: The highest achievable good: the Holy Grail.
Guiding principle: The hero setting off.
Light: The forces setting off, the path that leads forward, the
searching for and finding of one’s own place in the world.
Shadow: High-handedness, megalomania, ultimate failure because
of obstacles.
Quality: Victory over one’s self: self-knowledge, overcoming one’s
self, victory.

The card of the Chariot shows us a charioteer in golden armor, absorbed

within himself in a meditative pose (yoga posture). The entire power of
this card, which stands out at first glance, generally seems to have come
to a standstill under closer examination. However, even in the condition
of repose there is still the expression of a mighty potential of power. It
is a peaceful power that has gathered within itself and around its center,
explaining the external condition of repose: the pull of the eternal (the
concentric circles in the background), integrating human beings with all
of their activities into the active plan of creation, and having its micro-
cosmic equivalent in the perpetually revolving movement of the Holy
Grail chalice at the center of the charioteer.
The enormous red chariot wheels are symbolic of the pure intention to
act (I want!), relating the motivation to act to one’s own actions. The
four columns that carry the blue canopy (correlating to the night sky)
are derived from the old worldview in which they support the sky, just

21
as the draft animals are four guardians of the heavens in the form of
cherubim. This also shows that the movement within the card is exten-
sive and goes in all directions of the heavens. It then correlates to the
task of human beings to make the earth subject unto them.
The hero, who opens himself inwardly, holds out the Grail to the
observer. Both (the golden knight is a reflection of the observer) are
then given the opportunity to attain a feeling for the power of the
center.
Archetype—The hero setting off; beginning of the search for the Grail.
Tree of Life—The path from Binah to Geburah. Crowley comments:
Cancer is the cardinal sign of the element of Water, and represents the
first keen onrush of that element. Cancer also represents the path which
leads from the great Mother Binah to Geburah (movement), and is thus
the influence of the Supernals descending through the Veil of Water
(which is blood) upon the energy of man, and so inspires it.
Astrology—Mars (or Aries) in association with the Sun or Mercury.
Mars as the symbol of assertiveness is connected with the Sun as the
image of the will or with Mercury as symbol of the path of a mutual
setting off of the forces.

VIII. Adjustment
Instinct: Perceptive will, finding harmony by mastering reality.
Goal: Taking responsibility for oneself, self-realization, objectivity.
Guiding principle: Justice and order (mediator function between
idealistic expectations and earthly feasibility).
Light: Balance, fairness, discernment, greatest possible objectivity,
reasonable decisions.
Shadow: Self-righteousness, hypocrisy.
Quality: Fairness, law, structure.

22
The fascinating, almost exaggerated picture of harmony, staged from
its inner center and set into space, complements the image of the Fool
and corresponds with the High Priestess. The Fool, who evades the
contradictions of reality and flees back into the depths of the uncon-
scious, is presented as the opposite of the trump VIII card. This card
rep­resents the completely controlled compensation that maintains
this balance through concentration. We recognize a masked young
woman standing on her tiptoes. She is adorned with the ostrich
feathers of Maat, the Egyptian goddess of justice. The magic wand
with which she balances her body is a magical sword that she holds
between her thighs and turns into the ground. As she does so, her
eyes are covered by a face mask. This means that she does not see the
world externally, but rather creates for herself a picture of the world
from within. The inner adjustment of the world is represented by
two large weighing-scale pans, in which the “Alpha” and the “Omega”
find their complete balance. Since these scales are also fas­tened to the
crown of inner wisdom, we recognize how the entire figure is held by
its inner balance.
Archetype—The judge; world harmony.
Astrology—Venus in Libra in the sense of fairness and balance with
the “crystallizing” aspect to Saturn. This connection symbolizes the
structure overlapping the harmony of Venus, which also well illus-
trates Crowley’s legacy: “Love is the law, love under will!”
Tree of Life—The connection between Geburah and Tiphareth.
Geburah (movement) shows the course of time within which life
“moves,” and Tiphareth symbolizes the balance between growth
(Chesed) and destruction (Geburah). At the same time, it is a reflec-
tion of the higher divine spheres (Kether), which Goethe expressed in
these words: “Only the law can give us freedom.”

23
 IX. The Hermit
Instinct: Retreat from life, flight from the masses, withdrawal into
oneself, introversion.
Goal: Truth, knowledge, finding one’s self (disillusionment and
self-discipline lead to clear discernment).
Guiding principle: The lantern as a guide; the inner light.
Light: Wisdom, enlightenment, emotional maturity.
Shadow: Narcissism, rigidity, hardness, alienation, bitterness,
hostility towards life.
Quality: Inner depth and taking life seriously.

The card shows the perhaps best-known archetype of the old wise
man (like Merlin or Abraham) as seeker and guide. The old man
primarily embodies withdrawal, external repose, seclusion, and
introversion as the imperative prerequisites for concentrating oneself
on the essentials and on the crystallization of one’s own personality.
He therefore represents a phase in which—not distracted by the
externals—we must become clear within ourselves, for it is his goal
to devote himself to the inner origin of things and supplement the
external knowledge of the Hierophant with that inner knowledge.
Through his turning away from the world, he directs his interest to
the origin of all things: to the world egg or “Orphic egg” embraced
by the great snake Ophion. It is less a matter of finding the images
dogmatically safeguarding the area of spiritual dominion, but rather
of searching for the truth behind the images. This requires circum-
spection, concentration, asceticism, fasting, silence, withdrawal, going
into oneself, and humility. The Hermit personifies powerful repose
and inner concentration. Just as the Moon card—the cross-sum of
which he forms—deals with the opening up of inner spaces, this card
focuses on the exploration of spaces of consciousness. In doing so, he
penetrates into the mysteries and into the deepest abysses (Hound of

24
Hell). In no way is this a matter of simple intellectualism. As Merlin,
he is the servant of the Moon Goddess, whose holy number of three
times three he bears as the ninth card. In his hand he holds a lamp in
the form of an octahedron (having eight sides), its inner sun shed-
ding light on the mysteries. The eight indicates two worlds flowing
into each other. Eight-sided stars and octagons are considered the
transitional form between the earthly square and the divine circle.
They thereby show the utmost that we humans can achieve when we
strive towards the divine (globe) from the earthly sphere (cube). The
Hermit sees the secret of the origins of nature beyond its variety and
lushness.
Archetype—The wise old man; the inner companion.
Astrology—Saturn as the “guardian of the threshold” or Saturn
in Aquarius as the striving for wisdom and the preservation of
independence.
Tree of Life—From Chesed to Tiphareth. From the thought form
(Chesed = condensation, materialization) to the spirit of God.
(Tipareth is the perceptive consciousness, the longing for God—
the reflection of the Kether sphere—transformed into the divine
consciousness.)

25
 X. Fortune
(Wheel of Fortune)

Instinct: Continuous growth and decay (eternal change, alterna-

tion, new beginning).
Goal: Acceptance of destiny, understanding the purpose in life,
and the transformation of the lower into the higher.
Guiding principle: The wheel as symbol of the revolving heavens,
the stars of which proclaim the fates of human beings.
Light: Unexpected turn of events (good fortune), perception
of karma.
Shadow: Turns for the worse, fatalism.
Quality: Composure and high spirits through deep self-
knowledge and acceptance of purpose in life.

The picture shows the (vertical) wheel in front of a background of

energy swirls and lightning. The lightning bolts are associated with
Zeus, who Crowley equated with Jupiter in this card. They emanate
from the oval form (horizontal or divine wheel) at the upper edge
of the card. The energy swirls are the result of its constant rotational
movement. On the vertical wheel we find the images: Hermanubis,
the shaping and initiating ape creature; Typhon, the destructive and
retro­spective crocodile; and, at the highest point, the connective
Sphinx holding the polarities in bal­ance. Together they represent the
three energy forms that rule over the movement of events. These are
best-known in the form of the three highest Indian deities: Brahma,
the creator (Hermanubis); Vishnu, the preserver (the Sphinx); and
Shiva, the destroyer (Typhon). This trinity that keeps the wheel of
growth and decay in motion, makes it clear that heaven and hell not
only battle with each other but also complement each other. The
darkness is not the opposite of the light through which the light can

26
be avoided, but rather an aspect of the light. Evil is not what destroys,
but rather what disturbs the balance of the cosmos. This can also
sometimes be that which is good; and the good is not simply what
gives life to the creation, but rather what keeps the creative order in
balance, and this also includes destruction.
Archetype—Destiny.
Astrology—Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The lords of karma!
Tree of Life—The axis Chesed-Netzach. Chesed means the realiza-
tion, materialization, and potency of growth, and Netzach shows the
vehement power of passing energy. The axis embodies the free play of
the powers only in balance because of the impeturbable lawfulness of
infinite changes.

XI. Lust
Instinct: Energy, passion, charisma.
Goal: Joy in life, initiation, sexual transformation (changing the
animalistic nature through loving acceptance).
Guiding principle: Taming of the lion.
Light: Strength, power, vitality.
Shadow: Weakness, lack of fulfillment, depression (aggression,
perversion, and addiction as a result of repressed instincts).
Quality: High spirits and vital energy.

This card reflects a central theme in the life of Aleister Crowley, and at
the same time symbolizes a motif from the Apocalypse (Rev. 17.3-4).
A beast with the number 666 is mentioned there, corresponding to
the Antichrist, upon which the Harlot Babylon rides as the scarlet
woman. Crowley identified himself with this animal early in life,
and every one of his numerous lovers was given the honorary title of
“scarlet woman.” The card shows her to be a woman enraptured in

27
the desires of the senses, riding on the back of a lion-like mixed crea-
ture. She symbolizes the sexual ecstasy pouring from every pore of
her body. Her desire is more than just the presentation of naked skin,
her lust is rapture and divine energy. No one can describe this better
than Crowley himself: “She rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she
holds the reins, representing the passion that unites them. In her right
she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death.”
And he further writes:
There is in this card a divine drunkenness or ecstasy. The woman
is shown as more than a little drunk, and more than a little
mad; and the lion also is aflame with lust. This signifies that the
type of energy described is of the primitive, creative order; it
is completely independent of the criticism of reason. This card
portrays the will of the Aeon. In the background are the blood-
less images of the saints, on whom this image travels, for their
whole life has been absorbed into the Holy Grail.
Archetype—The wild.
Astrology—Venus in Leo. The creative development of the libido
leads to passion, desire, and erotic charisma.
Tree of Life—The connection between Chesed and Geburah. Chesed
embodies materialization, condensation, and completion. Geburah
is resistance, prevention, and war. Both are, however, in balance with
each other on the horizontal axis. This not only means war and resis-
tance, but also happiness through the power of life, as Crowley writes:
“Lust through the joy of strength exercised.”

28
 XII. The Hanged Man
Instinct: Sacrifice and devotion (acceptance of destiny and search
for deeper meaning).
Goal: Redemption, maturity, finding wisdom, the redemptive
absorption.
Guiding principle: The yogi doing a headstand, the enlightened
person.
Shadow: Standstill, resistance and self-sacrifice, being stuck,
hanging in the air, not seeing any purpose in life.
Quality: New view of the world.

We see the Hanged Man stretched out with his head downward, cruci-
fied between life and death. The snake of life winds around his left
foot, binding him to the ankh that appears out of the white light. This
ancient Egyptian tau cross embodies vital energy. Head and hands,
however, are turned towards the snake of death that rests beneath
him in the grave. The background forms a lattice of small quadrants
representing the table of elements, upon which all the names and
symbols of the natural energies are listed. These quadrants and the
crossed legs are symbolic of the number four, always an expression
of earthly reality. However, the circles upon which the Hanged Man
is nailed have the symbolic value of the absolute and divine, just as
the number three expressed by the three nails represents the divine.
This then reflects the most common form of the crucifix, where Jesus
is nailed to the cross with three nails: the divine (3) is nailed to the
earthly suffering (4), hung between the human basic values of life
and death. The sense of this sacrifice is redemption. On the level of
depth psychology, the ego sacrifices itself in order to be resurrected in
the divine self. The indispensable experience for this transformation
is the encounter with death (the following card), the central theme
of the initiation rites of all mystery cults. The insight into one’s own

29
narrow limitation allows the ego to become modest and entrust guid-
ance to the Higher Self.
Archetype—The hanged god; the sacrifice.
Astrology—Uranus, Neptune, and the twelfth house. Uranus as the
abolition and reversal, Neptune in the sense of sacrifice and enlight-
enment, and the twelfth house as a symbol of the transformation
through isolation and deep insight.
Tree of Life—The path from Geburah to Hod. The way out of the
impediment (Geburah), based upon the socially accepted patterns of
behavior not wanting to be destroyed through new insights, leads to
the birth of the self through a visionary reaction that turns everything
upside down (Hod).

XIII. Death
Instinct: Dying and becoming, growing and decaying.
Goal: Transformation.
Guiding principle: The great letting go (death).
Light: Making room for the new.
Shadow: Fear (fear of death).
Quality: Inner wisdom; consistency.

The card shows the dance of death that embodies the eternal cycle of
the “dying and growing” principle in its interplay. We see a kneeling
skeleton wielding a scythe and harvesting all the withered forms that
have fallen through fate’s woven pattern. The separation of the mortal
threads lets bubbles rise up out of the muddy cesspool where new life
is germinating. It climbs up on the threads of time like shining cotton
swabs, continuously expanding itself into new formations of time and
space. Death itself creates them by stirring them up out of the slag of
the unfathomable. This instinctual drive of the eternal is symbolized

30
by a scorpion with a poisonous stinger, brooding between two dead
swamp flowers, the lotus and the lily. Together with the snake, fish,
and eagle it is a symbol of resurrection. The Teutons knew from their
god Odin that he could take astral trips into distant, afterlife worlds
if he changed his form before doing so. His body then lay there as if
it was asleep or dead. However, he himself had turned into a bird or a
wild animal (corresponding here to the perilousness of the scorpion),
a fish, or snake. According to Crowley, this card illustrates the idea
of putrefaction, the rotting fermentation in the alchemical process,
which is the prerequisite and basis for new life or for a new push in
development.
Archetype—The departure; death.
Astrology—Saturn in the eighth house. The planet of limitations,
separation, and departure in the field of “dying and becoming.”
Tree of Life—The axis Tiphareth-Nezach. Tiphareth describes the
condition of the creation in its most balanced form, and Netzach
shows the passing of matter: The axis shows the path of the dissolu-
tion of things!

31
 XIV. Art
(Alchemy)

Instinct: Solve et coagula (dissolve and bind): the reunification of

that which has been dissolved on a new level.
Goal: The philosopher’s stone (ultima materia).
Guiding principle: Search for the innermost core (of being).
Light: The proper measure (proportionality and harmony).
Shadow: Excess (conflicts, dissipation), tendency towards
extremes.
Quality: Fulfillment, peace, harmony.

The alchemists called their craft “art” (ars perfectionis or ars philo-
sophica—the art of perfection or philosophical art), the main task
of which was to combine opposites with each other on a higher level
in order to thereby transform what is base into something more
elevated. Within the four elements (fire, air, earth, and water), fire and
water form the most extreme pair of opposites, so that their unifica-
tion signifies the greatest art. This connection, represented in the card
of the Fool above his head, now moves into the center of the picture.
The fusion of fire and water is, however, not just an external, but also
an internal process. The connection between the Emperor and the
Empress, still just a self-reflection (because they do not look at each
other but only see themselves in the picture), can now be completed.
This card shows the fulfillment of the marriage represented by the
Lovers. The two representatives are now merged into a single androg-
ynous figure, derived from the Greek Artemis. Even the bees and
snakes on her robes have united themselves. Lion and eagle have
gained in size and also exchanged their colors. From our own phases
of transformation we know that such changes do not take place
without pain. All of the dark and ego-centered thoughts must die

32
before the individual can be reborn like the Phoenix from the ashes.
This is also expressed by the vapors rising from the boiling kettle as
they surge upwards in the colors of the rainbow and flow around
the shoulders of the androgynous double person. An arrow shoots
upwards into the center of this stream of light. The robe of the figure
is green, the color of nature. Behind it there shines a giant sun with
the inscription: VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO
INVENFIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM (visit the interior parts of the
earth; by rectification you shall find the hidden stone). The alchemists
based the word Chyma in the alchemy on the Egyptian word kemet,
which means black, and as materia prima was equated with the black
fertile Nile mud, the dark topsoil of life, or the body of Isis.
Archetype—The guide of the soul; the golden mean.
Astrology—Mercury as the ruler of Virgo and the sixth house.
Balance and harmony or purification and transformation processes
(sometimes on the level of a sterile repression of instincts hostile to
the body).
Tree of Life—The fundamental power of Yesod (foundation) leads in
a direct beam to Tiphareth (sun). The result of the alchemical oper-
ation rises like a stream of light from the kettle (Yesod) and spreads
itself into a rainbow-colored flower (Tiphareth).

33
 XV. The Devil
Instinct: Strong instinctive and suggestive power, lust for power,
but also the fight against evil.
Goal: Black magic, ritualized sexuality, ego transformation
through group rituals. Reversed: the Inquisition, which burned
people (mostly women) as witches in the name of God.
Guiding principle: The encounter with the shadow, the sum of
unlived possibilities.
Light: Perception of the true, complete self. Lucifer as the bringer
of light.
Shadow: Fateful entanglements, (self-) destructive drives. Hell,
darkness, dark powers, collective hysteria.
Quality: The power constantly wanting evil and continuously
creating that which is good!

The principle of darkness (the creative energy in its most material

form) is portrayed in the center of the card as a rock goat (Himalayan
goat) with mighty sweeping horns. This represents Banebdjedet, the
Egyptian goat god of Mendes, which the Greeks identified with the
lustful vegetation god Pan (son of Hermes). His facial expression is sly
because he represents the shadow, the dark instincts, or that which is
unheard of, as well as being a key to unused chambers in the sources
of the human psyche: You are only aware of the one instinct, you
never get to know the other (Faust).
Crowley writes:
He rejoices in the rugged and the barren no less than in the
smooth and the fertile. All things equally exalt him. He represents
the finding of ecstasy in every phenomenon, however naturally
repugnant; he transcends all limitations; he is Pan; he is All. We
see him in front of a tree trunk, which thrusts into the heavens,

34
 symbolic of the erect member growing into the yoni of the night
goddess. The two spheres represent a cross-section of the testi-
cles, within which new life germinates.
There is an elemental force at work here, the dark pole of creation,
dangerous but essential to life. This is also represented by the staff
with the winged knob and the Uraeus snakes (kings symbol of
ancient Egypt), the shaft of which penetrates downwards into the
roots. Concealed between the bird wings on the tip of the staff is the
Egyptian symbol of the winged sun. It corresponds to the light in
the darkness (the open third eye on the forehead of Pan) that arises
knowingly out of the depths: “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose,
delivered from the lust of result, is in every way perfect.” (Crowley
“Liber Al vel Legis” 42-4).
Archetype—The adversary as the dark side of God.
Astrology—Saturn’s heirs in their forms of expression as dark powers
(Pluto in the eleventh house or Uranus in the eighth house).
Tree of Life—The axis Tiphareth-Hod (with the predominance on
Hod). We feel ourselves trapped in the compulsive structures of Hod
and if our inner middle is our goal (Tiphareth = harmony), then we
must place the experiences of the Devil, which confront us with the
baser instincts in our own psyche, between the two Sephiroth.

35
 XVI. The Tower
Instinct: Destruction of form, nullification and upheaval of
values.
Goal: The truth, enlightenment or perception that strikes like
lightning and destroys falseness and rigid ideas.
Guiding principle: “The eye of God” (lightning-like
enlightenment).
Light: Overcoming one’s self (setting the soul free).
Shadow: Blind destruction.
Quality: Breaking open encrustations; passing through the pain to
a new birth (every ending is a new beginning!).

The Tower stands for hardening and encrustations of the human

soul or for a consciousness that has become stuck in rigid ideas. In
contrast, lightning and fire embody the bursting power breaking
down old boundaries or standards. The figures falling from the Tower
have taken on geometric (uniform) shapes, which represent their
being paralyzed by the external pressure to produce results. The eye of
Horus shining upon everything corresponds to the Eye of Shiva, the
opening of which would destroy the universe. Closest to the eye we
see a dove carrying an olive branch in its beak, standing in opposi-
tion to the lion-serpent, an ancient Egyptian and Gnostic symbol
protecting against evil. Every collapse can prove to be beneficial, in as
far as the destruction is accepted as an opportunity for renewal.
Archetype—Lightning; upheaval.
Astrology—Saturn/Uranus (flaming perception) as the sudden
eruption of encrustations and the related destruction of old values.
Tree of Life—From the flowing that lacks in contour and structure
(Netzach) to the exaggerated, detail-obsessed structure of Hod.
Between the imbalance of Netzach and the imbalance of Hod, the

36
breaking of the polarized matter must be reckoned with. However,
it is precisely through destruction that this is frequently psychically
transformed into a “higher balance.”

XVII. The Star

Instinct: Devotion to the moment.
Goal: Spiritual introspection, insight into the perfection of the
cosmos, renewal, and rebirth.
Guiding principle: Star of Bethlehem (trust in a higher order).
Light: Creative hope (maintaining a conception of what is
possible).
Shadow: Destructive hope (denial of the truth), illusion.
Quality: Carefreeness, trust in the future.

The Star is the card touching the longing in the depths of our uncon-
scious, and this longing is equivalent to the longing of life for itself.
For in the water of the unconscious that Nut or Isis pours over herself
we recognize the spiral-formed energy around the seven-pointed star,
which is an exact representation of the even-pointed star in the great
firmament. We therefore see the creative impulse of the eternal in the
waters of life, responsible for the births of humanity as well as the
birth of the universe. This creative impulse is not only the original
symbol of life, but also the hope that out of the rubble (the Tower)
new life will grow time and again. The entire card is a vision of
indescribable power, which we call the principle of eternal renewal. It
marks a return to the fundamentals in which we recognize ourselves
as part of the greater whole, and this greater whole is the impulse of
life itself.
Archetype—The water of life.
Astrology—Jupiter in Aquarius (eleventh house) in the sense of

37
confidence and farsightedness, or Venus in Pisces (twelfth house)
as an expression of longing for the unfathomable and the striving
for God.
Tree of Life—Chokmah-Tiphareth: Chokmah’s indescribable vision
shimmers through the face of Tiphareth, in which the reflection
of the indescribable is expressed, but this time as an inner vision.
Chokmah (wisdom) stands for the first manifestation of the divine in
contact with the psychical reality; Tiphareth (harmony) describes the
condition of balance and is at the same time a reflection of the star
plane (Kether sphere).

XVIII. The Moon

Instinct: Descent into the underworld, journey into the uncon-
scious depths.
Goal: The eerie path into the depths of the soul, confrontation
with the night, encounter with fears. Deepest self-knowledge.
Guiding principle: The scarab as symbol of the sun in the
darkness.
Light: Devotion to intuitive knowledge.
Shadow: Illusion, hysteria, persecution complex, hallucinations,
fear, drug abuse, flight from reality.
Quality: Mirror of the soul, or bridge between the inner and
outer world.

The secretive Moon, connection between the unconscious desire

(the Star) and the conscious striving (the Sun) encounters us as an
axis between the inner and outer world. On the spiritual level it is
the storyteller describing the image world of the soul. In the lower
third of the card, we recognize the murky waters of the underworld,
the middle point of which is the holy scarab as a symbol of resur-
rection. In its pinchers it holds the sun, leading it to the sunrise. Its
38
light is connected with the dawning of the half-conscious world, for
we see the circle of light extending into the middle portion of the card
as the beginning of the path that pushes into consciousness between
the eerie watchmen and the dark towers. The sun symbolizes not only
the unconscious longing (between the births) on the threshold to the
light, but is also the symbol of resurrection and reincarnation. In the
design of the card, interesting in the sense of perspective (the lower
part is two-dimensional, the upper is spatially structured), we find the
“bringing into relationship” of the inner with the outer world; and in
the path winding out of the inner light (beneath the threshold) into the
outer light of grace, we see the inner longing on the path to conscious-
ness (the Sun) portrayed.
Archetype—The night.
Astrology—The Moon in Scorpio as dark knowledge of the depths of
the soul; the Sun in the eighth house as descent into the underworld.
Tree of Life—The connection between Netzach and Malkuth. Crowley
had the following comment about these spheres: The Moon, partaking
as she does of the highest and the lowest, and filling all the space
between, is the most universal of the Planets. In her higher aspect, she
occupies the place of the Link between the human and the divine, as
shown in Atu II (the Hierophant). In this trump, her lowest avatar, she
joins the earthy sphere of Netzach with Malkuth, the culmination in
matter of all superior forms.

39
 XIX. The Sun
Instinct: Striving for the light.
Goal: Reconciliation with the shadow side and realization of the
innermost (highest) self.
Guiding principle: The Sun as source of all life: as the generous
principle that unconditionally spends all of its energy.
Light: Vivacity, acceptance of life, vitality, generosity, warmth,
freshness, self-confidence.
Shadow: Self-satisfaction, personality cult, delusions of grandeur
(blinding, scorching, parching).
Quality: The ascent to the light.

The Sun shining upon everything is an image of flames as a symbol of

the power of life. It is the hub of creation, the rays of which penetrate
everything and upon whose wings the human being can let himself be
carried beyond himself, for his inner sun has here become the external
source of light streaming through all levels. It also represents the
enlightening powers of consciousness with which we achieve clarity
and can overcome troubles, irritations, and uncanny fears. The night-
mares of the previous card have receded, because the Sun is the power
that constantly gives of itself without limitations or conditions, its light
and warmth helping us to surmount our shadow. A rose blossoms in
its innermost part as a symbol of the fusion with the light. The Sun as
the center of the zodiac is symbolic of the divine ego. It is the goal of
our journey to our selves and represents the conscious portion of the
unfathomable mystery of life. Just as Apollo, the Sun God, was born of
Latona, Mother Night, the butterfly-winged children have been created
by the connection between day and night, from the red of the morning
sky that greets the rising Sun. The blazing heat can, however, also
scorch; we see this in the green hill, the top of which is enclosed by a
red wall. It is dangerous to cross it without proper initiation.

40
 XX. The Aeon
Instinct: Birth, renewal, awakening.
Goal: Realization of utopia.
Guiding principle: Cosmic renewal; birth of the new.
Light: Recognition of the great correlations, expanded perception
and liberation of previously concealed abilities.
Shadow: False identification, self-delusion, megalomania.
Quality: Transformation.

The Star Goddess Nut, called “symbol of unlimited possibilities” by

Crowley, in contrast to the seductive form of the “star fairy,” is not
represented in the form of a figure here “but rather as a part of the
heavens. The goddess of the heavens shows herself spatially as the
luminous blue framing of an upside-down egg of light.” This char-
acteristic nature corresponds to her hieroglyph, which at the same
time means uterus or jug. According to Crowley, the egg of light that
is upside-down and winged symbolizes the mate of Nut, whom he
calls Hadit, the ubiquitous point of view: “He is represented by a
globe of fire, signifying eternal energy; winged, to show his power of
Going.” Departing from the common tradition, Crowley ascribes the
child Harpokrates (= Horus the child) standing in the foreground to
the linkage of Nut and Hadit. However, this child embodies not only
the connection between concept (Hadit) and possibility (Nut) but is
at the same time a longitudinal section through time, a connection
between past and future). This is seen in the reduced but well-focused
figure of Haroeris (Horis the elder) in the background, who rises up
out of the past into the still undecided present, which in turn can
become the future. The double deity Horus is on a deeper level a
symbol for the beginning that creates itself from the end, and for the
end that germinates in the beginning: the nature of time.

41
Archetype—Phoenix rising out of the ashes; the birth of the divine
child.
Astrology—Jupiter/Saturn (“the disciplined vision”) in Aquarius as
expression of the liberation and redemption.
Tree of Life—The path from Hod to Malkuth. The rational striving
(Hod) exhausts itself in the earthly material level of Malkuth. At
the same time, however, the spirit of the divine rises as a sign of the
return to the spheres of the eternal.

XXI. The Universe

Instinct: Cosmic unification (symbiosis of Eros and spirituality).
Goal: Wholeness, completion.
Guiding principle: Paradise regained.
Light: Resolution of constraints, conclusion of karma.
Shadow: The street to nowhere, deceptive world of appearances,
endogenous depressions.
Quality: Completion and return home (the wayfarer in front of
the throne of God).

In the center of the card we see the virginal goddess dancing with
the snake before the background of the heavenly wheel, which
embodies the eternal becoming and passing as the turntable of the
divine plan of creation. She is the naked goddess Eurynome, of which
the Pelasgians tell us that she danced with the snake Ophion at the
beginning of time and brought forth the world egg. Just as her dance
constantly leads to new figures replacing what immediately preceded
them and letting it disappear, so is all life subject to a continual
process of transformation. The four cherubim in the corners of the
card carry the opened cosmic vulva—or the Eye of Shiva. When
considered from the horizontal viewpoint—from which a new

42
cosmos emerges, the closing of the eye also destroys the creation
again. Equivalent to this is the opened eye at the upper edge of the
circle throwing its light upon the snake. This last trump card shows
us the goal, which constantly must pass again in order to come into
being again.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven
and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more...
and he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things
new...I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
(Rev. 21.1-6)
Archetype—The crowning of the hero; the Grail that has been found.
Astrology—Neptune (cosmic experience of unity, spiritual omni-
science, the intermediate world of soul images) and Pluto (centrifugal
power of creation, upheaval, spiritual will) as the process of unifica-
tion through continuous transformation.
Tree of Life—The path from Yesod to Malkuth. The axis between the
“idea of life” (Yesod) and the “principle of matter” (Malkuth) shows
the “clockwork of the cosmos,” which keeps life in motion through its
biological rules (reproduction) and physical laws (time and space).

43
44
 The 56 Cards of the
Minor Arcana

Ace of Wands
The sparks of inspiration

Instinct: Energy, initiative, passion, willingness to take risks.

Goal: Self-realization, new goals.
Light: Courage, decisiveness, potency.
Shadow: Destruction through exaggeration, failure through
arrogance.
Quality: Pioneer spirit—the ace is always to be understood as an
opportunity that lies within us and wants to be put to use.

The picture shows a flaming staff (the “phallic” ace) as symbol of

creative fire power that is the basis of all external endeavors as an
invisible inner impulse. The torch symbolizes the inner creative
power creating itself from itself, time and again rekindling itself on
the world around us. We see an eruption of flames with power equal
to the sun; this effusive violence can also cause its own form to burst
when these energies are not directed into a constructive course.
45
45
Astrology—The fire signs.
Tree of Life—Keter (origin) through fire: the first spark of creation
(Atziluth) as father of the creative idea.
Analogies—Adam, Prometheus, Lucifer, Zeus; “God created man
according to his image.”
Image—The spark of the creation.
Keywords—Beginning, movement, development, power, idea, intu-
ition, love of life, future potential.

Two of Wands
(Dominion)
The flames of the will

Instinct: Assertiveness.
Goal: Conquest and rulership.
Light: Impulse, courage to take action.
Shadow: Destructiveness.
Quality: (Creative) will.

The card presents to us the ambiguity concealed in every symbol.

We see two crossed Dorjes or Tibetan daggers, which as thunder-
bolts signify the divine power of the destructiveness of good as well
as of evil. They wear demon masks on their ends, expressing fear as
well as magically overcoming it. On another level, the daggers are
phallic symbols and show the procreative as well as the destructive
power of sexuality. On each tip there is a pair of snakes, the poison
of which can either kill or heal. The snakes connect life and death,
the instinctual and the spiritual, and thereby proclaim the renewal
emerging from previous destruction. There are six columns of flames
darting out of the center of the crossed daggers, indicating energy and

46
strength, but also uncontrolled passion with destructive tendencies.
Astrology—Mars in Aries.
Tree of Life—Chokmah (energy) through fire: the spontaneous will.
Analogy—Expulsion from Paradise.
Image—The hissing of the flame as it ignites.
Keywords—Activity, masculinity, spontaneous power of decision;
belligerence, impatience, little endurance.

Three of Wands
(Virtue)
The flames of development

Instinct: Creativity, self-assurance, new beginning.

Goal: Confidence, security, success.
Light: Solidified power and strength; trust, vivacity, and harmony.
Shadow: Moodiness and attention-getting behavior (overestima-
tion of ones own energies).
Quality: Will and rulership in harmony with the cosmic laws.

We see three wands—two crossed and one upright—that have taken

on the form of a blossoming lotus. The flames at the point of inter-
section form a fire star and represent the basis of creative energy. The
visible exchange between the inner and outer awakening (garland of
flames and flowers) characterizes the cosmic harmony of body, soul,
and spirit. We find ourselves in a harmony that allows everything
which emerges to blossom and thrive.
Astrology—Sun in Aries.
Tree of Life—Binah (form) through fire: the inner strength.

47
Analogy—God promises to Abraham to make his descendants as
numerous as the dust upon the earth (Gen. 13.16).
Image—The bud (the sprout emerging from the seed).
Keywords—Animating plans, will to create, initiative, strong
emotional impulse, enterprising spirit.

Four of Wands
(Completion)
The flames of things emerging into being

Instinct: Order (unification, completion, overcoming of

opposites).
Goal: Control (the law of power).
Light: Completion, inner fulfillment, spiritual ideals.
Shadow: Overestimation of one’s self, blasphemy, senselessness.
Quality: The inner order of the various forms of life as micro-
cosmic expression of the cosmic order of creation.

On the Card there are eight ends of four wands (placed on top of each
other to form two crosses) touching a circle; they therefore show to the
same degree the completion as well as the limitation of the creative deed.
This statement is underlined by the eight tongues of flames around
the center. The eight-rayed figure is considered to be the connec-
tion between the earthly quadrant and the divine circle. It therefore
represents the culmination of the human will striving from the earthly
sphere (quadrant) to that of the divine (circle). One tip of the wand is
decorated by a ram’s head as an expression of the power of Mars, and on
the other end we find a dove, the symbol of Venus. This corresponds to
the balance between the sexes and the harmony of the powers.
Astrology—Venus in Aries.

48
Tree of Life—Chesed (condensation) through fire: the stabilizing
energy.
Analogy—The creative order.
Image—The golden section (symbolic of inner connection between
all creative things which are in relationship to each other).
Keywords—Concentration, stability, and summarization (energy +
structure = foundation).

Five of Wands
(Strife)
The flames of dispute

Instinct: Challenge, tension, impulsiveness.

Goal: Release of tension (mostly through conflict).
Light: Proving ones own abilities (sporting competition).
Shadow: Recklessness (rash actions).
Quality: The settling and mastering of conflicts. “The dispute is
the father of all things!” (Heraclitus).

The Five shows four crossed wands with the fifth one standing
upright in the middle. Both of the upper crossed wands are crowned
by the head of the Phoenix. This corresponds to purification through
fire and rebirth from the ashes (see the Two of Wands). Both lower
wands carry the lotus symbol of the creative energy of the Great
Mother (see Three of Wands) causing everything in existence to
blossom and thrive. The middle, thicker wand bears the uraeus sign,
the king’s sun-like symbol of ancient Egypt (Crowley speaks of the
staff of the Chief Adept). In the Magus and the Devil cards, the uraeus
staff symbolizes the greatest development (Atu I) and its chthonic
roots (Atu XV). The staff is represented in the form of an Egyptian

49
scepter here, a symbol of highest solar power whose fork-like lower
opening originally belonged to the shepherd’s staff and served to
catch snakes.
Astrology—Saturn in Leo.
Tree of Life—Geburah (upheaval) through fire: the opposing power
or the correcting strength.
Analogies—The struggle of brothers who are hostile to each other
(Cain/Abel, Gilgamesch/Enkidu, Parcival/Feirefis).
Image—Volcanic eruption or conflict as consequential release of
pent-up tensions.
Keywords—Ambition, arrogance, destruction; comparison of
strength, pugnacity, conflict.

Six of Wands
(Victory)
The flames of light

Instinct: Joy, optimism, victorious struggle.

Goal: Triumph and culmination, climax.
Light: Emotional warmth, sunny disposition.
Shadow: Presumption, excess of emotion, personality cult.
Quality: Belief in life, creative power.

On the card are wands of the lotus blossoms that harmoniously unite
the Phoenix heads and the winged-sun disk with the uraeus snakes.
Two groups of threes are crossed, and at their intersections burn nine
luminous flames as expression of the stabilizing and flowing energy.
This represents the spirit in its highest form. The spirit of God (Ace of
Wands) is expanded with the material form and reflects the Creator

50
in the bringing forth of his creations.
Astrology—Jupiter in Leo
Tree of Life—Tiphareth (middle point) through the fire: the peak
that radiates above everything else.
Analogy—The entry into Jerusalem or Nike, the winged goddess of
victory.
Image—The light of the sun.
Keywords—Enthusiasm, trust, loyalty.

Seven of Wands
(Valour)
The flames of boldness

Instinct: Daring (attack from the defensive position).

Goal: Resistance against the external world.
Light: Bravery, courage, fighting spirit.
Shadow: Indecisiveness, ignorance, discrepancy between instinct
(courage) and spirit (sense).
Quality: Heroic dedication of personality (daredevil behavior,
rising above oneself, power of regeneration).

On the picture we recognize six wands, two with lotus blossoms, two
with Phoenix heads, and two with the winged sun disc and the uraeus
snakes; three are crossed with three. Their effect is to diminish and
they form the background for a vertical, bent stick in the middle that
has the shape of an unhewn club. This stick is the weapon of the hero
(Mars in Leo) who wants to prove his bravery. Crowley writes: “The
army has been thrown into disorder; if victory is to be won, it will be
by dint of individual valour—a soldier’s battle.”

51
Astrology—Mars in Leo.
Tree of Life—Netzach (dissolution) through fire: the senseless
resistance.
Analogies—David’s fight against Goliath, Hector’s battle for Troy.
Image—Duel under the sun; the red glowing fire.
Keywords—Challenges, difficulties and obstacles as well as the
courage to encounter them.

Eight of Wands
(Swiftness)
The flames of thoughts

Instinct: Ideas, movement, and (quick) communication.

Goal: Knowledge, progress, development (new paths), or digesting
and/or processing old goals (problem solving).
Light: Flexibility, expansion, intellectual power.
Shadow: Vehemence, hastiness, superficiality.
Quality: Unexpected impulse; mental activity.

The card shows that the eight wands have transformed themselves
into brain waves. They originate in the striving for freedom inherent
in everything related to thinking: the urge for insight into the true
course of things. It stands for overcoming the difficulties of the
previous card (Seven of Wands). Crowley speaks of “The wands
turned into electrical rays, sustaining or even constituting Matter
by their vibrating energy.” The two-dimensional square as a symbol
for limitation gives way here to the three-dimensional octahedron,
symbolizing the middle point between the earthly square (cube)
and the divine circle (sphere). Above this body there radiates a
rainbow symbolic of the spiritualization of fire.

52
Astrology—Mercury in Sagittarius.
Tree of Life—Hod (structure) through fire: the electrical vibrations
(light) as the measurement of time.
Analogies—Hermes, Icarus, Pegasus, Prometheus. On the historical
level, Archimedes “Eureka! I found it!”
Image—Lightning as a symbol of the electrifying idea.
Keywords—Spontaneity, versatility, thirst for knowledge, determination.

Nine of Wands
(Strength)
The flames of harmony

Instinct: Spiritual truth (the pressing search for that which is

different).
Goal: “Marriage between heaven and earth” (unification of
conscious and unconscious powers).
Light: Intellectual and emotional harmony.
Shadow: Contradictions, psychological injuries.
Quality: Cosmic networking (architecture of an esoteric image of
the world).

The Nine of Wands have transformed themselves into arrows in the

picture. They have penetrated from the idea (Mercury) through the
brain waves (Eight of Wands) into the realm of intuition (Sagittarius),
now reaching the original sources of the feminine. We see four arrows
crossed over another four arrows, with their direction pointing down-
ward as a symbol of integration into the unconscious (Moon). The
vertical lance in the middle with its tip pointing upwards is the sign
of the will to develop itself and thereby put into action that which is
within us. Since the Sun reflects the urge of humanity to develop itself

53
in its creative power, it is connected with the uppermost tip. However,
the deep secrets in which the Sun is grounded are to be found on the
end of the lance representing the night side of the Moon.
Astrology—Moon in Sagittarius.
Tree of Life—Yesod (reflection) through fire: the spiritual fire as a
sign of emotional abundance.
Analogies—The flames of the Holy Spirit or the Star of Bethlehem as
symbol of inner fulfillment.
Keywords—Energy and tension created in the connection of the
masculine and the feminine.

Ten of Wands
(Oppression)
The flames of self-determination

Instinct: Drive for power, (self-) righteousness, justice, and order

(repressed aggressions).
Goal: Structured growth.
Light: Intellectual distinction of matter; crystalized deepening of
reality.
Shadow: Dogmatism, fixation, authority problems (the unre-
solved issues of the father relationship).
Quality: Responsibility and self-determination.

On the card we see in the foreground the two dreadful Dorjes or

Tibetan daggers already encountered on the Two of Wands, now
having been extended into wands. However, although the others
were connected with each other, these are separated from each other
and form a defensive bar. The eight wands in the background are
still crossed and indicate the enormous power of fiery energy, yet are

54
blocked by the vertical wands and cannot develop their life impulses.
This is why the topics here are the rational processing of reality,
structuring of life, and strategies to master everyday life. It is a matter
of departing from pleasant self-delusions, from the dazzling illusions
of the emotions, instead facing this radiant coldness of the crystalline
mind that is often an initially bitter experience.
Astrology—Saturn in Sagittarius.
Tree of Life—Malkuth (origin) through fire: suppressed universal
consciousness or the father complex.
Analogies—Jahwe as the hard and punishing super-father (symbol of
patriarchal protective power of God).
Image—The fossilized God.
Keywords—Delimitation, rejection, ego-fixation; fear of life, difficulties
in establishing personal relationships, problems relating to sexual drive.

Princess of Wands
The daughter of the fire flames

Instinct: Passion and sexual charisma (emotional extroversion).

Goal: Joy of life, love, high spirits.
Light: Enthusiasm, courage, beauty, power.
Shadow: Reduced intuitional grasp and ability to be devoted,
sexual problems (moodiness, arrogance, and ego­centricity).
Quality: Enthusiasm and passionate power of love.

The female form on the card characterizes the fire of passion as

an expression of stormy, youthful amorousness. She is completely
naked and dances in an undulating flame, reminiscent in its shape of
the letter Yod. The flame symbolizes the blaze igniting male hearts,
and her unclothed condition embodies the willingness for sexual

55
union. Her devotion, however, is ambivalent; anywhere she appears
she causes unrest. She ruminates in the depths of other people, and
provokes passionate entanglements without committing herself on
an emotional level. The oversized feelers of her headgear (Crowley
speaks of “the plumes of justice stream­ing like flames from her
brow”) symbolize inner conflicts: the inability to have a true exchange
concealed behind intense sexual desire. This is expressed in the image
of the tiger indicating passion and a catlike suppleness, as well as the
separation of instinctual drives from the life of the emotions. Seen
psychologically, she personifies the sexual pleasure principle: the
spontaneous, childlike impulse of giving way to instinctual drives
without bothering about integration with the feelings. She is careless
and insatiable in the choice of her methods of attaining her wishes;
this requires a partner who can deal with heights. She is the master
of a quick ignition of feelings that hiss upwards like a jet flame and
envelop the object of its desire in blazing heat, at least until a new
love is sparked. Then the old one is quickly rejected. Her emotional
development is similar to the nervousness of a temperature curve. She
is priestess of the fire that fans the flames on the golden altar of the
libido (ram heads) and lets the energies flare up with a sun staff.
Astrology—Venus in the fire signs or fire houses.
Element—Earth in the element of fire.
Person—A lively, easily enthusiastic, and impulsive young woman
who readily falls in love, but is also moody, headstrong, and
egocentric.
Analogies—Adonis and Aphrodite; Amor and Psyche; the judgment
of Paris.
Color of power—Fresh bright red, brilliant orange.
Stone of power—Red coral.

56
 Queen of Wands
The mother of love and the sexual instincts

Instinct: Change and transformation, strong willpower.

Goal: Becoming conscious; matured love and sexuality.
Light: Independence, closeness to nature, dignity, and compassion
(warmth, perseverance, loyalty).
Shadow: Intolerance, jealousy (the dominating woman).
Quality: Magnetic attraction and creative vision.

The Queen on her throne of flames symbolizes the connection

of feelings that go into the depths. She is the mature form of the
Princess, letting the “fire of the snake” rise on the spiritual level. From
out of the “fire of amorousness” she draws the “flames of emotional
fusion,” but on the vulgar level of experience she causes a “sexual
conflagration.” The leopard beside her is a symbol of the drives and
of strength. Her soft hand expresses a loving inclusion of the instincts
in the emotional world of the feelings. The crown of rays with its
winged lions head represents the potency of the creative power that
we have already encountered in the previous card (Prince of Wands).
However, in contrast to that energy that develops externally, we are
dealing with an inner journey here (symbolized by the eyes closed in
meditation). It is a journey of discovery into the inner regions of the
soul, of which the external world is only a reproduction. The first-
hand perception that love is the connection to the divine and sexu-
ality is an expression of the creative will within us, and lets us enter
into a condition of rapture bursting all of the limits of our imagi-
nation. In the fire of enlightenment, “when the soul loses itself in a
wonderful ecstasy” (Master Eckhart), we experience ourselves as one
with the one and only original power. “All you need is love,” is how
the Beatles described it in 1967.

57
Astrology—21° Pisces to 20° Aries.
Element—The watery region of fire.
Person—An impulsive-passionate, dominating woman.
Analogies—Birth of Venus; God created Eve; Shakti, the elemental
force.
Color of power—Pomegranate red.
Stone of power—Garnet; rose quartz.

Knight of Wands
The father of the creative imagination

Instinct: Expansion and vastness (claim to leadership).

Goal: The utilization of the individual potential.
Light: Humane ideals, intellectual activity (dynamic, ability to
become enthusiastic, strength of will).
Shadow: Despotic nature, egotism, intolerance.
Quality: Claim of creator (becoming one with the inner images;
identification with God).

The Knight personifies the fiery power of bringing forth the

inner creative genius that is within oneself and igniting it in the
surrounding world. This is expressed by the blazing torch in his left
hand symbolizing new ways of looking at things to the world. His
head (crown chakra) is decorated with a winged horse, symbolic of
renewal and the power to head off to new goals, as he sits on the wild
black horse rearing up in the air. The winged horse at the center of
the head connects with the external horse, for the latter has the horn
of the unicorn on its forehead, a symbol of tamed instincts. The horse
is symbolic of the instincts; the unicorn in turn can only be captured
when it flees to the lap of a virgin. However, the red mantle of the

58
king forming the flaming background in front of which he rides
shows the figure that has creatively been brought forth out of itself. It
is his karmic personal structure that has been woven into the back-
ground of everyday life, connecting the threads of his actions into the
carpet of destiny upon which he simultaneously moves (“The traveler
and the path are one!”). He is not dependent upon destiny, but rather
is himself his own destiny, for the creative will of God is present in
every part of him. As the mystics and physicists say in accordance
with each other: “The cosmic law changes itself continually through
the initiative of its parts.” The Knight of Wands therefore represents
the “created creator” or the “creating creature” prepared to take on the
responsibility for its goals.
Astrology—21° Scorpio to 20° Sagittarius.
Element—The fire of fire.
Person—The active man who pushes for development while being
mature and benevolent.
Analogies—Zeus and all of the personifications of the Higher Self
(God the Father).
Color of power—Red-gold.
Stone of power—Ruby; diamond.

59
 Ace of Cups
The source of the soul

Instinct: Longing for union (affection).

Goal: Merging (devotion touching the “secret of life”).
Light: Receptivity, devotion, harmony.
Shadow: Vagueness, irrationality, hysteria.
Quality: “The mystery of love.”

The card shows a marvelous chalice (the yoni vessel) as a symbol of

love and receptivity. It is thereby the feminine pedant to the Ace of
Wands and represents the water element in its most feminine form as
the ability to show devotion. Just as fire proclaims the creative power
that “procreates out of itself,” water symbolizes the emotion of the
heart as it “surges into the eternal.” The chalice is an image of loving
openness growing up out of a white lotus, which in turn rises like a
fountain from the depths and fills the chalice with the water of life
from within. Conversely, the rays of light coming down vertically from
above symbolize the creative spirit as it dives down into the “sources
of love” where it unites with the rising spheres of the depths into that
power that goes forth, originating in the collective unconscious and
representing the desire of love for devotion and for merging with
God. Crowley identifies the chalice with the Holy Grail, symbol for the
highest good attainable by human beings. According to tradition, this
chalice has a mysterious origin. Jesus and his disciples drank from it
at the Last Supper. With it, Joseph of Arimathia caught the blood that
flowed from Jesus’ spear wound after the Crucifixion and brought this
relic to Europe. Since then it has been preserved in the legendary Castle
of the Holy Grail (Montsalvat or Avalon). The wonder­-working power
of the chalice is renewed annually at Easter when the Spirit of God
descends as a dove and sanctifies the Grail.

60
Astrology—The water signs.
Tree of Life—Kether (origin) through water: the source of life (Briah)
as the mother of love and emotional devotion.
Analogies—The conceiving Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Islands of
the Blessed, the Holy Grail.
Image—The sea of love.
Keywords—Boundlessness, freedom, blissfulness, light (the way to
the heart as embodiment of the highest form of action).

Two of Cups
(Love)
The water of attraction

Instinct: Union of man and woman.

Goal: Emotional and physical exchange.
Light: Harmonious emotional emphasis.
Shadow: Disillusionment, separation, conflict of interests.
Quality: Happiness of love (balancing of the polarities).

The picture portrays two overflowing chalices in the foreground.

In contrast to the previous card (Ace of Cups), they are no longer
fed from within but externally. The first canalization (Chokmah)
expresses the directionless flow of the original energy (Kether). The
aimless love that was expressed as unimpeded in the Ace has now
differentiated itself. The chalices are fed by the “split” lotus, from
which a further lotus with two dolphins entwined around its stem,
grows. (Crowley speaks of dolphins although they tend to look more
like carp in the picture). The symbolism of dolphins is manifold.
In relation to this card, however, its love symbolism comes to the
foreground. Even the Egyptians already considered it to be the animal

61
of Isis, and the Greeks associated it with their love goddess Aphrodite,
because the Greek words delphis (dol­phine) and delphys (lap) sound
alike.
Astrology—Venus in Cancer.
Tree of Life—Chokmah (energy) through water: the polarization of
emotion and the principle of attraction that is then involved with it.
Analogies—Shiva and Shakti, the complete pair of lovers (the procre-
ative and original force from which the gods and cosmos emerge).
Image—Garden of love (the arrows of Cupid).
Keywords—Love, sensuality, harmony.

Three of Cups
(Abundance)
The water of conception

Instinct: Procreation and conception (the receiving and returning

of feeling loved by another person).
Goal: Inner-growth and fulfillment.
Light: Happiness (in love), joy, and harmony.
Shadow: Lust, hedonism, raw sensuality.
Quality: Fulfillment of love.

On the card we see three chalices made of pomegranates filled to the

brim in the form of a triangle pointing upward. They are entwined by
two lotuses with four flowers each. Every raised chalice has a flower
leaning over it from each side, two of which pour their water into
the lower chalices. In addition, the upper chalice as an expression of
fulfilled love overflows its love into the two below it, which in turn
flow into the dark, calm sea of Binah (Crowley), the spiritual original

62
source of fertility. The other four blossoms serve as a foundation for
the chalices, one each for the two at the sides and one that grows out
of the other as a basis for the center chalice.
Astrology—Mercury in Cancer.
Tree of Life—Binah (form) through water: the inner growth.
Analogies—The Muses or the three Graces as the light side of the
three godmothers (Norns) who determine the destiny of human
beings at birth.
Image—Joyful celebration (conception as an expression of happiness
in love).
Keywords—Cheerfulness, bliss, and overflowing happiness.

Four of Cups
(Luxury)
The water of developed femininity

Instinct: Protective instinct, emotional strength, caring

motherliness.
Goal: Domestic ideals (security, prosperity, emotional wealth).
Light: Love, feelings (emotional foundation).
Shadow: Possessive inclination (restricting another person
through an excess of affection).
Quality: Stability of feelings and emotional domination
(motherhood).

The energies have stabilized themselves—as we see in the balance of

the order of the chalices. But at the same time, they have separated
themselves from the source, for the “water of life” no longer flows
from the two lower chalices back into the sea. The lotus sprouting out

63
of the water possesses a four-part stem upon which a mighty blossom
thrones. It symbolizes the condensation of the Two achieving comple-
tion in the Four. However, to the same degree it also indicates the
restriction because this stability rules out the possibility of a further
development. The sea is restless, for the cycle has here reached its end
point. However, the balance is (still) established through the stability
of the chalices.

Five of Cups
(Disappointment)
The water of stagnation

Instinct: Disappointment and pain.

Goal: Parting, tears, new hope.
Light: Separation, disenchantment, great changes.
Shadow: Bitterness, desolation, remaining in the crisis.
Quality: (Painful) perceptions, new consciousness.

The wellspring is shown exhausted, the sea is dried up, and the crystal
goblets are empty. We find ourselves in a condition of depression. The
picture reflects the somber feeling of disappointment and loneliness.
Scorpio, which is related to this card, suggests “in its worst aspect the
putrefying power of Water” (Crowley) and thereby the alchemical
process of fermenting transformation from which at some point life
again germinates. The roots of the lotus shape a butterfly form, symbol
of transformation to higher forms. However, this card first marks the
beginning of the decline. The five chalices are in the form of an inverted
pentagram, symbolizing the triumph of matter over spirit.
Astrology—Mars in Scorpio.
Tree of Life—Geburah (upheaval) through water: the fermenting
putrefaction.
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Analogy—Pluto steals Persephone and Demeter makes the earth
unfruitful.
Image—The desolate land.
Keywords—Grief, despair, depression.

Six of Cups
(Pleasure)
The water of the joy of life and inner harmony

Instinct: Richness of feeling—deep and close emotional ties.

Goal: Emotional will and creative power. Balance and harmony
through a return to the inner sources.
Light: Karmic rootedness, emotional (sexual) strength, strong
suggestive charisma.
Shadow: Emotional imprisonment.
Quality: The inner center as the source of emotional power.

The card shows us stems grouped into a baroque arrangement with

six lotus blossoms (Crowley speaks of a dancing movement), each of
them bending over one of the six chalices. In its splendidly curved
form we see the movement of a butterfly stretching itself in the light
of the sun (represented on the Five as still in the roots). This is the
new life that germinates from the putrefaction. The feelings are not
portrayed as effusive abundance as in the Three or Nine, since the
chalices are not overflowing. Yet in contrast to the previous card the
water is again in movement, whereby the balance is restored.
Astrology—Sun in Scorpio.
Tree of Life—Tipharech (middle point) through water: the inner center.
Analogy—The Golden Age as an archetypal condition of paradise.

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Image—The Mount of Venus as symbol of the mother’s womb or the
unfathomable wells of the Moon Goddess who leads into the inner
world of dreams.
Keywords—Joy, fulfillment, and emotional renewal. Also wishes,
memories, and nostalgia.

Seven of Cups
(Debauch)
The water of delusion

Instinct: Intoxication, longing, flight from reality.

Goal: Dissolution, stupefaction (“the search for the pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow”).
Light: Warning against illusionary hopes and false promises.
Shadow: Lust, addiction (lapsing into the swamp of false plea-
sures), lies, and error.
Quality: The seductive sweetness of transitory joy.

On this card the lotus blossoms (Six of Cups) have turned them-
selves into tiger lilies and pollute the sea with their poisonous nectar
(Crowley speaks of a “malarious morass”). The Seven then represents
weakness because the balance is lacking, causing a corruption flowing
from within to the external. Crowley calls this “external splendor and
internal corruption.” He writes: “This card represents the delusion
of delirium tremens and drug addiction; it represents the sinking
into the mire of false pleasure. It is particularly bad because there is
nothing whatever to balance it.”
Astrology—Venus in Scorpio.
Tree of Life—Netzach (dissolution) through water: “delirium
tremens” or the dissolving reality.

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Analogies—Circe, the Sirens, the Lorelei, or Pandora’s Box.
Image—The poisoned apple, the enchanted garden, the
will-o’-the-wisp, or the evil fairy.
Keywords—Daydreams, castles in the air, flight from the world.

Eight of Cups
(Indolence)
The water of resignation

Instinct: Renunciation, self-denial, resignation to one’s fate.

Goal: Finding purpose and meaning in the depths of seclusion
(spiritualization).
Light: Relinquishing control (letting go), transformation.
Shadow: Depression, suicide, self­-pity.
Quality: Nullification of values; destruction of the form.

The indolent Eight, as a result of the poisonous Seven, shows a

rotting sea whose last water is moldering in mud holes. There is the
suggestion of a stench of fever swamps where contagious viruses
lurk. Poisonous vapors rise to the heavens, and on the horizon a pale,
sulfurous light is falling. The lotus is withered, and there are only
two blossoms to be seen bending over the chalices, whose sides have
cracks and the handles are broken. Although water still streams into
the bowls and fills the ones below them, the fresh water is sucked up
by the morass.
Astrology—Saturn in Pisces.
Tree of Life—Hod (structure) through water: the breaking of hope
(phase of the decline).
Analogy—The fall of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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Image—Dank swamps and cesspools, decaying matter.
Keywords—Melancholy and low spirits, contamination, swamp,
congestion, or torture.

Nine of Cups
(Happiness)
The water of faith and the love of God

Instinct: The love that opens up everything: optimism and trust in

the future; the search for fulfillment in the higher purpose of life.
Goal: The ideal of selflessness: resembling Buddha, redemption
(Grail), or becoming one with God.
Light: Charity, inner and external happiness.
Shadow: Self-complacency, vanity, arrogance.
Quality: The inner profession of love; satisfaction and great joy
in life.

In this picture we recognize nine chalices, all of them filled to

overflowing. Above each chalice there hangs a flower from which
water pours into it. The ninth card, corresponding to Yesod in water,
reestablishes the stability lost in the seventh card (Netzach) and the
eighth card (Hod). The chalices are now symmetrically formed into a
rectangle, and Jupiter in Pisces is the expression of spiritual love and
masculine devotion to the feminine emotions. Crowley writes: “It is
the most complete and most beneficent aspect of the force of water.
The wine is poured by Ganymede himself, unstinted vintage of true
nectar of the Gods, brimful and running over, an ordered banquet of
delight, True Wisdom self-fulfilled in Perfect Happiness.”
Astrology—Jupiter in Pisces.
Tree of Life—Yesod (reflection) through water: the emotional depths

68
or the inner light.
Analogy—Amor leads Psyche to see absolute beauty.
Image—Eucharist (prayer of thanksgiving at the Last Supper).
Keywords—Love, joy, happiness, and fulfillment.

Ten of Cups
(Satiety)
The waters of completion and inner fulfillment

Instinct: Search for the path to inner completion.

Goal: Emotional fulfillment in intellectual ideas.
Light: Optimism, self-confidence, emotional warmth.
Shadow: Sentimentality, bathos, inner emptiness.
Quality: Longing for the eternal and the slow dawning of the end;
the power to enjoy the culmination and let go.

On the card there are ten chalices arranged in the form of a Tree of
Life. The strength of the Nine has not dissipated and the “Tree of Life”
(lotus plant), on which the chalices hang like Christmas tree bulbs,
gives witness to the intellectual rootedness in life, the inner fulfill-
ment, or the mild dawning of the sunset’s glow. In the Ten, the work
of the soul has been completed, and the greatest possible formation
of the potential dormant in the power of the emotions (Ace of Cups)
has been attained. The bounds achieved now begin to dissolve back
into the unfathomable (we can see this in the instability of the chal-
ices), and from the solidified earth (Malkuth) the feelings (the middle
column) flow back into the infinite “ocean of love” (Kether).
Astrology—Mars in Pisces.
Tree of Life—Malkuth (origin) through water: the fruit of love or the

69
seed that sprouts time and again.
Analogy—The height of Atlantis with its foreboding of decline.
Image—The sun when it has passed its zenith. Or the Grail that
vanishes again, and is eternally luminous but unattainable in life.
Keywords—Fulfillment, completion, (waning) elation.

Princess of Cups
The daughter of the floods

Instinct: Longing for union with the cosmos (divine union with
the other; transcending sexual compulsions).
Goal: Exploring the inner worlds; fearless diving into the depths
of the soul.
Light: Esthetics, fantasy, intuition, poetic charm, gentleness,
sensibility.
Shadow: Misuse of love, deception, seductive spells, bubbles in
the air.
Quality: The secretive, unfathomable depths and the quickened
desires of our emotional and dream world.

An enchanting, dancing figure takes shape in a very transparent, cool

light before our eyes. She has risen out of the water flood to bring into
the world the archetype of deepest longing reflected in the irresistible
ecstasy of her beauty and at the same time in the melancholy of her
ultimate inaccessibility. We find the Princess wrapped in a flowing,
waving gown with crystals that have formed along the hemline. She
is the daughter of the inner world who represents the step into the
external materialization (earth in the element of water). She dances
on the foaming sea of the emotions and feelings in which a dolphin,
symbolizing our perceptive and emotional world, enjoys itself. A swan
with spread wings rises above her head (crown) as a sign of renewal
70
and rebirth. The turtle in her right hand is an embodiment of the
protected inner world in the process of carefully opening up to the
outside. The Princess symbolizes the exploration of the inner images
and the deep diving into the unconscious regions of the self. It is as if
she has transformed herself back into the source, in whose reflection
all people encounter the image of their soul. At the same time, she is
inwardly flighty and intangible; she is seduction and simultaneously
the power to resist seduction. Something similar is projected by the
lotus blossom in her left hand, for it is not the symbol of physical love
but rather of divine union with the self. This is where the physical
desire flows into the joy of the experience of deep relaxation and
medial consciousness.
Astrology—Venus in the water signs or water houses.
Element—Earth in the element of water.
Person—An enchanting, scintillating, emotionally inaccessible young
woman who is continually elusive.
Analogies—Mermaids, naiads, nereids, souls of the dead.
Color of power—Algae green, sea-foam white.
Stone of power—Aquamarine.

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 Prince of Cups
The son of transformation

Instinct: Self-sacrifice and devotion.

Goal: Connection with the Higher Self (crucifixion = “return to
the father”).
Light: Love, sympathy, heartiness, warmth.
Shadow: Selfishness, lack of sensitivity, naivety.
Quality: Bridge between emotions.

We see a naked warrior with a winged helmet sitting upon a chariot

drawn by an eagle. The eagle, representing elevation above the hard-
ened condition of materialism, has taken the place of the scorpion
here as representative of the water element (the liberated scorpion
rises above everything earthly as an eagle). According to Crowley, this
card illustrates the idea of putrefaction that is indirectly portrayed in
the picture through the stagnant water of a pond into which heavy
rains fall. The eagle is symbolic of the higher will or of that authority
that knows our goals. It is the part of us extending into timeless-
ness, which unconsciously leads us. By creating a bridge between the
Mother (water) and the Father (the heavens), the Prince is the current
that can turn the downward suction emanating from the depths
to his advantage. By changing the regressive incest (desire for the
mother) into an act of transformation and renewal (snake), he can
reunite the archetypal energies (Adam and Eve). The lotus hanging
its head downward shows that this step has not yet been completed. If
it were to bloom upwards in full splendor, then it would embody the
power merging the dark, muddy depths with the beauty of the bright
heights. The Prince has not yet reconciled with the feminine (within
himself); he is still possessed by the mating call of the Sirens (Princess
of Cups) signifying the unliberated longings and wanting to draw

72
him back down to the original source. At the same time, he is already
on the path to the Great Spirit, for the higher will (eagle) draws the
shell-shaped wagon (“the eternal feminine”) liberated or unliberated
out of the waters of the unconscious upwards into the “heavens of
perception” (air in connection with water).
Astrology—21° Libra to 20° Scorpio.
Element—The air side of water.
Person—A charismatic, mysterious, and profound young man.
Analogies—Knight of the Holy Grail or other redeemers. Psyche’s
redemption through Amor and her acceptance in Olympia.
Color of power—Blue-violet.
Stone of power—Lapis lazuli; amethyst.

Queen of Cups
The mother of the source and the inner mysteries

Instinct: Erasing the boundaries between dream and reality (the

urge to cross borders and remove limitations).
Goal: Medial knowledge, inner wisdom (“ascending into
nothingness”).
Light: Intuitive understanding, depth of experience (visionary
sight, inner light).
Shadow: Vagueness, dreaminess, irrationality.
Quality: The wisdom of the feminine (the ocean of the collective
unconscious).

On the card we see a secretive figure sitting on the water, drenched

in a spherical blue light rising in elliptical arches from the original
source, concentrating into a spiral form at the center of the top of

73
the head, and letting it appear noticeably smaller in proportion to the
rest. The head is only partially visible behind the astral veils. Instead
of grasping with the outer vision, we should much more sense it with
the inner eye, for it rests in those mysteries concealed behind the
appearances of the external world. The peaceful sea is a symbol of the
unconscious, and in the mirror of the water’s surface we perceive not
only the collective dreams rising from the unconscious, but also the
reflected field of power around the head of the woman. She is the oracle
fairy who lives in constant connection with inner images, in order to
let herself be inspired by her own depths and be guided by them. The
heron to her right is a symbol of vigilance and circumspection. Similar
to the stork and the crane, it is associated with the Sun principle. Yet,
since it is at home in the world of water, it is the symbol for reincarna-
tion. Shell and chalice (here the conch chalice) embody the feminine
principle. The Celts favored the shell vessel as an object to put into the
grave together with the corpse, because its similarity to the vulva made
it a symbol of rebirth. The crab (Cancer) that crawls out of this conch
chalice is astrologically assigned to the Moon and for its part is an
expression of the archetypical feminine, motherly principle. The lotus
blossoms here represent the beauty rising from the muddy source and
opening itself to the light.
Astrology—21° Gemini to 20° Cancer.
Element—The watery region of water.
Person—A deep-feeling and unfathomable, sometimes also confusing,
woman.
Analogies—The wise women of ancient times. (Moiras, the Three
Fates, the Norns) Or the Virgin Mother archetypes of the Middle Ages.
Color of power—Milky green, smoky blue.
Stone of power—Jade, emerald green, and water opal.

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 Knight of Cups
The father of mercy and the inner enlightenment

Instinct: Self-sacrifice or renunciation of the instincts (detach-

ment from the mother, desire for release from the erotic entangle-
ments of guilt).
Goal: Self-redemption through renunciation.
Light: Intuitive understanding, sympathy, willingness to help,
considerateness, wisdom.
Shadow: Seductibility, duplicity, instability, helper syndrome.
Quality: Unio Mystica (secretive union of the soul with God).

The Knight of Cups embodies as the fiery realm of water in our search
for transcendental experience, redemption, and mystical union with the
source, the Numinas, or however the language tries to describe what
cannot be described. This association often has a paradoxical effect
at first glance, because the water representing the feminine realm of
feelings does not always harmonize well with the fiery energy of the
King. However, when the water moves on a higher level (the Knight is
carried upwards by the mighty wings of his spirit) and he enters into
the eternal feminine with the eternal masculine, then the rays of the
Grail in his hand shine from the merging of the water with the flames.
From the Grail chalice there emerges a crab (Cancer), the cardinal sign
of water and symbol of inner absorption, which comes to the fore,
entering into consciousness. As a sea animal, it has a feminine-sexual
significance like Pisces (expression of the life-giving and life-receiving
power), yet its reverse motion and the concealed manner of life indicate
the dark, inner mysteries. The chalice is the feminine vessel of transfor-
mation. The peacock at the bottom right corner of the card, considered
by Crowley to be some reference to the phenomenon of fluorescence,
indicates “Klingsor’s enchanted garden where Amfortas was made

75
willess by Kundry and overcome with his own weapon by Klingsor”
(Parcival). It also relates to a sexual behavior that serves the satisfaction
of self-complacency more than emotional-spiritual deepening.
Astrology—21° Aquarius to 20° Pisces.
Element—Fire in water.
Person—A sensitive, empathetic man who is often emotionally
hurt and therefore has become profound (artist, spiritual adviser,
therapist).
Analogies—Lazarus who rose from the dead, the dying Amfortas, or
the tragic Lear, the injured Chiron, and all of the saints and guardians
of the secrets (Grail).
Color of power—The resonance illumination of gases (the tail of the
comet), or the reflection of sunlight.
Stone of power—Alexandrite, diamond.

The Ace of Swords

The roots of consciousness

Instinct: Mental activity (thoughts shared by feelings as the root

of thinking, differentiating, separating, and organizing).
Goal: Perception, clarity, intellectual change.
Light: Objectivity.
Shadow: Restlessness, premature and subjective thinking, belliger-
ence, hardening, weakness of will.
Quality: The ability of the mind to form and formulate ideas and
convictions.

The card shows us a mighty sword pointing upward, piercing a

crown. This symbolizes the mind desiring to thrust forward through

76
patterns of thinking to the eternal truth. The hilt of the sword is
entwined by a snake and marked off by two half moons, indicating
that the mind is more than just abstract intellect, that it is also namely
the mediator of the emotions. On the blade the magical word for the
will Θελημα (Thelema) is engraved, whereby the heavens in the back-
ground open and the gold of the sun appears like fire. Since the Sword
represents the human mind, the sun stands for the divine spirit of
nature. The golden crown consisting of twenty-two rays of sunshine
signifies Kether, the highest principle in the Cabalistic Tree of Life.
This picture expresses that the intellectual powers fed by the depths
of emotion (Moon) can thrust forth to the very highest perception
(crown).
Astrology—The air signs.
Tree of Life—Kether (origin) through air: the formative sphere
(Yetzirah) or the foundation of thought.
Analogy—The sword (cognitive power) with which Alexander
destroyed the Gordian Knot (the emotional entanglements).
Image—“...and there was light!” as expression of the creation
becoming aware of itself.
Keywords—Openness, thirst for knowledge, purposeful thought,
decisive power.

77
 Two of Swords
(Peace)
The spirit of balance

Instinct: Dualistic thirst for knowledge.

Goal: Counterbalance through finding of knowledge.
Light: Reconciliation of differences.
Shadow: Unresolved conditions of tension (since there is a balance
of the powers, the tension cannot be diminished).
Quality: Balancing justice.

In the picture we see two crossed swords that penetrate a rose. Since
the first revelation of thought flows out of the bubbling springs of
the archetypes (Ace) into the form-giving definition of the polari-
ties (Two), this card embodies the calm before the storm (Three). It
remains untouched by the external influences thanks to the balance
of its inner opposites. On two small swords rest the Moon, symbol
for the emotions, and the sign of Libra, representing balance. The two
large swords meet in the center of the blue rose symbolically repre-
senting what is unattainable. The uniform white patterns streaming
from this rose show how, despite the apparent impossibility, the dual-
istic mind can create and safeguard a balance of harmony and peace.
Astrology—Moon in Libra.
Tree of Life—Chokmah (energy) through air: the controlled peace.
Analogy—Hermes as symbolic of wholeness and the paradox of the
self.
Image—Nature uniting opposites, including light and dark, feminine
and masculine, the spiritual and the physical within itself.
Keywords—Balance, justice, impartiality.

78
 Three of Swords
(Sorrow)
The spirit of dejection

Instinct: Grief, tears, helplessness, weakness, being at someone

else’s mercy.
Goal: Shrewd insights, even if they are painful.
Light: Perception, purpose in life, wholeness, and the present
through renunciation.
Shadow: Disruption, separation, estrangement, and self­-delusion.
Quality: Disenchantment, disillusionment.

The Three of Swords is a gloomy card because the storm breaks out
and destroys the balance. Yet, since the storm ultimately comes from
within and forces us to grow beyond our own form, as painful as
it may be, this picture shows that a release of energy can be logical
(right) within our own development. The green sword is the magical
sword from the first card of this suit (Ace of Swords). Together with
the two crooked swords it has here destroyed the golden rose, symbol
of completeness, through a hefty thrust. The rose’s petals fall off, and
in the background a storm is brewing.
Astrology—Saturn in Libra.
Tree of Life—Binah (form) through air: the endogenous depression.
Analogy—The blind Oedipus.
Image—Drops of bitterness (cup of hemlock).
Keywords—Grief, sorrow, anguish, misery, distress, torment, worry,
and pain.

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 Four of Swords
(Truce)
The spirit of contemplation

Instinct: Stabilization and keeping still.

Goal: Repose and peace (self-knowledge and renewal through the
experience of suffering).
Light: Social justice, tolerance.
Shadow: Forced retreat (illness), isolation.
Quality: The lull in the fighting showing prospects of peace.

In this picture the tips of the four swords touch within the heart of a
rose blossom, and with their hilts form the corners of a transverse St.
Andrew’s Cross, symbol of suffering and martyrdom. They thereby
create a magical, dominating spatial form, a protected space within
which the energies can be regenerated. The Four of Swords is the card
of powerful inevitability, giving free reign to sorrow (Three of Swords),
yet leading beyond it through self-knowledge and an understanding
of the sense of the suffering. It is a time of painful liberation with
subsequent healing, since the powers are concentrated, centered, and
anchored into an intellectual vault of “being wrapped up in thought”
through the position of the four swords (their tips supporting the
rose heaven of 49 petals). Perception shows that unrepressed sorrow
ultimately brings its own healing with it. The essence of this card is
an inner concentration connected with the willingness to go through
painful experiences in order to grow from them.
Astrology—Jupiter in Libra.
Tree of Life—Chesed (condensation) through air: the inner knowl-
edge (the intellectual space).
Analogy—Barbarossa’s enchanted sleep in Kyffhauser.

80
Image—The inside of the temple.
Keywords—The painful operation followed by recovery, recupera-
tion, and perception.

Five of Swords
(Defeat)
The spirit of humiliation

Instinct: Passive endurance of the painfulness of a negative

experience.
Goal: Recognition of one’s own limits.
Light: Insight into the correlations leads to intentions of
transformation.
Shadow: Harm, evil, turn for the worse.
Quality: Insight into necessity of giving aggressive impulses an
appropriate form of expression before it’s too late.

On the card the five swords form an upside down pentagram, the
sinister symbol of black magic. The rose of the previous card (Four
of Swords) has completely disintegrated and its 49 petals now mark
the connective lines between the tips of the pentagram (hilts of the
swords). This reversed pentacle signifies a precarious conflict, alterca-
tions, unfair blows, vileness, a curse, an aggressive phase of destruc-
tive thinking, or inexplicable things that the mind does not want to
decipher and that directly touch our most primitive fears: the fear of
loss, abandonment, being helpless at someone else’s mercy, or deadly
threats. Reality and delusion flow into each other and the trust in reality
is increasingly destroyed. However, the white light penetrating out from
inside the pentagram hints at the ability of the mind to accept the fright
and transform even the tragedies of life into a fruitful learning process.
Astrology—Venus in Aquarius.

81
Tree of Life—Geburah (upheaval) through air: the fear of fear (the
precarious conflict).
Analogy—Mysticism of the Passion (Jesus’ humiliation and his being
taken prisoner).
Image—Crown of thorns.
Keywords—Loss, fear, disgrace, betrayal.

Six of Swords
(Science)
The spirit of knowledge

Instinct: Search for truth (setting off for new shores and insight
into the secrets of the world).
Goal: Balance between spirit and nature.
Light: Objective knowledge, justice, understanding, comprehen-
sive perspective.
Shadow: Mistrust, skepticism, prejudices (for example, rejection
of spirituality).
Quality: Holistic thinking; approaching the visible effects of the
unfathomable.

In this picture the six swords are united into a hexagram (formed by
two triangles pushed together), symbol of penetration of the visible
and invisible world. Their tips touch a red rose in the middle of the
heart that is at the center of the golden rosy cross made of six squares:
symbolic of harmony and allegoric for the endeavor to win inner
insights through external observations. This external striving (square)
for the inner truth (circle) corresponds to the drive for freedom
inherent to everything intellectual. It represents the longing for liber-
ation through the knowledge of the inner laws of nature. The Six of

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Swords embodies the scientific endeavor that has retained its respect
for the mysteries of life.
Astrology—Mercury in Aquarius.
Tree of Life—Tipharech (middle point) through air: the intellectual
balance.
Analogy—“Tabula Smaragdina,” the legendary emerald tablets with
Hermes Trismegisto’s teachings of wisdom.
Image—The philosopher’s stone.
Keywords—Analysis, objectivity, extensive thought, creative
intelligence.

Seven of Swords
(Futility)
The spirit of fluctuation

Instinct: Cunning or naivety and foolish trust.

Goal: Self-exposure or the unmasking of others.
Light: Shrewdness, slyness, clever surprise attack.
Shadow: Deceitfulness, intrigues, insincerity.
Quality: Craftiness (diplomacy), seduction, sorcery, or the
“mercurial” amorality of the mind.

On the card we see six swords, the hilts of which are decorated with
symbols of the planets. They are directed threateningly at a larger
sword thrusting upward, bearing the symbol of the Sun, with its
upwardly piercing tip embodying the penetrating mind. Its blade
symbolizes the intellectual sharpness of separating and ordering,
therefore making a clear and singular course of action possible. The
small swords are the unconscious shadows of this power (trickery,

83
intrigues, shrewdness, untruthfulness, life’s lies, and betrayal) that,
when split off from the whole, turn against their own objective.
Crowley calls this “a contest between the many feeble and the one
strong.” In reality, this image personifies our tendency to prefer the
simple but deceptive answers to the true, more difficult solution steps.
In the process, we try to fool ourselves and others.
Astrology—Moon in Aquarius.
Tree of Life—Netzach (dissolution) through air: the constant change.
Analogies—Odysseus’ craftiness, Peter’s denials, or Judas’ betrayal.
Image—The Trojan Horse.
Keywords—Inner doubt and indecisiveness (fluctuation).

Eight of Swords
(Interference)
The spirit of restlessness

Instinct: Nervous disquiet and inner drive.

Goal: Insight into the total correlations (relativity of time and space).
Light: Variety of interests, dialectical talent, and quick intellectual
grasp.
Shadow: Confusion and mental blocks (chaotic subjective or
inorganic, rigid thinking).
Quality: Structuring of consciousness and memory.

The Eight portrays two parallel swords pointing downward, crossed

by six smaller scimitars. The straightness of the two main swords is
disturbed by the troublesome crosswise swords, indicating restless-
ness and confusion of thought (Gemini) that time and again distract
people from the higher objectives (Jupiter). However, this is only a

84
matter of disturbances hampering or delaying the course instead of
having the power to totally block the way.
Astrology—Jupiter in Gemini.
Tree of Life—Hod (law) through air: the restricting structure.
Analogies—The great eternal seekers and restless ones: Odysseus, the
Flying Dutchman, or Ahasver, the eternal Jew.
Image—The Labyrinth.
Keywords—Fragmentation, turbulence, restlessness, and the wider
the choice, the greater the trouble.

Nine of Swords
(Cruelty)
The spirit of the Inquisition

Instinct: Aggressive destructivity.

Goal: Despair, bleakness, and suffering.
Light: Fear as the guide on the path to maturity.
Shadow: Shame, guilt, terror, infamy, misery, hate.
Quality: Encounter with the shadow; martyrdom; the reign of
terror by the Inquisition.

On this card we encounter nine jagged and rusty swords, all of them
pointing downwards. The blood and poison running down their
blades illustrate the pain and danger that occur in this situation.
Tormenting fears, worries, or feelings of guilt penetrating into our
consciousness and growing into nightmares are indicated by this card
as well as real, external threats. Crowley writes: “Consciousness has
fallen back into a realm unenlightened by reason. This is the world of
the unconscious primitive instincts, of the psychopath, of the fanatic.”

85
Astrology—Mars in Gemini.
Tree of Life—Yesod (reflection) through air: the destructive trauma
(the emotional shock).
Analogies—The Erinys/Furies, which are personified as pangs of
conscience: Allekto (the unremitting), Teisiphone (the venger of
murder), and Magaira (the envious).
Image—The nightmare, the curse, the Inquisition.
Keywords—Feelings of guilt, fears, “the demons of the night.”

Ten of Swords
(Ruin)
The spirit negating the will to live

Instinct: Departure, transformation, discontinuance.

Goal: Final stroke.
Light: Abandonment and separation as act of liberation.
Shadow: Adverse (arbitrary) end, ruin, catastrophe, violence.
Quality: Conclusion; end of a cycle.

In this card we recognize the form of a Tree of Life in the order of the
ten swords. This means that the sword hilts occupy the place of the
nine outer points (Sephiroth) and the tips pierce into the center point
(Tiphareth). The tenth sword in the center of the figure, which has
the symbol of the heart on its hilt, is shattered by the other swords.
As it represents the center point and, in this function, the connection
between above and below (the spiritual and material world), this card
symbolizes ruin or, as Crowley says: “This card shows the disruption
and disorder of harmonious and stable energy.”
Astrology—Sun in Gemini.

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Tree of Life—Malkuth (origin) through air: the logical breakdown
(the calculated departure).
Analogies—The Flood, submerged Atlantis, or the destruction of
Pompeii.
Image—Solar eclipse, end of the world.
Keywords—Destruction, desolation, depths of depression.

Princess of Swords
The daughter of the altars of the air

Instinct: Impulsivity, tempestuousness, hastiness (the intention

for the deed in a whirlwind of thoughts).
Goal: Self-realization (“the fixation of the volatile”).
Light: Clear-sightedness, insight, objectivity.
Shadow: Aggression, fragmentation, destructivity.
Quality: Rebellion, revolution (intellectual) renewal.

The Princess of Swords personifies the irrational purposefulness of

the feminine power and represents the area of earth in the element air,
“the materialization or fixation of the volatile” (Crowley). This young
and irresistible life energy, manifesting itself in the energetic arm
movements, is careless and too hasty. At the same time it is naive and
innocent, comparable with a childlike self, corresponding less to the
conscious will than the unconscious wishes, which actually encompass
a greater part of the true goals than our rational mind. Crowley writes:
“She stands in front of a barren altar as if to avenge its profanation,
and she scabs downward with her sword.” This external attitude is in
a certain respect a contradiction to the altar itself, which is a symbol
of intellectuality, contemplation, and inner maturity, and generally
indicates a spiritualized personality development far from all desires
for revenge. Her combative posture is that of an Amazon (daughter of
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the battleground), the sky and clouds are filled with anger, and on her
head she wears a helmet crowned by the snake-haired Medusa. She is
then a symbol of vehement impulsivity and represents the spontaneous
reaction presenting itself directly into the world, the “inner child”
perceiving the world through the right (unconscious) half of the brain.
This impulse empowers the innate knowledge to not only react to
surroundings but to also have a direct effect on them.
Astrology—Venus in the air signs or air houses.
Element—Earth in the air element.
Person—The youthful rebel.
Analogies—Amazons, Valkyries, Sylphs, or the priestesses of Athena.
Color of power—Sulfur yellow, ice-blue green.
Stone of power—Turquoise.

Prince of Swords
The son of the problem on the knight’s move

Instinct: Erratic changes.

Goal: Search for perceptions and solutions.
Light: Cutting through bonds, overcoming obstacles.
Shadow: Hastiness, shortsightedness, destructiveness.
Quality: Inventive spirit (bubbling ideas and thoughts).

In the Prince of Swords we encounter the as yet unordered power of

the thought principle, its unmethodical and changeable components,
constantly moving back and forth between the goals without coming
to a clear standpoint. This turbulence of spirit (the airy realms of air!)
is characterized by the chariot. Its front side shows a double pyramid, a
geometric pattern expressing analytical perception and thereby symbol

88
for the left (rational) half of the brain. The Prince is, however, incapable
of keeping his thoughts going in one firm objective direction; this is
represented by the winged figures that pull the wagon but do not obey
the reins. Instead, they tumble around in all directions. So he jumps
from one thing to the next and does not know what it was he wanted
one minute before. At the same time, this card also expresses the intel-
lectual approaches to new paradigms (leap into the Aquarian age).
Astrology—21° Capricorn to 20° Aquarius.
Element—The air side of air.
Person—The imaginative and the smart aleck.
Analogy—The flight of Icarus.
Color of power—Photoflash colors.
Stone of power—Pyrite (sulfuric iron ore).

Queen of Swords
Mother of light and divine wisdom

Instinct: Desire for freedom, self­-determination.

Goals: Independence.
Light: Abundance of ideas and quick, perceptive intelligence.
Shadow: Calculating coolness, insuperable distance (the ice-cold
woman and the phony).
Quality: Intelligence, wisdom, resourcefulness.

The Queen of Swords symbolizes the pure, extensive clarity of

thought and represents the watery regions of air, “the elasticity of
that element, and its power of transmission” (Crowley). We see a
stern looking woman sitting on a mountain of clouds, her round
breasts covered by a transparent silk cloth and dressed in a simple,

89
elegant skirt from the waist down. In the one hand she holds a
silver sword, and in the other a large, bearded male head. This can
be seen as an act of liberation through which she releases herself
from patronage and subservience on the one hand. On the other,
however, she is the woman described by Erich Neumann who
“castrates the man in the area of his upper masculinity,” which
means she silences him (in the area of the lower masculinity castra-
tion would mean that she refuses him). The crystals behind her
head symbolize the flowing of ideas into the form; Crowley speaks
of “the celestial dew, from which stream sharp rays of light”; the
Sufis call it “the light of pure intelligence,” and the physicist David
Bohn terms it “the potential of all things or the fundamental activity
in which existence is based.” Above her (as helmet decoration) we
see the head of a child as the symbol of renewal and creative life
force. In it is embodied the spirit of the father set free as true inner
wisdom through the innocence of the child.
Astrology—21° Virgo to 20° Libra.
Element—The watery region of the air.
Person—The cool woman who is committed to the intellect.
Analogies—Athena/Minerva (Goddess of Wisdom), Iris (rainbow),
or Astrai (the one like the stars).
Color of power—The water of the air (rainbow colors).
Stone of power—Cut crystal (the divine light).

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 Knight of Swords
The father of perception

Instinct: Activity, astuteness, intelligence, thirst for knowledge,

“the spirit of the storm winds.”
Goal: Intellectual strategies, keenness of thought that discerns
things as they are and changes them.
Light: Enlightenment, scientific methodology, intellectual agility,
good merchant mentality, eloquence, power of discernment.
Shadow: Too much emphasis on the mind, emotional coldness,
biting and cynical criticism, dazzling ambiguity, fickle instability,
the snare of thinking.
Quality: Mental power (intellect, intelligence, abstract thinking).

It is the Knight of Swords who explodes “the limits of the mind

spontaneously” (Crowley), who represents the dynamic, imaginative,
and objective dimension of air penetrating all of space. With a sword
in one hand and a dagger in the other, he moves across the heavens
on a wildly racing charger. The movement is so fast that he merges
with the spirit of the storm wind and represents the “extended flame
of the mind” (Crowley). It corresponds to the cosmic consciousness
that connects everything belonging together, and in which every-
thing visible is only a fleeting form that emerges and then again
disappears. This air spirit stands for the stuff of which the images are
formed, and simultaneously for that dimension of vision that would
be in the position to comprehend the projections of a reality lying
behind the objects of the visible. Yet, instead of exploring the truth
concealed behind the projections, the Knight of the Air often wants to
probe the truth with intellectual means, and overcome the feelings as
projections of the instincts through conscious perception. We see this
contradiction represented in the propellers on his helmet (symbol

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of lofty thoughts), which carry the hero with his horse (animalistic
instinctual energy) over the “ocean of devotion.” The three swallows
symbolize the ability of the mind to rise high up into the air (percep-
tion). But since they fly just above the water (emotions), they are
signs that the instinctual nature determines the direction.
Astrology—21° Taurus to 20° Gemini.
Element—The fire of the air.
Person—The imaginative, capricious man.
Analogies—Hermes, the trickster, and his “sons”: Odysseus, Sisyphus,
and Icarus.
Color of power—The transparent blue of ether.
Stone of power—Tektite (decayed product of meteorite strikes, but
also found in the sur­rounding field of atomic bomb tests).

Ace of Disks
The origin of matter

Instinct: The Earth energy pressing for realization.

Goal: Great happiness (the idea in physical form).
Light: Inner and outer brilliance.
Shadow: Materialism and stinginess as the vile side of affluence.
Quality: Wealth and power (the roots of the material as mani-
fested, tangible forms of energy).

In the center of moving spheres—system of whirling wings and

disks—we see a golden coin, the inside of which is inscribed with
secretive signs. The innermost center of the coil is formed by three
rings symbolizing the law of life, whereby it is only through the union
of opposites (1 + 2) that new life (3) is created. In this we find the

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“I’’ as the symbol of being at one with oneself, the unity, the world
of archetypes, the world soul, the highest wisdom, or the source of
all life (Ace). There is also the enigmatic and unfathomable “666,”
termed the stigma of the Devil by many, but which Crowley himself
considers to be the “number of dazzlement.” The three rings are
surrounded by a heptagram, and these are framed by two intercon-
nected pentagrams, their tips forming a ten-spoked wheel concluding
in the shape of a decagon. This refers to the holy seal of the order A
:. A :. (Astrum Argentum = the Silver Star) founded by Crowley. The
number 666 in the middle relates to the great beast of the Apocalypse,
which is equated with the Antichrist, with whom Crowley identi-
fied himself during his lifetime. The Greek inscription ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ
ΘΗΡΙΟΝ (To Mega Therion) means “The Great Beast” and was one
of the many titles Crowley liked to use. If the number I above it is
added to the 666, the result is the number of the Scarlet Woman who
rides on the great beast, according to Crowley (see Atu XI. Lust).
Astrology—The earth signs.
Tree of Life—Kether (origin) through earth: the spheres of the visible
form (Assiah).
Analogies—The great elixir, the Rhine Gold (Only he who refuses to
give power to Love can force the gold ... ).
Image—“Open, Sesame!”
Keywords—Power, success, the magic of money.

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 Two of Disks
(Change)
The power of opposites

Instinct: Change.
Goal: Transformation.
Light: Flexibility as the positive side of change.
Shadow: Instability.
Quality: Polarization (on a higher level, all opposites are only
illusions or different out­growths of the same energy current.)

The picture shows a huge phallic snake in the figure of the eight,
biting itself in the tail as it forms the infinity sign with its body.
This figure expresses the eternal exchange between two different,
yet still connected areas. Similar to the polarity in the life and death
snakes of the caduceus, this uroboros is a demonic-­divine being
connecting life and death, the animalistic and the spiritual, and
indicating intellectual-emotional development, change, death, and
rebirth. The two disks symbolize the original polarity, the funda-
mental pattern of the archetypal forces: yin and yang (feminine
and masculine). As the expanding and contracting powers, the
constantly opposing principles that together form a unity, they
are portrayed here as two wheels turning in opposite directions.
They show the truth that is the foundation of all being, that life
constantly changes according to stable laws and the only constant is
continuous change itself.
Astrology—Jupiter in Capricorn.
Tree of Life—Chokmah (energy) through earth: the polarizing
vibrations.
Analogy—The uroboros, the snake biting itself in the tail and

94
procreating itself as a symbol of eternity.
Image—Heaven and Hell, day and night (yin and yang).
Keywords—New goals, new directions, the eternal cycle, the perpetu-
ally unstable.

Three of Disks
(Works)
The power of stabilization

Instinct: Manifestation through work; building up, materializing,

and obligating oneself.
Goal: Development, recognition, self-realization.
Light: (Economic) growth.
Shadow: Senseless fervor; without direction.
Quality: Increase of the material (crystallization of the forces).

In the center of the card there is a pyramid of light on the three wheels
of the trinity of body, soul, and mind (alchemically these are sulfur, salt,
and mercury). The original polarity (Two of Disks) here turns into the
three dimensions of our reality, in turn corresponding to the number
four (symbolized by the pyramid made of triangles with four corners).
This pyramid is “in the great Sea of Binah in the Night of Time”
(Crowley) on the ocean of the eternal from which the visible forms
representing our reality emerge, yet without being the all inclusive
reality. The three wheels correspond to the three circles in the center of
the Ace of Disks that here unfold their power and crystalize the forms
of reality from the inexhaustible potential of the original source.
Astrology—Mars in Capricorn.
Tree of Life—Binah (form) through earth: the condensed oscillation
(the materializing vibration).

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Analogy—The parable of the sower (Matt. 13.1-9).
Image—The growing tree.
Keywords—Growth, progress, gradual development.

Four of Disks
(Power)
The power of stability

Instinct: Security, fixation, stability.

Goal: Completion of earthly power through condensation of
strength.
Light: Imperturbability.
Shadow: Compulsiveness, stubbornness, stagnation.
Quality: The strengthening and all­-dominating power.

In the picture the disks are portrayed as the four corner towers of a
fortress, from a bird’s eye perspective. The disks themselves are square
and thereby embody the ‘fourness’ as a symbol of stability and earthly
reality. That this is a living system is expressed by the symbols in the
four towers, representing the four elements: W water, F fire, A air,
and E earth. The motif shows the basic structure of the earthly city
(the human living space), built in imitation of the “divine Jerusalem.”
Astrology—Sun in Capricorn.
Tree of Life—Chesed (condensation) through earth: the visible form.
Analogy—Daedalus, forefather of the Greek sculptors and architects
(built the Labyrinth for King Minos).
Image—The fortress.
Keywords—Status, rulership, earthly power.

96
 Five of Disks
(Worry)
The power of anxiety

Instinct: Will to change.

Goal: Crisis.
Light: Upheaval, change, hardening test.
Shadow: Failure, collapse, despair.
Quality: Increase in experience through growth crisis.

The card shows five disks interlocked with each other and connected
by a driving belt. In the middle of the circles we find the five Tatvas
(triangle, square, circle, moon and ellipse) called subtle elements in
Indian thinking. All of nature, including human beings, are subject
to them in a type of vibrational condition. These powers are clamped
together into a nightmare in the form of a pentagram standing on its
tip, waking the sleeping fears and bringing feelings of meaningless-
ness to the surface. There is nothing as depressing as the desolateness
we encounter in this card. The Five of Disks indicates a type of inner
fear for which there is no external solution. It can therefore signify
longer phases of insecurity and crisis.
Astrology—Mercury in Taurus.
Tree of Life—Geburah (upheaval) through earth: the destruction
of form.
Analogies—Job’s crises, Egypt’s lean years, or the locust plague as
grounds for penitence (Joel 1.2-20).
Image—The atomic threat and the insidious destruction of the
environment.
Keywords—Misery, deprivation, narrow place, bankruptcy.

97
 Six of Disks
(Success)
The power of abundance

Instinct: Overcoming crises, material gain.

Goal: Harmony and profusion (land of milk and honey).
Light: Charity, brotherly love, patronage.
Shadow: Dissipation (the golden goose of the fairy tale).
Quality: Happiness and prosperity (paradise-like condition).

In the picture we see the six disks in the form of a hexagram, grouped
around a circle of light. The six-pointed star and the hexagon are
symbols of a mutual permeation and indissoluble merging. The six
circles here bear the symbols of the six planets: Moon, Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, illuminated by the sun in the center. The card
thereby shows the harmoniously balanced concurrence of these prin-
ciples. The entire inner portion is bright because the Sun, represented
by the Rose C­ ross, illuminates the aura and transfigures the spirit.
Usually only meditation and contemplation, when our mind is directed
completely inwardly to the Higher Self, lead to such experiences. In this
respect the Six of Disks is a card of the inner sun powerfully rising in
the inner East, in the rosy dawn of self-awakening, for in the center of
the picture glows the reddish luster of daybreak.
Astrology—Moon in Taurus.
Tree of Life—Tiphareth (middle point) through earth: the material
happiness.
Analogies—The legendary wealth of King Solomon; Egypt’s seven fat
years
Image—The sweet porridge.
Keywords—Generosity, understanding, tolerance.

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 Seven of Disks
(Failure)
The power of disintegration

Instinct: Inner emptiness; resignation.

Goal: “There is no effort here ... the stake has been thrown down,
and it is lost. That is all” (Crowley).
Light: Confrontation with collective primitive fears.
Shadow: Deep-rooted blockages.
Quality: Waiting (the time of results has not yet come).

The card reflects a condition of disintegration; after the rosy dawn

of the Six of Disks, the Seven has now wasted into a breeding place
of ruin. Crowley writes: “The disks are arranged in the shape of the
geomantic figure Rubeus , the most ugly and menacing of the
Sixteen. This is of such evil omen that certain schools of Geomancy
destroy the Map and postpone the question for two hours or more,
when Rubeus (Mars in Scorpio) appears in the Ascendent.”
The growth is cut off here and we recognize a blue­violet shadow
world in the vegetation in which the black plant skeleton produces
the seven leaden death disks of Saturn, symbol of calamity without
end or an unhappy ending not bringing redemption.
Astrology—Saturn in Taurus.
Tree of Life—Netzach (dissolution) through earth: the parched land.
Analogies—The cities that were destroyed because they turned away
from God: Tyre, Samaria, Ninevah, and Babylon.
Image—Nuclear destruction.
Keywords—Epidemic, devastation, degeneration.

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 Eight of Disks
(Prudence)
The power of the overall view

Instinct: Conscientiousness and overall view, through putting

things in order.
Goal: Recognition of detailed correlations.
Light: Self-discipline and weighing of details (economic
methodology).
Shadow: Becoming paralyzed in formalism, not seeing the forest
for the trees.
Quality: Adapting to the requirements of time (objective
neutrality).

In the Eight, the order is reestablished, since the disks show them-
selves in an ordered pattern as flowers or fruit of a large tree
rooted in the fertile earth. The chaos of the Seven appears to have
been overcome for the fruit is in the form of the geomantic figure
Populus , the “doing in doing nothing,” “gain through retreat,”
or as Crowley notes, “the waiting of the sower for the harvest.”
The shamans call this the “strength through not acting.” Crowley
comments: “Virgo is the secret seed of Life, and also the Virgin
Earth awaiting the Phallic Plough and Populas, the secret with-
drawing of Energy into the fallow Earth.”
Astrology—Sun in Virgo.
Tree of Life—Hod (structure) through earth: the gathering order.
Analogy—The parable of the weeds among the wheat (Matt. 13.24-30).
Image—The plate.
Keywords—Differentiation, order, self-criticism.

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 Nine of Disks
(Gain)
The power of growth and of external increase

Instinct: Material actualization, well-being.

Goal: Increase of affluence (growth as a synonym for material
success).
Light: Joy, gain, financial luck.
Shadow: Avarice, deception, empty plans.
Quality: Satisfaction, security, material fulfillment.

In the picture we find nine disks divided into three groups of three,
of which the upper and the lower six disks each show one of the
six planetary signs. While the upper triangle, with its tip pointing
upward, corresponds to the fire element and therefore idealistic
striving, the water trigon pointing downward represents the depths
of emotional experience and trust in the instinctual nature. If the
background of the picture stands for the colors of the earth, water
(green) and air (blue) are reflected in the merged circles in the middle
illuminated by the sun disk (fire).
Astrology—Venus in Virgo.
Tree of Life—Yesod (reflection) through earth: the power of
becoming (the principle of life).
Analogy—The wonderous increase of the fish and loaves
(Luke 9.10-17).
Image—The magic table.
Keywords—Love, fulfillment, enrichment, happiness.

101
 Ten of Disks
(Wealth)
The power of affluence

Instinct: Striving for gain, wealth, and security.

Goal: Solid foundation, dignified circumstances.
Light: Success and prosperity (solid ground under one’s feet).
Shadow: Greed, avarice.
Quality: The completion of human goals or the peak of earthly
happiness. This card is the culmination of the Disk suit and the
Minor Arcana.

The card shows the ten disks as coins manifested in the structure of
a Tree of Life, and thereby demonstrates that they are part of a larger,
organized entity. As the last of all the cards of the Minor Arcana, it
portrays the results of a continuous development, the primordial
energy of the Divine manifesting in Matter.(Crowley) This process
begins with the Ace of Wands, the ten flames of which are also
arranged in the form of the Tree of Life. The symbols on the coins
are magical signs corresponding to the respective qualities of the ten
archetypal principles that form the Tree of Life.
Astrology—Mercury in Virgo.
Tree of Life—Malkuth (origin) through earth: material fulfillment
(the golden cage).
Analogy—The fulfillment of King Midas’ wish that everything he
touch turn to gold; whereupon the king discovered to his horror that
even his food turned to gold.
Image—Gold as the material consummation of the creative spark.
Keywords—Possession, abundance, splendor.

102
 Princess of Disks
The daughter of Mother Earth

Instinct: Search for emotional security.

Goal: Physical union: pregnancy and birth.
Light: Sensuality, love, and emotional warmth.
Shadow: Hedonism, indolence, sentimentality.
Quality: Renewal, growth, and motherhood (the productive or
creative and nour­ishing aspects from the contact with the Great
Goddess, the Mother Earth).

In the Priestess of the Earth we encounter awakening feminine

yearning for fusion and its form-giving creative power longing to let
something come into existence in the world: the principle of preg-
nancy (we recognize her curved belly on the card). The tip of her
spear that, penetrating deep into the Earth, has transformed into a
diamond symbolizes “the birth of the highest and purest light in the
deepest and darkest of the Elements”. (Crowley) The spear, about
to penetrate the Earth, shows the act of physical union as diving
down into the inner center, in that earthy darkness where eternal life
germinates. The altar in the background is a place of worship and
sacrificial site of the Mother Earth. The meditating Princess of Disks
is a priestess of the earth and grain goddess Demeter. Her horned
headdress and the cape of sheepskin, however, also connects her
with Artemis, the ruler of the animals. The flower in her right hand
is the rose of the Great Goddess Isis. In its middle there is the Taoist
ideogram of the polarized elemental forces of yin and yang, vibrating
in complete harmony. The union of the archetypal polarities, as the
Holy Marriage, was the moving climax of ancient mysteries and
magical fertility rituals.
Astrology—Venus in the earth signs or earth houses.

103
Element—Earth in the element of earth.
Person—The (pregnant) young woman who is strongly linked to the
earth.
Analogies—The companions of the virginal Artemis; the priestesses
of Demeter, the Earth Goddess.
Color of power—Skin colors; light earth colors; Venetian red.
Stone of power­—Rhodonite (manganese); moon­stone; rose quartz.

Prince of Disks
The son of agriculture

Instinct: Diligence, concentration, and endurance (perseverance

and great bodily effort with a ponderous, sensual temperament).
Goal: Stabilization through work (growth, perseverance, maturity,
and success).
Light: Reliability, imperturbability, purposefulness.
Shadow: Stubbornness, phlegmatic nature, stagnation.
Quality: The pragmatist who looks at the nature of people when
doing business and measures the values and unworth of thought
accordingly.

The Son of the Earth represents the airy realms of earth and
alludes to the Great Mother. With his team of oxen, he embodies
the necessity of opening up again to the deeper sense of the old
earth religions and thereby also to an ecological consciousness. He
again discovers the religion of the goddess, which does not come
to us from the outside, but flows outwardly from deep down inside
through a form that is compassionate and connected to the envi-
ronment. It is thereby capable, for example, of creating an economic
system based less on competition than cooperation, in the use of

104
our enormous and often violent riches of creation that would not
only be a “step in the right direction,” but also an absolute necessity
if we do not want to continue to destroy the planet: for we have not
inherited it from our ancestors but borrowed it from our children.
The team of oxen connects him on the mythological level with Pan,
the Greek god of woods and shepherds, who not only expressed the
rustic earth but also the burlesque and coarse humor of Mother
Earth. (His surprising appearance during the midday tranquility
triggered panic-stricken terror.) The globe in his left hand embodies
the visible, tangible world, its revealed structures are the natural
inner rhythms that form the basis of the external cycles. The scepter
in his right hand represents the divine consciousness or the Great
Spirit controlling these powers. The Prince, who indicates a transi-
tion from nomadism to a settled way of life, is related to the hunting
nymphs of the goddess Artemis and represents a libido that is close
to nature, manifested through body and senses. (Feminists can also
identify with his worship of the Great Mother.)
Astrology—21° Aries to 20° Taurus.
Element—The air side of earth.
Person—A tenacious, persevering, and reliable young man who
sometimes also makes an obtuse and stubborn impression.
Analogies—All earth and fertility gods including the gods of handicrafts.
Color of power—Graphite, ocher, and red iron oxide.
Stone of power—Jasper (garden pyrite).

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 Queen of Disks
The mother of growth and vigorous stamina

Instinct: Striving for material security.

Goal: The family as a stable and secure foundation.
Light: Femininity, opulence, over-flowing fertility.
Shadow: Witch (embitterment, hardening, infertility).
Quality: Solidified emotional life, solidarity with all forms of life,
matriarchy.

The Queen of Disks sits at the edge of the desert on a pineap-

ple-shaped plant throne. She observes with interest how a river
winds through the landscape in the background, making the wide
wasteland fertile. This symbolically reproduces on a small scale that
great, divine current of life flowing in human veins as the cosmic
creative power, connecting time and space with each other. It can be
dammed and diverted, but never cut off and destroyed. The desert
itself represents deprivation, meagerness, disappointment, and lone-
liness. On the other hand, the oasis with its abundant plant life illus-
trates the succulence of reproduction and life. The woman in the
foreground represents the mother of growth and vigorous stamina.
For it is the mother who is associated with the principle of life, even
if paternal sperm is naturally necessary. The impregnated woman
symbolizes the “longing of the creation for itself,” for “God takes
delight in himself. He also finds in other creatures the same plea-
sure that he has in himself­—not as creatures, but as God.” (Master
Eckhart) The longing for the divine is the basis of the yearning for
the heavenly mother, connected to the figure of the physical mother
as the first formation of the divine. This principle is personified by
the Mother of Disks who manifests the Great Goddess in human
form. Her armor of small scales or coins underlines her material

106
striving and the security that surrounds her. On a globe in front of
her stands Amalthea, another aspect of the Great Mother and the
goat that suckled Zeus in Greek mythology. The motive of the goat
horns is extended in the curved giant horns of her headgear and
characterizes the Queen of Disks as an intensely instinctual woman,
as a force that produces life and at the same time still also preserves
the libidinous energies that symbolically devour men so that they
can be born again. The scepter in her right hand is crowned by a
glass cube within which there is a three-dimensional hexagram,
symbolic of the trinities of the spirit and matter intertwined with
each other. In her left hand she holds the sphere or three-dimen-
sional disk that belongs to her. With its overlapping circles it
portrays the natural cycles (menstruation, seasons, etc.) as symbols
of the eternal and aspects of earthly totality.
Astrology—21° Sagittarius to 20° Capricorn.

Element—The watery region of earth.
Person—An earthy, emotional, experienced, sometimes also severe
woman.
Analogies—Gaia, Hathor, or the cult of the Great Mother (Magna
Mater).
Color of power—The luminous leaf and fruit colors.
Stone of power—Chatoyant, hawk’s eye, and tiger eye; heliodor
(green jasper with red spots).

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 Knight of Disks
The father of the harvest and the fructifying power

Instinct: Striving for possessions, security, and tangible things.

Goal: Duration, stability, and eternal values.
Light: Endurance, reason, strength, and patience (strict, authori-
tarian, weighty, and tenacious).
Shadow: Conservative, materialistic, dogmatic, and jealous of
what they instinctively realize is the superior state of others.
(Crowley)
Quality: The patriarch (“master of the natural resources”) who
controls, exploits, and subjects Mother Nature to his own needs.

The card shows rider and horse as a form that is heavy, bound to the
soil, firmly rooted in life, and having a direct exchange with nature.
The Father of the Harvest and the procreative power represents the
fiery, fructifying spirit of Mother Earth. He cares for the animals
and plants, which is why he carries a flail instead of a sword. We
could say that he has replaced the “nuclear warheads” and the
“missile sites” of the Knight of Swords with his earthy instinctual
nature and procreative power, embodying the heir of God’s creative
nature. His black shield in concentric circles is surrounded by lumi-
nous sunlight enveloping the background in a soft sea of rays. These
circles are a mild luminous aspect of the spirit that comes down
from the Creator to bless the Great Mother. At the same time, the
massive armor of the Knight also expresses the limitations caused by
his all too earthy instincts, separating him from the spiritual sources
of light. This explains his often short-sighted behavior when, for
the sake of material gain, he plunders Mother Earth through the
clearing of forests, over-fertilizing of fields, or catching fish in great
quantities, or torturing her four-legged creatures and confining

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them. However, the pushed-back helmet topped by the stag’s head
shows the expanded perception and also the inner need and willing-
ness to grow beyond the material limits.
Astrology—21° Leo to 20° Virgo.
Element—The fire of the earth.
Person—The patriarch personifying security, order, and structure.
Analogies—King Minos of Crete, son of Zeus in his bull form and
of Europa, father of the Minotaur; or Dionysus, god of wine and of
ecstasy.
Color of power—Wheat-yellow; rich earth colors.
Stone of power—Silex (impure fire-rock), red­-brown quartz (smoke
topaz), and volcanic glass (obsidian).

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 Finding Your
Personal Cards
(according to a method by Aleister Crowley)

From the 22 cards of the Major Arcana, you can establish which ones
are of particular importance for you. This is a matter of:
1. The personality card, which makes a statement about
the appearance, behavior and external effect of the person
concerned.
2. The character card, which illustrates the inner nature of the
person asking the question.
3. The growth card, which changes annually and distinguishes
the growth theme of the year.
In order to find these cards, three numbers are calculated. The
cards of the Major Arcana corresponding to these numbers are
the personal cards.
The Personality Card
The personality card results when the date of birth is added together:
first the day and month, and then together with the four digits of
the complete year. A cross-sum is then formed by adding together
the four digits of this number. This means that the four digits of
the number are added to each other, resulting in the personality
number. If it is greater than 21, however, a further cross-sum must be
calculated.

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Example:
5/01/1948 = 5 + 1 + 1948 = 1954 = 1 + 9 + 5 + 4 = 19
The personality card is the Sun.
7/05/1952 = 7 + 5 + 1952 = 1964 = 1 + 9 + 6 + 4 = 20
The personality card is the Aeon.
3/09/1957 = 3 + 9 + 1957 = 1969 = 1 + 9 + 6 + 9 = 25 = 2 + 5 = 7
The personality card is the Chariot.
The Character Card
The character card results when a cross-sum is formed from the
personality card. In the above examples, this only works in the first
two cases: 1 + 9 = 10 (the character card is Fortune). In the second
case, the result is 2 + 0 = 2 (character card is the High Priestess). In
the third case, the number remains 7 and therefore the Chariot. This
means that the personality card and the character card are identical.
The Growth Card
The growth card is calculated from the sum of the day and month
of birth and the current year. In the year 1991, for the above dates
this means:
5 + 1 + 1991 = 1997 = 1 + 9 + 9 + 7 = 26 = 2 + 6 = 8
The growth card is Adjustment.
7 + 5 + 1991 = 2003 = 2 + 0 + 0 + 3 = 5
The growth card is the Hierophant.
3 + 9 + 1991 = 2003 = 2 + 0 + 0 + 3 = 5
The growth card is the Hierophant.

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 The Ankh Spread
This nine-card spread explores causes, backgrounds, and prospects.
This system of laying the cards is based on the old symbol of the
Egyptian tau cross, the ankh, symbol of life. It consists of a circle and
a cross. In accordance with the meaning of the circle, the cards laid in
this area give an answer regarding the spiritual background and the
deeper rooted causes, while the cards on the level of the cross show
how the problem is concretely expressed and with what prospects we
can reckon.
A total of nine cards are drawn and laid as below. They have the
following significance:
1 + 2 = Two current impulses, energies, or attitudes that block each
other. (This naturally only applies when this card-laying method—as
is the rule—is used to establish the cause of a crisis. If you want to ask
about the background of a welcome experience, these two cards show
what harmoniously supplements the other.)
3 = Early causes
4 = Triggering causes
5 = Higher perception
6 = Necessary conclusions
Under the assumption that the perception (5) has taken place and
the conclusions (6) have been drawn, the following shows the further
progression:
7 = The next step
8 = Surprising experiences
9 = The result

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113
Notes
Notes
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