I’m always on the look-out for opportunities to deepen my knowledge of esoteric topics. Since the esoteric world is filled to the brim with junk covering a couple of pearls on the bottom (but don’t worry, things don’t get much better outside of lalaland) it is very useful to know some forms of divination to supplement my bullshitometer.
I recently came across a certain course on traditional Italian witchcraft which passed all my preliminary tests (no mention of Wicca or neopaganism, relating anecdotes on practices I’m already familiar with and know are valid, etc.)
Still something was off, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. On thing was probably the reference to authors, like Raven Grimassi, who have been largely debunked. I asked the heavens for a sign, and then pulled some cards. Let’s start with the cards. They were:
4♣ – 2♠ – K♦ – 2♣ – 6♦
Right off the bat, I don’t like the teacher being represented by a King of Diamonds. The King of Diamonds is the merchant, the banker, the one whose end goal is money. If he had been the King of Hearts or even the King of Spades I would have been reassured. You may argue that obviously a course is offered to earn money, to which I respond that there is a difference between earning through your passion and earning through other people’s passion.
I am unsure about the preceding combination of Four of Clubs and Two of Spades, but it likely represents contradictory (2♠, arguments, going apart) doctrines (4♣, that which is told). The Two of Clubs and Six of Diamonds traditionally represent limping (insecure steps). The King of Diamonds is not secure enough in his knowledge. Limping is still better than being bed-ridden, so there is something good to the course, but probably not enough to offset the negatives.
Horary Astrology Reading
Let’s look at the horary chart:
Is the course good for me?
The Moon is the Lady of the Ascendant and thus represents me. Magic is higher knowledge, so it’s Ninth House. This is Jupiter. The two malefics Mars and Jupiter are present in the Ninth house, and are both peregrine, so they afflict the house.
The Moon is in her sign, but she’s also tucked away in the very malefic Twelfth house. Interestingly, the Twlefth house represents witchcraft, but only in the sense of something done behind the querent’s back to hurt him, not magic in general (which, again, is higher knowledge). So while I’d be capable of learning (Moon in own sign) my position is not good. There’s something iffy.
Jupiter is mildly dignified by term and in the succedent Eleventh house. The Moon is in sextile with Jupiter, which is technically good, but it is separating from it, indicating growing divergence. The Moon’s next aspect is a square of the Sun, which is negative. The Sun rules the second house, the house of money. So proceeding would put a strain on my finances. This isn’t necessarily to say that it costs too much in absolute terms, but it costs too much compared to its quality. Interestingly, Jupiter is disposited by Venus, which is in detriment and moving toward the Sun, which hurts her, so Venus has a rather excessive love of my money compared to the necessary love of knowledge.
All in all, based on both readings, I would say that the course would probably contain some valuable information, but would not be a great investment in my education.
(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)
The Knight of Swords from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck
Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)
The time period is from the beginning of the third decanate of Taurus to the end of the second decanate of Gemini, May 11 to June 10. Meanings: youngish man; some talent for governing; materialistic, with some artistic appreciation; active, clever, skillful in management. Well-Dignified: favorable to querent and his enterprises Ill-Dignified: Inimical, domineering, overvalues small things, crafty. Dark hair and eyes. (From the Oracle of Tarot course)
A. E. Waite
He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design he is really a prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart. Divinatory Meanings: Skill, bravery, capacity, defence, address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. There is therefore a sense in which the card signifies death, but it carries this meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality. Reversed: Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance. (From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)
Aleister Crowley
(Note: Crowley and the Golden Dawn made a mess with the kings and knights) This card represents the airy part of Air. With its particular interpretation, it is intellectual, it is a picture of the Mind as such. He rules from the 21st degree of Capricornus to the 20th degree of Aquarius.
The figure of this Prince is clothed with closely woven armour adorned with definite device, and the chariot which bears him suggests (even more closely) geometrical ideas. This chariot is drawn by winged children, looking and leaping irresponsibly in any direction that takes their fancy; they are not reined, but perfectly Capricious. The chariot consequently is easy enough to move, but quite unable to progress in any definite direction except by accident. This is a perfect picture of the Mind.
On the head of this Prince is, nevertheless, a child’s head radiant, for there is a secret crown in the nature of this card; if concentrated, it is exactly Tiphareth.
The operation of his logical mental processes have reduced the Air, which is his element, to many diverse geometrical patterns, but in these there is no real plan; they are demonstrations of the powers of the Mind without definite purpose. In his right hand is a lifted sword wherewith to create, but in his left hand a sickle, so that what he creates he instantly destroys.
A person thus symbolized is purely intellectual. He is full of ideas and designs which tumble over each other. He is a mass of fine ideals unrelated to practical effort. He has all the apparatus of Thought in the highest degree, intensely clever, admirably rational, but unstable of purpose, and in reality indifferent even to his own ideas, as knowing that any one of them is just as good as any other. He reduces everything to unreality by removing its substance and transmuting it to an ideal world of ratiocination which is purely formal and out of relation to any facts, even those upon which it is based.
In the Yi King, the airy part of Air is represented by the 57th hexagram, Sun. This is one of the most difficult figures in the book, on account of its ambivalence: it means both flexibility and penetration.
Immensely powerful because of its complete freedom from settled principles, capable of maintaining and putting forward any conceivable argument, insusceptible of regret or remorse, glib to “quote Scripture” aptly and cunningly to support any thesis soever, indifferent to the fate of a contrary argument advanced two minutes earlier, impossible to defeat because any position is as good as any other, ready to enter into combination with the nearest element available, these elusive and elastic people are of value only when firmly mastered by creative will fortified by an intelligence superior to their own. In practice, this is rarely possible: there is no purchase to be had upon them, not even by pandering to their appetites. These may nevertheless be stormy, even uncontrollable. Faddists, devotees of drink, drugs, humanitarianism, music or religion, are often in this class; but when this is the case, there is still no stability. They wander from one cult or one vice to another, always brilliantly supporting with the fanaticism of a fixed conviction what is actually no more than the whim of the moment.
It is easy to be deceived by such people; for the manifestation itself has enormous potency: it is as if an imbecile offered one the dialogues of Plato. They may in this way acquire a great reputation both for depth and breadth of mind. (From The Book of Thoth)
A futuristic AI generated illustration for the Knight of Swords
Golden Dawn’s Book T
A WINGED King with Winged Crown, seated in a chariot drawn by Arch Fays, represented as winged youths very slightly dressed, with butterfly wings: heads encircled by a fillet with a pentagram thereon: and holding wands surmounted by pentagrams, the same butterfly wings on their feet and fillets. General equipment as the King of Wands: but he bears as a crest a winged angelic head with a pentagram on the brows. Beneath the chariot are grey nimbus clouds. His hair long and waving in serpentine whirls, and whorl figures compose the scales of his armour. A drawn sword in one hand; a sickle in the other. With the sword he rules, with the sickle he slays. Full of ideas and thoughts and designs, distrustful, suspicious, firm in friendship and enmity; careful, observant, slow, over-cautious, symbolizes GR:Alpha and GR:Omega; he slays as fast as he creates. If ill dignified: harsh, malicious, plotting; obstinate, yet hesitating; unreliable. Rules from 20 Degree Capricorn to 20 Degree Aquarius. Air of Air
Etteilla
Military Man Upright: This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Military Man, Man of Sword, Man of Arms, Fencing Master, Swordsman. – Soldier of any corps and weapon, Enemy Fighter. – Dispute, War, Combat, Battle, Duel. – Attack, Defense, Opposition, Resistance, Destruction, Ruin, Overthrow. – Enmity, Hatred, Anger, Resentment. – Courage, Valor, Bravery. – Satellite [= Attendant], Mercenary. Reversed: Inexperience, Inertia, Stupidity, Bestiality, Stupidity, Imprudence, Impertinence, Extravagance, Ridiculousness, Baggianity. – Scrounging, Fraud, Bricolage, Industry.
This is the first time I use my new interest, Horary Astrology, in conjunction with playing cards. Let’s see what they have to say. The question was asked by a friend of mine who just broke up with her girlfriend. He wants to know if there is a future. This reading was made a couple of days ago.
Relationship reading, is there a future? Answered with horary astrology
The querent is Mars, lord of the Ascendant, while the quesited, i.e., the girlfriend, is Venus lord of the Seventh. The Moon indicates the flow of the action.
In a night chart, Mars is dignified by triplicity in Pisces, and is angular, while Venus is exalted, also in Pisces, and also angular. The first thing that strikes me is that Venus is moving away from Mars. Furthermore, the Moon is separating from a difficult square with Jupiter in the Seventh. I asked my friend if he had broken up with her or she had broken up with him, since from the chart it seems it was her initiative. He didn’t like to admit it, but said she had left him.
Note that Mars is in triplicity, so a decent Mars, but also conjunct Saturn. Saturn is peregrine. Also note that Venus, the girlfriend, is exalted, and exaltation is sometimes an indication of haughtiness. Clearly she thought she could do better than Saturn-like Mars as she moved away from him. My friend then told me she told him she didn’t like the fact she is to attached to her.
Well, CAN she do better? Venus is about to change sign, from Pisces to Aries, whereupon she will not only lose all her dignity, but she will also enter her detriment. Let us look at the Moon now. The Moon separates from the square with Jupiter and moves toward a sextile with Mercury Retrograde. Sextiles are positive aspects. If we put together the indications, we have: 1) Venus moving away but regretting her decision 2) A future positive contact 3) the contact is about things that go back (retrograde)
This seemed to me a sign of reconciliation. Just to be on the safe side, I had the querent pull three cards from the playing card deck. These were:
5♠ – Q♣ – 3♥
The cards are quite clear. The Five of Spades is a card of imprisonment, but it also indicates regret (which is what you are supposed to feel in prison). Then we have her significator, followed by the Three of Hearts. I would have preferred to see a Six of Hearts to show reconciliation, but the Three of Hearts will do. In this case, the added shade of meaning seems to be that the cards don’t even consider the breakup effective, because the Three of Hearts show things that flow positively without interruption.
I believe that in the development of divination techniques, the creation of meanings for multiples of cards of the same number must have probably come pretty early. When I was taught to read playing cards, the person who gave me the meanings passed also the signification of card multiples to me, with the caveat that she’d never found them to be very reliable, contrary to the rest of the method. I must confess that I almost never use them, except when the meaning can be derived from the meanings of the cards, which is why I never talked about them before. However, since someone asked me, I’ll retrieved them from my notes so that you can experiment with them.
Note that it does not matter which cards we are talking about as long as they have the appropriate number of pips. However, the presence of Spades in the combination is supposed to worsen the meaning, especially if the Spade card comes last.
Aces 2 = Surprise 3 = Positive Chance 4 = when together, death or great danger, when apart, glory or success
or “Summa Scientiae Nihil Scire” in Latin. This motto is very useful in practical fortune-telling. One of the greatest risks we run is of assuming. “She’s 85, how is she gonna find love?” “He’s a 23-year-old jock, he’s probably not a priest.” “She looks so prim and proper, she’s unlikely to have seven lovers.”
All these preconceptions and more cloud our mind as we try to read the oracle’s answer, regardless of the oracle, whether it be the Tarot, playing cards, astrology, the I Ching, etc. All these preconceptions are poison to the art of divination. They are not of service to us, nor to our querent. Let’s delve into why.
Let us start from the fact that bias is a natural and necessary phenomenon, as politically incorrect as this may sound. Bias comes to us from our experience, but also from the experience of others, especially family members, friends, teachers and people we trust. Bias orients our life, and this cannot be otherwise. The attempt to forcibly eliminate bias from people’s minds only causes suffering, and is its own kind of irrational crusade.
You know who is NOT biased? God. You know what God does? Everything. But you can’t do everything. You can only do something. And in order to do something, you must be biased against something else. That’s life.
This is not to say that all bias is good. For instance, I may have accepted some preconceptions from my parents, who got them from their grandparents, who got them from the priest, who got them from a crazy lady next door, etc. This kind of bias is the worst because it can needlessly limit our options and create likewise needless suffering in those around us. The best kind of bias is the critically examined one that you accept based on your actual life experience and keep open to revision.
Yet even this kind of “good” bias is harmful to divination. When someone comes to us for a reading, or when we read for ourselves, what we are doing is trying to look at reality from the point of view of a symbolic system that reflects life from an objective, or at least less subjective standpoint.
Divination is a language with no native speakers, except maybe the guy upstairs, which means that our understanding of it is always going to be imperfect and faulty. But this is a technical kind of difficulty, and in its own way it’s excusable. What is less excusable is the additional confusion we create by reading our biases into the divination. This is not just about politics, philosophy, morality or religion. It’s everything.
“A 85-year-old is not going to find love again” is one sort of bias. “An attractive young guy is probably not a priest” is another. The aim of divination is to read the truth, not ourselves.That’s why the height of science is to know nothing. If we start with a clean slate we can receive much more information from the tool we are using, simply because we are not randomly blocking out information we consciously or subconsciously deem unlikely.
The unlikely happens everyday. Think about it. Almost everyday something unlikely happens in the world. That’s not to say we must feel the urge to make our predictions as unlikely as possible in order to impress the querent. Most of the time, what’s likely is what ends up happening. Still the unlikely is not the impossible.
I am big on comparing divination with language, as those reading this blog know. And as you know, I am not a native speaker. Around fifteen years ago, I was trying to improve my English by watching youtube videos. Yet this was very hard, because the language people use on youtube is very inconsistent, erratic at times, filled as it is with memes, asides, jokes, ancdotes, interruptions… I was trying to project the artificial English I had learned in school onto this truer, more lived English.
“Surely he can’t have said what he has just said. It doesn’t make any sense,” I constantly thought. It was when I stopped projecting my presuppositions and started just taking in what was objectively being said that my English truly improved. That’s the same with divination. The height of science is to know nothing. Only if we know nothing we can take in what is being said.
In one of my recent posts I discussed how playing cards can detect curses (of course, it’s not just playing cards that can do it). Today I wanted to add to this subject by discussing the esoteric use of Playing Cards to check if a spell (in this case, a talisman) is a good idea or has been successfully created and is working.
I should perhaps first explain that there is a modicum of belief in magic involved in all this. The modern worldview tends to react to the idea of magic in two ways: the skeptical way (“it’s not really true”) and the new age way (“it’s not really true, but I would really love for it to be true, so I’ll play make belief and tailor everything to my preconceptions”)
Either way, magic is reduced to the acceptable role of cathartic theater or psychological tool (unfortunately, even great minds within the occult scene, like William Gray, have partly fallen for this approach, or at least considered it viable). From here it has even found its way even into the corporate sphere (a friend of mine working for Google told me she was forced to attend a “magical” day with a psychic who talked to them about tarot and Wicca). You know something is crap when pandering megacorporations appropriate it.
At least since Aleister Crowley (but there are predecessors) magic has been understood as the way of the will. Granted, Crowley’s understanding of the word “Will” is not the same as how we understand it in our everyday life, which would rather be “whim“. His view resembles more closely Nietzsche’s view of the will, so it does have some nobility.
But this doesn’t detract from the fact that most people whose view of magic has been colored by Crowley’s (and that’s almost everyone today, whether they know it or not) don’t REALLY believe in magic. Instead, they tend to see it as, again, little more than a placebo. It’s true if you believe in it. It’s true if you want it to be true.
Still, it’s my experience that belief in magic is not really required for magic to work. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find any trace of the concept of the magician’s will in the traditional Western approach to magic (or in the Eastern approach, for that matter).
Because just believing in it was usually not considered a prerequisite for success, the use of divination to check the efficacy of magical workings has been advocated a long time. Besides, if belief is not enough, other, more objective factors must be checked. *
The Arab mages of old, for instance, invited people to do a horary reading to see if the use of planetary magic was warranted. Agrippa probably used geomancy for the same purpose. We don’t know about Abano, but it is not a stretch to think he would have consulted a geomantic shield to check how his spellwork was doing.
In general, all forms of divination take the reality of magic for granted within the worldview that informs their language. After all, why would divination work, but not magic? ** This is true for playing cards as well. Here is an example.
Last year while the Sun was in Leo I was working on a Sun talisman. I’m not going to disclose the aim of the talisman. It was nothing untoward, but I’d rather keep it to myself. After the creation of the talisman I set out to consecrate it. The number of days varies.
On the first day, after the first consecration, I got the following spread:
A♠ – 6♣ – 5♠
Definitely a bad start. And I wouldn’t have expected anything less. The majority is Spades, which is bad for anything but black magic.
6♣ – 8♣ – 10♣
Second day of consecration. A mash of clubs is not positive. It shows difficulties and toil without success. Still, Spades have abandoned the spread, which is a positive.
6♣ – A♦ – 3♠
This is the third day. Close but no banana. It is still a negative spread. It has the Six of Clubs in common with the previous spread, and it closes with an unpromising Three of Spades, which bring Spades and large obstacles back into the equation. Note that this is the third day in a row I get the Six of Clubs. But the Ace of Diamonds has appeared, which indicates success, talismans and even the Sun.
A♦ – 9♦ – 10♦
Fourth day. This is the sign I was waiting for. The Ace of Diamonds is back. This time it is well-placed. The Nine of Diamonds and Ten of Diamonds together just mean “it works”, whether we are talking about an object, a business plan or a spell.
MQS
* This is not to say that the old magi wanted you to do your homeworks half-heartedly. Marsilio Ficino talks about the importance putting your heart in your spellwork.
** this would lead us off into an interesting discussion of all those that practice divination without believing it to actually work (“it’s just a brainstorming method” being the most common rationalization)
Most systems of divination can also be used to explore esoteric topics. For instance, I have answered the question “have I been hexed?” way more than I would like. The answer is no 95% of the times. Only two times in my life have I sent someone straight to see a priest because something supernatural was objectively at play. Most of the times, people use dark magic as a scapegoat to rationalize natural periods of bad luck.
Of the the two times I did detect a curse I can only find records of one (my notes tend to be rather messy). The girl in question asked me if she’d received the evil eye (malocchio). This was the spread:
10♠ – 5♠ – 5♥ – J♠ – Q♠
I added two cards to the queen, and I got the Q♦ and the 2♥. The reading is quite obvious: a woman cursed her (the Queen of Spades with the Jack) on behalf of a relative (the Queen of Diamonds and Two of Hearts) though probably not a blood relative. The Ten and Five of Spades, when read together with the other spades, indicate the use of negative occult powers, probably at night.
The Five of Hearts in the center of the spread probably showed the sector of the querent’s life that was impacted by the curse: the ‘abundance’ sector. The young woman had lost a ton of weight in a short timeframe, she looked wasted, had started losing her hair and her beauty, had started developing money problems (in that she couldn’t retain any money she made). Her significator is absent, meaning she was completely passive to the hex.
It seems her mother-in-law had gone to see a country witch to try to harm her. This is far more troublesome than the evil eye, which sometimes can even be cast inadvertently without a ritual. The hex was broken by a priest, or rather, thanks to a priest who put her in contact with a monk specializing in this kind of stuff.
I’m bringing up the topic because I was recently asked the same question by a friend of mine who is going through a rough patch (lost her job, broke up with her boyfriend, argued with her sister, etc), which she believed was due to some ‘bad vibes’ or the malocchio. The spread was:
3♠ – 6♣ – Q♣ – 7♠ – 5♦
This time we have the querent in the middle of the spread. This, coupled with the fact that there are no combinations of curse, is encouraging: the querent has not been displaced from the center stage of her life.
The cards are negative, but they don’t reference supernatural phenomena: the Three of Spades could indicate curses or evil eye in combinations, but here there is no such combo, so it just indicates problems, things that don’t go smoothly. The querent is surrounded by the Six of Clubs and the Seven of Spades, the latter showing unfortunate events, the former reiterating the idea of difficulties. The Seven of Spades connects to the Five of Diamonds to indicate a period of misfortune, that is, of natural bad luck, which will pass (there will be change, it won’t stay that way forever).
Daily readings are not always very clear, for a couple of reasons. First, since we don’t live in an action movie, not every day is the setting of some memorable event. Second, the cards could sometimes bring up a minor situation that we barely pick up on. Third, I have personally found in my practice that torturing the cards for daily glimpses is not always a good idea, if done systematically, as sometimes it causes me to feel I’m losing my connection with the cards. That’s why I only draw three cards for the day every once in a while, when I feel inspired to.
Today was one such day, and it was very clear:
Daily vera sibilla reading
The cards talked about a communication reaching me, but that was the extent of my interpretation. I did not try to read further into it, because what is valid for a general reading is not always valid in a daily reading, where the interpretation needs to often be toned down.
If I were to interpret these cards for someone in a regular reading, I would tell them that their partner would communicate to them that they no longer have anything in common and it’s over. The Surprise, The Six of Clubs, represents, when upright, all situations that flourish easily, and therefore it shows compatibility, while, when reversed, it represents falling out of love due to growing apart.
Well, this is exactly what happened today. Only, not to me. I was the one who received the communication, but not from my husband. I received it from a friend who told me she and her partner were breaking off their relationship, because “they don’t even recognize each other anymore”
When I was a teen, I remember stumbling upon Aristotle’s definition of the “educated mind” as being able to hold a thought without accepting it, and I remember thinking how silly and basic the definition was. The older I get, the more I find myself agreeing with him, as I see fewer and fewer people capable of doing it (the fact that Aristotle never actually wrote the sentence is a whole ‘nother can of worms)
A lot of people don’t have an educated mind per the definition above. One would like to think that tarot readers, astrologers and the like would not be like a lot of people, seeing how much the word “wisdom” gets thrown around in their circles. But one would be wrong. Leave it to the “spiritual community” to be among the most ideological and stiff. And, consequently, not among the brightest. If there is a group of people I don’t trust to be capable of holding any thought except the ones they agree with, that’s these people.
I believe I already talked a little about this, but one of the most memorable examples I can think of is the 2016 US election, when every tarot reader on youtube and their mom were busy predicting Trump would lose the election disgracefully, poop his pants, writhe on the floor, throw a tantrum and retreat into the hell that spawned him while Hillary Clinton swung her throbbing, veiny, 25 inch hard-on at the glass ceiling. While I am slightly exaggerating, this was pretty much the tone. (interestingly, those same readers routinely claim that the tarot is not for fortune-telling)
One such reader went as far as channeling Trump’s character. I do not remember the exact spread, nor most of the cards, but two things stuck with me: first, no egregiously bad card showed up, and second, the King of Cups featured prominently in the spread. She interpreted the card as Trump being a violent man prey to his base emotions and instincts. I took a quick look at some of that reader’s other videos, only to discover that she never, ever interpreted the King of Cups this way. In fact, she always interpreted it as the significator of a good man who takes care of the querent.
This is a good time to point out that I am fiercely apolitical, so this is not about politics. All ideologies are, as far as I am concerned, clouds over the mind’s clarity. I’m not saying everyone needs to think like me. Everyone has their delusion of choice, and everyone (including me) has their way of slanting reality in one direction or the other, whether politically, spiritually or philosophically (or even scientifically, for that matter). In fact, slanting reality is probably needed in order to filter information that might be useful to us.
Yet divination should be something else. What that reader did was merely using the cards as a mirror of her own (perfectly legitimate) bias. This is fine, and can even be useful at times–if you are aware that you are doing it. Even that would not be actual divination, but at least it wouldn’t be a waste of time.
I already discussed that divination is really a process of deification, that is, the process of allowing the dispassionate, bird-eye view clarity of the divine into one’s limited, subjective world by letting new information in. In other words, true divination is the opposite of retreating into one’s bubble: it’s the bursting of the bubble.
This, in turn, requires a certain readiness to accept the information we get (which is why it is always best to get someone you don’t know to read your cards.) Divination without intellectual honesty is just a crutch for one’s ego, and that’s how it is currently being used by the vast majority of diviners.
Unfortunately, intellectual honesty won’t make you many friends. Back in 2016 I had arguments with more tarot readers than I care to remember and was routinely labeled a dangerous extremist just because I called into question the usefulness of this type of reading (back then I still tried to entertain fruitful conversations with people). But occultism, in all its branches, is a narrow path.
Two lessons from all this: 1) if you are reading for yourself and the cards (or chart, or dice, or whatever) seem to confirm what you already think or wish, apply a bucketful of salt to the reading; 2) invest some money into a simple handbook of logic, or at least expand your knowledge of logical fallacies. This will repay you many times over, regardless of what branch of sorcery you practice.
(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)
The Knight of Pentacles from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck
Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)
The time period is from the beginning of the third decanate of Leo to the end of the second decanate of Virgo, August 13 to September 12. This period is under the rulership of Mars, Mercury and Saturn. Meanings: Well-Dignified: ability to use actions effectively; good mind, able to see through the veils of sense experience to their true import. In specific divination, a man younger than the King and though intelligent, somewhat matter-of-fact; not original or imaginative; good at carrying out any plan calling for intelligent action on the physical plane. Ill-Dignified: avaricious, mean, jealous, somewhat violent and cruel. Dark brown hair and dark eyes. (From the Oracle of Tarot course)
A. E. Waite
He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein. Divinatory Meanings: Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude-all on the normal and external plane. Reversed: inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also placidity, discouragement, carelessness. (From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)
Aleister Crowley
(Note: Crowley and the Golden Dawn make a mess with the Kings and Knights) The Prince of Disks represents the airy part of Earth, indicating the florescence and fructification of that element. He rules from the 21st degree of Aries to the 20th degree of Taurus.
The figure of this Prince is meditative. He is the element of Earth become intelligible. Clothed in light armour, his helmet is crowned with the head of a bull; and his chariot is drawn by an ox, this animal being peculiarly sacred to the Element of Earth. In his left hand he holds his disk, which is an orb resembling a globe, marked with mathematical symbols as if to imply the planning involved in agriculture. In his right hand he bears an orbed sceptre surmounted by a cross, a symbol of the Great Work accomplished; for it is his function to bring forth from the material of the element that vegetation which is the sustenance of the Spirit itself.
The character denoted by this card is that of great energy brought to bear upon the most solid of practical matters. He is energetic and enduring, a capable manager, a steadfast and per severing worker. He is competent, ingenious, thoughtful, cautious, ‘trustworthy, imperturbable; he constantly seeks new uses for common things, and adapts his circumstances to his purposes in a slow, steady, well-thought out plan.
He is lacking almost entirely in emotion. He is somewhat in sensitive, and may appear dull, but he is not; it so appears because he makes no effort to understand ideas which are beyond his scope. He may often appear stupid, and is inclined to be resentful of more spiritual types. He is slow to anger, but, if driven, becomes implacable. It is not very practicable to distinguish between the good and evil dignities in this card; one can merely say that, in case of his being ill-dignified, both the quality and quantity of his characteristics are somewhat degraded. The reaction of others to him will depend almost entirely upon their own temperaments.
In the Yi King, the airy part of Earth is represented by the 53rd hexagram, Kien. The commentary concerns the flight of wild geese, “gradually approaching the shore”, then “the large rocks”, then “advanced to the dry plains-the trees-the high ~ finally, to “the large heights”. It thus symbolizes slow, steady emancipation from repressive conditions.
The description is even happier than that given by the Qabalah, although in every way congruous with it. Practical considerations are never absent from Chinese thought, even at its most abstruse and metaphysical. The fundamental heresy of the Black Lodge is con tempt for “the world, the flesh, and the devil”, all which are essential to the plan of the Universe; it is cardinal to the Great Work for the Adept so to order affairs that “even the evil germs of Matter shall alike become useful and good”.
The error of Christian Mystics on this point has been responsible for more cruelty, misery, and collective insanity than all others put together; its poison can be traced even in the teaching of Freud, who assumed that the Unconscious was “the devil”, whereas in fact it is the instinct which expresses, beneath a veil, the inherent Point-of-View of each, and, properly understood, is the key to Initiation, and a hint of what seed may blossom and fructify as the “Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”. For “Every man and every woman is a star”.
But no doubt the judgment of the Adepts Exempt (for it is they who determine, under the guidance of the Masters of the Temple, all such details of doctrine) in respect of this card has been influenced by its transition from Aries to Taurus. It is too often forgotten that Taurus is the House of Venus, and that Luna is exalted therein. The new doctrine set forth in this present Essay makes the primary colour of Earth not black, but green; it insists that every Disk is a living and revolving symbol. The central thesis of the Book of the Law asserts the Perfection of the Universe. In its pantheistic conception all possibilities are equal in value; each and every Point-Event is “a play of Nuit”, as it is written in the Book of Wisdom or Folly, “Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But whose availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!” Liber Al. 1. 22. Or, yet more comprehensively and simply: “Every number is infinite; there is no difference.” Ib I.4. (From The Book of Thoth)
Weirdly adorable AI generated illustration for the Knight of Coins
Golden Dawn’s Book T
A WINGED Kingly Figure seated in a chariot drawn by a bull. He bears as a crest the symbol of the head of the winged bull. Beneath the chariot is land, with many flowers. In the one hand he bears an orb of gold held downwards, and in the other a sceptre surmounted by an orb and cross.
Increase of matter. Increases good or evil, solidifies; practically applies things. Steady; reliable. If ill dignified he is selfish, animal and material: stupid. In either case slow to anger, but furious if roused. Rules from 20 Degree Aries to 20 Degree Taurus. Air of Earth
Etteilla
Utility Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Useful, Advantageous, Gainful, Profitable, Interesting. – Interesting, Important, Necessary, Obligatory. Reversed. Peace, Tranquility, Rest, Sleep, Apathy, Inertia, Rest, Inactivity, Unemployment. – Leisure, Pastime. – Recreation, Carefreeness, Indifference, Indolence, Laziness, Poltrony, Numbness, Discouragement, Annihilation.
