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Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Ace of Swords

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(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 Ace of Swords from the Builders of the Adyum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is from the beginning of Libra to the end of Sagittarius, Sept. 23 to Dec. 21., representing the conjoined power of Venus, Mars and Jupiter. In divination , when the sword is turned downward it is ill-dignified and has a negative significance. In ceremonial magic the sword in this position is used for the invocation of evil forces, while with the point upward it denotes invocation of spiritual forces. Keep this in mind in divination , as an ill-dignified Ace of Swords shows need to control and overcome negative emotions and thoughts.
Keyword: Activity (particularly mental force in operation).
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A hand issues from a cloud, grasping as word, the point of which is encircled by a crown. Divinatory Meanings: Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling. Reversed: The same, but the results are disastrous; another account says–conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Ace of Swords is the primordial Energy of Air, the Essence of the Vau of Tetragrammaton, the integration of the Ruach. Air is the result of the conjunction of Fire and Water; thus it lacks the purity of its superiors in the male hierarchy, Fire, Sol and the Phallus. But for this same reason it is the first card directly to be apprehended by the normal consciousness of Mankind. The errors of such cards as the 7 and 10 of Cups are yet of an Order altogether higher than the apparently much milder 4 of Swords. The study of the subtle and gradual degradation of the planes is excessively difficult.

In nature, the obvious symbol of Air is the Wind “which bloweth whithersoever it listeth”. It lacks the concentrated Will of Fire to unite with Water: it has no corresponding passion for its Twin Element, Earth. There is indeed, a notable passivity in its nature; evidently, it has no self-generated impulse. But, set in motion by its Father and Mother, its power is manifestly terrific. It visibly attacks its objective, as they, being of subtler and more tenuous character, can never do. Its “all-embracing, all-wandering, all-penetrating, all-consuming” qualities have been described by many admirable writers, and its analogies are for the most part patent to quite ordinary observers.

But, it will instantly be asked, what of the status of this Element in the light of other attributions? In the Yetziratic World, is not Air the first element to follow Spirit? Is not Vayu the first emergence of the phenomenal from the arcane obscurity of Akasha? How may one reconcile the doctrine of Mind with the fact that Ruh, or Ruach, actually means Spirit itself? “Achath Ruach Elohim Chiim” (777) means “One is the Spirit (not Air) of the Gods of the Living”? And is not Air, the element attributed to Mercury, also most properly the Breath of Life, the Word, the Logos itself?

The student must be referred to some less raw, cursory, elementary and superficial Treatise than this present bat-eyed, penguin-winged, bluebottle-brained buzzing. Nevertheless, although Air is in no system the lowest, and so cannot claim benefit of clergy from the doctrine that Malkuth automatically resolves into Kether, the following reference seems not wholly to lack either cogency or pertinence.

The Ruach is centred in the airy Sephira, Tiphareth, who is the Son, the first-born of the Father, and the Sun, the first emanation of the creative Phallus. He derives directly from his mother Binah through the Path of Zain, the sublime intuitive sense, so that he partakes absolutely of the nature of Neschamah. From his father, Chokmah, he is informed though the Path of Heh’, the Great Mother, the Star, our Lady Nuit, so that the creative impulse is communicated to him by all possibilities soever. [How strikingly this fact confirms the counterchange of IV and XVII, above fully expounded: as a link between Chokmah and Tiphareth, the Emperor would have no great significance, and this exquisite doctrine of the Three Mothers would be lost.] Finally, from Kether, the supreme, descends directly upon him, though the Path of Gimel, the High Priestess, the triune light of Initiation. The Three-in-One, the Secret Mother in her polymorphous plenitude; these, these alone, hail him thrice blessed of the Supernals!

The card represents the Sword of the Magus (see Book 4, Part II) crowned with the twenty-two rayed diadem of pure Light. The number refers to the Atu; also 22=2 X II, the Magical manifestation of Chokmah, Wisdom, the Logos. Upon the blade, accordingly, is inscribed the Word of the Law, This Word sends forth a blaze of Light, dispersing the dark clouds of the Mind.
(From The Book of Thoth)

AI generated illustration for the Ace of Swords, looking more like a spear

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WHITE Radiating Angelic Hand, issuing from clouds, and grasping the hilt of a sword, which supports a White Radiant Celestial Crown; from which depend, on the right, the olive branch of Peace; and on the left, the palm branch of suffering.
Six Vaus fall from its point. It symbolizes “Invoked,” as contrasted with Natural Force: for it is the Invocation of the Sword. Raised upward, it invokes the Divine crown of Spiritual Brightness, but reversed it is the Invocation of Demonic Force; and becomes a fearfully evil symbol. It represents, therefore, very great power for good or evil, but invoked; and it also represents whirling Force, and strength through trouble. It is the affirmation of Justice upholding Divine Authority; and it may become the Sword of Wrath, Punishment, and Affliction.

Etteilla

Fructification
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Extreme, Great, Excessive. – Exaggerated, Furious, Choleric. – Extremely, Passionately, Excessively. – Vehemence, Animosity, Carriage, Impetus, Anger, Fury, Rage. – Extremity, Terms, Boundary, End, Limits. – Last sigh, Last extremity. – Divergence.
Reversed. Pregnancy, Germ, Seed, Sperm, Matter, Impregnation, Generation, Conception, Fructification. – Childbirth, Puerperium. – Fertilization, Production, Composition. – Enlargement, Increase, Multiplicity.

MQS

Card Meanings, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Ace of Cups

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(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 Ace of Cups from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

Well Dignified: fertility, productiveness, development, multiplication, happiness, pleasure, gratification, fruition of desires; cheerfulness, geniality, gaiety.
lll Dignified: too much emphasis on pleasure; over-intensity of the desire nature; trouble in love.
Keyword: Desire force
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

The waters are beneath, and thereon are water-lilies; the hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked Host, descends to place the Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides. It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana. Divinatory Meanings: House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof. Reversed: House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

This card represents the element of Water in its most secret and original form. It is the feminine complement of the Ace of Wands, and is derived from the Yoni and the Moon exactly as that is from the Lingam and the Sun. The third in the Hierarchy. This accordingly represents the essential form of the Holy Grail. Upon the dark sea of Binah, the Great Mother, are Lotuses, two in one, which fill the cup with the Life-fluid, symbolically represented either as Water, as Blood, or as Wine, according to the selected purpose of the symbolism. This being a primordial card, the liquid is shown as water; it can be transformed into Wine or Blood as may be required.

Above the Cup, descending upon it, is the Dove of the Holy Ghost, thus consecrating the element.

At the base of the Cup is the Moon, for it is the virtue of this card to conceive and to produce the second form of its Nature.
(From The Book of Thoth)

AI-generated illustration for the Ace of Cups

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WHITE Radiant Angelic Hand, issuing from clouds, and supporting on the palm thereof a cup, resembling that of the Stolistes.
From it rises a fountain of clear and glistening water: and sprays falling on all sides into clear calm water below, in which grow Lotuses and Water-lilies. The great Letter of the Supernal Mother is traced in the spray of the Fountain.
It symbolizes Fertility — productiveness, beauty, pleasure, happiness, etc.

Etteilla

Table
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Table, Meal, Feast, Gala, Banquet, Nourishment, Food, Nutrition. – Guests, Services. – Invitation, Prayer, Supplication, Convocation. – Guest, Hotel, Inn, Tavern. – Abundance, Fertility, Production, Soundness, Stability, Steadfastness, Constancy, Perseverance, Continuance, Duration, Follow-through, Assiduity, Persistence, Steadfastness, Courage. – Picture, Painting, Image, Hieroglyphic, Description. – Tablet, Portfolio, Office, Secretary. – Natural tablet, Bronze tablet, Marble tablet, Law. – Catalog, Index of subjects. – Harmonic table, Garden table, Holy table.
Reversed. Mutation, Permutation, Transmutation, Alteration, Vicissitude, Variety, Variation, Inconstancy, Lightness. – Exchange, Barter, Purchase, Sale, Market, Treaty, Convention. – Metamorphosis, Diversity, Versatility, Reversal, Reversal, Revolution, Reversal. – Version, Translation, Interpretation.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Ace of Wands

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(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 Ace of Wands from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) Tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

In Tarot Divination the Ace of Wands has these key meanings: natural as opposed to invoked force; strength; force; vigor; vitality; particularly the force of concentrated will; the principle of beginning; initiation or inception of any enterprise or activity; concentration of power; involution of force.
Keyword: Initiative
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club. Divinatory Meanings: Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and in a sense the virility which is behind them; the starting point of enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune, inheritance. Reversed: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish also a certain clouded joy.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

This card represents the essence of the element of Fire in its inception. It is a solar-phallic outburst of flame from which spring lightnings in every direction. These flames are Yods, arranged in the form of the Tree of Life. (For Yod, see Atu IX supra.) It is the primordial Energy of the Divine manifesting in Matter, at so early a stage that it is not yet definitely formulated as Will.

Important: although these “small cards” are sympathetic with their Sephirotic origin, they are not identical; nor are they Divine Persons. These (and the Court Cards also) are primarily sub-Elements, parts of the “Blind Forces” under the Demiourgos, Tetragrammaton. Their rulers are the Intelligences, in the Yetziratic world, who go to form the Schemhamphorasch. Nor is even this Name, “Lord of the Universe” though it be, truly Divine, as are the Lords of the Atu in the Element of Spirit. Each Atu possesses its own private, personal and particular Universe, with Demiourgos (and all the rest) complete, just as every man and every woman does.

For example II’s or VI’s Three of Disks might represent the establishment of such an oracle as that of Delphi, or VIII’s might be the first formula of a Code such as Manu gave to Hindustan; V’s, a cathedral, XVI’s, a standing army; and so on. The great point is that all the Elemental Forces, however sublime, powerful, or intelligent, are Blind Forces and no more.
(From The Book of Thoth)

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WHITE Radiating Angelic Hand, issuing from clouds, and grasping a heavy club, which has three branches in the colours, and with the sigils, of the scales. The Right-and Left-hand branches end respectively in three Flames, and the Centre one in four Flames: thus yielding Ten: the Number of the Sephiroth. Twoand-twenty leaping Flames, or Yodh, surround it, answering to the Paths; of these, three fall below the Right branch for Aleph, Men, and Shin, seven above the Central branch for the double letters; and between it and that of the Right twelve: six above and six below about the Left-hand branch. The whole is a great and flaming Torch. It symbolizes Force — strength, rush, vigour, energy, and it governs, according to its nature, various works and questions. It implies Natural, as opposed to Invoked, Force.

Etteilla

Birth
Upright. This card means, in its natural position, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned: Birth, Beginning. – Nativity, Origin, Creation. – Source, Beginning, Primacy. – Extraction, Race, Family, Condition, House, Lineage, Posterity, Occasion, Cause, Reason, First, First fruits.
Reversed. Fall, Decadence, Decay, Decline, Decay, Decay, Dissipation, Failure, Bankruptcy, Ruin, Destruction, Demolition, Damage, Devastation. – Guilt, Error, Contempt, Abatement, Depression, Discouragement. – Perdition, Abyss, Chasm, Precipice. – Dying, Falling, Decay, Derogation. – Depth.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – Index

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Back to the Tarot Index

This is intended as a collection of meanings attributed by some sources to the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana of the Tarot. I will add sources as I study them. If you have sources to recommend, hit me up.

If you are interested in a (partial) list of the meanings I attribute to the Major arcana in my reading examples and case studies, click here.

Court Cards

Kings – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Queens – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Knights – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Pages – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles

Small Cards

Aces – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Twos – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Threes – Wands, Cups, Swords,Coins/Pentacles
Fours – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Fives – Wands, Cups, Swords,Coins/Pentacles
Sixes – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Sevens – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Eights – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Nines – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles
Tens – Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins/Pentacles

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Page of Swords

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(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 Page of Swords from the BOTA (Builders of the Adytum) Tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is from the beginning of Libra to the end of Sagittarius, September 23 to December 21. Meanings: a young person of either sex. Artistic, active, generous. Capable of weighing evidence, somewhat interested in occultism, philosophy or religion. Naturally aspiring, graceful.
If Ill-Dignified: frivolous, cunning and prodigal
Light brown hair and blue eyes
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment. Divinatory Meanings: Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging. Reversed: More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state; sickness is also intimated.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Princess of Swords represents the earthy part of Air, the fixation of the volatile. She brings about the materialization of Idea. She represents the influence of Heaven upon Earth. She partakes of the characteristics of Minerva and Artemis, and there is some suggestion of the Valkyrie. She represents to some extent the anger of the Gods, and she appears helmed, with serpent-haired Medusa for her crest. She stands in front of a barren altar as if to avenge its profanation, and she stabs downward with her sword. The heaven and the clouds, which are her home, seem angry.

The character of the Princess is stern and revengeful. Her logic is destructive. She is firm and aggressive, with great practical wisdom and subtlety in material things. She shews great cleverness and dexterity in the management of practical affairs, especially where they are of a controversial nature. She is very adroit in the settlement of controversies.

If ill-dignified, all these qualities are dispersed; she becomes incoherent, and all her gifts tend to combine to form a species of low cunning whose object is unworthy of the means.

In the Yi King, the earthy part of Air is represented by the 18th hexagram, Ku. This means “troubles”; it is, for all practical and material matters. The most unhappy symbol in the book. All the fine qualities of Air are weighed down, suppressed, suffocated.

People thus characterized are slow mentally, the prey of constant anxiety, crushed by every kind of responsibility, but especially in family affairs. One of both of the parents will usually be found in the aetiology.

It is hard to understand line 6, which “shows us one who does not serve either king or feudal lord, but in a lofty spirit prefers to follow his own bent”. The explanation is that a Princess as such, being “the throne of Spirit”, may always have the option of throwing everything overboard, “blowing everything sky high”. Such action would account for the characteristics above given for the card when well dignified. Such people are exceedingly rare; and, naturally enough, they appear often as “Children of misfortune”. Nevertheless, they have chosen aright, and in due season gain their reward.
(From the Book of Thoth)

Golden Dawn’s Book T

AN AMAZON figure with waving hair, slighter than the Rose of the Palace of Fire. Her attire is similar. The Feet seem springy, giving the idea of swiftness. Weight changing from one foot to another and body swinging around. She is a mixture of Minerva and Diana: her mantle resembles the AEgis of Minerva. She wears as a crest the head of the Medusa with serpent hair. She holds a sword in one hand; and the other rests upon a small silver altar with grey smoke (no fire) ascending from it. Beneath her feet are white clouds. Wisdom, strength, acuteness; subtlety in material things: grace and dexterity.
If ill dignified, she is frivolous and cunning.
She rules a quadrant of the heavens around Kether.
Earth of Air

Etteilla

Observer
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Spy, Curious, Observer, Scrutinizer, Collector, Overseer, Intending. – Examination, Note, Observation, Annotation, Speculation, Account, Calculation, Conjecture. – Scientist, Artist.
Reversed. Unexpected, Suddenly, Suddenly, Suddenly. – Stunning, Astonishing, Inopinently. – Improvise, Acting and speaking without preparation, Composing and acting sitting down.

MQS

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot

How Waite’s Contempt for the Minor Arcana Reinvented Tarot

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I am old enough to remember a time when people did videos of tarot unboxings and would be shocked to discover that their deck had either unillustrated pips or different designs incompatible with the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition (which is not a tradition. I’ll come back to it)

In this regard, the average literacy of tarot enthusiasts has slightly increased in the last fifteen years or so. For whatever reason, people online still rave about the latest RWS clones, but they are also aware that the RWS is not THE tarot deck. It just happens to be a very popular variant.

As a matter of fact, its illustrated pips are probably the single major contributor to its success (it certainly wasn’t for Pamela Colman Smith’s talent or Waite’s approachable writing). Although the Waite deck is not the first to have illustrated minors (the the Sola Busca has this honor, and centuries later also the Tarot of the Master) it was the one which, after a couple of decades of obscurity between World Wars, accompanied the New Age-themed Tarot revival that lasts to this day.

The Waite deck essentially redifined tarot for decades as needing illustrated pips. People have come up with all sorts of fantastic interpretations of the most minute and inconsequential details found in the pips. We also have a relatively consolidated tradition that has nothing to do with Waite’s (or Smith’s) vision, such as for instance the Eight of Pentacles being the apprentice card, the Nine of Pentacles being basically the strong independent woman who don’t need no man card, the Seven of Swords as the thief card and so on.

This, I must confess, I find very amusing, considering Waite’s own attitude toward the minor arcana. Whoever takes the time to wade through Waite’s turgid prose quickly finds out that Waite couldn’t care less about the minor arcana in his deck (so much so that he had them almost completely eliminated from his later deck, the so-called Waite-Trinick)

Waite had been a member of the Golden Dawn, and as such he must have had to draw or color in his own deck at some point or another. He was instructed in the Golden Dawn system, wherein the pips (except the aces) are assigned to the decans of the zodiac (usually the Picatrix version) and given titles. So, for instance, the Two of Wands is the Lord of Dominion (and, lo and behold, the Two of Wands in the Waite deck has a lord observing his own dominion.)

All this is no secret, and has been discussed at length already. However, what is often not discussed enough is how scathing Waite’s attitude was toward both the Golden Dawn system and the minor arcana in general. He clearly believed that the Major Trumps were a separate, mystical device that had been merged with a regular playing deck with no meaning whatever. He certainly was intelligent enough to see that the Golden Dawn system was essentially made up and had no historical authenticity to it (though this is not to say one cannot work with it. Symbols are symbols.)

It is for this reason that he notoriously “spoon-fed” Smith the design of the Major Trumps. Because he deeply cared about them, or at least about his own interpretation of them. As far as the minor arcana are concerned, he generally had Smith follow the Golden Dawn system in illustrating the names of the pips.

This is clear when we read Waite’s interpretation of cards such as the Five of Pentacles, where the meaning of the Golden Dawn card (Lord of Material Trouble) cannot be harmonized with the other sources Waite draws from (such as Etteilla, for whom the Five of Coins is the Lovers card). That is, Waite seeks to find a harmony of the various meanings, but when this is impossible, he goes with the Golden Dawn variant, though not out of true conviction that the system is valid. He also very likely left Smith more creative freedom in decorating a bunch of cards he felt were useless distractions.

So what we have today is people finding meaning into something that never was intended to have much meaning in the first place. Surely it must be one of the great ironies of history that one of the most radical developments in the structure of the tarot, i.e., illustrated pips, came about not because the inventor cared about pip cards, but because he didn’t.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Page of Coins or Pentacles

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(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 Page of Pentacles from the BOTA (Builders of the Adytum) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time pe r iod is from Decembe r 21 t o March 21, which encompasses the three signs of the winter quarter, Capricorn, Aquariusand Pisces, ruled by Saturn, Saturn- Uranus and Jupiter- Neptune.
Well-Dignified: good command in practical matters; ability to see the
principles be hind physical plane situations and phenomena; a young person of either sex, friendly to the Querent. Usually a friendly disposition with some leaning to the occult or a touch of psychic ability
in the make-up. Generous, diligent, compassionate.
lll-Dignified: more or less in bondage to material matters; inability to see beyond physical plane phenomena . A young person unfriendly, dull, wasteful, thoughtless, self-centered. If interested in the occult, it is usually for the sake of furthering selfish ends.
Dark eyes and rich brown hair.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him. Divinatory Meanings: Application, study, scholarship, reflection another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule, management. Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavourable news.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Princess of Disks, the last of the Court cards, represents the earthy part of Earth. She is consequently on the brink of transfiguration. She is strong and beautiful, with an expression of intense brooding, as if about to become aware of secret wonder.

Her crest is the head of the ram, and her sceptre descends into the earth. There its head becomes a diamond, the precious stone of Kether, thus symbolizing the birth of the highest and purest light in the deepest and darkest of the Elements. She stands within a grove of sacred trees before an altar suggesting a wheatsheaf, for she is a priestess of Demeter. She bears within her body the secret of the future. Her sublimity is further emphasized by the disk which she bears; for in the centre thereof is the Chinese ideogram denoting the twin spiral force of Creation in perfect equilibrium; from this is born the rose of Isis, the great fertile Mother.

The characteristics of an individual signified by this card are too various to enumerate; one must summarize by saying that she is Womanhood in its ultimate projection. She contains all the characteristics of woman, and it would depend entirely upon the influences to which she is subjected whether one or another becomes manifest. But in every case her attributes will be pure in themselves, and not necessarily connected with any other attributes which in the normal way one regards as symbolic. In one sense, then, her general reputation will be of bewildering inconsistency. It is rather like a lottery wheel from which the extraction of any number does not predict or influence the result of any subsequent operation. The fruit of the Philosophy of Thelema is enjoyed, rare, ripe, nourishing and vitalizing at its highest and fullest in this meditation; for to the adept every turn of the wheel is equally probable, and equally a prize; for every Event is “a play of Nuit”.

In the Yi King the earthy part of Earth is represented by the 52nd hexagram, Kan. The meaning is “a mountain”; of how sublime a significance is this Chinese doctrine of Balance, and how closely congruous with that of the Holy Qabalah!

The mountain is the most sacred of all terrestrial symbols, stark, rugged, and immoveable in its aspiration to the Highest, thrust up as it is by the Titan energy of Hidden Fire. It is no less an hieroglyph of the Inmost Godhead than the Phallus itself, even as Capricornus, the sign of the New Year, is exalted in the Zodiac, its deity autochthonous no less than the Most Holy Ancient One himself.

It is essential for the Student to trace this doctrine for himself in every symbol: Air, the elastic and flexible, yet all-pervading and the element of combustion; Water, fluid yet incompressible, the most neutral and composed of all components of living matter, yet destructive even of the hardest rocks by physical assault, and irresistible in its burning power of solution; and Fire, so kin to Spirit that it is not a substance at all, but a phenomenon, yet so integral to Matter that it is the very heart and essence of all things soever.

The characteristic of Kan in the Yi King is rest; each line of the comment describes repose in the parts of the body in turn, and their effects; the toes, the calves, the loins, the spine, and the jaws.

This chapter is a close parallel in this respect, line by line, with the 31st, Hsien, which begins the second section of the Yi.

The Rosicrucian doctrine of Tetragrammaton could hardly be more adequately stated-to every ear that is to heavenly harmony attuned.

“There’s not a planet in the firmament
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim;
But while this muddy vesture of decay
Doth wrap us round, our nature cannot hear it.

Let every student of this Essay, and of this book of Tahuti, this living Book that guides man through all Time, and leads him to Eternity at every page, hold fast this simplest, most far-reaching Doctrine in his heart and mind, inflaming the inmost of His Being, that he also, having explored each recess of the Universe, may therein find the Light of Truth, so come to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and accomplish the Great Work, attain the Summum Bonum, true Wisdom and perfect Happiness!
(From the Book of Thoth)

A medieval looking AI-generated illustration for the Page of Pentacles

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A STRONG and beautiful Amazon figure with rich brown hair, standing on grass or flowers. A grove of trees near her. Her form suggests Hebe, Ceres, and Proserpine. She bears a winged ram’s head as a crest: and wears a mantle of sheepskin. In one hand she carries a sceptre with a circular disk: in the other a Pentacle similar to that of the Ace of Pentacles.
She is generous, kind, diligent, benevolent, careful, courageous, persevering, pitiful.
If ill dignified she is wasteful and prodigal. She rules over one quadrant of the heavens around the North Pole of the Ecliptic.
Earth of Earth

Etteilla

Brown-haired boy
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Brown-haired Boy, Study, Instruction, Application, Meditation, Reflection. – Work, Occupation, Apprenticeship. – Schoolboy, Disciple, Pupil, Apprentice, Amateur, Student, Speculator, Shopkeeper.
Reversed. Profession, Superfluity, Width, Luxury, Lavishness, Magnificence, Abundance, Multiplicity. – Liberality, Beneficence, Generosity, Beneficence. – Crowd, Multitude. – Degradation, Dilapidation, Squandering, Dissipation.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Page of Wands

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(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 Page of Wands in the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time p e riod corre la t e d with this Key is the whole first quarter of the zodiac from March 21 to June 21 inclusive, including Aries, Taurus and Gemini. The specific Divinatory meanings involved are:
Well Dignified: a young person, youth or girl; brilliant mind, courageous disposition , perhaps given to sudden anger and desirous of power. Capable of great enthusiasm.
lll Dignified: Revengeful at the least opposition, headstrong, theatrical, unstable, domineering and decidedly superficial.
This Key often stands for a messenger.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

In a scene similar to the former (i.e., of the Knight of Wands), a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange. Divinatory Meanings: Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence. Reversed: Anecdotes, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability which accompanies it.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Princess of Wands represents the earthy part of Fire; one might say, she is the fuel of Fire. This expression implies the irresistible chemical attraction of the combustible substance. She rules the Heavens for one quadrant of the portion around the North Pole.

The Princess is therefore shewn with the plumes of justice streaming like flames from her brow; and she is unclothed, shewing that chemical action can only take place when the element is perfectly free to combine with its partner. She bears a wand crowned with the disk of the Sun; and she is leaping in a surging flame which re-calls by its shape the letter Yod

This card may be said to represent the dance of the virgin priestess of the Lords of Fire, for she is in attendance upon the golden altar ornamented with rams’ heads) symbolizing the fires of Spring.

The character of the Princess is extremely individual. She is brilliant and daring. She creates her own beauty by her essential vigour and energy. The force of her character imposes the impression of beauty upon the beholder. In anger or love she is sudden, violent, and implacable. She consumes all that comes into her sphere. She is ambitious and aspiring, full of enthusiasm which is often irrational. She never forgets an injury, and the only quality of patience to be found in her is the patience with which she lies in ambush to avenge.

Such a woman, ill-dignified, shews the defects of these qualities. She is superficial and theatrical, completely shallow and false, yet without suspecting that she is anything of the sort, for she believes entirely in herself, even when it is apparent to the most ordinary observer that she is merely in the spasm of mood. She is cruel, unreliable, faithless and domineering.

In the Yi King, the earthy part of Fire is described by the 27th hexagram, i. This shows a person omnivorous in passion of whatever kind, entirely reckless in the means of obtaining gratification, and insatiable. The Yi commentary is packed with alternate warning and encouragement.
(From The Book of Thoth)

AI generated illustration for the Page of Wands

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A VERY strong and beautiful woman with flowing red-gold hair, attired like an Amazon. Her shoulders, arms, bosom and knees are bare. She wears a short kilt reaching to the knee. Round her waist is a broad belt of scale-mail; narrow at the sides; broader in front and back; and having a winged tiger’s head in front. She wears a Corinthian-shaped helmet and crown with a long plume. It also is surmounted by a tiger’s head, and the same symbol forms the buckle of her scalemail buskins. A mantle lined with tiger’s skin falls back from her shoulders. Her right hand rests on a small golden or brazen altar ornamented with ram’s heads and with Flames of Fire leaping from it. Her left hand leans on a long and heavy club, swelling at the lower end, where the sigil is placed; and it has flames of fire leaping from it the whole way down; but the flames are ascending. This club or torch is much longer than that carried by the King or Queen. Beneath her firmly placed feet are leaping Flames of Fire.
Brilliance, courage, beauty, force, sudden in anger or love, desire of power, enthusiasm, revenge.
If ill dignified, she is superficial, theatrical, cruel, unstable, domineering.
She rules the heavens over one quadrant of the portion around the North Pole.
Earth of Fire

Etteilla

Foreigner
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Stranger, Unknown, Extraordinary. – Strange, Unusual, Unheard of, Surprising, Admirable, Wonderful, Prodigy, Miracle. – Episode, Digression, Anonymous.
Inverted. Announcement, Instruction, Warning, Admonition, Anecdotes, Chronicle, History, Tales, Fables, Notions, Teaching.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Page of Cups

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The Page of Cups in the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

In divination this Key suggests the warmth, radiance and the generous productivity of summer. Thus the Page of Cups indicates a radiant, generous, youthful personality of either sex. The time period is from the first decanate of Cancer, June 21, through the last decanate of Virgo, September 22 – the entire summer season.
Well Dignified: the character is sweet, poetical, gentle and kind; fond of home and all that it stands for; imaginative, dreamy, yet with a good deal of latent courage; friendly to the Querent and will further Querent’s hopes and wishes.
lll Dignified: may still show or profess friendship, or even wish to be of help, but the character is unstable, too indolent to be of real service and probably prone to promise far more than he can perform.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form. Divinatory Meanings: Fair young man, one impelled to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected; a studious youth; news, message; application, reflection, meditation; also these things directed to business. Reversed: Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Princess of Cups represents the earthy part of Water; in particular, the faculty of crystallization. She represents the power of Water to give substance to idea, to support life, and to form the basis of chemical combination. She is represented as a dancing figure, robed in a flowing garment on whose edges crystals are seen to form.

For her crest she wears a swan with open wings. The symbolism of this swan reminds one of the swan in oriental philosophy which is the word AUM or AUMGN, which is the symbol of the entire process of creation. [See, for a full analysis and explanation of this Word, Magick, pp. 45.]

She bears a covered cup from which issues a tortoise. This is again the tortoise which in Hindu philosophy supports the elephant on whose back is the Universe. She is dancing upon a foaming sea in which disports himself a dolphin, the royal fish, which symbolizes the power of Creation.

The character of the Princess is infinitely gracious. All sweetness, all voluptuousness, gentleness, kindness and tenderness are in her character. She lives in the world of Romance, in the perpetual dream of rapture. On a superficial examination she might be thought selfish and indolent, but this is a quite false impression; silently and effortlessly she goes about her work.

In the Yi King, the earthy part of Water is represented by the 41st Hexagram, Sun. This means diminution, the dissolution of all solidity. People described by this card are very dependent on others, but at the same time helpful to them. Rarely, at the best, are they of individual importance. As helpmeets, they are unsurpassed.
(From the Book of Thoth)

A cutesy AI generated illustration for the Page of Cups

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A BEAUTIFUL Amazon-like figure, softer in nature than the Princess of Wands. Her attire is similar. She stands on a sea with foaming spray. Away to her right a Dolphin. She wears as a crest a swan with opening wings. She bears in one hand a lotus, and in the other an open cup from which a turtle issues. Her mantle is lined with swans-down, and is of thin floating material.
Sweetness, poetry, gentleness and kindness. Imaginative, dreamy, at times indolent, yet courageous if roused.
When ill dignified she is selfish and luxurious.
She rules a quadrant of the heavens around Kether.
Earth of Water

Etteilla

Blond boy
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Blond Boy, Scholar. – Study, Application, Work, Reflection, Observation, Consideration, Meditation, Contemplation, Occupation. – Craft, Profession, Employment.
Reversed. Tendency, Inclination, Inclination, Attraction, Taste, Sympathy, Passion, Affection, Attachment, Friendship. – Heart, Want, Desire, Attraction, Promise, Seduction, Invitation, Attraction. – Flattery, Moine, Ruffianry, Flattery, Praise, Praise. – In decline, threatening ruin, tending to the end.

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Philosophy, Playing Cards, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Should Diviners Give Advice? Yes, But…

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I come from a rather traditionalist school of divination. One of the ways I learned was that my teacher often told me to do a spread on an aspect of her past I knew nothing about to see if I managed to discover what happened. Another way was when she told me to do a spread to see what would be the problem of the next person going to her for a reading. Interestingly, I have met other people, who have taught me other techniques, who used the same method.

As can be expected, there was little room for anything other than the literal interpretation of the cards. This has helped me a lot to remain  with my feet on the ground as I forged my path, which is very good, considering how littered with nonsense the esoteric landscape is.

On the other side of the spectrum you have a sizeable chunk of diviners today, though the situation now is slightly more balanced than it was just twenty years ago. These readers simply interpret the cards (or the planets, or whatever) as if they were benevolent tips from the universe about some inner issue that the person needs to work through to progress.

The problem I have with this approach, aside from the fact that it leads to unverifiable predicitions, is that it presupposes a superstitious view of the universe as some kind of benevolent nanny that teaches you how you ought to behave. These people, I should remind you, are the ones who often loathe Christianity as a bundle of silly dogmas and think they are the reasonable ones.

If there is one thing that my study of philosophy as well as my experience as fortune-teller has taught me is that there is no such thing as an ‘ought’. There’s what is and what isn’t, what was and what wasn’t, what will be and what won’t be, as well as what can be, or is more or less likely to be. For instance, there is no way you ‘ought’ to eat. You either eat well or you don’t. Eating well only becomes an ought when your current diet is checked against your desire to minimize health risks. It’s your desires that create oughts, not the universe.

I already discussed how I believe that divination tools are essentially something that gives us a bird-eye view of existence, affording us a glance at a number of considerations about our situation that we might not otherwise have. To use my old analogy, it is like being in a crowded city center and talking to a person on a walkie talkie, this person looking at your position from the top of a skyscraper and therefore seeing things you cannot see.

It goes without saying that I believe divination tools never give advice.* As maps, they simply tell you what is. Advice is contingent on what either someone wants to do or what they believe a superior authority wants them to do. My view of the superior authority is that it is too occupied exploring all its potential through us to pick and choose what’s best for us.

Does it therefore mean that a diviner should not give advice? I actually believe advice is a perfectly fine thing, as long as it is not delusional advice. I think a good divination session should always be of help to the querent in living their own life better. This is done by checking the querent’s wishes (sometimes implied, sometimes stated outright) against the wider situation as portrayed by the oracle, with its potentials, its risks, its possibilities and impossibilities, its certainties and its uncertainties.

In other words, advice must come from the diviner on the backdrop of the oracle, and not be projected onto the oracle, which just pictures reality as it is, not as it should be (because there is no way reality should be, from an objective standpoint). Sure, sometimes I tell my querents “the cards are advising you to do X”, but this is short for “I am advising you to do X based on what the cards are telling me about your situation.”

Sometimes the right bit of advice at the right time can help the querent make a turn for the better in life. These are the readings I love the most. Sometimes it can improve a situation. Sometimes, though, the advice is not enough to change an objectively difficult situation. The more heroic and nietzschean reaction to these slings and arrows that life throws at us is that of amor fati: in knowing what’s coming, one can learn to love it, thus overcoming it, making it part of oneself instead it being an alien destiny. But this is not always possible. Sometimes, all the querent can get from a difficult reading is peace of mind. And peace of mind is a great thing, all too often undervalued until it’s no longer there.

MQS

* In this, divination tools are very different from inspired divinations caused by spirits or deities, since these actually do have their own particular views and preferences.