I've been using a number/symbol key to arrange Crowley's Tarot into 9 chapters (or "constellations") that describe Spirit's journey through the Qabala tree. This "book" forms a metaphysics based on the geometric progression of number. It conceives an object that can be used for calculating the Metonic & Saros cycles of Sun & Moon as well as the Synodic periods for all the planets known to antiquity. It is both a map and a calendar and much, much more.
In the course of my research I've seen little mention of this system - though its' initiates have been depicting pieces of it in the arts and sciences for a very long time. To my knowledge, the constellations were published only relatively recent in the history of Tarot (see Arrien or Greer); as was Crowley's Book of Thoth deck. Yet the correlation between the two in revealing this system yields information far too profound to be coincidental.
Not to diminish the creative genius of those who produced the cards in renaissance Europe, but in examining the history of Tarot there is a thread of something much older. The occultists, in a lineage from de Gébelin to Etteilla to Crowley worked out this system. The question is: did they invent it, decipher it, or (re)discover it?
Perhaps this secret has succeeded in avoiding scrutiny for so long by the uninitiated due to ciphers of varying complexity employed by those either charged with its safekeeping or bent on monopolizing its knowledge. The different methods for ordering the triumphs may simply reflect the cipher being used.
In any case, whoever aspires to an understanding of Tarot and the historical forces that have shaped it cannot overlook the ramifications of this puzzle. Any History of Tarot must address whether this is a system that has been adapted to fit Tarot or whether Tarot has been made to fit it. In either case, this alchemist's riddle has fundamentally shaped the development of the Tarot deck. And it's pretty cool too.
You'll need Crowley's deck as he presents a mostly unscrambled version of the codex. The flaws he left in place set the story in motion when, having deduced the proper sequence of constellations, you correct them.
2: Arrow
3: Cup
4: Crown
5: Staff
6: Pillars
7: Spiral
8: Star
9: Bridge
11: Cross
Count the 0:The Fool as the 22nd Trump
Get a large pad of paper.
Chart the glyphs of each constellation.
Consider the symbols of
astrology as indicating types of motion or forms of energy alluded to by the character traits traditionally attributed them by astrologers. In this sense, the symbols themselves are depicting the critical information and fit together as alchemical formulae that tell a tale, draw a map, describe a path, and detail an object that explains much about our civilization and its concept of time and space.
Trust me, once you figure out what's going on you'll know why Crowley called it Thoth's book.
As above, so below.
The seed of everything is within everything.
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