A Chariot Reading Interpretation, Part 1

A Chariot Reading, drawn Mon 25 Feb 2013

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0 Fool - What am I leaping into?

1 Magician - Where is the energy, the magic?

2 High Priestess - What is secret or hidden or unspoken?

3 Empress - Where is my passion?

4 Emperor - What are the rules, possibly hidden or unconscious?

5 Hierophant - What is the path laid out before me?

6 Lovers - How do I express my passion? 

7 Chariot - Where is it all heading?

(from Rachel Pollack's 'Tarot Wisdom')

First of all, in examining this reading I find that my instinct is not to reduce the card meanings to just their positional questions, as written by Pollack. I am seeing the cards in combination, and those combinations go beyond the rather simple questions provided by Pollack. Chances are this is what she intended by the spread, and the questions are just a springboard. But in any case, I feel in no way inclined to formulate an 'answer' to each question in turn based on the single card I have drawn from Thoth. 

The Chariot - A Closer Look

The divinatory meaning of The Chariot is almost always associated with movement, and in a mundane reading you might be told that you're take a trip, moving on from a job, or even getting a new car. Of course this makes perfect sense when you hear the name 'Chariot' and even when you look at some Chariot cards, such as the Druidcraft. But when you study the Rider Waite Smith or Thoth Chariot cards (and many other decks), you realise that the Chariot is not moving at all. Couldn't move if it wanted to.

You can see the Boudica-like figure in the Druidcraft driving the horses on. But the warrior in the RWS Chariot is buried hip-deep in a block of concrete, and his two sphinxes are not moving and in fact are not even attached to the chariot by reins or anything else. The Thoth Chariot looks similar, with the canopy, but instead of sphinxes there are the 'four Kerubic beasts', and they are not attached to the Chariot, either. The charioteer is even less interested in driving, being seated in the lotus position and holding a big serving platter (the handles extend over his wrists).

Now, I don't want to get too bogged down in all this but I am doing a One Deck Wonder with the Thoth, so let's take it from the top:

Where am I headed? | A Chariot Reading

The Chariot is my 2013 Year Card, and I have been drawing it and thinking about it quite a bit lately. I had a look in Rachel Pollack's book 'Tarot Wisdom' yesterday to read what she has to say about the card, and found her spread, 'A Chariot Reading', in which you lay out eight cards to correspond to the first eight cards of the major arcana, Fool - Chariot. 'The purpose of this reading is to help you become more conscious, so that you can take the reins of the chariot that is your life,' she says.

Divination vs Devotion

I've noticed for the last several months that I get out a tarot deck, look through it, put it away and pull out one of my 'real' tarot decks. For months and months it was a Rider Waite Smith. I have collected several over the years: Original Rider Waite-Smith, the yellow boxed Rider Deck, the Giant RWS, the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative. Then I have those that deviate a bit more: Universal Waite (my first tarot deck--I don't count the debacle with Osho Zen!), Radiant Rider, Diamond Tarot. Beyond that I have all those RWS-based decks: Druidcraft, Morgan Greer...but for the last year or so, I tend to get out an old favourite like Druidcraft, look through it, throw it back in the box and use a 'real' RWS to do the actual reading. Perhaps it's because I have been reading so much Rachel Pollack, and she refers so much to RWS decks. But also, I found myself getting more and more interested in the esoteric and occult symbolism inherent in the RWS, which is often lacking in RWS-based decks, and sometimes purposely removed (such as in the Anna K Tarot).

I've got a crush on you, Thothy-Pie

'All the day and night time, hear me sigh

I never had a notion

 that I could fall with such devotion...

The world will pardon my mush

'Cause I have got a crush, my Thoth-y,

 on you. '

Look Thothward, Angel: Day 5

Angel Insight Pack & Thoth Tarot

It's the last day of combining Thoth Tarot (Crowley & Harris) with the Angel Insight Pack (C Astell). This is a lovely mix, the Angel of Love with the Ten of Cups!

The Ten of Cups in the Thoth Tarot has ten golden loving cups in the pattern of the Tree of Life, all spilling over with what looks more like rays of light than any sort of liquid. I think it looks like a happy card, but Crowley says of it, 'It ought to look menacing. There is something very sinister about this card. It suggests the morbid hunger that springs from surfeit. The craving of the drug addict is the idea. At the same time of course, it is this final agony of descent into illusion which renders necessary the completion of the circle by awakening the Eld of the All-Father.' (letter from Crowley to Harris, 19 Dec 1939, published in 'Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot') Well, who cares what he says. He was a strange man, anyway. His own divinatory interpretation of Ten Cups in his Book of Thoth says: 'Permanent and lasting success and happiness, because inspired from above. Not so Sensual as Lord of Material Happiness [9 of Cups], yet almost more truly happy.'

Look Thothward, Angel: Day 4

Thoth Tarot & Angel Insight Pack

I believe that today's draw from Thoth Tarot (Crowley & Harris) and Angel Insight Pack (Christine Astell) refers to seeing my counselor today. The work I have done based on these sessions has become like an Angel of Support to me. We've been talking about my big list of 'shoulds' in life, and ways I can free myself from them. So that would seem to be where the Fire of Fire, Knight of Wands, image comes into it. I am pretty sure today we'll be talking abut spontaneity. In fact, I was meant to contemplate, 'What does the spontaneity of a child look like?' for today's session. I've been thinking about that off and on, and while the Knight of Wands really is a fiery thing, I don't think he has true 'child-like' spontaneity. He is a bit too violent, and possibly self-destructive, to be child-like. Child-like spontaneity is based on wonder, not recklessness. Wonder is something the Knight of Wands lacks. You see that quality more in the Pages (which I guess would be the Princesses in the Thoth Tarot). To be spontaneous doesn't mean to say, 'To hell with it all,' and throw oneself off a cliff in a grand ball of flame. True child-like spontaneity is the opposite of that. It says, 'I embrace it all, and most of all I embrace being fully present in the actions of my body and mind in this moment.' Or in other words, 'I want to have fun.'

HI!

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Look Thothward, Angel: Day 3

Thoth Tarot & Angel Insight Pack

The advice of the Angel Guidance, from Angel Insight Pack, is to look for guidance in sudden thoughts, flashes of understanding, or even words or pictures that catch your eye in books, etc. To accompany that, the Ace of Swords. Am I going to get a bolt of understanding from the blue or what today?! It's possible, but I must also remember that the ace of each suit is its pure potential, not its actualization  So if I miss the gentle guidance of my angel, I may miss the trigger to a big idea, thought or plan. Must watch out for it, then!

I'm off to the audiologist at 9.45 today, then to work. I will be on the lookout today. I am grateful for all the fresh starts life seems to offer.

ETA: I went to the audiologist, where I found out some good tips about how to put my hearing aid in and take it out to avoid feedback. She clarified a lot of things for me and gave me assurances about other things. So, there's my Ace of Swords (cutting through of misconceptions, gaining better understanding) and Guidance! :) Aren't the cards cool! [edited 21st Feb 2013]

No more martyrs

Thoth, Crowley & Harris

I drew the 'Look Thothward, Angel' cards for the week on Sunday, but this morning I felt the need to draw a card regarding my reluctance and my strange guilt attached to the situation with my hearing and hearing aid. I've already decided to assert myself and call them today, but I wanted a handle on why I feel this way about stuff like this? And what can I do about it?

I drew the Hanged Man. This is a weird Hanged Man. He hangs from an ankh, his foot coiled round by a snake. His other foot and two hands are pinned down by nails. He appears to be tacked onto a grid board of some kind, that's pretty strange. The ankh is upside down, emerging from a sun. Rays of green are emitted from the crown of his head, pointing toward another coiling snake. The card is made up of watery blues and greens.

One traditional interpretation of the Hanged Man is 'self-sacrifice for a greater good'. Or even just having a martyr syndrome. I've been learning a bit about Thelema and Crowley's philosophy, and to put it simply, he saw things as being divided into three eras or 'aeons': the Aeon of Isis, Aeon of Osiris, and Aeon of Horus. Isis was the time of goddess worship, The Great Mother; Osiris was the time of the 'dying-and-rising god,' such as Dionysus, Osiris, or Jesus. The Aeon of Horus is the era when we have moved beyond these to a time of self-realisation and self-actualisation.

Look Thothward, Angel: Day 2

Angel Insight Pack & Thoth Tarot

Well, with all the thinking I've been doing about my hearing lately, this  8 of Wands card coming back so soon means mainly one thing to me -- my ears. Dang ears!

Here we've got a rainbow on the 8 of Wands, and we've got the colours of the chakras on the Angel of Ascension card. My first impulse is of course to see it as a visual representation of sound waves. The companion book to the Angel Insight Pack says, 'Ask the Angel to help you let go of fear, and see the Divine in everything.'

You wouldn't think a person would need to call on an Angel to get up the courage to phone the local NHS Hearing Centre, but it's funny how the mind works. Wish me luck as I take the Angel of Ascension's advice and allow myself to be buoyed up by the knowledge that we're all part of everything else, and none of these details, including our own illogical emotions, matter at all. (Let's just hope they're answering the phone today!)

Affirmation: I have the right to exist and to ask for what I need.

Look Thothward, Angel: Day 1

Thoth Tarot & Angel Insight Pack

This week I am drawing from Thoth Tarot and Angel Insight Pack (Christine Astell, Watkins Publishing, 2010). I've had good experiences in the past with drawing one tarot card and one accompanying oracle card. My last experiment was in combining the Silicon Dawn Tarot with the Faeries' Oracle (click on 'Silicon Dawn' under Labels to right, if you're curious), with excellent results, so I look forward to this week's draws.

One Deck Wonder: Ace of Cups

Thoth, Crowley & Harris

'In these cards is no real manifestation of the element in its material form. Both in their appearance and their meaning, the Aces are not the elements themselves, but the seeds of those elements.' ~Aleister Crowley

I've been thinking of sharing some of the details about the Aces that I've been reading in the DuQuette books. Today's draw, Ace of Cups, sends me the message that it's a good day to go ahead and do that.

For a while now I've considered the Ace of each suit to represent  the 'pure potential' of each suit, and that Wands are Fire, Cups Water, Swords Air, and Disks (or Pentacles, or Coins) Earth. When sorting a deck (something that I must admit I do quite frequently and that I find wonderfully soothing), I always put them in order Ace, 2-10, then Page, Knight, Queen, King. As a result of my recent reading, I'm completely rethinking this. DuQuette's books put them in this order:

One Deck Wonder: 8 of Wands

Thoth, Crowley & Harris

Could it be the hum of the universe? Do I hear the om? Is this the sound of dark matter? Who knows...

I woke up this morning to my tinnitus. Well, I wake up to it every morning, but today it seemed particularly high pitched and sharp. It's hard to describe tinnitus but I visualise it as lines of light emanating from my ears. Usually, there are multiple strands, each a different colour, which twist round and round each other like a loosely woven, ever-moving rope. This morning, above the rope, out of each ear came a very thin white light, shooting out in dead straight lines. The sound, in visual terms, seemed like two glowing silver white, metallic, extremely fine wires of sound, glinting. A contrast to the undulating, intertwining lights of my usual tinnitus. This seemed to me to be a new tone in my tinnitus, an extremely high frequency tone. Who would ever think you could long to return to what had previously been so irritating, but I found myself trying to listen past this seemingly new, unwelcome noise for the 'comfort' of the old sounds humming along underneath. I decided to just get up, because sometimes it's hard to go back to sleep once you start listening to the tinnitus. Then I drew this card, the 8 of Wands.

He'll huff, and he'll puff, and he'll blow your house in

Thoth,  Crowley & Harris

This is an interesting Tower card. Its angular lines and fiery colours are very striking. The eye at the top of the card is arresting, but the thing that gets my attention is the large, toothy mouth at the bottom right of the card, belching fire. This Tower is not struck by lightning from above. It is blasted by fire from below (or actually, more to the side-like). The Tower then seems to melt and crack over to the right, coming apart in angular shards, and splitting the sky with it. The people falling from the Tower look like origami praying mantises, folded from metallic silver paper. There is, I suppose a stylized lightning bolt, the giant orange zigzag that is in back of the eye at the top. The rays of the eye stream out across the card. On either side of the eye we see a dove with an olive branch, and a lion-like serpent with a kind of halo around its head.

Weird.

One Deck Wonder: 6 of Disks

Thoth, Crowley & Harris

When I first started out with tarot, I could not imagine how anyone could look at a card like this and get any meaning from it at all. This  card features a pile of six large circles, topped by a layer of six spikes, topped by six smaller blue circles, topped by a single plate with a rosy cross in the middle, surrounded by six bubbles, each of which has a mysterious squiggly symbol. At the top and the bottom, more mysterious squiggly symbols.

If I didn't give up at once and go get out a deck that featured scenes with people in them, I would stare at the card and try to 'read intuitively', as I'd heard so many readers do, which to me meant just to look at the card and make something up, or just say whatever popped into my head. I soon found that I couldn't do that. (And to be honest, I don't think 'intuitive' readers actually do it either. I'm not saying there's no such thing as 'psychic' readers, but it's my belief that all the information that people take in about tarot, together with all the ideas about shapes, colours, numbers, symbols, planets, and everything else out there that they've ever heard, gets inside our subconscious mind and pops out during a reading. So people who think they are reading based on their intuition and not on things they have learned, just don't realise they are bringing everything they have ever learned into their interpretations. And the more they learn about numerology, colour symbolism, and so on, the easier their 'intuitive' reading becomes. Some would deny this, but this is what I think about it.)

One Deck Wonder: Queen of Cups

Thoth Tarot, Crowley & Harris

The first time I saw this Queen of Cups I didn't like her because, well, you can't see her! She's under there somewhere, but you really have to squint to see her. The more I think about it, though, the more apt this seems. The Queen of Cups is 'water of water'. Take a moment to consider the nature of water. Unless it is perfectly clear and perfectly still, you can't see through it very well, and even in those conditions, what you see is distorted. The slightest ripple, the slightest stirring up of silt or other impurities, you can't see anything at all. Nothing is clear. Water obscures. It has more of a tendency to reflect what is above it than reveal what is beneath the surface.

One Deck Wonder: Lovers

Thoth, Crowley & Harris

Oh, no, alchemy!

Bottom to top, top to bottom, and side to side, this card is filled with alchemical references that have nothing at all to do with Valentine's Day (even if Cupid is at the top).

A Magick Life: A Biography of Aleister Crowley by Martin Booth

I started my One Deck Wonder with the Thoth Tarot at Imbolc (1st Feb), and decided after slogging around in DuQuette's guide book, and briefly dipping into a book on Qabbalah that I wanted to find out more about Aleister Crowley. I read a few reviews of the many books about him and settled on A Magick Life by Martin Booth, because I had read that it was relatively unbiased in its presentation, and gave equal weight to some of Crowley's other interests. In theory, Crowley had three passions in life: poetry, mountaineering, and magic. (In my opinion, they were actually himself, sex acts and the attempt to become a god). I believe that the author is a bit over-generous in his assessment of Crowley's writing talents. Apparently Crowley could have been an important mountaineer if not for the failings of his personality and his abysmal lack of PR skills. And then of course we have Crowley's magical career.

Having read this book, I can say that I find Aleister Crowley absolutely repugnant on every level. I believe he was a sociopath, in the textbook sense. I won't go into any details of his life to support this because, frankly, the thought wearies me. (Do check out the link. Crowley's life provides dozens of examples for each and every point listed in the definition of sociopath.)

A few impressions:

1) I found out where the pervading Bible imagery comes from -- his parents were involved in an extreme Protestant group called Plymouth Brethren, and as a child he was allowed to read only the Bible, thus his young imagination was peopled only by images from this source. He was never able to shake them. This also explains his strange obsession with rebelling against Christianity. (Had he been born in the modern era when no one cared what you believed, he could have ended up taking an entirely different path indeed. It wouldn't have been normal, but...)

New Storm Moon

It's a new moon today. Some people call each moon of the year by a traditional name. I like the English medieval names. This moon, the second moon of the year, is the Storm Moon, so-called because of the unpredictable and changeable weather. It is certainly appropriate today -- the weather forecast snow, and instead it's been raining steadily. Throughout this moon, we will be tantalised by the signs of spring, but also threatened by ice and snow. It's a stormy time. As Melusine Draco says, 'February is the shortest month of the year -- and a good thing, too, in view of its weather and the lack of any distinguishing features.'

So, since outside can be grim, we turn our focus toward the inside, but instead of climbing back onto the sofa to wrap up in the blanket, something stirs, and we find ourselves wanting to put things in order. The Storm Moon is a great time for cleaning our homes, and I mean deep cleaning, like clearing out the medicine cabinet and washing down the shelves, dragging all the canned goods out and giving the cupboards a good wipe, washing the fronts of all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and cleaning all the handles in the kitchen. (When was the last time you counted all the handles in your kitchen? I have 12 in mine, and I live in a teeny tiny flat!)

This made me think of a Storm Moon spread:

1. What areas of my life are in need of a good cleaning? -- Death
2. What aspects of my life should I shine up and put in pride of place? -- Prince of Cups
3. What should I throw out? -- Magus
4. What will I find that has been hidden that I really ought to use (like that sandwich press you find every couple years on top of the refigerator, under the cereal boxes) ? -- 4 of Swords

1.  Death himself is actually a darn good cleaner, so I take this card to mean that pretty much every aspect of my life could stand a thorough going over. I am seeing Death swinging a broom instead of a scythe, and all those circles are clouds of dust he's stirring up. Well, great! If you know me, you must know by now how much I just LOVE stirring things up. (Not!) So this could be a big month when it comes to giving my life a thorough inspection. Fortunately, it's good to also remember that the Storm Moon is a month during which we are to love ourselves, accept responsibility for past errors, forgive ourselves, and make plans for the future. A good time for purification, growth and healing. So Death doesn't have to be about making huge changes on the mundane level. It could all be going on inside, no one else would even have to know. Except maybe to say, 'Something looks different about you, did you have your hair done?' :)

I'm a Featured Reader!

I'm honoured to be today's featured tarot professional on the popular website, Biddy Tarot. Brigit is doing a series of interviews called 'Going Pro'. 

Going Pro: A More Subdued Approach to
 Building a Tarot Business with Carla

 

 

Thanks to Brigit for kindly thinking of including me in this series!

 

 



One Deck Wonder: 6 of Wands

Thoth Tarot

Today's card from the Thoth Tarot  is 6 of Wands. This is a very pretty card, with its regal purple background and 6 crossed wands. At each intersection point, a flame rises, because the Wands suit is the suit of Fire--will, intention, action. Two of the wands are topped with winged orbs, two with phoenix heads and two with lotus blossoms. These are apparently traditional tools of various levels of adepts in the Golden Dawn tradition. No matter, we can see symbolism in them without knowing anything about Golden Dawn. At the top of the card is the symbol for Jupiter, bottom Leo--Jupiter in Leo, as DuQuette remarks in Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, it's 'a recipe for Victory.'

Spring Equinox Giveaway

I find myself in possession of a spare copy of Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo DuQuette. What am I supposed to do with this, I asked myself when it arrived the other day. Then, hey! I said to myself. Why not give it away to a loyal commenter?

 My 'One Deck Wonder' study of the Thoth Tarot, in which I use the Thoth exclusively, is Imbolc (2nd Feb) - Spring Equinox (20th Mar). For those who post the meatiest, most thoughtful or most hilarious (and most frequent) comments between now and then, I will place your names in a prize draw (unless you tell me otherwise) and select a winner of the book.

Can you stick with me until 20th March? 

One Deck Wonder: 9 of Wands

Two days in a row I've drawn 9 of Wands from the Thoth Tarot as a daily draw.

Monday evening: What did I get right today? Answer: 9 of Wands. 

The 9 of Wands has the key word 'Strength'. It depicts 8 interlocking arrows, fletched by crescent moons, and with a crescent moon on the tip instead of an arrowhead. Overlaying them is a staff, tipped at the top with a blazing sun, and at the bottom with a moon. The moon is in Sagittarius in this card, which apparently is a good thing. The significance of these details is lost on me, to be honest, but I do understand the meaning of 9 of Wands. I believe I did show, or work from, a place of strength on Monday, because I not only confronted a manager about something that struck me as in need of addressing, I also stepped forward into a situation later that day that was rife with potential for rejection and being returned to a well-worn emotional groove. 

One Deck Wonder: Ace of Wands

Thoth Tarot, Crowley and Harris

'In a very real way, this image is telling us that...all the cards in the Minor Arcana ultimately live inside one card, the Ace of Wands. Of course, it takes a Buddha to actually grasp that concept. It also leaves us with a pretty thin deck of tarot cards to play with.' ~Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

I understand traditional divinatory meanings of the Ace of Wands. I understand that it is the source, or the great potential, of the energy of the Wands suit, suit of fire. But it turns out that this Ace of Wands has its flames in the shape of the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Life is something that I don't understand.

You'll notice I left something out of the DuQuette quotation above. Here's the whole thing:

One Deck Wonder: Favourite Thoth cards

I thought I'd start the week by picking my favourite card images.

Thoth Tarot

So I chose favourite court, favourite major, favourite minor and favourite ace. My real favourite court card is Knight of Disks, but I showed you that card recently, so I picked my second favourite, Queen of Wands. You may be aware of my feelings about the Queen of Wands. (Not good). But I like this image. If the Statute of Liberty had a drunk night out with the Silicon Dawn Tarot, she might be their love child. (Apparently, Crowley didn't like her much, either. He suggests she is a snob, and also a bit vicious: 'When she misses her bite, she breaks her jaw,' he said.)

One Deck Wonder: Thoth

I have been playing around with the Thoth Tarot for three weeks now, so I have decided to commit to a One Deck Wonder with it. The One Deck Wonder is a concept from Aeclectic Tarot. It's just a promise to yourself to use one deck only for a while, to get to know it better. I have developed a bit of fascination with this deck, and so I figured I might as well make a commitment:

1. I will use the Thoth Tarot exclusively, Imbolc - Vernal Equinox (1 Feb - 20 Mar) 2013.

2. I will refer to Lon Milo DuQuette's books, 'Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot', 'The Chicken Qabalah', and Gerd Ziegler's 'Tarot: Mirror of the Soul'.

3. I will blog with Thoth.

4. I will use Thoth for readings for myself and others.

5. I will take lots of notes, but have no idea what they will be about or what form they may take.

6. I will probably end up reading biographies of Aleister Crowley, because I tend to get obsessed with these little projects.




Me:

Imagecredit
 

Ha ha! Hang to your berets, kids, it could be a bumpy ride! ;) Bonkers, I hope you stay with me, child. You too, Inner Whispers! 

Tarot Blog Hop: Imbolc 2013

Tarot Blog Hop 2013 Imbolc Previous Blog:  TABI

Welcome, Tarot Blog Hoppers! Imbolc is here again already.  Is it just me, or does that wheel seem to be turning faster and faster?

So, what's 'in my belly'? What is in my spring? What shall I birth this season? These are the questions we're meant to answer this time around...

I'm so eager to see the earth spring to life, I asked myself, what is the most exuberant deck I own? And the first deck that came to mind was Wheel of the Year Tarot! I decided to draw three cards with no position:

Just look at those cards! Look at those colours! So fantastically spring-y. Ahhh. They practically warm my toes in my slippers. (You may notice I've cropped all borders off the deck, and written the numbers on in silver. I also drew a wiggly silver inner border around the majors. I quite like the effect.)

Way of the Horse: The Herd

Way of the Horse, Kohanov

It's the last day of our week with Way of the Horse, and can you believe I've drawn another card in landscape orientation? Funny, that. But, wow, what a card. The first thing you see is the gorgeous herd of horses thundering along together under a cloudy sky, then when you look again -- the sun is actually the eye of a horse's head appearing in the clouds! Gorgeous.

This card is subtitled 'Consensual Leadership', and in the companion book Kohanov makes a case against the notion of 'pecking order' by describing her observations of her own herd, and how different horses become the alpha horse in different situations. It just depends on what's happening and where a horse's strengths lie, and the other horses seem to recognize and acquiesce to this. It's a fluid kind of organic teamwork.