Thoth Keywords

[Fallon]

When you all read Thoth, do you use the keywords as a main guide to what the card means? (I do, and it's my favorite thing about this deck.) I have a book, but I don't remember which one it is and I don't consult it often. Also, regardless of what deck I'm reading with (RWS-based, Thoth, or Marseilles) I use my own unique combo of RWS and Thoth meanings to read. I also read playing cards like a Tarot deck with RWS-esque meanings minus the missing cards, because the way I see it is that most trumps have a corresponding pip (such as the two of cups/hearts and the lovers, or the chariot and the six of swords/spades, etc.) What is the forum opinion on this. 

[DanielJUK]

I've moved this thread over to the Thoth section, as it seems to be the main topic here 🙂 

 

[Aeon418]

I've never been sure where the appellation "keywords" came from. The words on the cards are actually the names of the cards. But because the names are descriptive of the natures of the minor cards, I suppose they appear to be keywords.

 

The Thoth Tarot's "keywords" are based on the names of the Golden Dawn minor arcana names with a few tweaks to reduce them to a single word. For example the Golden Dawn named the 6 of Wands and 6 of Cups as the Lord of Victory and the Lord of Pleasure respectively. But the 6 of Swords was named the Lord of Earned Success, while the 6 of Disks was named the Lord of Material Success.

 

With the first two examples Crowley merely snipped the "Lord of" when transposing the names to the corresponding Thoth Tarot cards. While the final example also omits the word "Material." Crowley probably thought this was redundant on a Disks card where the material world is already implied.

 

But the 6 of Swords - Earned Success - is reduced to the one word title - Science - in the Thoth Tarot. In both titles the element of luck is ruled out. Rather, this is intelligence applied to labour along clearly defined lines. The observation and intelligent application of the balanced principle of cause and effect is implied here. It is the fundamental basis of our knowledge and learning. If I do X the outcome will be Y. As a journey it is the intelligent observation, testing and experimentation using repeatable and developmental steps that creates balanced motion and forward progress, not too dissimilar to rowing a boat across a river. We assume that the ferryman on the RWS card knows what he is doing from "earned success" of past experience. He knows how to position his passengers to correctly balance the boat and how to correctly apply force to generate forward momentum. The current of the river water may, to a certain extent, be unpredictable and unknowable. But each journey into the unknown is manageable if causes and conditions are observed, adjustments made, and known principles applied with intelligence. Despite any difficulties along the way the outcome of reaching the opposite shore won't be a matter of blind luck. It is Science.

 

There are several more examples where Crowley reduced the double-barrelled Golden Dawn names into a single title. But the older titles can shed light on the new names and by extension the imagery of the RWS cards. 

Edited May 22, 2024 by Aeon418
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[Fallon]

Whenever the 6 of swords or Chariot comes up, a lot of times it seems to be in a reading about my connection to people who I've experienced distance from. I've also gotten a card with it that suggests someone might be checking up on me from a distance, such as probably looking at my pages online. Which usually comes at no surprise, since we all keep up with former friends and acquaintances via online now and not so much in person. In Thoth, I see it more based on the keyword, like when doing a reading for my family member who is a literal scientist (who also happens to live at a far distance)

[Aeon418]

Yes, communication and connection do seem to be indicated by the 6 of Swords with the Rose Cross of Union at its centre that unites the six swords.

 

Within the realm of science this could be related to the process of peer review, in which ideas and concepts are opened up to the scrutiny of other researchers. Through this group effort the soundness of ideas or discoveries is proved or disproved. This ties in nicely with Frieda Harris's inclusion of a fencer's diagram in the background of the card. Only the balanced stance is capable of effectively parrying the attack. This work cannot be done alone.

 

The 6 of Swords is an Air card whose natural tendency, like the wandering mind, is to disperse. But here the imagery seems to be one of focused intent, where different resources are harnessed together and aimed at one goal. This seems to be the promise latent within the Prince of Swords, if only he could be mastered by a will and an intelligence greater than his own. Without a higher purpose he, like some aspects of science, creates and destroys simply because he can. Maybe this in turn points to some of the negative aspects of the 6 of Swords like intellectual pride, conceit, and intellectualization of things beyond the limits of the intellect. In recent times Science has almost become the new secular religion. But unlike the boat in the RWS image, it has yet to realize it is merely a useful conveyance between two shores. The higher purpose and meaning that initiates the journey across the river is outside of its remit. Science is a means and not an end in itself.           

[Aeon418]

There are a few of the Thoth minor cards that seem to diverge from "typical" RWS interpretations. For example the RWS 8 of Cups is commonly interpreted as "walking away from a bad situation."  But the Thoth card is called Indolence. While the Golden Dawn title is Lord of Abandoned Success. These two titles suggest the exact opposite of the 'typical' RWS interpretation. Instead of walking away from an already bad situation, the situation is made bad by walking away. There's a distinct lack of effort and interest here that allows the situation to decay. All the ingredients of success are present, but "I simply can't be bothered with it." 😒 

[Aeon418]

The 10 of Cups. The RWS image of the card suggests the stereotypical ending of a child's story. "And they all lived happily ever after." The Golden Dawn title, Lord of Perfected Happiness, seems consistent with this theme. But Crowley's renaming of the card as Satiety is very clever because it points to the feeling associated with the satisfaction of hunger. At the time it feels very pleasant indeed to be unable to eat another morsel. But it is a temporary state of affairs. The hunger will return. This points to the futility of seeking satisfaction in material things. Modern consumer culture is a good example of a continual hunger that can only be temporarily satiated by buying more and more stuff. But the experience is ultimately empty and unsatisfying.

 

Quote

Aleister Crowley: "The pursuit of pleasure has been crowned with perfect success; and constantly it is discovered that, having got everything that one wanted, one did not want it after all; now one must pay."

 

Indeed! 😩

[Aeon418]

The 5 of Cups is related to the 10 of Cups. In the latter card the fires of desire are temporarily satiated by the waters overflowing from the cups, but in the former the waters of pleasure have been completely evaporated by the parching fire of the Five's. Simmering frustration, unhappiness and discontent rule here in a card the Golden Dawn titled Lord of Loss in Pleasure, and the RWS symbolises by a morose, solitary and dejected figure brooding over three overturned cups.

 

Crowley renamed this card Disappointment and had Harris illustrate it with an inverted pentagram. The knee jerk reaction to this symbol is to see it as signifying evil and the domination of matter over spirit. But without denying this interpretation a little rotation will create an upright pentagram. The symbol of the rulership of spirit over the four elements. "Demon est Deus inversus." The fact that one symbol can mean two completely different things should alert us to the idea that orientation is vitally import when reading the 5 of Cups. (This applies equally to all the 5's.)

 

Disappointment can be a spur to action and be transformed into motivation and inspiration, provided we are open enough to be able to work with with it rather than against it. Even the gloomy, miserable figure on the RWS card has the opportunity to turn around and see the two upright cups sitting right behind him. (2 of Cups = Love, openness to new experience, embracing the fullness of life.)

 

I'm reminded of one of Crowley's visionary experiences (7th Aethyr) where we sees a multitude of little people who have closed themselves off from the full experience of life by "shutting themselves up in their cloaks" in a futile attempt at self protection. They are afraid to embrace the totality of life (inverted and upright pentagrams) because of the fear of pain, failure, and Disappointment.     

Edited May 25, 2024 by Aeon418
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