Thoth - Moon - Question about Symbols

Dean

Fhe Moon - Following the path into the unknown.
 

daenys

When I first saw this card I had to sit back in disbelief, because that is a wavefunction diagram in a Tarot deck. Not only that, it shows the Moon orbiting the Earth! (I assumed the lower sphere is Earth because of its layers that, while not to scale, correspond to the layers of the Earth: crust/asthenosphere/rest of the mantle/core. The solid inner core was discovered in 1936 and may not have entered reference materials until after the Moon card was painted.)

So we have energy, gravity, and uncertainty. The Earth is depicted with a... volcanic eruption? I haven't seen it discussed in this thread, so my uneducated question to you all is: what does it all mean?
 

Babalon Jones

The two symbols are different, one looking like it has a positive polarity and one negative. I think the figures may be Anubis and Wepwawet, or Anubis in double form, Anubis of the East and Anubis of the West. Wepwawet especially makes sense as the Opener of the Ways and the one who guides the solar barque on the path of the midnite sun, through the Duat/underworld.
 

smw

the one on the left looks like the astrological sign for Venus (female) maybe, and the right looks like a similar symbol but with the cross elongated to form an inverted one. This also bisects the circle.
 

ravenest

I see the object as a compound symbol; ank, key and Mercury.

Gemini (ruled by Mercury) was a twin, one, at first, mortal and the other immortal ... also Mercury is lord of the heavens and the underworld and able to travel, bring people and communicate between them.

As far as the GD / Budge double Anubis goes ( and as it points out - actually 1 God with a double function ) I would recommend Normandy Ellis' wonderful transliterations of the Egyptian Pyramid texts where she talks about (transliterates the original, in the first person) the woman's spirit crossing the great desert after her death. A jackal is seen approaching from the distance ... it isnt too friendly and seems to be a leader of an unseen pack (one type of 'severe' jackal). It eventually comes up to he and sniffs her and calls out to the others (Wepwawet's other function as a 'scout') "It is all right, she is one of us."(the 'other type' - more merciful ) and then leads her through the next stage of the afterlife. (The severity of mercy of the approach was due to the woman being able to truthfully recite the 'negative confession' previously at an earlier stage of her death journey .... otherwise - jackal food! )

So they are the guardians of the threshold (as well as' Lord of Transformation' ) and they hold the Mercurial powers and the keys to life and death.

[ There is a theory that the ank evolved from a symbol much like a more modern Ashanti fertility doll , in their stylised versions you can see the similarity, these symbols were also seen as representing a power of regeneration and fertility. The birth of new life. ]

Now, all you have to do is find the 'key' ..... and make sure you have the right smell ;)


All this can then be looked at in contexts of the unconscious and Pisces ( 2 fish, one swimming one way, another the opposite way ;) )


{ Since this early 'understanding' of 'post Victorian ' Egyptology' , much research has been done and the modern view is different from the above ... but here - in Crowley's tarot and other related subjects like GD and Freemason's ceremony , Egyptian symbolism is quiet dated and often wrong (or comes from the New Kingdom where such 'amalgamations were already under way) ... we have to see it, in this case, as 'Thelemo-Egyptology'. Eg. a more modern approach is that Anpu and Wepwawet were very different gods with different origins and locations. }
 

ravenest

A closer examination of Anpu and his functions might reveal a lot more about the import of this cards energy and how it relates to one's 'journey'.

But I dont have time at the mo' ... maybe later ?
 

Aeon418

... we have to see it, in this case, as 'Thelemo-Egyptology'.
A good point. :thumbsup:

People expecting the Thoth deck, and related stuff, to be entirely consistent with modern Egyptology are going to disappointed and/or confused. It's not Egyptology! Neither is it some sort of modern day Egyptian revival.

This is basically just ancient symbolism and Budge-era Egyptology, taken out of it's original context, and used for another purpose within a syncretic initiatory framework. How that symbolism was/is used within that framework is of primary importance.
 

Zephyros

To be honest, I don't think that bothers most people. Egyptology is a relatively obscure field and what most people know of it comes from Abbot and Costello-style Hollywood cheese (the Stargate franchise, the Mummy films, etc.).

Still, while the subject was perhaps mishandled in Crowley's time (as were many other cultures, this was the atmosphere Schliemann arose in), I find it useful to study both the "constructed mythology" of his time as well as modern interpretations for a more rounded view of Egyptian deities.

The "dying god"/monomyth idea has also been criticized and disproven but that doesn't matter. What does matter is how it is used.
 

Aeon418

To be honest, I don't think that bothers most people. Egyptology is a relatively obscure field and what most people know of it comes from Abbot and Costello-style Hollywood cheese (the Stargate franchise, the Mummy films, etc.).
True enough. :laugh: But modern Egyptology was still thought to be some sort of "smoking gun" when the Book of the Law study began.