Thoth - Moon - Question about Symbols

Aeon418

I find the Emperor card a little intimidating, so this is lovely imagery to work with. I also heard a good suggestion on the LivingThelema podcasts for meditating with the growing, regenerative nature of the universe, to help with integrating aspects.
If that makes sense to you, you might also appreciate why Crowley 'appears' to go off on a tangent in his closing remarks on the Sun card in The Book of Thoth (p.114-115).

Caveman ancestry, civilization, and psycho-pathology? Where's he going with all this? In actual fact he's commenting on the need for wholeness and integration within the human psyche, and the problems that modernity has inflicted on those aspects ourselves that are still living in a prehistoric cave. Hence the emergence of various psychotherapies to try and help deal with this issue. The Emperor on the Path of Tzaddi relates to many of the same issues, but from a slightly different angle.
 

smw

If that makes sense to you, you might also appreciate why Crowley 'appears' to go off on a tangent in his closing remarks on the Sun card in The Book of Thoth (p.114-115).

Caveman ancestry, civilization, and psycho-pathology? Where's he going with all this? In actual fact he's commenting on the need for wholeness and integration within the human psyche, and the problems that modernity has inflicted on those aspects ourselves that are still living in a prehistoric cave. Hence the emergence of various psychotherapies to try and help deal with this issue. The Emperor on the Path of Tzaddi relates to many of the same issues, but from a slightly different angle.

Thanks, :) I'm just re- reading that now. I'm not quite sure of the caveman to civilisation shift relating to psychotherapy though. I thought that was integrating or bringing to light unconscious feelings and behavioural patterns, oh, maybe similar then...

Eta maybe then the Emperor's angle is more experiential working with your own instincts and spiritual energies, actively, somewhere in your psyche...If that isn't snoozy gibberish.
 

Aeon418

Thanks, :) I'm just re- reading that now. I'm not quite sure of the caveman to civilisation shift relating to psychotherapy though. I thought that was integrating or bringing to light unconscious feelings and behavioural patterns, oh, maybe similar then...
Scratch the veneer of civilization and caveman/cavewoman is still there. Just give them the right crisis situation and they will come out and play. Of course most of us will deny that we are capable of 'primitive behaviour'. Wanna bet? ;) In the interests of society we are forced to repress such behaviour patterns. But just because we safely lock these patterns away, they can still influence us subconsciously and leave us feeling conflicted. But those two kids on the Sun card are meant to play together, not fight.

And lets not forget everyone's favourite primitive hangup. SEX. })
Eta maybe then the Emperor's angle is more experiential working with your own instincts and spiritual energies, actively, somewhere in your psyche...If that isn't snoozy gibberish.
You're on the right track. :) On the surface the Emperor on the Path of Tzaddi looks like a mismatch. What is a card representing control, order, and the conscious mind doing on a path between the Instincts and Desires. But this points to one of the attributes of humans that sets us apart from other animals. Instead of mindlessly following our instincts, we have the ability to mould our desires and direct our instinctual energies towards other purposes. This leads us back to the Sun card. You can't successfully direct energies you repress or refuse to acknowledge.
 

Zephyros

"Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!"

Being a caveman is fun, it really is, but it is important to turn on that specific faucet only in service of Will, but then you must do it all. I like the above quote, it makes me think of making love as an art form, while being simultaneously a wild-monkey-dance. It also stresses not to deny yourself animal pleasures, contrary to old Aeon frigidity.

But the same goes for anger and aggression. Know how and where to direct it, "as brothers fight ye."
 

earthair

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, but there's that pyramid-between-2-towers M motif again from the RWS Ace Cups. It's even got the different coloured cap-stone. Don't ask me why though...
 

ravenest

Do a 'vision trip', go inside and have a look.
 

earthair

Do a 'vision trip', go inside and have a look.

Just back *unpacks suitcases, hangs up coat*
It's a wacky topsy turvey world in there- [especially if you're a beetle-must resist sun-but it looks sooo shiney]- once you get past the scarey dogs and Anubises, it's like being on a beach holiday where there is a mirage of the sea but every time you almost get your feet wet, you get higher and higher until you reach the top of the pyramid and get sucked into a vortex above it...then gravity turns sideways :bugeyed: - that's probably the moon pulling me. After a while you're free from the moon, floating upsidedown looking at everything in reverse from the top of the card.