so ....
Aces on Princesses Thrones.
The G.D. reference to the Princesses ruling the ‘Celestial Heavens from the North Pole of the Zodiac’ and ‘…they form the thrones of the four Aces that rule in Kether.’
(G.D.p.221) To justify putting a Kether Ace above a Malkuth Princess is fine if we are talking about a Tree of Life of one level or dimension. But where they link from a higher dimension the Malkuth, Princess or 10 is above or at a similar position to the Kether, 1 or Ace below it.
Isnt it ???
Crowley says something totally different; (Book of Thoth p.177) “Princesses rule the heavens around the North Pole. The meridian is The Great Pyramid and the elements rule … Asia, Pacific Ocean, Americas, Europe and Africa.” Clearly we are on the Earth and the pole A.C. is referring to is the Terrestrial North Pole (TNP) and the cards are fixed over continents and so are revolving with the Earth.
Robert Wang gets closer by saying (Qabalistic Tarot, p.50 –51) that the circular Tarot/Astro correspondence diagrams in his book are a simplistic attempt that does; “refer to the Earth and its TWO magnetic poles.” (my emphasis) But he then goes on to refer one to the G.D.‘s muddled system.
There is a little (or lot of) confusion here and not everything is being revealed. Lets forget the complications of Qabalah and Tree of Life in a G.D. Celestial Sphere for a moment and look directly at the astrology of the Tarot in the 'normal' Celestial Sphere.
The normal astronomical Celestial ‘Sphere’ doesn’t exist without reference to (and from) the Earth’s viewpoint, it and its ‘poles’ would not exist if the Earth was not rotating, so that is why the Earth could be included in the system (it is represented by the 3 elemental trumps).
The astrological Trumps obviously reside in the band of the ecliptic. The Decans obviously are within (or in front of) the zodiac band as 10 degree divisions of the Zodiac and 1/3 segments of each sign. The planets and planetary Trumps ‘wander’ in the zone between the Earth and the Zodiac, passing the forces from one to another, laterally (ie latitudinally, in the plane of the Solar System).
The 12 Astro Court cards, (representing people and the resultant energy of the Earth’s 3 elemental trumps radiating out and the 4 elements ruling the Zodiac radiating in) can be considered to rule over and be fixed to ( rotating with ) the Earth.
The Aces can be set around the TSP where the (pos.) magnetic energy comes out. The Princesses are around the (neg.) TNP where same energy comes in. The Aces do sit on the Princesses ‘thrones’ but through the axis of the Earth and in one ‘Tree’, or dimension.
(Who is to say which way is ‘up’ on a sphere?)
Look at a diagram of a magnetic field on a bar magnet or the Earth’s axis. At the centre, around the pos. pole the magnetic field lines radiate out, curve around the bar or axis, run parallel, curve back into the neg, pole and enter it. But right in the centre of these poles the energy is parallel to the axis or bar, ie. it comes straight out (pos) or straight in (neg). Where does it go or come from?
One could postulate that the lines of force emerging from the centre of the STP (Aces – active) go out and 'up' to the NTP (Princesses – passive). So the Ace (south pole) does sit above the Princess ( north pole). But now its qabbalisticaly reversed (as the Princess of the higher order should sit above – or equal with – the ace of the lower order). But at the here we do have a Princess of a higher one order sitting above an Ace of a the same order. But that still isn’t a G.D. Ace above a Princess. .. Ah! .. but it is if you look at it upside down, after all, what way is up on a sphere?
Also this section first embarrasses itself by declaring that the southern stars, constellations and CSP regions “bear witness to absence of reference to occult knowledge.” ??? Ummm … if one could break out of one’s post-Victorian occult English mind-set that saw ( / still sees ?) the peoples living under the southern stars and Celestial Pole as primitive and ignorant savages ripe for colonisation, one might discover an occult reference system to those stars that in some most cases goes back well over the 6000 years (graciously including ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia) of European occult knowledge .
I do however appreciate the G.D. attempts to link movement in the celestial Sphere with the Vision of Ezekiel. But that too includes the earth in the system as one has to consider 4 forces at work here. The fixed Court Cards on Earth and their divisions radiating out into space (like the astrological houses) and rotating with the Earth and the fixed Astro-trumps on the ecliptic with their divisions radiating in to Earth (like the Astro signs) but not rotating. Ie. One spoked wheel spinning one way within another spoked wheel spinning the other way – laterally or horizontally. The longitudinal Earth divisions by element and suit flowing vertically (well, near vertical – 23 ½ degree tilted) and flowing one way and the celestial (vertical) divisions (represented by the pole to pole great circles of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Colures) flowing the other way. Ie. another two wheels whose ‘perpendicular’ energy flow is reversed. All four wheels rotating different ways inside of each other. No wonder Ezekiel was spinning! The end of Ezekiel gives instruction (from these wheels) about dividing the dominions of the Earth.
[But don’t try to find the relevant passage in Ezekiel from the G.D. reference, that is wrong too, they quote (typo probably) a chapter of Ezekiel that is numerically beyond those in the Bible.]