The Star card

archer1

On the card itself is a symbol opposite the Lamed a line that looks like a representation of water but Crowley's book of Thoth shows what looks like a rams head ...which is the typo....?????????????
 

Aeon418

I'm not sure what you are going on about, archer1 ? Could you be a little more specific ?

Where is the Lamed on The Star card ? As far as I'm concerned there isn't one. Lamed is attributed to Adjustment. (We are talking about the Hebrew letter, aren't we ?) There's is a letter Heh though. Is that what you mean ?

I'll assume that's what you mean anyway. The water sign on the card is the astrological glyph for Aquarius.
The tables at the back of The Book of Thoth are little messed up. The astrological signs for the The Emperor and The Star are wrong. Stick with the signs on the cards. The Emperor is Tzaddi and Aries (rams head). The Star is Heh and Aquarius.
 

Lillie

I love this card.

I think it is the most beautiful card in the whole deck.

As Aeon says, Crowley had a thing about the atributions of The Star and The Emperor.
He sort of swapped them over.
This is because of something in the great revelation of The Book of the Law, where Aiwass told him that Tzaddi was not the Star.
Crowley thought about it for a long time and decided if Tazaddi was not the Star, it must be the Emperor instead.

All this is explained in The Book of Thoth (sort of), and there is a little diagram to show how this swap mirrors the Golden Dawns swapping of Justice and Strength. There by making it all very neat and tidy.

Well, whatever, who knows?

Still a very beautiful card though.
 

archer1

I noticed the Lamed problem after I posted oops typo ..... the water sign was what I was talking about. The hebrew letters weren't the problem it was the different attributions in the book.....

Thanks..
 

Aeon418

Lillie said:
I love this card.
I think it is the most beautiful card in the whole deck.
Yeah, I agree. It is one of the best cards.

There's one thing that has always bugged me about that card though. Crowley went to a lot of trouble to explain the Tzaddi / Heh switch. He explains it all in The Book of Thoth and even goes to the trouble of providing diagrams to prove his point. Yet after all this why did he get Harris to draw The Star like a stylised Tzaddi ? (Clue. Look at the hair) It really does look like the strange Tzaddi that Crowley wrote in the original manuscript of The Book of the Law. Hmmm...
 

Lillie

Hmm...

I'd never noticed that.

What I always wondered was why they were only partly switched.
They have swapped the Hebrw letter attributions, and also their position on the tree of life, but not their 'tarot' number or their position in the deck. (Emperor is still 4, Star still 17)

But then I noticed that Crowley had switched back Strength and Justice, putting them back in their Marseilles position and number, although they have the GD position on the tree.

So, maybe, these two pairs of card still, sort of, partake of each other.
Maybe the 'Tzaddi' hidden in the star is there to tell us that even though Tzaddi is not the star there is still some Tazaddiness about her.
Is there a heh encoded into the emperor?

Talking of the strength/justice switch and the tree of life.
I always thought that Justice was much better suited to her old position on the tree, making a horizontal path between the left and right pillars.
It always seemed to suit the card better. As she is drawn like this, the scales between two pillars.

But there we are, what do I know?

I know, I'm awful. If had the whole of the GD sitting in front of me, I would argue with the lot of them over some minor point that I know nothing about, just for the fun of it!
 

Aeon418

Lillie said:
So, maybe, these two pairs of card still, sort of, partake of each other. Maybe the 'Tzaddi' hidden in the star is there to tell us that even though Tzaddi is not the star there is still some Tazaddiness about her.
Is there a heh encoded into the emperor?
This is just a guess.... but maybe all the mix ups involving these two cards in The Book of Thoth are a subtle way of telling us that both attributions are correct. The New Aeon is supposed to be that of the Child. Every child needs a Mother (The Star) and a Father (The Emperor).

In some of Crowley's diaries he uses both attributions side by side. I always thought he was just experimenting with different cards just to see which ones worked best.

It kind of makes sense of something else dealing with Tzaddi in The Book of the Law. Chp.1 vs.57 ... This also is secret: my prophet shall reveal it to the wise.
If Crowley was supposed to reveal the new attribution to the wise why did he print it in a book for the general public ? Maybe he revealed and concealed at the same time. ;)

Lillie said:
Talking of the strength/justice switch and the tree of life.
I always thought that Justice was much better suited to her old position on the tree, making a horizontal path between the left and right pillars.
It always seemed to suit the card better. As she is drawn like this, the scales between two pillars.
Huh !? When was Justice swapped with Strength on the Tree of Life ? I don't ever recall that happening. The Golden Dawn swapped their position within the sequence of the Tarot but that's all.

To my knowledge Strength has always been on the 19th path between Geburah and Chesed and Justice has always been on the 22nd path between Geburah and Tiphareth. (Which places her directly opposite her compliment, The Fool spelling AL.
 

Lillie

Maybe I put it wrong...
Maybe I'm just completely wrong!

This is what I mean.

In the Marseilles, Justice is 8, Strength is 11
So, if these were placed on the tree of life, Justice would be on the path running between Chesed and Geburah, (Teth, the serpent), and Strength would run between Geburah and Tipareth, (Lamed, the Ox Goad)

But, the Golden Dawn changed both the numbers, making Strength 8 and Justice 11, and also placed them on the tree in the corresponding paths. (The correct paths for these numbers) Strength between Chesed and Geburah, and Justice between Geburah and Tipareth.

But Crowley, although he changed the numbering, switching them back to the marseilles numbers (Adjustment 8, Lust 11), he did not move their paths. Therefore, if you look at the tree, you will see that the numbers of the paths, and the numbers of the cards are out of sync with these two cards.

But, with The Emperor and The Star, he moved the paths, placing the Star on the Emperors old path, between Chokma and Tipareth (Heh, window), and put the Emperor on the Stars old path, between netzack and yesod (Tzaddi, Fish hook) he did not change the numbers of the cards to correspond with their new paths. (Ie, the Star did not become 4, and the Emperor did not become 17).

I just meant, as the teth path runs horizontally between chesed and Geburah, it looks like justice should fit there. And it is there it would be placed by the GD if they had not switched her with strength.

Ok, so all of that is a bit involved, and it only works if the Fool is zero and placed on the first path (aleph, ox).
But I know what I mean, even if no one else does. :)
 

Aeon418

Lillie said:
But I know what I mean, even if no one else does. :)
:D hee hee. It's alright, I know what you mean. The Golden Dawn placed the cards on the paths in sequence. So their Justice/Strength swap meant that Strength was placed on the Tree before Justice and Crowley didn't swap them around when he reverted to the Marseilles order. Correct ?
 

Aeon418

But...... Teth is the 9th letter of the hebrew alphabet, so it has to go on the 19th path between Geburah and Chesed, and Lamed is the 12th letter and thus comes later in the sequence.