Thoth-like decks and Yoga knowledge?

[Cerulean]

I am not talking about a specific school of yoga--perhaps I am thinking of general terms of discussing Crowley Thoth images and terms from yoga such as 'kundalini energy" and "chakras"--many of you probably have heard these terms in general books unrelated to yoga stretches and exercise instructions.

Anyway, I've not heard how well-versed Crowley was on a specific branch of yoga study--for instance, he might have been aware of tantric study, being the curious individual that he was.

But those of you who have some understanding of Thoth or yoga or both, what say you?

Here's a link that kind of got me thinking:

http://thelemicgoldendawn.tripod.com/chakras.htm

I use some yoga stretches in my exercise and have heard of the chakras and the ideas of kundalini energy in general--but have not throught to delve deeper into the Thoth with this slant in mind. I believe that the Thoth workalike, the Via Tarot, has more direct correlations to yoga practises, but this is a passing observation--I'd be glad to amend my impressions if others can point to better references.

Thanks!

Regards,

Cerulean

 

[Nevada]

Thank you, Cerulean. I've noticed the occasional reference to kundalini in the Thoth, but never took time to explore it. That's a grea link. I'm going to take some time to read through it.

I consider the chakras important, and I know a little about Yoga. My sister is a Yoga teacher, and I took a beginning class with her, many years ago when she was first interested in it. I've been thinking of going back to it.

Nevada

 

[jumptothemoonyea]

here is the link to the A. Crowley's "Eight Lectures On Yoga" :

http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/yoga/

 

[fyreflye]

The primary secret of the Golden Dawn and Thelemic systems was the arousal of Kundalini energy at the base of the spine, and the primary method for doing so was Sex Magick. What we are talking about here is not Yoga but Tantra, a system that was first openly practiced in India but which spread at least as far as Tibet and China, and which in the cultures of the Arabic world became disguised as a system for turning base metals into gold. It was in the guise of Alchemy that Tantra entered the occult systems of the West.
Tantra is a very inclusive method in which sex practices are only a small part, but that part captured the attention of Westerners and was especially interesting to the occultists of repressed Victorian England. A cynic might suggest that Sex Magick was just a fancy term for wife swapping; but its practice does explain why the Golden Dawn cult recruited so many attractive and free-thinking women while Freemasonry, from which it drew its founders, admitted only men.
If you think of the Tree of Life as a schematic diagram of the energy body you can see the Middle Pillar as the psychic spinal cord, with subordinate energy centers in the right and left pillars. It's no coincidence that the Tree is sometime pictured as Adam Kadmon, and that he is shown facing away from us with his spine exposed to view.
Most of this symbolism is absent from Waite's exoteric tarot but is quite apparent in the Thoth, the Via and in Dowson's recreation of the original Golden Dawn deck in the Hermetic Tarot. Robert Place's Alchemical Tarot, which reproduces many of the original drawings depicting the alchemical process, makes its sexual nature explicit while continuing to insist, like Jung, that the obvious sexuality depicted is merely "symbolic." But a huge amount of scholarly work remains to be done before the significance of the Tantra in Western Occultism will be fully appreciated.

 

[Cerulean]

Thank you, what an excellent range of links and commentary

Thank you, these links and points seem rather beautifully expressed.

Best regards,

Cerulean

 

[Gardener]

To take the thought in a slightly new direction (that's usually okay with you, right, Cerulean?), I see a huge amount of yoga imagery and philosophy in Margarete Petersen's deck. In many ways her deck is a Thoth deck, at least it seems so to me - she seems to be drawing heavily on his ideas about the cards although of course her imagery is different in concept. So when you asked about Thoth and yoga I thought of her deck. The descriptions of each card, particularly the Courts, emphasize concepts of yoga energy, the flow of kundalini energy through the body, the importance of stance, the structure of posture, although nothing explicitly about chakras (that I can think of offhand). A lot of the descriptions discuss the link between a state of physical being and state of mind, which I think of as a key concept of yoga.

Oui? Non?

P.S. The best card is the Lovers, in which the two lovers share a single spine, indicating the kundalini energy which flows between them. (It is sexier than it sounds.)

P.P.S. Fyreflye, thanks for the info about how tantra traveled west as part of alchemy, very, very interesting! And I snickered over the bit about the sexual imagery being "merely symbolic". That is such a great observation, I love how many academics hide their prurient interests behind dry discussion of symbolic meaning.

 

[Cerulean]

I edited the title and hope a moderator will assist

I will try to get the title changed slightly and hope it can remain in the Thoth forum.. and others can post similar opinions of Thothlike decks with terms that can be associated with tantra and yoga.

Best regards,

Cerulean

 

[Gardener]

ooops, didn't mean to cause trouble!

 

[The Dreamer]

The Haindl Tarot is generally considered Thothlike.

The Haindl Queen of Wands ("Mother of Wands") is depicted as Kali, the Hindu goddess of (among other things) destruction.

The way that she is depicted on the card echoes the myths of Shiva and Shakti.
On this card, Kali/Shakti copulates with the either dead or inert body of Shiva, who is depicted on this card as pale and with a serpent coiled at his head.

I view the Shiva/Shakti (and Kali) myths as symbolic representations of the action of the "Kundalini" energy in the human body. The energy is represented as wild and untameable, a force of nature, and dark (Kali, the feminine principle). The body itself, and the brain/mind in particular, are represented by Shiva (the male principle, the "rational" and the "light side" of consciousness).
Many of the Shakti/Shiva stories seem to imply that the rational mind must die metaphorically, or become inert, to allow the wild energy of the kundalini to do what it does.
This is echoed in the Haindl card depiction by the snake coiling around the head of Shiva, which implies that the snakelike kundalini energy has overwhelmed his consiousness.
All of this represents the masculine/feminine, and rational/nonrational, and energy/matter dichotomies which exist in each individual person.

 

[Cerulean]

Zowie...that was an incredible post.

Thanks for your discussion of this.

Cerulean