The Shadow Series; Tarot Card Comparisons; Thoth Tarot- The Empress & The Shadow Tarot-Dagdagiel-

I am the love of being, that creates being so that I can be love.

-Eli Serabeth

It can never be overstated that these cards or keys, represent fragmented states of conscious energy that complete our whole-self.

In the Thoth Tarot key 3, The Empress,is the symbol of the universal principle of love with wisdom; she is a symbol of our ability to extend love and receive love.

In Jungian psychology, she is the anima, the feminine nature. The moon, shown on the card, is a western symbol for the feminine magnetic nature that is receptive to the male electric nature, usually symbolized as the sun.

The blue lotus is the Eastern symbol for wisdom. She is the yin energy of the orient. Key 3 reminds us that love with wisdom is the capacity to nurture and support ourselves in equal proportion to how we nurture and support others.

All the birds represent all the mental realms of consciousness ( The Sephiroth on The Tree of Life).

THE EMPRESS- key 3, is the Path of Daleth-(emerald green path between 2-Chokmah and 3-Binah) meaning-Door, and Her planet is Venus.

THE EMPRESS, is also called the "Gate way to Heaven", as She is the transitional state of energy between  the Above and the Below. The effect of this transition is from One into many, so the key to this card is multiplicity.

If one looks at THE HIGH PRIESTESS card, they'll observe a simple diaphanous robe, that of THE EMPRESS is appropriately covered with all the jewels of creation.

As a Qabalist, I am painfully aware of the inadequacy of anthropomorphic symbolism when describing the Supernal Triangle, "the As Above", yet Tarot pictures unconsciously communicate a great deal of information, that words can only flail at. The images represented in THE EMPRESS card are an attempt to convey the concept of pure fruition.

As an exercise towards this goal of understanding, the initiate must try to conceive of pure emotion, which is a feeling which has no subject or object, neither love nor hate, but which is the raw material of both; a kind of Lust without need of result. Armed with such an understanding, the initiate may begin to understand something of the Great Binah, The Great Mother, THE EMPRESS, who is the Illuminating Intelligence or  Birth Mother  of Ideas through transitional state of Understanding.  She is Mother Nature of the Universe. 

All that is Life on Earth is  also the providence of THE EMPRESS, as she builds life forms around the Spirit of Life, establishing the Laws of the Universe that have to do with restriction and formation. She is the Supernal Female Force. She is also Venus-Aphrodite. the Goddess of Love; Love is the Law. The Luminous Intelligence of Chokmah, becomes the Illuminating Intelligence of  THE EMPRESS, inferring filling up and emitting Light, thus bestowing the title of Mother of Light on the Great Mother. 

She is a Door, and one may pass through a door in any direction, to pass through Her on the Return Path, is to pass into Supreme Darkness, that is stressed in the Shadow Tarot. The  dual dynamic of the Door, has often been shown as Janus, the Roman Two-Faced god,each face looking in opposite directions. In fact the Latin word janua means door and this god was stated by the Romans, to have presided over communications and the affairs of men. Here then, as THE EMPRESS, Janus resided over the passage of ideas. Originally, Janus was a Solar Entity, and THE EMPRESS is the Mother of the Sun, so the comparison is not only viable but pertinent as well, so anything that can be said about Janus can be said about THE EMPRESS  as well, even though she is anthropomorphized as Venus-Aphrodite.

 When entering this path the pyschonaut experiences the Luxurious Proliferation of Nature  with each facet so compelling, being both beautiful and hypnotic, it is possible for the student to lose sight of the Overview of the Path of Daleth. This point was acknowledge by A. Crowley in his Book of Thoth, where he warned,"..the student who is dazzled by any given  manifestation may be led astray. In no other card is it so necessary to disregard the parts and to concentrate upon the whole". 

We know that the Venus-Aphrodite is the "Goddess of Love' but many forgot that She is also named the "Goddess of Desire". Desire, being born with the most abstract principle of Form, holds a very specific meaning for the Student of the Mysteries, as to feel is to desire, but to unite wholly with the Universe, requires the "want of nothing". Thus, the coming to or the leaving of desire is another aspect of the Door Way that is THE EMPRESS-- Path of Daleth.

THE EMPRESS as shown in the Thoth Deck card, looks to be all nurturing and light, however, the darkened crescent of the Moon suggests transformation or change and to Qabalists She is known as the Mother of Life and Death. Growth and destruction are concurrent Empress- activities, just as old cells die and new cells are born in a daily cycle in your physical body. There is also a Shadow side to lust, desire and intense sensuality, as expressed in The Shadow Tarot card 14-Dagdagiel. 

The transparent bubbles shown in front of the Thoth Empress image, represent the veil that we must pass through to realize the Path of Daleth (Door), to pass beyond the veil is to cross into a completely new level of conscious energy, where her laws of love no longer apply. The veil is a dramatic separation of imagined reality and what is Real.

By now, the able initiate knows that God is the Mind that created the Universe by dreams of Self- thought. We do the same thing, as "images of god", we create reality by imagining it. Whatever we create in our personal minds, becomes. This is an often ridiculed concept or precept of both metaphysics and the mysteries. However, ridicule does not an understanding make, and as a Personality attains greater Self-Awareness,  the implications  of responsibility for what one thinks become most profound!

The Thoth Deck Empress, is  illustrated in the alchemical image of Salt, that is the inactive  principle which is  activated by the alchemical Sulfur (Emperor),  maintaining

the whirling (Spiral) balance of the Universe. The design of the Alchemical symbol of Salt, is , a circle with a line bisecting it horizontally, as is  shown in the positioning of her arms and if you put the Empress and the Emperor, side by side, her on the Left and Him on the right, there faces are looking at each other. This is Yab Yum, illustrating the Tibetan word that means , Goddess God, face to face, as well as, the activating activity; sex. 

The twisted blue shapes represent flames and her birth from Water, which we know to represent consciousness. The Living Holy Grail, is the Lotus like chalice in her hand. At her waist is the  Zodiacal girdle or belt, above her head are the dove and sparrow , both are  birds of Venus.  At her feet is a white pelican that is feeding her own young with her own flesh which is a common symbol of the Great Mother, for even not so great mothers, build the young from their own flesh.

The white eagle shield corresponds to that red eagle shield of the Emperor.  To reiterate,The alchemical references for the Supernal Triangle are, THE MAGUS is Mercury, THE EMPRESS is Salt, THE EMPEROR, is Sulfur. Thus Kether is Mercury, Binah is Salt and Chokmah is Sulfur, the Sephiroth united on the Tree of Life that turn our leaden consciousness into the Golden Intelligence of the Son (Sun), i.e. the Divine Child. The only blocking veil to this end, is Desire consciousness.  We must lose the reality of the  "I Wants" known as "Wanna-Be's" and become the I AM's of our original inheritance.

As always, words make the reality of their meanings seem so simple, but in truth, the simplest words are the most subjective, such as IT, or I .  One must cross the emptiness of want, of sense, of sight, before one can visit the Great Mother, who creates the Am of us all.

The Shadow Tarot of Linda Falorio14/Dagdagiel (remember you must subtract 11 from The Shadow Tarot number to get the comparable Light Tarot card number), displays the Dark side or Shadow side of this 3rd state of the Collective Unconscious.  She has fashioned the Tunnel of Dagdagiel (tunnels are paths) as an oyster shell, representing the masculine sexual prowess. Yet we all know that oysters not only represent the shape of the female sexual organ but also smell of sea salt, that is a very feminine  sexual scent. Thus, the inseparable maleness and femaleness of the Supernal Triangle is also represented here.

Without is depicted the chaos of a spider-web, where the web becomes a network of "infinite corroding light", whose interstices are black holes in interstellar space or trans comic vortexes in the void of the Dark Unconscious that suck us unawares into the "Twilight dream time", as the author calls it. It is obvious the awe of entering this dark desire tunnel has permeated the consciousness of Linda Falorio. For she goes on in throws of awe, dashing words about almost chaotically, trying to describe this extremely sensual experience, that defies description. 

You see, Dagdagiel is the sensually debauched aspect of the Dark Venus. The ancients called her the white sow or the Tibetan Phagmo Dorje. This state of the unconscious is a type of wallowing, mired in erotic orgasmic delight and insatiable; constantly consuming, her own creations, that erupt from her desires. That is why I cautioned the initiate who enters the inner Path of Daleth (the door) they must be free from desire, or she will consume the desire personality.

But to go on, Linda Falorio compares this shadow side of the Empress, to Maat (and many other destroyer goddesses) or "the gate of the aeon of Maat, and High Priestess of the Mysteries that bows to no man". She seems to be overcome with awe of this Great Feminine Principle of the Unconscious Womb of consciousness. I too felt great joy here, and she called me Husband and treated me to her orgasm, but in truth, we bowed to each other--Face to Face. This is the place of the "Big Bang" (no pun intended) where insatiable desires lite up the universe.  This state of deep inner dark Unconscious, left me clean and "keeper of her property" (the meaning of the word Husband).

This goes to show you, that each of us has our own sensual experience here, and each of us must return to rational states of being, as Crowley warned.

In a ring of fire, are shown the crawling images of a scorpion, snake and spider (not easily seen) which are symbols of Serker (Egyptian Lord of Death), caster of the first circle and weaver of the first web (first ejaculation).  The Egyptian-Serk or Serker, was considered the "Black Sun enclosed in the Earth's Womb", at the bottom of the underworld, in a secret pyramid filled with "the blackest darkness". Interestingly Serker is also the title of the phallus at the point of "dying", sending forth seed into the dark. Again supporting the lust-filled sexuality of this psyche-Tunnel of Dagdagiel. Somewhere, the word beserker was formed from this and describes one who has lost his mind to a furious insatiable desire to kill.

These shadow cards of Linda Falorio are splashed about with ancient god/goddess names in an awe filled attempt at description. I would recommend that one separate one mythology from the many here, so that they don't get lost in the swirling dance of too many descriptions.

One seeks the powers of Dagdagiel, in order to experience drunkenness of the senses (Bacchus) where the world is aglow with colored lights (Aura seeing). When one is seeking mastery of the green ray of nature (the colored path of Daleth) with the possibility of communication with and co-operation with the Deva's, (Ka-Dro-Mah, of the Tibetans). These "serpent headed" deities ( the divine feminine that is of many faces and in charge of Vibration or Spiral flow) are not for the lust-filled child, that most men are. Here degradation of Womb-man, is not tolerated and the "seed" belongs to her darkness.  Here also, are sexual prowess and fecundity  ( I had to get a vasectomy!) placing one within communion with all life (I called her Grand Mother River, the serpentine flow of all life), the ability to expand and liberate life from self imposed limits. Here is the power to merge with all life, peoples, races and cultures. The mind floods with the realization of the Divine She as "Everything I see is another way to be me." becomes conscious reality.

You know you need to enter the realm Dagdagiel, by skrying this card, when you feel joyless inside, and where life's simple sensual pleasures allude you.

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