Tarot Card Comparisons: The Thoth Tarot-Key 17-The Star & The SpellCaster's Tarot- key 17- Star

The Tarot Star, traditionally refers to the zodiacal sign Aquarius, the Water Bearer. The picture on the Thoth Key 17, represents the Egyptian Goddess Nuit, the Lady of the Stars. Nuit is rarely shown in colors other than Black or Dark indigo, because She represents "Before the veil of Light was created".....in other words, She is the Dark Womb, the Dark/ Alma-Mater/ Matter"from whose breasts flows the Milky way". The fact that the Ancient Gnostic knew there was a Dark Force that birthed and nurtured the Stars should peek the interest of any quantum physicist who has discovered that the "Quanta"(sub atomic particles) appear to have an intelligence.

The Star card figure is shown as a  anthropomorphic figure, to verify through  art, the fact that She is depicted as a feminine force that connects the Macrocosm and the

Microcosmic creation. She is Nuit the Mother of "Horus in manifestation". The Sun within ourselves, is Horus, Christos, Buddha and/or our Phontonic Solar Psyche.

On the Thoth Tarot Card, She is shown as bearing two cups, one golden cup held high above her head from which she pours the "ethereal water" upon it (in ritual this is symbolized by a mixture of milk, oil and blood).  The other cup is Silver, from which She pours the *Amitra, the immortal liquor of her life, pouring it into the Great Sea of Binah ( 3rd Sephiroth called "Understanding") that is  illustrated as conjunct to a shore of fertile earth.

*

[ Amitra of the Indian philosophers,  the Nepenthe and Ambrosia of the Greeks, the Alchahest and Universal Medicine of the Alchemists, The Nectar.  The Mother of the Blood of the Grail .]

You may note that the Thoth cups represent the shape of breasts, while the SpellCaster's Tarot depicts her pouring water from two vessels that forms a pool, on which she stands. This is a more traditional rendition of the Star, hiding the deeper meanings of the Major Arcane, as most Occult lodges kept the knowledge in their own rituals.

However, the two breasts or cups is also a more exoteric tradition of tarot art, because the ancient astronomer priests or priestesses, believed that Stars were formed from the "milk of her breasts" and it is written: " The milk of the Stars from her paps; yeah, the milk of the stars from her paps".

The Milky way, is named so,  because of our edge on view, was seen as a river of sparkling life giving Goddess milk, by the ancients. To the Egyptians it was the out flowing milk of the Heavenly Cow, i.e., Hathor. Here we see a blending of the Goddess Hathor, "The Cow Goddess", into the later goddess name of Nuit.  The Goddess Nuit has also been called, "Nothingness with Twinkles....".

 To the ancient Greeks, the Moon Cow was Io or Europa or Hera. The Greek word gala, meaning "mothers milk",is the root word for galaxy. 

The 4 rivers of paradise copied in the bible as 4 streams of Eden, that emanated in 4 directions, where first known as the 4 Rivers of Paradise that flowed from the 4 teats of the Moon Cow. The Arcadian name for the milky way was Hiddagal, meaning "river of the Divine Lady", became the stream Hiddekel, (Genesis 2:14). The 4 rivers in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10–14): Pishon (perhaps the Jaxartes or Syr Darya), Gihon (perhaps the Oxus or Amu Darya), Hiddekel (Tigris).

What is attempted in illustration on the Thoth Deck Star card, and in the art of the SpellCaster's Tarot, is to show the universe in its ultimate elements. The Celestial globe is behind the Thoth Tarot-Goddess figure showing a prominent 7 pointed star that represents Venus, declaring the principle characteristic of Her nature to be love, the 7 pointed star is also shown as an {7/2} acute heptagram. This Star is also shown in the night sky above the SpellCaster's Tarot goddess figure as a magic {7/3} obtuse heptagram.

In general, a heptagram is any self-intersecting heptagon (7-sided polygon).

There are two regular heptagrams, labeled as {7/2} and >{7/3}, with the second number representing the vertex interval step from a regular heptagon, {7/1}.[From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia]

The Thoth Star card shows the manifestation of Nuit on a lower plane is Binah the Great Mother - The Sea of Life, The fertile Earth, nurtured by the Ocean of Binah, shown as supporting Roses in the right hand corner of the picture but between the Sea and the Land is the Abyss, which is hidden by the clouds, that whirl as her hair.

 [The Lady of the Rose, the Rose-Mari, is another aspect of the Fertile Goddess and during the Matriarchal age, there were Priestesses of the Blood Rose who were in direct representation of the Great Fertile Mother and stood for the Wellness of the people. This goes all the way back to Lemuria and/or the Land of Mu, that has been illustrated on ancient Chinese maps as shown on a map from www.moorsgate.com..

The Left hand upper corner of the Thoth Star card, shows the 7/3 heptagram that Crowley called the " Star of Babalon" which represents yet another aspect of the "All Mother goddess", that of the Scarlet Woman (Blood Rose) the Lady shown in Key 11, Lust, as riding the Lion-Serpent. From her star issues the curved light of Spiritual/Spiral rays of Photons (Spiral and Spiritual are both from the Greek word: Spiro. which means -Breath). She is the Dark Mater, and Heaven itself is no more than a veil before the face of the immortal Goddess.

Interesting to note here, is that every form of energy depicted here, is spiral (Spiritual). This is known as a "Spiral Universe"...we live in a Spiral Galaxy which we think we discovered just recently. Yet Zoroaster is quoted as saying," God is  he, having the head of a hawk; having a spiral force."  Hawks spiral in the sky as they hunt and also symbolizes the ancient Egyptian Hawk Headed god Horus. Spiral is also the mathematical conception of the Universe by the renowned physicist Albert Einstein.  It seems the Metaphysics of Hermetic Tarot, Gnosis, Alchemy, Qabalah, Tantra etc., are the Quantum physics of today! This is apt, since our Psyche and/or Souls are radiated from the Photon Sun of the Galactic Core and/or "the gala of her breasts".

The viewer may note, that on the Thoth Star card depiction, only in the lower-silver cup, is the flowing water of life, shown as rectilinear forms, rather than the spiral flow from the upper golden cup. This is because of mankind's insistence on a linear view, that forms a blindness to the wonder and beauty of the Spiral (spiritual) Universe. We know that Euclidean geometry depends on the conception of  straight lines, but  Riemann, Bolyai, and Lobatchewsky, (Mathematicians) have mathematically proven that the Parallel Postulate is found to be incapable of proof. Thus, the straight line has no true correspondence to reality.  I would highly recommend that the True Student of Tarot, get the Book of Law by A. Crowley....it is more than significant in aiding understanding the Occult metaphysics which can be compared to the quantum physics of today. Even the "New" String theory, was foreseen as the "serpent force" of the ancient meta-physicians.

The Tarot-STAR is known on the Qabalistic Tree of Life, as  the inner Path of Tzaddi. The Hebrew letter Tzaddi means fishhook and the Path is the Path of Meditation. Meditation is the fishhook on this path that properly attaches us to The Divine Universal Collective Unconscious, using our imagination. I-magi-nation is than being the proper approach to this Divine Intelligent Energy for she is the All Mother Intelligence that makes and nurtures all living image.

As we can see on the Thoth Star Card, there are two streams of  Divine Energy:

The Divine Energy flows through the Divine Mother to us by the integration of Chokma-Wisdom who is Will to Force- (intuition/feelings for he is Wisdom a feminine noun in Hebrew) and Binah- Understanding who is Will to Form (intellect/consciousness).  These 2 streams of energy are shown flowing from the vessels of the SpellCaster's Tarot, held by the Divine Feminine image. The blue lotuses in the pool, are the symbols for the Blue Sophia, Greek goddess of wisdom.

Many of us forget that the Imagination is a

"Womb-with-a view"---and is the Consciousness of the Divine Mother of all Forms. This forgetfulness, is because we have been taught by our Patriarchal society that imagination is a world-wind creator of fantasy and to be considered beneath our rational-worded-linear thought. We have somehow forgotten the meaning of Image-maker-conscious (imagination)."It's Just your imagination," is a common  "put down" theme and uses denial to ignore the fact that:

It's "just" The Divine Creative's Imagination that created all that you can see, hear, feel , smell and touch including YOU!  Other than a self-reflection, what else do you think a Self-Image is?

 Water is a symbol for the ebb and flow of consciousness , and Binah, is the Vast Sea of the Un-Conscious (meaning "not of consciousness"), which by meditation, we cast our consciousness into and thereby find a understanding of the process of life and death. To communicate with the Goddess of light, love and hope, one need only dream.

In the Thirty Two Paths of Wisdom, by Dr. Paul Foster Case, The Path of Tzaddi  is described as the Path of the Natural Intelligence. To the Student of the Hermetic Qabalah, this suggests that the primal forces of nature attributed to Netzach (Victory), the sphere of the Elohim who are synonymous with nature itself. You'll need to study the  Hebrew word Elohim to understand this in greater detail, but they are called the Gods of Netzach....which means ruling forces. That can be ruled by Man, who is  arguably the Elohim Malachim (sons/suns of god) Which is whom we are as the Soul or Real Person that radiates from the 6th Solar- Sephiroth-Tiphareth.  As physics has proven in the simulation hypothesis; by our observation alone, we change the observed behavior of electrons, for under the influence of light, electrons change their action from waves to particles! Since our Psyches are of the Photon-quanta side of the "mirror", our observation projects Photons, i.e., light and therefore changes the actions of the observed electrons. We are indeed, Suns of Goddess.

To aid further understanding, the Number 17 reduces to 8, which is the Lust Card-Key 8 in the Thoth Deck, which represents the conscious control of the Kundalini, that is both solar and sexual force. I call the Lust Card the image of " Riding the Dragon", a state of being in conscious union and thus control of the Divine Frenzy as your life expression. In other-words, the Impersonal Solar Power of I AM becoming a conscious manifestation of a earthly Me...a personal expression of Power. The figure 8 is the magical symbol for infinity, where 0 has become 8, 2 from a spiral of energy. The Universal 2, Binah and Chokmah, are both of the Fool, who is 0.

This trinity of I AM ME, is all part of the Greater Mysteries of Tiphareth, the Solar Logos which is the central Star of our Existence (our Solar Core/Psyche). Only by controlling the Sexual/Spiral energy in ourselves---the Kundalini [Lion-Serpent] can we travel the path to Tiphareth. However, this fact has been perverted by believing that Sexual energy, must be oppressed (made celebrate) to approach our Christos. This celibate practice is a perversion of the truth as the function of the Divine Creative and  the practice of ten's of thousands of years worth of  Shamans, Tantric and mystics, suggests otherwise.

This Inner Union, is the mystery of Tantric, Gnostic and Qabalistic practices and what some may call "Sex-Magic"----or "Sex-Magi". Which is really the Divine's technological break through of Sex where 1 becomes 2 and joins to become 3! (Such as, color becomes red, then blue, then joins to become a color called purple-making 3 colors). 1 is always one, but 2 and 1 is Three. Three is a plane, from which Self can reflect! Therefore the Triangle, in its many forms, is deem "magical".

Our ignorance of the Sexual Communion is not only showing us how the great Mother is disabused by fear based Patriarchal rule, but that all sexual perversion diverts us from the path of Tzaddi, and we are unable to control the lust filled passions of the Divine Frenzy that is all around us and  within us, and therefore become mental, emotional and physical deviates of a  psychosomatic -chaos perpetrated by divisive thinking. Such chaotic passion, makes us powerless to use our scattered creative forces in an expanding and liberating manner. Just what the bullies of"Divide and Conquer" want, i.e., "those who rule definition", for confused people are easily cowed and therefore, lead.  

Great enlightenment comes to the student who studies this Path and as many before, we realize that by not understanding the Divine Frenzy within the figure 8----we become murders, rapist, etc., where violence becomes our sexual-passionate activity.

 

The Process of approaching the Solar Center, is a yoga (yoga means--communion), involving the enervation of centers of energy (Chakras--means "spinning wheels") which open up our Energy Centers through the process of meditation, both internal and sexual. Our body is a magical device of the Solar Logos and its Sun/Son, the Soul. And as a magician, we as a personal-consciousness, must learn to operate this device. The first knowledge should be that energy flows from positive to negative poles. Male is positive polarity in this world, and female is negative polarity, so once again the figure 8 shows up to show us the necessary flow between the electric male and magnetic female. This flow is shown on the Thoth tarot as the flow from the  Golden cup of the Sun (he) and the Silver cup of the Moon (she).

As Paul Foster Case stated, about the Path of Tzaddi, "Through it is consummated and perfected the Nature of  every existing thing beneath the Sun".

Hence, we can't consummate our perfected nature until we are the perfect marriage of anima and animus on Psychic worlds above and Psychic worlds below...of as above, so below.

When meditation is successful, we find that we don't meditate, but rather we are meditated into image! We may understand better if we think of Tiphareth, The Higher Self/Solar Logos, as a kind of fisherman, who by angling with the Fishhook of meditation, pulls our personality/self-conscious up into the Solar Self.  From that Higher Perspective our personality can see that the self-image of form is meditated into existence from Briah, the Creative World of the Soul. 

The formation of the individual consciousness from the Divine collective unconscious begins from the point of Netzach, which is the highest level of "personality" while Tiphareth is the highest level to be reached by personal intellect. The object is to hold a "Holy Mass" where the Personality and the Psyche are joined in Communion, within the honeymoon suite that is The Human body.

The Tarot Star Card figure, represents the most pure manifestation of the Great Mother Binah at the level of Real Persona, preceding enclosure in matter. She is the Same  figure found in The Empress, in her royal regalia; The High Priestess and in The Universe cards, The Scarlet Woman in the Lust card; However, here She is unveiled, a naked virgin, further representing Her Venusian purity. 

The Star is associated with the love and inspiration sign of  Aquarius. In the ancient world, Saturn was said to govern Aquarius, referring us to Binah/Time and The Universe key 21. 

 

Because the Star card represents the universe resolved into its ultimate elements, it relates to many more Paths than any other card in the deck. Thus, I recommend getting the text book by Robert Wang---The Qabalistic Tarot ( A text book of Mystical Philosophy) and studying the many path- Charts on the Tree of Life , that he presents in the book.

To the Hermetic Qabalist, the Star card represents the "Lower Eden", from which the Personality originates and the Emperor, represents "Upper Eden" where the idea of Fiery Higher Self originates...The Solar Logos. Here to, we see a relationship of  The Star Path (Tzaddi) relating to another Path, that of the Emperor (Heh).

The Star card also relates to the  astrological Planet Venus, which to the ancients was seen as the "Morning and Evening Star", also referred to as Lucifer, the Most beautiful of all Archangels, referring to the Sephiroth Tiphareth-Beauty, which is the Solar Logos.  Lucifer is not seen as a underworld figure, but rather the Higher Self and or Real Person (Soul) who owns the human form. However, with proper enforcement of propaganda, you can be made to believe that "The Higher Self" is a "Savior" who is separate from you; a "you" who are but a slave to definition supplied by your cultural rulers whose rule is "black magic", as it depends on the shedding of innocent blood as a form of political policy. 

After the " War Lord religions" (Patriarch)  took over cultural programming, the meaning of Beauty (Synchronicity) became a Underworld Angel who was so narcissistic that he challenged God; as did the Titans, the children of women and the "gods who from the sky came", challenged the gods of Olympus. We all must study history and mythology to see how the Jews, Muslims and Christians took the names of gods and goddesses of other religions and demonized them, which only contributed to ignorance and lost self-awareness. The truth is that the Latin word Lucifer (Morning Star) is similar to the Greek Christos  (Sun, also Zeus Christos or Sun of God) ----both relating to the fiery Sun/Son of God....The Solar Logos and/or our Higher Self/Psyche/Real Person/Soul.

 To aid one in their skrying/meditation, it is found more power is gathered when one uses the corresponding things in nature. Therefore:

Thoth Tarot Correspondences: 0-The Fool & key-17-The Star.

It may be interesting to note that in ancient text, the "Holy Ghost" was considered to be feminine rather than the masculine concept of masculine, and she was/is known as Sophia, The Mother and Beloved of the Father. The Star card promotes the image of Sophia, while the Fool, promotes the image of the Father. To the ancients, the Fool (The Green Man) was both wise and "innocent as the children". He is Joker (Trickster) and Wisdom.

       The Fool- Fennel, Niaouli.

Often the Star card is associated with the "Mother Nature" of the Universe (The Universe is Natural----in fact there isn't any Super Natural---there is just parts of the Universal Collective that is it's Nature, that we don't understand yet) and the Fool is The Green Man-or Father Nature. It may help our understanding if we remember that Male is Electric Force and Female is Magnetic Force, so in essence we are dealing with Universal Magnetic Unconscious and Universal Electric Consciousness. When both are united in harmony----We have Sophia, "the whole of spirit". .

 

In this short story of the first of two descriptions of human creation, God made male and female at the same time. This is true for time/space and electric-magnetic. All of us are subtle androgyny, rather than the obvious single sex, as we all are composed of the energy that flows between and through the polarities of electro-magnetic (electric is male and magnetic is female). Also the brain itself has "male and female" halves. Since there was only One (Kether on the Tree of Life) when two where created from the one ( Chokmah-Male electric/spiritual fire and Female Binah--Magnetic-spiritual water) both "became" at once, just as the figure eight is drawn from one line. The "Image" of God has been argued by the best, but it can also mean extra-terrestrial "DNA" bonded with the natural mammalian DNA, a GMO operation done by the "angels that fell to earth" and/or "those who from the sky came", known as gods to early mankind. [I know that was unnecessary to bring up but I just love a good debate!]

However, there is no debate about our imagination, it is as a creative Womb and obviously an active Creative Conscious nestled in our passive "Unconscious"---the  Universal- Collective-Unconscious being attributed to natural inheritance, i.e. created before us by Life's quanta experiences, but ours to be at one with.

When the Tarot- Star Card-Key 17, is thrown during a reading the querent shall be or will be experiencing:

If ill defined by the accompanying cards:

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