The Moon XVIII
Universal Meaning: The Fool learns to deal with illusion, deception, obscurity, lack of clarity, hidden forces, basic instincts, moodiness, cycles, intuition, melancholy, mental unrest, and the repressed contents of the personal unconscious. Astrologers associate the Moon Trump with the imaginative psychic, impressionable, gullible and mystical Pisces, the Fishes.
Thoth Tarot Breakdown: There is no doubt about it, this is a spooky card. It represents the light that darkness creates, It is the light that illuminates your dreams- and your nightmares. The moonlight of Atu XVIII is that which illuminates the phantasmagoric nightmares of all of us who cannot acknowledge the dark horrors of our fears. The Moon card shows a path through and beyond this nightmare, but it is not an easy path and the myths of all ages and cultures prove that his journey though the poisoned darkness is an obligatory chapter in every hero’s quest.
This path is guarded by Tabu. She is uncleanliness and sorcery. Upon the hills are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear. All prejudice, all superstition, dead tradition and ancestral loathing, all combine to darken her face before the eyes of men. It needs unconquerable courage to begin to tread this path.
The path runs between two towers guarded by twin figures of the Egyptian god Anubis, god of embalming and guardian of cities of the dead. Poison blood drips from the dying Moon. The creature walking out of the water at the bottom of the card represents the scarab beetle, symbolic of the Egyptian god Kephra who is the god of the Sun at midnight.
Character used and Backstory: For this card i decided not to use gods or goddesses to represent it. Instead i used ancient greek deities knows as the Oneiroi. The Oneiroi were various gods and demigods that ruled over dreams, nightmares and oneiromantic symbols. According to Hesiod, they were the sons of Nyx and the brothers of Hypnos (sleep), Thanatos (Death), Geras (Old Age), the Moirai, and other beings all produced via parthenogenesis. The Oneiroi when appearing in front of people took the form of animals and they were the guides in the dreams and nightmares they produced for people to see.
Reason that this character was used: The card itself talks about the dreams and nightmares of people. It gives away a spooky feeling. I thought that the best way to show off this card is by recreating it with the sole deities of dreams and nightmares itself. Holding each a lantern that shows off the path of the dream or nightmare that they created.
Changes i made to be closer to the character i used: Instead of the two figures that represent Anubis, i drew two anthropomorphic animals holding the lanterns to show the transformation of the Oneiroi into animals in the dreams and nightmares they create. On their feet i drew the animal each figure represents. In the place of the scarab i chose to draw once again the Queen of the Night flower blooming underneath them, showing where they came from (that being from their own mother Nyx the goddess of the night) I kept all the color schemes and also i recreated the two black towers with two simple black mountains to show a scenery that can be seen or created into dreams.
The Sun XIX
Universal Meaning: The Fool is born again in the dazzling radiance of the sun. He feels invigorated, goal-oriented and full of zest and optimism. He has gained a respect for his inner child and has the courage to express his true self. His conscious planning and individual effort are now rewarded with success. Astrologers assign the Sun Trump to the Masculine, dynamic and energetic sun, the source of energy in our solar system.
Thoth Tarot Breakdown: Heru-ra-ha is a unique name for the two opposite and equal forms of the Egyptian god Horus. Hoor-pa-kraat is the passive, innocent, god of silence and infinite potential, often portrayed as a baby curled in the fetal position, pressing his thumb or forefinger to his lips. Ra-Hoor-Khut is the active, violent, hawk-headed avenger of the gods. Combined under the one name Heru-ra-Ha, they are the divine expression of the passive/active dynamics of the element Spirit.
The twin babies in the Fool card, and the children and the bride and groom in the Lovers are earlier tarot incarnations of the two dancing children we find in the Sun card. They represent the male and female eternally young, shameless and innocent, They are dancing in the light and yet they dwell upon the earth. They represent the next stage which is to be attained by mankind in which complete freedom is alike the cause and the result of the new access of solar energy upon the earth.
Character used and Backstory: For this card i chose two gods instead of one, Helios on the left and Apollo on the right, the two gods that are said to be the gods of Sun and Light.
Helios(left) is the god and personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness Theia also known as Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the Moon, and Eos the dawn. Helios was described as a handsome young man crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanys and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night. His chariot is golden drawn by steeds made of fire.
Apollo(right) has been variously recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry and more.Apollo was an oracular god, the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle.Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague.
Reason that this character was used: There were two figures on the card representing the sun, that is why i chose Helios the personification of the sun and Apollo the one said to be god of sun and light. They both are sun themselves and fit perfectly with the whole theme of it. They are the two sides of the sun with one being a personification and the other being a god of the sun himself.
Changes i made to be closer to the character i used: I drew both Helios and Apollo in their respective outfits and sides. On the left side instead of the zodiac signs i placed the four fiery steeds of Helios Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon and Phlegon who all have names that associate with fire and his golden chariot. On the right side instead again for the Zodiac signs i placed five things that Apollo is known for, them being music, poetry, medicine, plague and the sun and light. I kept all the colors to show the deeper meaning of this card.
Judgement XX
Universal Meaning: The Fool is now able to hear the trumpet of the Judgement card sounding the call of the Self to spiritual rebirth and the healing of the psyche to resurrection. Astrologers associate the Judgement card with the transforming planet Pluto, god of the underworld.
Thoth Tarot Breakdown: Crowley saw this event as a magical changing of the guard that was foreshadowed symbolically by one of the regular seasonal ceremonies of the Golden Dawn. Every six months, the ritual officers of that order were ceremonially promoted one chair up, and new secret passwords were issued. In that ritual, the officer who had formerly served as second-in-command was installed to serve as Hierophant for the next six months.
Horus is the god of force and fire, and his ascension as Lord of The New Aeon spiritually destroys the old world by fire. It only looks like the end of the world to those of us who cannot accept the possibility that old spiritual points of view can ever be replaced by new ones.
Nuit, the goddess of the night sky and infinite space arches her body over the entire top section of the stele. Directly beneath her heart is a winged solar disk that The Book of the Law refers to as the god Habit. The Goddess Nuit, her body filled with starts, her breasts alive with the milk of whirling galaxies, forms a beautiful blue omega as she bends in ecstasy around an immense egg containing the seated image of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. He holds the phoenix wand in his right hand. His left hand is empty. Standing as a transparent essence before him is his twin, Hoor-pa-kraat, his finger at his lips in the sign of silence. His head is shaven and crowned with two Uraeus serpents. The God Habit, pictures as the winged solar disk, is nearly camouflaged by the entire scene.
Character used and Backstory: For this card i used Oedipus a mythical Greek King of Thebes. Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. Oedipus was born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta. Laius wished to thwart a prophecy, so he left Oedipus to die on a mountainside. However, the baby was found by shepherds and raised by King Polybus and Queen Merope as their own. Oedipus learned from the oracle of Delphi of the prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother but unaware of his true parentage believe he was fated to murder Polybus and marry Merope, so he left for Thebes. On his way he met an older man and quarreled and Oedipus killed the stranger. Continuing on to Thebes, he found that the king of the city had been recently killed and that the city was at the mercy of the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the monsters riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king, and the hand in marriage of the king’s widow and unbeknownst to him, his mother Jocasta.
Years later, to end a plague on Thebes, Oedipus searched to find who had killed Laius, and discovered that he himself was responsible. Jocasta, upon realizing that she had married both her own son, and her husband’s murderer, hanged herself. Oedipus then seized two pins from her dress and blinded himself with them.
Reason that this character was used: The main reason why i chose this card is because the card itself talks about the change of the Aeon. A really good example of change is the change of king, when Oedipus killed his father and took his throne without him knowing what had happened. He changed the whole Aeon by replying to the Sphinx’s riddle. The end of his Aeon shows when his mother hangs herself and he blinds himself with her pins which shows that the throne will go to someone else, thus changing the Aeon.
Changes i made to be closer to the character i used: I made a lot of changes in this card. Firstly i placed the Sphinx whose riddle Oedipus solved at the bottom of the card where the winged disk was placed. I also replaced Nuit with Jocasta who was Oedipus mother and blindfolded her, showing Oedipus’s action to blind himself with her pins that she had on her dress. On top of the throne of course sits Oedipus himself. By drawing him it shows the actions he took and the change of the Aeon with him sitting and claiming the throne for himself. I drew him according to the sculptures that were made for him together with a traditional ancient Greek garment.
The World XXI
Universal Meaning: The Fool completes the cycle. The circular wreath surrounding the figure on the World Trump symbolizes the completion of the journey, the achievement of the wholeness, the actualization of the Self. Astrologers associate this final card with the planet Saturn, the planet with the outermost orbit of the seven known planets in ancient times, end of the visible solar system, symbol of structure and stability.
Thoth Tarot Breakdown: In the card itself there is consequently a glyph of the completion of the Great Work in its highest sense, exactly as the Atu of the Fool symbolizes its beginning. The Fool is the negative issuing into manifestation; the Universe is that manifestation, its purpose accomplished, ready to return. The twenty cards that lie between these two exhibit the Great Work and its agents in various stages. The image of the Universe in this sense is accordingly that of a maiden the final letter of the Tetragrammaton.
The first and most obvious characteristic of this card is that it comes at the end of all, and is therefore the complement of the Fool. It is attributed to the letter Tau. The two cards together accordingly spell the word Ath, which means Essence. All reality is consequently compromised in the series of which these two letters form the beginning and the end. This beginning was Nothing; the end must therefore be also Nothing, but Nothing in its complete expansion.
Character used and Backstory: For this card i decided to not only show a demigod but also his journey in becoming one, and that is the story of Hercules and his labours. Hercules was a Roman hero who was famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures that led him into becoming a demigod. His adventurous were also known as the Twelve Labours and they go as follows:
- Slay the Nemean Lion
- Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra
- Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis
- Capture the Erymanthian Boar
- Clean the Augean Stables in a single day
- Slay the Stymphalian birds
- Capture the Cretan Bull
- Steal the Mares of Diomedes
- Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
- Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon
- Steal the apples of the Hesperides
- Capture and bring back Cerberus
Reason that this character was used: The reason i used Hercules and his labours to represent this card is because this card is said to contain the end and complete the Fools journey to enlightenment, that is why i wanted to implement Hercules’s journey to becoming a demigod. Ive placed all twelve labours in this card together with the first obstacle that Hercules had to overcome being the two giant snakes that Hera sent to Hercules’s cradle to kill him out of anger of Zeus mating with a mortal woman that gave birth to Hercules.
Changes i made to be closer to the character i used: Firstly i changed the female figurine from the middle with a male figurine to represent Hercules holding the two giant snakes that Hera sent to kill him. Then the labours placement goes as follows:
- Slay the Nemean Lion is placed on the bottom right corner
- Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra is placed on the top of the card
- Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis is placed exactly in the middle behind hercules
- Capture the Erymanthian Boar is placed on the top right corner
- Clean the Augean Stables in a single day is placed on the bottom of the card
- Slay the Stymphalian birds is placed on the top right corner
- Capture the Cretan Bull is placed on the bottom left coner
- Steal the Mares of Diomedes is placed on the left side of the card
- Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons is placed around Hercules’s chest and arm
- Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon is placed on the right side of the card
- Steal the apples of the Hesperides are placed on the horns of the Golden Hind of Artemis
- Capture and bring back Cerberus is placed on the top of the card next to the Hydra
And these are the last few cards of the Olympian Tarot deck ive been making. Next week we will start putting up the exhibition and i will explain my part of it and how i worked and helped to put the exhibition together.
Bilbiography:
DuQuette, L. (2017). Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. Newburyport: Red Wheel Weiser, pp.99-103, 117-119.
Louis, A. (2010). Tarot plain and simple. St. Paul, Minn., U.S.A.: Llewellyn Publications, pp.46, 48.