Path: Supernews!supernews.com!news.he.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!gryphon.phoenix.net!brewich.brewich.com!bbs From: Walter Five Newsgroups: alt.tarot,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick Subject: Re: Crowley, evil Date: 21 May 1997 11:55:55 GMT Organization: The Brewers' Witch BBS-Largest Pagan BBS in Texas-(713)272-7350 Lines: 134 Distribution: world Message-ID: <5lunsb$15b$1@gryphon.phoenix.net> References: <5li3tk$fvj@kudo20.kudonet.com> Reply-To: walter5@bbs.brewich.com NNTP-Posting-Host: brewich.com X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 unoff BETA 970424; i386 FreeBSD 2.1.5-RELEASE] Xref: Supernews alt.tarot:20070 alt.magick.tyagi:12241 alt.magick:101986 [much bluster omitted -- tyagi] > ...The question on the table concerned Crowley's Fool, the two > horns it wears upon its head. Dead Head opined, or restated, or employed > the lines as a springboard, that Crowley's Fool wears horns "As Dionysus. > Very appropriate. Also appropriate as a fool in European art, although > more commonly seen outside Tarot." > To associate the depiction of horns on the Fools' head with Dionysus shows > a faulty grasp of the symbol, but we'll play along with the error, take the > Crowleyites at their word, and address the contention. George is many things, including an earnest scholar and a professional academic, but I do not think he has ever identified himself as a "Crowleyite". Your high-handed attempts to belittle him and others here are simply an attempt to sway weak minds. > The lame god Dionysus, child of the double door, was n'er crowned with > horns, but with serpents. The horns were worn by the drunken satyrs, who > debauched the god's message of rebirth and transformation into the > barbarism of orgy and madness. Crowley's Fool is a satyr bound by > unbridled lust and incapable of action. It falls, drunken and reeling, on > the rocks outside the gateway to the journey. Bah, Humbug, Ebenezer! (I've been waiting all this post to say that!) It just goes to show how little you understand the Thoth Deck, and the Mnenomic devices that Crowley and Lady Harris inserted in their imagery for the aid of the Student. > Crowley's Fool is no Dionysus -- it is a mad trickster, mired in the > quicksand of its illusions and bound by the ego of its master. Simply put, here is the answer to the question--"Why does Crowley's Fool wear horns?" Amongst the more traditional imagery Crowley uses in his Thoth Tarot Deck, there are also small and seemingly incogruous points of detail that may or may not be immediately noticable to the student. In the card "The Fool" the horns are one such device; the stylized fan he holds is another example. These elements are visual cues to attributions of the Card according to 777. The Fool corresponds to the Hebrew Letter Aleph, The Ox. The Horns of the Fool are the cue to The Ox, as the Fan is the cue to the Magical Weapon associated with the card, The Fan or Dagger. This is Elementary, my dear Ebenezer! Any Man of Earth or Initiate of the Outer Order *ought* to be able to make this simple association without casting the slings and arrows of outrageous character attack upon The Master Therion, or those who find value in his learned teachings. That which is said in Light, to the Children of Light, remains *of* the Light, even when cloaked in Darkness. This is a Key to understanding some of the more seemingly bizzare and repugnant symbolism Crowley was so fond of utilizing--it's a sure-fire method of spotting Marks like you from across the Midway. > We asked, "Why would Crowley want others to learn how to traverse the > wondrous journey through the Tarot Trumps when he didn't?" George either > wrote or restated from Heidrick: "That seems to be a false statement. Can > you support it without excessive sectarian definition of 'journey through > the Tarot Trumps'?" > In a post that supports nothing but the facade of cute little asides, the > Crowleyites ask a question (interrogation without substance), then tell us > how to answer it. What else should we expect from those without answers. Ah! So you couldn't answer the question! Why didn't you just *say* so? > Crowley's Fool in a golden dawn once had the opportunity to take-up the > keys of Enoch -- and with them, unlock the gateway to a journey through the > twenty-one Trumps. However, the Fool at the threshold heard the loud > little voice of the evil one -- and listened. "Pick up a new set of keys, > Fool. The keys of Aiwas." The new keys, tarnished and misshapen, unlock > nothing but dead ends and loops leading nowhere. According to WHOM? While it might not be the BEST book or Deck for a beginner, the Book of Thoth and Thoth Deck are appreciated by Advanced Students of the Tarot as very important and illuminated works, no matter what their tradition, be it Golden Dawn, Wiccan, Pagan, Thelemite, Setian, New Age, or what have you. I've met people from all sorts of paths who have found great insight to the Tarot through both the Book and Deck of Thoth. These works were amongst Crowley's last, and as such, he presented them with a lifetime's worth of Mystical and Magical Experience under his belt. As simply reading the Book of Thoth and working with the Deck will show the Student, in this matter he assuredly knew what he was talking about, whilst you, little Ebenezer, assuredly do NOT. As it is said in the Book of the Law, and on Wall Street--"Success is your only proof." Merry Met, & 93's! Walter Five > Faithfully, > Ebenezer and others at Miss Colleen's Reading Room > In article <5li3tk$fvj@kudo20.kudonet.com>