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"Visit the interior parts of the earth: by rectification thou shalt find the hidden stone."
Thoth- ATU XIV-Art
The Arcane Tarot- Key 14-Temperance
Pour thine all freely from the Vase in thy
right hand and lose no drop! Hath not thy left
hand a Vase?
Transmute all wholly into the Image of thy
Will, bringing each to its token of
Perfection!
Dissolve the Pearl in the Wine-cup: drink, and
make manifest the Virtue of that Pearl.
- [Book of Thoth, Pg. 253-260]
ATU XIV — ART (Samekh): The Alchemical Core of the Soul-Star
In many traditional Tarot decks, Key 14 is titled Temperance, a word that evokes the slow cooling of forged steel, or the careful annealing of molten glass. This imagery is not inaccurate, but it is incomplete. What is being tempered is not metal nor matter, but the Self—the psyche being trained to withstand the pressures of incarnation while remaining supple enough to channel the currents of Higher Will.
The Thoth Tarot names ATU XIV Art, and this subtle renaming unlocks the entire dynamic of the card. This is not passive moderation. It is active alchemical creation—the Great Work in motion. In Western Hermetic circles, the ancient alchemists referred to their sacred craft simply as The Art. Crowley and Harris, attuned to this deeper current, re-present Key 14 not as a moral virtue but as the ongoing process by which the Soul learns to wield its own divine chemistry.
The Path of Samekh: The Prop That Holds the Universe in You
On the Tree of Life, ATU XIV corresponds to the Hebrew letter Samekh, meaning prop or support. Samekh upholds—internally. It is the hidden architecture that keeps the psyche from collapsing under its own transformations.
Crowley notes in 777 that Samekh symbolizes:
“The Womb preserving Life. Self-control and self-sacrifice govern the Wheel.”
If the Wheel (ATU X) is the centrifuge of experience, then Samekh is the stabilizing intelligence that enables incarnation to survive its own turbulence. This “womb preserving life” is visibly illustrated in the Thoth image:
The Androgyne performs the Coniunctio of opposites.
Lightning (Will-to-Force) is poured from the fiery vessel.
Elixir (Will-to-Form) flows from the chalice of receptivity.
Both streams descend into the alchemical cauldron—the womb of Self-creation.
These are not metaphors of external elements. They describe the psychic operations of the incarnate Soul.
Samekh is the Great Stabilizer because Art is the Great Equalizer. One cannot become a Solar Being without learning to bear one’s own fire.
The Soul as Plasma: The Hidden Physics of Art
The description of the soul as a plasmic entity is profoundly Hermetic and aligns seamlessly with modern physics, Thelemic metaphysics, and ancient Qabalistic doctrine.
Plasma—the fourth state of matter—is the most accurate scientific analog for the Auric / Solar Self:
It is charged, responsive, dynamic.
It phases into form only when contained by a field.
It radiates according to internal fusion processes.
The human body is the crystallized sheath of this plasma, a condensed vehicle required for work upon Malkuth. The “I AM” emerges when the star within projects its frequencies through the vortices of the subtle body (the chakras / sephirothic interfaces).
This is why the figure in ATU XIV is not a mortal. It is the Alchemical Self, the Solar Star behind the mask, presiding over the fusion and calibration of psychic forces.
Stars, Souls, and the Thelemic Vision of Identity
Crowley’s repeated phrase from Liber AL:
“Every man and every woman is a star.”
is not poetic flourish—it's metaphysical precision.
In Qabalah, a star is a vector of divine will, an individuated spark of the infinite Ain Soph Aur. It has:
its own orbit
its own radiance
its own gravitational signature
its own purpose in the cosmic tapestry
This “orbit” is the True Will. Not fate, not preference, but the natural trajectory of the Soul-Star expressing itself when unconfined by fear or conditioning.
ATU XIV is the process of aligning the personality with that orbit.
Where the Devil (Ayin) confronts us with the distortions of perception, and Death (Nun) teaches surrender of form, Art (Samekh) synthesizes these purified forces into a coherent identity—a star conscious of its own radiance.
Thus, the card becomes a diagram of conscious evolution:
Perception refined
Ego purified
Will calibrated
Star-Self revealed
Why Samekh Is the Central Alchemical Crisis of the Path
Samekh is the path that crosses the “Desert of the Soul”—the interior region between Yesod and Tiphareth. This is the path of the Vision of the Solar Self, the ordeal of orientation toward one’s own inner Sun.
Those who traverse Samekh:
burn off egoic dross
temper their psychic volatility
unify masculine and feminine polarities
become capable of sustaining higher spiritual voltage
In other words:
Samekh forges a human being into a star capable of conscious radiance.
This is the Great Art, the Magnum Opus, the alchemy of becoming.
In Summary: The Forward-Thinking Hermetic View
ATU XIV — Art is:
The psychic reactor core where Will is refined.
The womb of Self-creation where polarities are fused.
The alchemical crucible in which one’s True Will becomes stable enough to manifest.
The stellar ignition point where the incarnate Soul recognizes its solar nature.
Crowley’s statement that each person is “a star” becomes literal:
The Soul is plasma; the Will is fusion; the personality is the vessel being tempered to endure its own light.
This alchemical engine is the center of magical development. Without mastering Art, no aspirant can stabilize the forces awakened on the paths above the Sun.
The Moon-to-Sun Ascent: Samekh as the Interior Arc of Transmutation
The Path of Samekh stretches across the great interior divide of the Tree of Life, leading from Yesod (Foundation) to Tiphareth (Beauty). This is no gentle ascent. It is the narrow, pressurized corridor between the reflective Moon of the personality and the blazing core of the Solar Self—the plasmic source of one’s True Will.
To walk Samekh is to move:
from Self-reflection to Self-radiance,
from the mirror-consciousness of Yesod to the fusion-heart of Tiphareth,
from the lunar astral double to the incarnate Star you truly are.
It is the crossing where the aspirant ceases to merely sense the Higher Self and begins to become it.
Because of its nature, Samekh stands as the inner alchemical labor that unites “As above, so below”—the Star above (Higher Self) with the Star below (incarnate soul). This is the moment where the microcosm recognizes itself as a projection of the macrocosmic Sun, and the “starhood” Crowley spoke of becomes experiential rather than philosophical.
Where Opposites Meet Under Pressure
The Art card illustrates this ordeal with precision:
Fire and Water merged in one vessel
Will-to-Force and Will-to-Form flowing together
Male and Female, not combined into a blur, but held in tension
Light and Darkness circulating through the same womb of becoming
This is not balance for comfort—this is equilibrium under stress, the crucible phase of alchemy where the ingredients of identity are recombined at a higher octave.
Samekh requires equal measure of both polarities. Nothing can be excluded. Nothing can be repressed. The lunar shadow of Yesod must meet the solar fire of Tiphareth—consciously.
This is why the ancients placed a bow (the Sagittarian symbol of this path) into the hands of the aspirant:
the arrow of Will must hold perfectly steady while passing through the narrowest aperture of the psyche.
The Dark Night of the Soul: The Tunnel Between Selves
The Path of Samekh has long been associated with what mystics call the dark night of the soul—a stage where the familiar self dissolves, but the solar identity has not yet dawned. It is a psychic eclipse.
The aspirant often reports the sensation of moving through:
a long, lightless tunnel
an inner desert of silence
a loss of emotional certainty
a withdrawal of previous spiritual consolations
These experiences do not signify abandonment.
They signify pressure—the compression necessary to ignite the Solar Core.
In Yesod, one believes there is a Sun within.
In Tiphareth, one knows.
Between those two states is the tunnel.
During this transition, the aspirant may feel:
stripped of past identities
confronted by unresolved dualities
challenged by subtle temptations of doubt, illusion, or emotional regression
stretched beyond the limits of their former psychological “container”
This is precisely what Samekh is designed to do:
shatter the lunar shell so that the solar nucleus can emerge.
Why This Path Is a Trial and a Temptation
Samekh tests the aspirant at the level of inner alignment.
Temptation here is not sensual—it is gravitational:
the temptation to retreat into old emotional patterns,
the temptation to cling to reflected identity (Yesod),
the temptation to avoid the radiance of one’s own True Will.
The “trial” arises because the Soul demands authenticity at this stage.
The “temptation” arises because the ego resists dissolution.
Thus, Samekh becomes a psychic alchemical furnace where:
the lunar ego melts,
the opposites reconcile,
the Solar Self begins to take command.
This is why the Masters called it “the Path of the Arrow.”
Once released, the aspirant can no longer remain who they were.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Although the tunnel image is archetypal, its mechanics are exact:
the psyche undergoes an inner reconfiguration as the auric plasma reorganizes around the Solar center rather than the astral shell.
The aspirant believes there is Light ahead—because they do not yet feel it from within.
But if they persist, the promise becomes revelation:
the tunnel brightens,
the polarity of Self becomes unified,
the Star within stabilizes,
the True Will begins to move through them instead of from them.
This is the birth of Solar Consciousness in Tiphareth—the moment where the aspirant’s individuality becomes a radiant, coherent field rather than a reactive lunar pool.
Summary: The Terrible Grace of Samekh
The Path of Samekh is:
the alchemical tunnel between reflection and radiance
the conjunction of opposites under intense spiritual pressure
the crisis of identity that precedes Solar rebirth
the core initiation where the Higher Self takes root in the personality
the interior bridge from believing in light to becoming light
This is why Crowley regarded it as one of the most difficult ordeals on the Tree.
It is the path where the aspirant is forced to stop worshiping the image of the Sun—and begin embodying it.
The Universal Mother and the Birth of the Solar Child
In Voice of Isis by Harriette and Homer Curtis, the Universal Mother—what I beautifully call the “Womb with a View”—is described as the power that brings forth in humanity the Divine Child, the Christ within. This description aligns flawlessly with the Hermetic and Qabalistic understanding of Binah, the Great Mother, and the alchemical function of the Path of Samekh.
The Gnostics, the Hermetists, and the Alchemists all describe the same truth in different languages:
The purpose of the Path of Samekh is the birth of the Solar Child—the true Self—within the human vessel.
This Divine Child is not symbolic; it is your Primary Solar Self, the radiant Tiphareth identity that emerges only when the aspirant successfully traverses the dark, pressurized tunnel between Yesod and Tiphareth. It is not enough to reflect light as the Moon does. The traveler of Samekh must become the source of that light.
The Alchemical Marriage of Fire and Water
The Great Work of this path is the blending of:
Water — emotion, imagination, intuition, the subconscious Moon
Fire — Will, Spirit, Energy, awakened consciousness of the Sun
This marriage is the supreme art of alchemy, and Samekh is the crucible in which it happens.
Water without fire becomes stagnation.
Fire without water becomes destruction.
But the Art of ATU XIV reveals the true formula:
Water + Fire = Life, Consciousness, Illumination.
The Divine Child—your Solar Self—is born from this inner union.
This is why Binah is the Mother of the Sun, and Samekh is the path of Her labor.
Beyond the Moon: From Reflective Ego to Radiant Soul
Human beings begin life as Moon-creatures—products of subconscious imprinting, reflected identities, social conditioning, survival instinct, and the interpretive limitations of the brain. This is the personality, the ego-mask, the “adult” identity.
But this “adult you” is a ruler-created fantasy, a construct shaped by authority structures and external narratives.
The Qabalistic and Thelemic truth is far more expansive:
You are an infinite plasmic entity—a Solar Being with no beginning and no end.
You don’t age in essence. The body does. The star within does not.
What people call the inner child is actually the primary identity of the Soul, the Divine Child of Light that existed before the body and will continue long after it. That Child is the point of stellar origin—the Tiphareth core that Samekh awakens.
Through Samekh, the aspirant ceases to merely reflect the world and begins to illuminate
Why “Within Your Shadow Is Stored All Your Power”
Your recurring exhortation—
“Within your shadow is stored all your power.”
is not poetic embellishment. It is a Hermetic axiom.
The shadow in Samekh is not darkness in the moral sense. It is the unrealized Light, the hidden Fire, the unclaimed potential that has been locked away in the subconscious (Yesod). The reflected Moon-self conceals the Solar Self, but it also preserves it. The shadow becomes:
the womb of the Solar Child
the repository of creative force
the vault of unintegrated Will
the hidden face of the Sun
To enter the shadow is to re-enter the womb of the Mother.
To emerge from the tunnel is to be reborn as the Solar Child.
This is why aspirants undergoing the Path of Samekh feel pressure, contraction, disorientation, or a dark night. They are not being diminished—they are being delivered.
The shadow is the cocoon.
The Solar Child is the butterfly.
Tiphareth is the Sun that dries the wings.
Infinity in Human Form
As the Gnostics rightly teach, the “infinite you” is the real identity, and the Divine Child is the earthly projection of this star of endless beginning. In alchemical terms:
The Child is the new vessel.
The Star-Self is the eternal plasmic Fire.
The Mother is the All-Womb that births the Light through you.
The work of Samekh is therefore nothing less than:
the stabilization of your infinite nature inside a finite vessel.
This is the Art of the Magus, the central mystery of the Soul’s incarnation.
*To make a dark-scrying mirror one just buys an inexpensive small- framed mirror:
- Take the glass out of the frame and paint the back of the mirror glass black (traditionally they used soot) after the paint dries then reframe it.
- Place it on a table where you can sit and comfortably look into the mirror.
- Place 2 candles by its sides, and prop the Tarot Card you wish to scry, face forward to mirror so that it reflects in the mirror.
- Stare at this reflection observing the image as it flickers in the candlelight. Begin imagining yourself as the being in the card. After a time, this image will change, revealing even more arcane secrets to the observer.
(Highly recommended!).
Arcane Tarot — Key 14: Temperance
The Medieval Angel as the Lunar Vessel of Moderation
In the Arcane Tarot, Key 14—Temperance—moves away from the traditional androgynous angel of the Golden Dawn and Rider–Waite–Smith decks. Instead, it presents a young medieval angelic maiden, dressed in flowing gold garments, standing in a pool of water beneath a canopy of stars and cosmic darkness. Her presence invokes serenity, lunar intuition, and grace rather than the intense alchemical fusion seen in the Thoth “Art” card.
She holds two ornate vessels:
A serpentine-based chalice in her right hand—suggesting awakened intuition, kundalini-like subtle fire, and the weaving motion of emotional wisdom.
A Roman-style wine cup in her left—symbolizing pleasure, embodiment, and earthly refinement.
Between the two cups is implied the classical mixing of waters, but here it is gentle, reflective, and moderate. The symbolism emphasizes patience and equilibrium, closer to the traditional Temperance virtue than to the fierce Great Work of ATU XIV in the Thoth Tarot.
Where Thoth’s Art card is the fusion of Fire and Water under pressure—
the alchemical ordeal of Samekh—
the Arcane Tarot’s Temperance is the lunar prelude to that ordeal:
the calm before the alchemical storm.
This softer version invites emotional balance rather than Solar transmutation.
Upright Meaning
The angelic maiden stands as an emissary of moderation, fluidity, and peaceful recalibration. She offers the reminder that you can achieve balance not by force, but by quiet internal alignment.
This card urges you to move gently,
to remain adaptable,
and to avoid defining yourself through extremes of behavior or emotion.
It is a call to step back into harmonic rhythm, letting intuition and calm guidance restore proportion to your actions.
Relationships
In relationships, this Key warns that you may be trying to force results—either pressing too hard or pulling back too sharply.
Temperance asks you to:
avoid overbearing control,
avoid drifting into apathy,
and seek the middle path where both partners can breathe.
Moderation, patience, and compassionate timing are essential.
Career
Progress in your work or profession may be slow—but steady. Temperance here counsels:
Do not rush the process.
Do not burn yourself out in pursuit of quick accomplishments.
Maintain a healthy work–life balance.
Your goals will be achieved if you remain consistent and measured.
The angel stands in water to remind you: flow does not force.
Reversed
Reversed, Temperance becomes a clear message of imbalance or excess. You may have been overindulging—whether in food, drink, emotional reactions, escapist habits, or impulsive behaviors.
This card asks you to scale back, center yourself, and consider the long-term impact of your actions. Moderation is not restriction; it is the preservation of your energy so you do not deplete the reserves required for true growth.
Hermetic Contextual Note
The Arcane Temperance is a lunar reflection of the Thoth Art card.
Where the Thoth card represents Samekh—the intense alchemical blending of Fire and Water to birth the Solar Child—the Arcane Tarot version shows the first stage of this blending: the gentle, intuitive mixing of emotional and spiritual energies in preparation for the greater Work.
In this way, the Arcane Key 14 can be seen as the mirror-womb phase preceding the fiery crucible of Art.
The Art Card as the Actual Alchemical Process Within the Body
The Thoth Art card is often mistaken as merely symbolic—an allegory of balance, moderation, or subtle internal chemistry. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The image is not metaphor but instruction, depicting a literal alchemical event that unfolds in the aspirant’s material and subtle bodies when the Path of Samekh is truly entered.
This card illustrates the Great Androgynous Alchemy, the phase described in the Gnostic Gospel of Didymus Judas Thomas:
“…When the male is no longer male and the female, female.”
This is not about gender but energetic polarity. Within the psyche, it is the reunification of:
Anima (Water, Lunar Consciousness, the receptive Dreamer)
Animus (Fire/Plasma, Solar Will, the active Creator)
These two forces, long experienced as opposites, do not cancel one another—they temper each other into a higher form of being. Their fusion is the very core of the Hermetic Art, the Secret Fire that awakens only through equilibration.
The Art card demonstrates the reversal of this formula:
2 = 1
— the conscious return of the divided Self to its original unified brilliance.
When Fire becomes Water and Water becomes Fire,
when Anima and Animus merge,
when Will and Imagination interpenetrate—
the aspirant does not become neutral;
they become whole.
This is the creation of the One Who Walks, the integrated Personality of Oneness, the Solar Being who can sustain the descent of the Higher Self into the physical form.
The Golden Cistern: The Human Body as the Alchemical Vessel
In the Thoth card, the cauldron, or Golden Cistern, is not an external tool—it is a symbolic representation of the human body itself, both energetic and biological. The fusion of opposites—the lightning of Fiery Spirit and the flowing water of Consciousness—creates what the mystics called:
Living Water
Solarized Soul-Fluid
Spirit-Infused Consciousness
The Fire-Water Quintessence
This “Living Water” is the awakening of the inner Soul-Plasma, the electrified consciousness capable of conducting the Solar Light of Tiphareth.
Just as plasma in stars is formed through intense forces of fusion, so too is the aspirant’s inner light ignited when the two internal energies—Anima and Animus—are no longer at war but married.
The body changes in response:
the nervous system becomes more conductive,
intuition sharpens into direct knowing,
personal will dissolves into True Will,
identity becomes radiant rather than reactive.
This is not myth; it is alchemy in the flesh as shown by the Raven-Scull -Kaput (German) symbol of death.
The Androgynous Figure as the Completed Union
The central figure on the Thoth Art card is androgynous not as symbolism for ambiguity but as an icon of absolute internal reconciliation. The aspirant who attains this state does not “balance” their energies—they unify them. Fire does not neutralize Water; Water does not extinguish Fire.
Instead:
Water becomes luminous Consciousness.
Fire becomes plasmic Will.
Their union becomes Living Solar Life within the body.
This is why the Art card stands at the threshold between Yesod and Tiphareth:
it shows the moment where the lunar human becomes the Solar Being.
In Essence: The Art Card Is a Diagram of Your Transfiguration
It is not metaphor—it is mechanics.
It is not moral teaching—it is energetic transformation.
It is not symbolic balance—it is the fusion of the divided Self into the One Star within.
This is the resurrection of the Solar Child of Light inside the human vessel, the rebirth of the Soul as an embodied presence rather than a distant ideal.
The Art Card as the Consummation of the Divine Marriage
Therefore, ATU XIV — Art is the consummation of what was initiated in ATU VI — The Lovers. Where the Lovers depict the ceremony of union—the sacred marriage (Hieros Gamos) between the dual principles—Art is the moment of fusion, the complete abandonment of separateness, the ecstatic ignition where the Two truly become One.
In the Lovers, the polarity is acknowledged.
In Art, the polarity is transformed.
This is the “Fiery Orgasm of Spiritual He and She,” the mystical interlacing of Force and Form, Sulphur and Salt, Animus and Anima, the Solar and Lunar currents intertwining as a single flow. The aspirant who attains this stage does not merely balance opposites—they transubstantiate them.
The Red Lion Becomes White — The White Lion Becomes Red
This classical alchemical motif, integrated by Crowley and Harris, signals the perfect interchange of qualities:
The Red Lion (Fire / Will / Masculine Sulphur) purified to White,
The White Lion (Water / Imagination / Feminine Mercury) infused with Red.
This cross-exchange is not symbolic decoration; it is the biochemical and psychic event of the Great Work:
Fire entering Water without destroying it.
Water entering Fire without extinguishing it.
This is the moment when both forces cease to behave as opposites.
Instead, they behave as lovers in union, producing a new substance:
the Quintessence—the Life-Breath of the Solar Child.
Water Poured Upon Plasmic Fire
The Thoth Art card shows Water being poured onto Fiery Plasma, and yet neither is diminished. This is the alchemical secret:
Water becomes luminous consciousness.
Fire becomes the vivifying Spirit.
Their merging becomes Living Fire-Water, the inner Nectar of Tiphareth.
The ordinary human would be annihilated by such forces; but the aspirant who has undergone the trials of Samekh has prepared the inner vessel.
ATU XIV: The Fulfilled Promise of ATU VI
Thus, the relationship becomes clear:
ATU VI — The Lovers = The Marriage
ATU XIV — Art = The Consummation
ATU XIX — The Sun = The Child of the Union (the Solar Self)
The Lovers awaken the possibility.
Art completes the unification.
The Sun reveals the result.
This is the Cycle of Inner Divinity:
the Eternal Two returning to the One through the alchemical fire of the Soul.
The Hidden Stone Within: V.I.T.R.I.O.L. and the Solar Aura of Art
Encircling the androgynous figure on the Thoth Art card is a radiant golden aura—Crowley’s and Harris’s subtle nod to the Solar Body being born through the alchemical process. Inscribed upon this aureole, in intentionally archaic and somewhat unschooled penmanship, is one of the most sacred mottos of Western Alchemy:
V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
“Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem”
“Visit the interior parts of the earth; by rectification thou shalt find the hidden stone.”
Though famously associated with laboratory alchemy, the phrase originally described the human body—the microcosmic “Earth”—which contains within it the secret fire, the hidden stone, the living spark of the Solar Self.
On the Art card, this motto becomes a direct instruction:
**Descend into the interior of yourself;
purify, refine, and ignite the inner elements;
and you will uncover the Philosopher’s Stone.**
This is not mere symbolism. It is the literal inner directive of Samekh.
The Philosopher’s Stone as the Transformed Human Body
In Hermetic Qabalah, Alchemy, Tantra, and Thelema, the Philosopher’s Stone is not external matter—it is the refined human organism, transmuted through conscious inner work into a vehicle capable of conducting the Solar Fire.
The “Stone” is:
the awakened Kundalini or Serpentine Fire,
the inner plasma rising through the subtle channels,
the purified nervous and endocrine transmutation,
the Solarized psyche woven into the physical body,
the union of Water and Fire producing the Fifth Element.
The Stone is the body of Light born inside the body of Flesh.
This is why the inscription is carved into the aura, not the cauldron:
it is the completed Solar Self—Tiphareth incarnate—that speaks these words.
“Visit the Interior of the Earth” — What It Really Means
In esoteric alchemy, “Earth” is a code for:
the physical body,
the root of the subconscious,
the material envelope that houses the divine spark,
and the dense matter through which the hidden fire must rise.
To “visit the interior” means to penetrate one’s own depths—the psychic underworld, the instinctual strata, the shadow reservoirs—and to rectify or purify them. This is the ordeal of Samekh:
stripping away false ego,
tempering emotional waters,
awakening the subtle fire,
merging Anima and Animus,
unifying the inner dualities into One luminous current.
Rectification is the alchemical “cooking” that prepares the cauldron for Solar infusion. Once the vessel is polished, strengthened, and equilibrated, the inner plasma-fire ignites.
“Thou Shalt Find the Hidden Stone” — The Birth of the Solar Body
When Fire and Water unite within the purified human cauldron, something miraculous occurs:
**Consciousness becomes incandescent.
The inner Fire becomes stable.
The body becomes luminous.
And the Solar Child is born.**
This is the “Hidden Stone”—not a mineral, but the transfigured human, the perfected amalgam of Spirit and Flesh.
Crowley hints at this in Liber ABA, noting that Kundalini, when properly awakened, is not a metaphorical fire but a real energetic substance—a plasma-like current that alters the physiology and subtle anatomy of the aspirant.
Modern Hermetic practitioners echo this:
The Stone is the body made radiant.
The Stone is the soul made flesh.
The Stone is the union of Earth and Sun within you.
The Art Card as Instruction for the Creation of the Stone
Thus, the Thoth Art card is not simply decorative. It is a diagram of:
the alchemical formula
the internal process
the physical transformation
and the Solar transmutation
that leads to the revelation of the Philosopher’s Stone inside the human being.
When the Water of Consciousness is poured upon the Plasmic Fire of Spirit,
when the Golden Cistern (the body) has been rectified,
when opposites fuse into One,
the Stone emerges.
This is the Great Work:
the flesh becoming the vessel of the Sun.
Caution: There is a reason this card is called Art or Temperance.
Premature Kundalini awakening can lead to a range of challenges and difficulties. Kundalini energy is a powerful force, and when it rises unexpectedly or prematurely without proper guidance, it can result in various physical, emotional, and psychological issues called Kriya. Here are some potential problems associated with premature Kundalini awakening:
Physical Discomfort: Individuals may experience physical discomfort such as intense heat, vibrations, or electrical sensations along the spine and throughout the body. This can be overwhelming and may lead to health concerns if not managed properly.
Emotional Instability: Kundalini awakening can bring up intense and unresolved emotions. Individuals may experience mood swings, anxiety, depression, or other emotional challenges. Unpredictable emotional states can impact personal relationships and daily functioning.
Psychological Disturbances: Premature Kundalini awakening may trigger psychological disturbances, including hallucinations, paranoia, or a sense of losing touch with reality. This can be particularly challenging for those who are not prepared for such experiences.
Sleep Disruption: Changes in energy flow and heightened awareness can disrupt sleep patterns. Insomnia or vivid and unusual dreams may occur, leading to fatigue and decreased overall well-being.
Uncontrolled Psychic Experiences: Some individuals may report heightened psychic abilities or experiences of expanded consciousness. While these can be seen as positive, they can be overwhelming and disorienting when not properly understood or integrated.
Lack of Grounding: Kundalini awakening can lead to a sense of being ungrounded or disconnected from everyday reality. This lack of grounding can make it challenging to navigate daily life and responsibilities.
Spiritual Crisis: Premature Kundalini awakening can trigger a spiritual crisis, where individuals may question their beliefs, values, and the nature of reality. This can be a profound and unsettling experience that requires careful navigation.
Physical and Energetic Imbalances: The sudden release of Kundalini energy can lead to imbalances in the body's energy system. This may manifest as physical symptoms, such as headaches, digestive issues, or heightened sensitivity to environmental stimuli.
Given the potential challenges associated with premature Kundalini awakening, it's crucial for individuals to approach spiritual/Energy practices with caution and seek guidance from experienced teachers or practitioners. Proper preparation, a gradual approach to spiritual development, and a supportive community can help mitigate the risks associated with Kundalini awakening.
Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign in the zodiac, symbolized by the Archer. Here are some key attributes and characteristics often associated with Sagittarius:
Positive Traits
- Adventurous: Sagittarians have a love for exploration and adventure. They are always eager to experience new things and travel to new places.
- Optimistic: They are known for their positive outlook on life. Even in challenging situations, Sagittarians tend to see the silver lining and remain hopeful.
- Honest: Sagittarians value truth and honesty. They are straightforward and prefer to speak their minds, sometimes to a fault.
- Independent: Freedom is crucial for Sagittarians. They thrive when they have the space to pursue their interests and goals.
- Philosophical: They often have a deep interest in philosophical and spiritual matters. Sagittarians love to ponder the bigger questions in life.
Negative Traits
- Impatient: Their desire for constant activity and movement can make them impatient and restless, especially when things move too slowly for their liking.
- Blunt: While their honesty is appreciated, it can sometimes come across as tactlessness. Sagittarians might hurt others' feelings without intending to.
- Overconfident: Their optimistic nature can sometimes lead to overconfidence and taking unnecessary risks.
- Irresponsible: Their quest for freedom can sometimes make them appear irresponsible, as they may neglect duties or commitments.
- Inconsistent: Sagittarians' love for new experiences can make them fickle and inconsistent, often leaving projects unfinished.
Element and Ruling Planet
- Element: Fire. Sagittarius is a fire sign, which contributes to their passionate, enthusiastic, and dynamic nature.
- Ruling Planet: Jupiter. This planet is associated with growth, expansion, and abundance, enhancing Sagittarians' love for adventure and learning.
Symbolism and Mythology
- Symbol: The Archer (centaur with a bow and arrow). This represents the Sagittarian quest for knowledge and truth, as well as their desire to aim high and achieve their goals.
- Mythology: In Greek mythology, Sagittarius is often associated with the centaur Chiron, known for his wisdom, teaching abilities, and healing skills.
Compatibility
Sagittarius is typically considered most compatible with Aries, Leo, and other Sagittarians. They tend to connect well with fellow fire signs who share their enthusiasm and love for adventure.
Career and Interests
Sagittarians excel in careers that offer variety and opportunities for growth, such as travel, teaching, writing, and entrepreneurship. They are often drawn to professions that allow them to explore new ideas and places.
Health
Sagittarians generally have a robust constitution, but their active lifestyle can sometimes lead to accidents or injuries. They need to ensure they balance their energetic pursuits with rest and self-care.
These characteristics make Sagittarians vibrant and engaging individuals, always on the lookout for their next big adventure.
The Spiritual Arrow and the Rapture of St. Teresa
On the Thoth Art card, a subtle but profound symbol appears along the central axis of the androgynous figure:
a rising arrow of flame—the vertical lance of Spirit ascending through the body. This is Crowley and Harris’ esoteric reference to the mystical rapture described by St. Teresa of Ávila, whose heart was pierced by a seraph’s fiery dart, filling her with ecstatic illumination.
Teresa described this experience as:
a wound of divine love,
a burning sweetness,
a fire that both consumed and transfigured.
Hermetically, this is the awakening of the inner Fire that shoots up the spine—the Kundalini, the Serpent-Flame, the plasma of the Soul—impelling consciousness upward toward the Sun-Self.
The arrow on the Art card is precisely this:
**the Sagittarian Arrow of Samekh,
the ascent of Spirit within the perfected vessel,
the impalement of the heart by Divine Will.**
Sagittarius, Samekh, and the Arrow of Inner Ascent
The Path of Samekh is ruled by Sagittarius, whose glyph is the Archer launching an arrow heavenward. Crowley reimagines this symbol internally:
the bow is the purified subconscious,
the arrow is the awakened Will,
the target is the Solar Heart of Tiphareth,
and the Archer is the androgynous Self in its alchemical unity.
In other words:
the aspirant becomes the arrow.
The upward-moving flame on the Art card is not decorative—it is the actual inner motion of the Fire-Water fusion that propels the psyche beyond Yesod. It represents the moment when the inner Fire, once bound in subconscious darkness, rises with clarity and penetrates the central core of the Self.
The Heart Piercing and the Solar Birth
St. Teresa’s rapture was experienced as both wound and ecstasy. This paradox mirrors the ordeal of Samekh:
the heart is pierced,
the ego is wounded,
the illusion of separateness collapses,
and the Solar Child is awakened within.
The arrow’s upward thrust is the ignition of the Middle Pillar, the ascent of the inner Flame through the heart (Tiphareth), illuminating the entire Tree within the body.
The heart is pierced because:
the Solar Self must enter the very center of the emotional and psychological being.
This is the alchemical “pang of reunion,” the moment the divided human becomes inhabited by the One Light.
Fire Rising Through the Androgynous Body
The androgynous form on the Art card represents the reconciled Anima and Animus—the unified vessel required to withstand the surge of the arrow-fire. Only when polarity is fused can the ascending flame travel unobstructed.
The arrow signifies:
penetration of Spirit into matter,
penetration of Will into heart,
penetration of the Solar Fire into the purified body,
the consummation of the Divine Marriage already depicted in the Lovers and fulfilled in Art.
This is why the arrow rises—not descends. The Fire is already within; rectification allows it to ascend.
In Essence: The Arrow Is the Moment of Divine Impulse
The arrow on the Thoth Art card symbolizes:
the inner rapture of mystical union,
the ecstatic ascent of the Serpent Fire,
the heart’s awakening as the seat of the Solar Self,
the Sagittarian trajectory of the Soul toward its True Will,
and the penetration of matter by Spirit.
Just as Teresa’s seraph pierced her heart with divine flame,
so the aspirant’s heart is pierced by the Arrow of Tiphareth,
signaling the birth of the Stone and the emergence of the Solar Child.
(If you have questions about tarot-Western Hermetics-The Occult, log onto Eli's Thoth Tarot Guide and get quick and concise answers.
When the Art or Temperance Key 14- card is thrown during a reading:
- The querent is experiencing or will soon experience, a combination of forces affecting realization and action.
- A blending of all circumstances to achieve balance.
- Trials and tribulations that lead to the "middle path", arriving at a profound realization.
- A balance of peace, achieved by care and healing.
- Measurement and combination.
- Do not allow setbacks to turn enthusiasm into its mirror image of dejection.
- Take control.
- Moderation.
- Appropriate expression meets appropriate restraint.
- Merging of shadow self with light self.
- The combination of Spiritual Fire and physical Water in a harmonic balance.
If ill defined by surrounding cards, it implies:
- Going to extremes.
- Excessive behavior.
- Conserve energy.
- A personality out of control.
Thank you for your interest, comments, and supportive donations (that keep these blogs online). Your generosity blesses your prosperity. May you live long and prosper.
🔥 Thoth Master Class
Western Hermetic Qabalah & Tarot
Private One-on-One Esoteric Training with Magus Eli
This Isn’t a Tarot Class. This Is a Soul Activation.
Step into the current of Living Light.
The Thoth Master Class is a one-on-one initiatory experience that fuses Hermetic wisdom, Qabalistic structure, and the archetypal genius of the Thoth Tarot — all personally guided by Magus Eli, master teacher and Solar Self awakener.
These aren’t generic lectures. They are ritual-grade, soul-specific transmissions designed to unlock your inner Temple, align your psychic architecture to the Tree of Life, and awaken your resonance with the living language of Tarot.
🌞 What Makes This Class a True Initiation?
🎓 Private Apprenticeship: Just you and the Magus in a deep 2-hour Google Meet session, entirely focused on your development.
🔄 Flexible Rhythm: Weekly, biweekly, or monthly — you set the pace. (12 sessions recommended for full arc of mastery.)
📹 Recorded Sessions: Each class is recorded so you can revisit the teachings and track your spiritual evolution.
🌿 Living Hermeticism: You won’t just learn about Qabalah — you’ll live it, feel it, and integrate it into your energetic field.
🃏 Practice Meets Power: You’ll lay spreads, decode symbols, and channel Tarot through your own voice, with real-time feedback and co-interpretation.
🜂 What You'll Learn (and Embody):
The entire architecture of the Thoth Tarot: Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, and Court Cards through a Hermetic lens
The Western Hermetic Qabalah: 10 Sephiroth, 22 Paths, and the Four Qabalistic Worlds
How to use Tarot as a portal to meditative pathworking and astral temple building
Rituals, spreads, and practices that bring gnosis, guidance, and transformation
How to build your personal mystical system, rooted in self-authority and Divine resonance
📚 What You’ll Need to Begin:
The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy by Robert Wang
A Thoth Tarot deck (Crowley-Harris edition preferred)
A Book of Shadows or personal journal
A desire to know thyself through the Solar Flame
🌟 Is This Class for You?
Yes — if you are:
A beginner with a soul-call to the Thoth deck, but no formal training
An experienced reader seeking depth, ritual, and Hermetic context
A mystic ready to reclaim your path through archetype, symbol, and gnosis
Anyone craving one-on-one spiritual mentorship in the Western Esoteric Tradition
💠 Investment in the Self — Not in Gold
At The Tarot of Eli, money is never the gatekeeper of gnosis.
These teachings are offered on a sliding scale, because every soul ready to walk the Path deserves a guide. You are not buying a class — you are answering the call of your Soul.
If you feel the fire of this journey within, reach out. Let’s find a way that works for your means. No sincere aspirant will be turned away for lack of coin.
🕊️ The true currency of this Master Class is your will to become who you truly are.
📬 How to Begin Your Journey
Email eli@elitarotstrickingly.com
to request your resonance mapping session, check availability, and discuss the exchange that fits your path.
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