The Tarot of Eli, LLC-Minor Arcana: Thoth Tarot- 2 of Cups-Love & The Tarot Apokalypsis-2 of Chalices.

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Above all things, know thyself!

#2. Through me it's unfailing Wisdom Takes form in thought and a word.

In the Western Hermetic Qabalah, the 2, of any Tarot card suit, represents the Word and the Will. However, the Thoth 2 of Cups is the first manifestation in the Suit of Water and represents a harmony called Love. The Word or Logos is the 1st Sephiroth of Kether, and the "I Will Be" of the Logos has become "Will to Force" (2n Sephiroth-Chokmah-Electric) and "Will to Form" (3rd Sephiroth -Binah-Magnetic) which may seem confusing since we have 3 forces here rather than 2. However, Kether (God name of Eheieh-I Will Be) is not a force but the Source of Forces, a power station with no place to go. Whereas Chokmah, the 2nd Sephiroth, is considered the first Male Action and/or the light switch turned on while Binah, the 3rd Sephiroth, is considered the first Female Action of Reception and/or energy enclosure. Both are inseparable and "face to face". However, with Love there is a mutual annihilation of the individuals by the process of Union, and that Path of Union is called the Path of Daleth (Door)-The Empress.

Therefore, the "first Movement" of energy, is called Kether or Eheieh, and it is not an individual of anything and is called the "Word" (Vibration) rather than a "being". As stated, Kether 's God Name is Eheieh-meaning-"I Will Be", therefore, it isn't anything yet. However, Chokmah, the 2nd Sephiroth is "Will to Force", the Masculine aspect of energy and a form of thought called Wisdom, and the 3rd Sephiroth of this Supernal trinity, is called Binah, "Will to Form", known as Understanding, the Feminine aspect of energy; However, power comes when both are united. The Trinity of the upper Supernal Triangle/Super Conscious creates the I AM. When the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine Unite, there is no male or female present, only the Divine Hermaphrodite exists, The I AM, who creates all as The Divine Creative. Hence, The Trinity of the Supernal Triangle are not "persons" but the beginning of the Idea and Understanding of idea, which begins the process of information and the Law of Attraction; Hence love, which is a state of Mind and not an emotion: a state of Mind that the I Am considers itself. Therefore, In the Qabalistic Thoth Tarot, the 2's represent the "first manifestation" of Self. Self being a trinity of Love.

On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, Kether is shown to be the 1st Sephiroth of 10 Sephira, and many have thought that this is the first manifestation of conscious energy. Yet Kether is the "limitless light", a movement of Dark Energy, and has no visible end or beginning, a non-space, which allows no viewing. Therefore, Kether is known as the "Dark Sun" or Logos, it is the first "sound" or vibration, without ears to hear...anywhere! Hence, as it can't be seen, nor heard and is the first movement in Dark Energy it is the least understood concept of the Tree of Life sigil. However, it can be compared to the "Whirling, rebounding, shouting out loud" (Zoroaster) energy behind the Big Bang.

Therefore, the First manifestation falls to the union of the 2s, which represent the Electric- Chokma (Wisdom) and the Magnetic -Binah (Understanding) as the First Lovers. We find this true in the magnetic attraction of electricity and magnets and in our own brain (a copy of the original I AM), as Wisdom loves Understanding and vice versa. This may seem even more confusing; However, both Chokmah and Binah are at first, receptive and then expressive in combination creating a horizonal figure eight path of send and receive, known as the Lemniscate (All paths on the Tree of Life are lemniscates but shown as a single line). Hence, Chokmah, male expression also represents the feminine Greek goddess Sophia which means "Wisdom" while Binah, the Divine Feminine as Chokmah can also represent the Wisdom of Understanding and the emoting of thought/idea. Since she is the Will to Form, she also represents Time/Saturn, which is Cronus, the commonly known figure of "Grandfather Time" for time is the enclosure that begins and ends all forms. However, it is enough to know that the Creatrix and Creator are called "Lovers" because they can't be separated. If you can find a way to separate Wisdom and Understanding, I would like to examine your head for its uniqueness, for it is only from Understanding that Wisdom comes and vice versa!

The 4 Alchemical Elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, may have begun in the concept of "I Will Be"-(Eheieh), which is Kether, but only upon reaching the Deuces are they in appearance as "beginnings" of "Will to Force" and "Will to Form". Since the concepts of "elements" are new, the 2's represent the Elements uncontaminated by influence, and therefore, they appear in their original harmonious condition--that is Love. The 2's may be considered the A-sexual "fetuses" of the Seed-Aces, but this concept doesn't seem to make understanding these "Higher States" of Conscious energy any easier. All the 2's suggest that when the Negative (no-thing-I) sees itself as a Positive (-Am), and then unites through the "Law of Attraction" where the Positive flows to the Negative (I AM), we get a "Self-Existence" and/or a simulation from Understanding the difference between I and Am-is examined in Chokmah and Binah and with such, data, the I AM, becomes information and/or Me. This may help you with the Mythological concepts of the Ancient's Goddess who in Virgin birth, has a son (male is considered Positive Electron and female is considered Negative Electron) and then mates with that son to produce the Universe. If you get all this tangled up with your culturally indoctrinated-emotional concepts of sexuality-----you'll never understand the Energy Conscious concepts of the 2's. It is Love, without rationale or endorphins. It is 0=2.

So let us make it as simple as possible, when you twist 0 upon itself you get 8, which looks to be 2 separate 0's. However, the line is unbroken, and separation is therefore an illusion.... love prevails. This is the 2 of Cups, Love, a card which tells us that the separation of male and female is an illusion that is necessary to create the intimate diversity needed for Self-Awareness experimentation through diversity. Here the simile of the Mirror is often used, as Female is one side, and the Male is the "Other" side. Hence, if the Soul, manifests a self-image in this plane of "reflected light", and that image is male, the other side of the Mirror is Female (Holy Guardian Angel) and if the Female self-image is on this side of the Mirror, the Male (Holy Guardian Angel) is on the other. The Soul is a Hermaphrodite (no single gender but produces both), but for electric and magnetic to exist as a flow of electric energy (Light), there must be 2 poles, one positive (male) and one negative (female) and your body is a bioelectric device, making you the "Ghost in the Machine". Hence ones Anima (female) or Animus (male) are divided one from the other, for the necessary energy flow to operate a "life flow" of energy from Soul /Solar Self-to body. These 2 polarities are the First Manifested Lovers and therefore, they must be united in love to be a Whole Soul in operation on both sides of the "Mirror". You must unite the inner Anima and Animus to know unconditional love and to be able to express it. It is preposterous to think you can give what you don't have! Without love of I Am Me , there is no lasting love to give.

The 2 of Cups represent the planet Venus in the house of Cancer. Cancer is known as the most receptive of Signs, as it is the House of the Moon, and in that sign, Jupiter is exalted. There is a superficial friendship among these three planets (in astrology, the Moon is seen as a planet). There is also a secret Tantric ritual in concealed in the cancer sigil that gives birth to "mind children" by reversing energy flow in the body.

In the art of the Thoth 2 of Cups, the paired Dolphins (the important "First Matter" symbol of the "Royal Art" of alchemy) are intertwined, with the flowing of Love/Nurture/Mother's Milk, coming from the Great Lotus of the Goddess, into the twin Lotus below and overflowing into the Cups resting on a calm Venus-Green Sea.

In the Tarot Apokalypsis-2 of Chalices- the male and a female, are represented as 2 individual romantic (Late Latin romanticus) Roman lovers. Romantic love infuses a revelatory hormonal perception into our emotional body (Water element) after moving from one aspect of consciousness to another. What is introduced in the human consciousness is a harmonious and dopamine induced mediator between desires and the etheric world of human thought, love, and psyche (soul). All is Mind, and nothing materializes (coagulates) unless first imagined and romantic love is an imagined story, we tell ourselves; a drug induced intoxication. Therefore, if romantic love is held in the unconscious too long, what is imagined becomes stagnant and causes frustration and torment. Hence, we have the medical symbol of the caduceus on the wall in the background of this card which is a symbol of DNA and the god-messenger Hermes/Mercury. For our first moments of the "rush of love", romantic love, is dopamine and epinephrine induced by the fact that the "lover" is seen as the match to the one we have as an Animus or Anima in our unconscious mind and triggers a brain and soma response. To paraphrase Carl Jung, the perfect female resides as an image in the unconscious of the male, and the perfect male image resides in the unconscious of the female. This is because our brain is both left-side male and right-side female. In time, we may find that the match was only partial, and the chemical love resides, leaving us confused and upset.

Dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine are the main catecholamines (a label based on having part of the same molecular structure). These hormones are made by your adrenal gland, a small hat-shaped gland located on top of each of your kidneys. Dopamine is also a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus in your brain.

Romantic love may be temporary; However, if we find a deep attachment in that union and the match is almost perfect to our inner concept of the perfect lover (soul mate), it builds a love that lasts without a need of a regular dopamine hormonal boost. But then again, it doesn't hurt to stimulate the opposite sex occasionally with an exciting romantic expression which keeps one from feeling mediocracy in the relationship.

Represented on the Thoth card is a purity of Love, called "unconditional", that the survival mind in the reptile brain is unable to conceive of or often understand in its survival delusions of fear of loss. Unconditional love is an action-based movement of Spirit-Mind-Body, making such an absolute annihilation of the individual in the Overflowing Power of Unity, not just a hormonal boost that is often called a mundane wonder of "falling in love". This is not a "falling" when it is an elevated state of Mind, a kind of interdimensional intoxication. Words may fail as communication; However, unconditional love is a communication on/in all states of conscious energy, Spirit-Mind-Body, and as shown by the pink lotus blossoms, in the Thoth card, it is "as above so below", stating that this love flows from the Divine subjective to the Divine Objective (you). This love is equal and special, as shown by the 2 overflowing cups. Love like this is without self-banishment or even self-diminishing, it expands both parties and they feel equal while also being special to each other in a Unite expression of "I AM Love." A state many of us wish for but we often only experience love of an unequal nature, a stimulated flow of chemical dopamine, or an equal love without feeling special, such as a friendship or professional relationship. Often what is called love is merely dopamine's flow of intoxication, stimulated by the DNA of the Soma so that it replicates itself in a transformative way. Something that wears off over time.

The Dolphins, on the Thoth are Alchemical symbols of solution/dissolution and can be studied by looking into alchemical and chemical reference material. The Alchemical Dolphin-Fish Symbol is a little too lengthy of a diversion from this Tarot blog, and out of context with the Tarot study, so I won't go into detail. However, John Dee, royal Alchemist in Queen Elizabeth's Court could be an interesting reference point. Also, the Royal Dolphinfish, pertains to the Sun God Apollo who among other Sun gods and/or "dying gods" became the Christian Sun/Son of God. The green sea of the Thoth card represents the image of creative love. The yellow reflection symbolizes inspirational love while the blue-sky states that love is clear and focused.

The Ancients associated the planet Venus with the goddess of love- Venus, thereby also considered the planet Venus to be the planet of love, beauty, and creative power: In Western Hermetic Qabalah, Venus is the only planetary symbol that covers the Qabalistic Tree of Life, for it is the Goddess that produces the form of the "God Molecule" (Tree of Life). The use of language to explain the Love that began all, may sound deliberately obtuse, but this is an invisible Will and Force. The fact that human words cannot give form to unlimitedness, causes one to unite words in such a way that they allude to mystery rather than a literate identification. If you ever have experienced a self-annihilating love where the ego becomes lost in the Overflowing Sensation of Being One from the Union of Two....you'll understand that you just can't "wrap" your brain around it. The common statement being." I am at a loss for words..."

In the hormones of Love, there seems to be some kind of heated fluid that is drowning out all reason. Here, the 0 symbol of the infinite becomes 2 , from which all creation began. In Love, the 2 become 1, therefore annihilating individuality. When this happens in life, then, my friend you have experienced the Alchemy that the 2 of Cups alludes to! However, being a purity, from a cyclic united dimension of conscious and unconscious (Sun and Moon) energy, after time, as the tides of the Sea, it will pick up detritus/conditions from our culturally "shipwrecked" brain/small ego, and associational reason begins to dismantle the Temple of Love. Therefore, unless conditions are removed as concerns, 2 will slowly progress to a 4 of Cups, as the suit develops into the luxury of mediocrity and a marriage becomes a "drag" and eventually a divorce. Therefore, the Second Law of Thermodynamics comes into play, and "...All things proceed from order to disorder" and entropy slowly degrades the Mystery; with words of fear-based reason, the pink clouds of "the dream" fade away unless will is applied. Just like unconscious "astral trips" slowly fade from our brain, so will love, when profaned with cultural conditions called "reasonable". Hence, the 2 of Cups, is also called the Lord of Love under Will, by Crowley, which is its true meaning where Will is Spirit and not some egoistic possession of another to appease the DNA's minor egoic copy of will to survive. As the Lord of Love under Will, the 2 of cups shows the harmonic technology of Female and Male in the largest sense of the words and joined by Spirit (Will) they become 2=1.

Therefore, the 2 of Cups shows the harmony of the Universal Female and the Universal Male, aspects of Energy, radiating an intensity of joy and ecstasy that washes away all concern; where "Will to Be", a combination of "I Will Be", "Will to Force and "Will to Form", becomes "I AM ME"! It is this Universal Love, which connects us all together as One, (quantum entanglement) while the massive flow of this connectivity to All, flows through the Union of 2 who began as 0 and now 0 twisted upon itself as what looks to be 2 0's- as a horizontal 8 (Lemniscate) and/or 0=2. Unconditional love is 2=1. Yet it is still one line unbroken and is called the lemniscate or "Ribbon", that is the sign for Infinite and unconditional love. Such esoteric power that is love, may explain why it seems so overpowering to individual reason and thereby, causing many false ego's to fear for their false idea of control and/or survival.

As I have mentioned before, the 2 is the Qabalistic number that represents "the Word and the Will" and is the first manifestation. In the suit of water, this is Venus in Cancer. Astrologers know Cancer to be the most receptive of signs and is the House of the Moon. Jupiter is most exalted in Cancer. Thus, we have the three most friendly Planets, Moon, Venus and Jupiter, linked together in mutual positives.​ Love is the force that recovers unity from individuality by the process of mutual annihilation of the illusion of separation. In other words, Love changes both individuals and if successful, combines them into a new form of a greater intelligence. Therefore, love is considered a metaphysical solvent, like water is a physical one. You may understand this annihilation of individuality better if you treat the colors Blue and Red as individuals who "fall in love" and thereby, become Purple.

When the 2 of Cups /Chalices Tarot card is thrown, it means that:

• In the next two weeks or two months, one will experience the capacity to achieve emotional balance and emotional fulfillment.
• One will be able to give and receive love in equal proportion.
• It would be an enjoyable time to extend love to the Cancer people in your life. (June 21-July 21). 
• Love to or from family members is also important currently.
• This love is not only about two people, it also can be about 2 gifts, 2 talents, 2 resources that you have and that 2 loves in your life, whatever they may be, are equally balanced and fulfilling in the next two weeks or months.
• Harmony, Love, marriage, pleasure, Warm Friendship, mirth, and subtlety.
• It is about human love on a large scale.
• It also is a 2 week or 2-month card, representing the accumulation of the above emotions in that time.
• Soul mates have found each other or will within 2 months.

If ill dignified by the surrounding cards, it can represent:

• Folly, waste, dissipation, and silly action and is far more superficial than when well dignified. 
• Quarreling or jealousy. 
• Lack of commitment. 

*In the understanding of the Thoth and the Tarot Apokalypsis, ill-dignity and well-dignity, are decided by the surrounding cards and there is no significance supplied to upside-down cards. This being because this is seen by many Western Qabalists as an act of disordered deck handling and not an "act of God". However, in the Rider-Waite-Smith and/or Traditional Tarot's, the reversed card is considered ill-dignity. 

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