The Tarot of Eli, LLC-Minor Arcana: Thoth Tarot- 7 of Wands-Valour & The Baroque Tarot-Seven of Wands

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Above all things, know Yourself!

#7. Living from that Will supported by its unfailing Wisdom and Understanding, mine is the victorious life.

"But I had to remind myself that neither our passing nor that of an era is a tragedy, no matter how much we would like to think it is. If there is any human tragedy, there is only one and it occurs when we forget who we are and remain silent while a stranger takes up residence inside our skin."

From the Novel-- The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke

Mars in Leo: The Fire of the Solar Warrior

The Thoth Seven of Wands—Valour—is attributed to Mars in the final decan of Leo, approximately 20°–30° Leo. Here, the aggressive and courageous power of Mars enters the fiery kingdom of the Solar Lion.

Mars supplies action, conflict, determination, and the instinct to defend. Leo contributes sovereignty, creative self-expression, nobility, and the radiant declaration of individuality. Together, they produce the Solar Warrior: the consciousness that stands its ground when surrounded by opposition.

This is not necessarily war for conquest. It is often the struggle to preserve the integrity of the Self against forces that would dominate, diminish, or redefine it. Valour declares:

“I know my center, and I will not abandon it.”

However, Mars in Leo must guard against theatrical anger, wounded pride, and the temptation to turn every disagreement into the final battle of the gods. Sometimes the lion is defending its kingdom; at other times, it is merely upset that someone moved its favorite chair.

Netzach: Victory Through Desire

All Sevens belong to Netzach, the seventh Sephirah on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. Netzach means “Victory” and is traditionally associated with Venus, desire, attraction, beauty, emotion, instinct, and the formative power of imagination.

Western culture often reduces Venus to romance or physical beauty. In Hermetic Qabalah, however, Venus represents the magnetic power that draws separate things into relationship. She is the pulse of attraction moving through nature—the desire of life to unite, reproduce, create, and continue.

This creates the essential tension within the Seven of Wands:

• Mars divides, confronts, and defends.
• Venus attracts, reconciles, and unites.
• Leo insists upon the dignity of the Solar Self.

Valour arises when martial power serves Venusian values. Mars is no longer fighting merely because it can. It becomes the defender of love, beauty, freedom, creativity, and authentic desire.

Without Venus, Mars becomes brutality.

Without Mars, Venus may lack the strength to defend what she loves.

Valour is their disciplined marriage.

Fire and Water: The Formula of Manifestation

Netzach can be understood as the astral womb of images, emotions, dreams, and desires. It receives impressions much as Water receives and reflects light. Yet imagination alone does not necessarily produce manifestation. It must be penetrated by concentration, intention, and Will—the active Fire of consciousness.

Hermetically, magical creation requires the union of:

Fire: Will, direction, energy, and focused intention.

Water: Imagination, receptivity, emotion, and formative possibility.

Fire without Water burns uncontrollably. Water without Fire remains unformed potential. Their union produces the living image that may eventually descend toward material expression in Malkuth.

The Seven of Wands therefore warns us to direct the flame rather than merely release it. Uncontrolled passion creates conflict; consecrated passion creates worlds.

Eheieh (Kether) and the Authentic Will-to-Be

The Divine Name of Kether is Eheieh, commonly translated as “I Am,” “I Will Be,” or “I Am Becoming.” It represents the primordial Will-to-Exist before that Will has assumed a particular identity or form.

The personal “I AM” may be understood as a reflection of this original declaration of Being. Beneath social roles, inherited beliefs, fears, and cultural definitions remains the simple mystery of conscious existence:

I AM.

The Seven of Wands dramatizes the effort required to defend this authentic center. Its opponent is not always another person. Frequently, the opposition consists of internalized commands:

“You must be this.”

“You are not allowed to become that.”

“People like you do not behave that way.”

“Obey the definition we have given you.”

Valour is the courage to test these commands against the deeper Will of the Soul.

You are not merely what you think you are. More profoundly, you are the I AM experiencing and contemplating itself through the temporary identity called “me.”

Egregores and the Group Mind

Robert Wang’s observation that “the gods are creations of the created” points toward the occult concept of the egregore.

An egregore is a psychic structure generated and sustained by the thoughts, emotions, symbols, rituals, fears, and expectations of a group. Families, religions, political movements, corporations, armies, schools, and nations may all develop egregoric personalities.

These group structures are not automatically evil. An egregore can preserve knowledge, unify communities, inspire sacrifice, and coordinate meaningful work. The difficulty begins when the creation demands unquestioning obedience from its creators.

An egregore survives by attracting attention and emotional energy. Fear, outrage, loyalty, devotion, and resentment can all feed it. Modern media systems have become remarkably skilled at ringing the emotional dinner bell.

The Seven of Wands symbolizes the individual who stands against collective psychological pressure and asks:

“Is this belief truly mine?”

Valour does not require rejecting every tradition or institution. It requires refusing unconscious possession by them.

The Soul’s Personality and the Mask of Conditioning

The personality that develops through social conditioning is not always identical to the deeper personality of the Soul.

The conditioned personality is shaped by family expectations, education, religion, advertising, media, trauma, praise, punishment, and the fear of rejection. It is often a useful social garment, but it should not be mistaken for the wearer.

The Soul-centered personality is more creative than reactive. It expresses an inner pattern rather than merely repeating external programming. It gradually emerges as the Adept removes false definitions and becomes conscious of the forces operating within the psyche.

The Hermetic command “Know Thyself” therefore involves discernment between:

• The social mask and the living presence beneath it.
• Inherited opinions and direct understanding.
• Reflexive emotional reactions and conscious action.
• The desire for approval and the Will of the Soul.

Belief in oneself can be shaken. Knowledge of oneself is more difficult to dislodge.

The Tree of Life as the Celestial Psyche

The Tree of Life presents the human psyche not as a single isolated ego but as a coordinated field of ten Sephiroth—ten modes of divine and psychological expression.

Within the individual:

• Kether is primordial Being.
• Chokmah is dynamic Wisdom.
• Binah is formative Understanding.
• Chesed establishes order and mercy.
• Geburah applies discipline and correction.
• Tiphareth is the Solar Soul and harmonizing center.
• Netzach is emotion, desire, and imagination.
• Hod is language, reason, and symbolic structure.
• Yesod is the subconscious and astral foundation.
• Malkuth is embodied experience.

You are not merely one branch of this Tree. You are the entire living pattern expressing itself through different levels of consciousness.

The Qabalistic Adam Kadmon, the Heavenly Human, represents this primordial pattern of humanity within the Divine Mind. Adam Kadmon is not simply an enormous celestial person floating behind the clouds. It is the archetypal structure through which consciousness becomes a multidimensional human being.

The work of Valour is to reclaim this inheritance consciously.

Tiphareth and the Solar Center

Although the Seven belongs to Netzach, Leo directs our attention toward Tiphareth, the Solar center of the Tree. Tiphareth represents Beauty, harmony, sacrifice, the Higher Self, and the mediating consciousness commonly called the Soul.

Tiphareth does not dominate the surrounding Sephiroth. It harmonizes them. It brings desire, intellect, discipline, mercy, instinct, and embodiment into a balanced relationship.

Paul Foster Case described Beauty as becoming active early in the unfolding of the Paths because the contemplation of primordial Beauty lies at the root of true knowledge. This is an important key to Valour: The Adept is not defending an arbitrary ego but the possibility of living according to the Soul’s intrinsic harmony.

The Solar Self does not shout, “I must defeat everyone.”

It declares, “I must remain true to the center.”

The Inner Predator: From Aggression to Protection

Human beings contain ancient survival instincts. The predator archetype includes alertness, territoriality, aggression, competition, and the ability to act decisively under threat.

Suppressing this instinct does not necessarily civilize it. What is rejected may accumulate in the unconscious as rage, resentment, compulsive behavior, or displaced aggression. The chained lion does not become a house cat simply because everyone has agreed not to mention it.

The Hermetic task is integration rather than denial.

When united with consciousness and love, the predator becomes the protector. Aggression becomes boundary. Territoriality becomes stewardship. Alertness becomes discernment. Strength becomes responsibility.

This is the higher expression of Mars in Leo: not the bully seeking weaker prey, but the guardian standing between the vulnerable and danger.

Because human intelligence has acquired immense technological power, dominion must be accompanied by wisdom. Humanity now possesses the ability to destroy ecosystems and entire species. Such power is not proof of spiritual superiority; it is evidence of profound responsibility.

True sovereignty is measured not by what one can destroy, but by what one has the courage to protect.

Sexual Vitality and the Creative Current

In esoteric philosophy, sexuality may be understood as one expression of the larger life force moving through nature. It is not identical to spirituality, nor does a person’s spiritual worth depend upon libido. Nevertheless, desire, creativity, vitality, and embodiment are deeply related psychic currents.

When sexuality is burdened by shame, fear, compulsion, or repression, the individual may become divided against the body. When approached consciously, it can become a sacrament of incarnation—the recognition that Spirit does not merely hover above matter but lives through it.

The Hermetic marriage of Fire and Water is also the union of active and receptive powers within every person. These should not be reduced to rigid biological stereotypes. They are complementary modes of consciousness:

• The active current directs.
• The receptive current conceives.
• Their union creates.

Valour includes the courage to inhabit one’s embodied vitality without either profaning it or being ruled by it.

Anima, Animus, and the Alchemical Marriage

Jungian psychology speaks of the anima and animus as inner contrasexual archetypes. Hermetically interpreted, they represent complementary psychic powers that must be brought into conscious relationship.

Imagination and reason are not enemies. Emotion and intellect are not opposing armies. Receptivity is not weakness, and directed action is not inherently oppressive.

A psyche divided against itself becomes easy to manipulate. It reacts predictably because one rejected half continually sabotages the other.

The alchemical marriage restores cooperation between:

• Intuition and reason.
• Imagination and analysis.
• Soul and conscious identity.
• Desire and disciplined Will.

When these powers are reconciled, the individual becomes far less susceptible to the manufactured “battle of opposites” promoted by collective narratives.

There is no complete He without She, nor complete She without He—not because everyone must conform to a social gender formula, but because consciousness itself contains complementary electric and magnetic powers.

Courage and the Refusal of Blame

Valour is not the projection of personal pain onto others. Violence motivated by resentment, humiliation, or the desire to make others suffer is not courage. It is unconscious pain armed with a convenient instrument.

The courageous person accepts responsibility for examining the thoughts, wounds, and assumptions shaping their reactions. This does not mean blaming victims for every misfortune or pretending that injustice does not exist. It means refusing to let suffering become an excuse for surrendering consciousness.

The body reacts.

The Spirit acts.

Reaction is automatic, conditioned, and often predictable. Conscious action introduces a pause in which discernment becomes possible.

This is why emotional manipulation is so effective. The person who can be provoked instantly can be controlled remotely. A knee-jerk reaction merely proves that someone else has found the string attached to the knee.

Valour in the Collective World

Courage is both personal and civic. It may appear as resistance to oppression, participation in public life, protection of civil liberties, peaceful protest, principled speech, responsible voting, or refusal to repeat propaganda.

The famous image of a solitary man standing before a line of tanks remains powerful because it demonstrates that spiritual authority does not always wear a uniform or possess superior force. Sometimes it appears as one human body refusing to move.

Yet courage should not be romanticized as reckless confrontation. Discernment matters. Valour is not measured by how loudly one resists but by whether the action serves truth, freedom, responsibility, and life.

Freedom cannot be outsourced. Neither can conscience.

Myth, Anunnaki, and Cosmic Origins

Ancient Mesopotamian traditions concerning the Anunnaki have inspired modern theories of extraterrestrial intervention in human evolution. These theories—especially those popularized by Zecharia Sitchin—are not accepted as established conclusions within mainstream archaeology, genetics, or Assyriology.

The Sumerians did not describe the Anunnaki as fictional characters. Their scribes recorded them as real divine intelligences participating in the ordering of civilization, kingship, destiny, and human existence. Modern scholars classify these accounts as mythology because they belong to sacred traditional literature, but the popular assumption that “myth” means deliberate fantasy is intellectually misleading.

We did not witness what the Sumerians witnessed. Therefore, we cannot prove whether their encounters were physical, visionary, interdimensional, extraterrestrial, archetypal, or some combination of these. Yet our absence from the event does not invalidate their testimony.

The responsible position is neither blind belief nor automatic dismissal. The tablets demonstrate that an advanced ancient civilization believed it had encountered powers greater than humanity and preserved those encounters with extraordinary seriousness. To call their testimony mere science fiction is not scholarship; it is a modern prejudice disguised as certa

They may nevertheless be considered mythically and metaphysically.

The image of divine beings mixing celestial essence with earthly clay expresses an ancient spiritual formula: consciousness entering matter, Fire descending into Earth, and the human being becoming a bridge between animal inheritance and divine possibility.

Likewise, panspermia—the scientific hypothesis that the ingredients or precursors of life may travel between worlds—should not be confused with claims that human DNA is trillions of years old or that specific extraterrestrials engineered humanity. Such claims remain speculative.

Hermetic interpretation does not require questionable science. The myth is already powerful:

We are made of stellar matter, animated by consciousness, and called to become responsible participants in cosmic creation.

Prana: The Breath of Incarnation

Many yogic traditions use the word prana for the vital current associated with breath, life, and subtle energy. Physical breathing sustains the body through oxygen exchange and influences the autonomic nervous system. In esoteric practice, breath also becomes a symbol and vehicle of consciousness.

Through deliberate breathing, the practitioner may cultivate calmness, attention, emotional regulation, and greater awareness of the body.

The breath stands between voluntary and involuntary life. It occurs automatically, yet it can also be directed consciously. It is therefore a perfect symbol of the relationship between the unconscious organism and the awakening Will.

You are not merely the body, nor are you separate from it. You are the conscious presence learning to inhabit, guide, and care for the living temple of embodiment.

The Great Work: Manifesting the Above Below

The Great Work is not simply an escape from Earth. The Soul does not enter incarnation merely to complain about being incarnated and then search for the emergency exit.

The Work is manifestation: bringing the principles of Spirit into mind, relationship, action, and form.

“As Above, So Below” is therefore a formula of translation.

• Spirit supplies the Will-to-Be.
• Mind forms images and meanings.
• Emotion gives those images vitality.
• The body performs the work.
• Malkuth receives the result.

Life becomes the field in which consciousness encounters its own creations, revises them, and learns from the experience.

The Adept does not claim omnipotence or imagine that every external event has been personally manufactured. Rather, the Adept accepts responsibility for the quality of consciousness brought into each circumstance.

This is practical sovereignty.

The Lesson of the Seven of Wands

The Seven of Wands—Valour—teaches that true victory is not domination over others. It is the ability to remain centered while powerful forces press inward and outward.

The Adept aligns with Eheieh, the primal Will-to-Be, rather than unconsciously serving inherited egregores.

The Adept disciplines the Fire of Mars so that it protects rather than destroys.

The Adept employs the imagination of Venus consciously rather than allowing others to fill it with fear.

The Adept stands in the Solar dignity of Leo without becoming enslaved to pride.

Valour is love possessing sufficient strength to defend itself.

It is the predator transformed into protector, desire consecrated into creation, and individuality aligned with the universal pattern of the Tree of Life.

Above all, Valour is the courage to become consciously what the Divine Will has already declared:

I Will Be.

Hermetic Reflection

Ask yourself:

Where am I defending my authentic center?

Which beliefs have I accepted without examination?

Am I acting from the Soul or reacting from conditioning?

Does my strength protect life, or merely protect my pride?

What deserves the disciplined Fire of my attention?

Grimoire Declaration

I am not the mask of indoctrination.
I am not the fear of the crowd,
nor the rage placed within me by another.

I am the living expression of the I AM.
My Spirit is Will.
My Mind is imagination.
My body is the temple of their manifestation.

I discipline the Fire of Mars
within the radiant heart of the Solar Lion.
I wield strength in the service of Love,
and courage in the service of Life.

The body may react,
but the Spirit acts.

I stand within my center.
I know myself.
I Will Be.

The Baroque Tarot – Seven of Wands

The Baroque Tarot Seven of Wands presents Valour as a dramatic confrontation between the sovereign individual and the forces pressing upward from below.

A strong, muscular man stands upon the summit of a mountain, gripping his wand like a battle staff while six spears are aimed toward him from beneath. His body is prepared for conflict, yet his gaze is lifted toward the heavens, suggesting that his strength is not drawn from muscle alone. He appears to be seeking alignment with a Higher Power before acting.

The mountain symbolizes elevation of consciousness, spiritual attainment, and the difficult position of one who has risen above the collective field. To stand upon higher ground is to see farther, but it also makes one more visible.

The six spears rising from below may therefore represent opposition, rivalry, criticism, psychic pressure, or the accumulated resistance that often confronts anyone attempting to live according to an authentic spiritual Will.

Astrologically, this image strongly expresses Mars in Leo. Mars gives the figure courage, physical strength, defensive readiness, and the willingness to confront danger.

Leo adds Solar dignity, nobility, self-command, and the instinct to preserve one’s rightful center. This is not the uncontrolled anger of wounded pride, but the disciplined fire of the Solar Warrior who refuses to surrender the throne of the Self.

Because all Sevens belong to Netzach, the sphere of Venus, the struggle is not fought merely for dominance. The warrior stands in defense of something he loves: his truth, his dignity, his creative fire, his spiritual freedom, or the integrity of his Soul.

Mars supplies the weapon, but Venus determines what is worth defending.

The six spears below may also be read as the pressures of the conditioned world: inherited beliefs, social expectations, collective fear, hostile opinions, and egregoric forces that attempt to pull consciousness back into conformity.

The lone wand in the man’s hands represents focused Will. Six opposing weapons may surround him, but his own staff is united with his body, intention, and higher vision.

His upward gaze is especially significant. Rather than becoming hypnotized by the threats below, he turns his attention toward the source of inspiration above.

Hermetically, this suggests that true courage does not arise from reaction. It emerges when the personality aligns itself with the Solar Self and allows Spirit to direct the body.

The body may prepare for battle, but the Spirit chooses how the battle will be fought.

The Baroque style magnifies this spiritual drama through grandeur, tension, and theatrical movement. The card portrays the moment when courage becomes visible—not as the absence of fear, but as the decision to remain centered while fear, pressure, and opposition surround the individual.

In a reading, the Baroque Seven of Wands may indicate:

• Standing one’s ground under pressure
• Defending personal or spiritual boundaries
• Courage in the face of overwhelming odds
• Resistance to conformity or manipulation
• Maintaining integrity while being challenged
• Resilience, vigilance, and disciplined strength
• The need to seek higher guidance before acting

Its shadow may reveal defensiveness, pride, exhaustion, isolation, or the belief that every disagreement is an attack. Mars in Leo can become overly dramatic when the ego mistakes criticism for invasion. The warrior must therefore ask whether the mountain is truly under siege—or whether the lion simply heard someone cough in the valley.

At its highest expression, this card teaches that Valour is not aggression. It is the power to remain upright, conscious, and spiritually aligned when lesser forces attempt to dislodge the Self from its center.

The Baroque Seven of Wands therefore declares:

Stand upon the mountain of your own knowing.
Grip the staff of Will.
Look toward the Higher Power within and above.
Defend what is sacred—but do not become what you oppose.

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