Eight of Disks (Tarot Triptych)

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Name: Eight of Disks, Prudence
Number: 8
Astrology: Sun in Virgo
Qabalah: Hod of He ה

Chris Gabriel June 22, 2024

The Eight of Disks is a card of establishment, regarding both the process of establishing and the well established. It is about “finishing touches” and maintenance. This is a card of material well being, and the investment it takes to keep it growing.

In Rider, we see a wooden wall adorned with five pentacles, and a craftsman sitting on his bench, working on two more. He is engraving one of the pentacles with a hammer and chisel. In the distance we see a town.

In Thoth, we see a plant. Twisting and full of leaves, it has eight flowers as the eight disks. It is the Sun in Virgo, consciousness applied to growth. There is the golden sky of the Sun, and the earth tones of Virgo.

In Marseilles, we see two columns of four coins with flowers between them. Qabalah gives us the numerical key to its significance, eight is Hod, the intellect or Mind of God, and He ה is the Princess, or the Earth. Thus, we have the Mind of the Princess. Prudence is the Mind of the Princess.

This is the image of caring for one's belongings and  maintaining things  rather than letting them decay. We can look at this energy as Investment. This is the sort of investment we make by planting a seed, watering it, and giving it time to grow.

Many people who seek the wisdom of the tarot are curious about their financial situation, they want to know if they’ll come into money, lose money, find a new job, etc. Few cards indicate wealth, as wealth itself is a fickle concept that has drastically different meanings to just about everyone. Rather, this card indicates the process of growing wealth. It reminds me of a proverb, in which an old man plants seeds for trees which he will not live to see the fruit of.

The efforts that this card indicates are not swift, and may not pay off for years, but they are the very flow of the Earth. Slow, driven, and direct. This is the great vegetable intelligence.

This card offers a warning against our all too human desire for speed and effortless gain . “Get rich quick” schemes will not produce lasting wealth, and the nice things we have which we do not maintain will spoil.

Consider the idiom, a stitch in time saves nine stitches. This card is the stitch that saves. 

This saying has fallen out of fashion in a society so fixated upon ease of consumption. We’d rather purchase something new than fix something old, piling up endless piles of trash rather than maintaining and developing what we possess.

When we pull this card, we are being asked to invest our time and energy into the development of our goal, whether it be as small as a stitch in our pants, polishing our boots, or as large as purchasing a house. We are meant to act with care for the things in our life. Be prudent!

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

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Questlove Playlist

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Questlove has been the drummer and co-frontman for the original all-live, all-the-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots since 1987. Questlove is also a music history professor, a best-selling author and the Academy Award-winning director of the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.

Film

Patricia Sun’s Spirit of Creativity

William Kilburn, c.1790.

Patricia Sun June 20, 2024

Tetragrammaton is dedicated to the spirit of creativity available to all of us. "It is a way of being.", Rick Rubin tells us. This column is dedicated to that way of being.

This will be a space dedicated to actualizing our best selves. A space for healing our wounds and our fears and helping us to feel and understand how to release us into our highest self.

Here is a support for the evolutionary leap that is in process and happening to all of humanity. As we face our shadow with light, new reality comes into being.

There is a healing process that releases both logic and intuition together, to serve a high good – it is love released by human beings – by choice, It is, ultimately: "A creative Act"

Intellect and heart together is a harbinger, not only for wisdom but humanity matured, actualized, and freed.

"Truth and kindness together open a path that cannot be stopped --all we need is the courage to live it." And to remember it.

As Gandhi said, "Be truthful, gentle, and fearless."

It's time to live life. To end war. To heal ourselves. And it is time to transform fear. It is within our power to do this – it is quite possible to do so we might as well do it.

Hang out here in Tetragrammaton with me and you will see.

We see it. We will remind you and ourselves.

Thank you so very much for coming.

Till next time.

Blessings,

Patricia Sun

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Patricia Sun is a philosopher, an ethicist, a leader, an innovator, a speaker, a teacher, a problem-solver, and a communication expert of a new way to live.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

Film

A Brief History of White Magic. III, Post Renaissance to the 20th Century.

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A ceremonial tablet of elemental symbols from an Order of the Golden Dawn splinter group. c.1900

Flora Knight June 18, 2024

And so we reach the end of our whistle-stop tour of White Magic. We have seen magic across time and society both revered and rejected but ever present. It has shaped our world quietly, offering answers beyond the reach of institutions and homes of controlled knowledge, and the history we have discussed still reverberates today, not just in magical practices but across everyday life. So much of the magic we think about in the 21st century happened in the brief period between the end of the renaissance and the start of the 20th Century. During this period, magic and witchcraft experienced a complex and transformative journey. Witchcraft was formally decriminalised and though occasional witch trials persisted, the fervor and fear that once surrounded this practice significantly diminished. In this era, the influence of the Rosicrucians led to a rise in secret societies such as the Freemasons, which contributed to the popularity of ritualistic magic and an interest in ancient practices.

Secret societies played a pivotal role in the evolution of magic during this time. While Masonic rituals had an essential influence on later magical practices, they were not directly relevant to the magical practices themselves. Instead, these societies fostered an environment where ritualistic magic could thrive. The late 18th century societies saw the development of somnambulism, a deep hypnotic trance state that would later become a significant aspect of magical and witchcraft activities.

A page from William Blake’s ‘The Four Zoas’, c.1800

One of the most symbolically intriguing developments of this period was the creation of the Four Zoas by the poet William Blake, for whom magic was a critical part of his practice. The Four Zoas are as follows:

Los: The Spirit of Prophecy and divine vision, derived from Sol, the guiding sun.
Urizen: The Spirit of Thought and Eternal Mind, residing in the Silver Mountains of wisdom.
Luvah: The Prince of Love, representing Eros and Eternal Youth, derived from the Lover.
Tharmas: The Corporeal Water of Matter, the fluid matrix of form and Prima Matter.

Blake’s work was a synthesis of millennia of magical thinking, exemplifying the third way that magic has always stood for. It imbued every element of his work, work that dealt antiquity and religion through a unique, magically informed, perspective.

Towards the end of this period, two significant occult groups emerged: the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society.

The Golden Dawn, formed through the writings of S.L. MacGregor Mathers and the ideas of three Freemasons, was arguably the most important occult group in history. The society operated on a three-tier hierarchical system and was notable for admitting women as equals alongside men, a significant departure from other secret societies. The First Order of the Golden Dawn taught Qabalah philosophy, Geomancy, Astrology, and Tarot Divination. The Second Order, known as the Inner Order, focused on Alchemy, Vision Quests, and Astral Projection. The Third and final order was reserved for the Secret Chiefs, who allegedly controlled the others through spiritual powers. Though the Golden Dawn lasted only about 15 years, it profoundly influenced modern magic practices, including Wicca and Thelema and popularised magical practices that had long fallen out of use.

An etching of Abramelin the Mage.

The Theosophical Society was founded by Madame Helena Blavatsky, and predated the Golden Dawn. It was inspired by Blavatsky's extensive travels and studies of Eastern and Asian philosophies. The society was an amalgamation of Buddhist and Hindu ideas interpreted through Neo-Platonic thought, envisioning humanity's destiny as a spiritual evolution. Blavatsky's ideas, expounded in her book "Isis Unveiled," introduced modern concepts of witches communicating with spiritual entities, which she viewed as mischievous elementals like gnomes, fairies, undines, sylphs, and salamanders, corresponding to the four elements.

These two groups gave rise to two of the most important figures in contemporary magic – Aleister Crowley and Abramelin the Mage. Crowley, known as the Beast 666, began with white magic but later developed a fascination with the Occult, becoming associated with black magic. Contemporary occultism still owes an insurmountable debt to Crowley, whos writings and ideas are the basis for modern Black Magic.

Abramelin the Mage, on the other hand, was an ancient Egyptian mage, retranslated and contextualised by a contemporary group.  The works of Abramelins, who’s very existence is disputed, were compiled and translated by S.L.M. Mathers, focused mainly on Kabbalistic magic, Demonology and featured a number of Sator Squares which were believed to contain malevolent energy.

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“The rise of psychoanalysis also influenced the understanding of magic and witchcraft. Much of white magic can be seen as rudimentary psychoanalysis, focusing on the inner workings of the mind and self-improvement.”

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During this time, academic interest in historical witchcraft surged, most notably through the Witch-Cult Hypothesis. Proposed by German scholars Jarcke and Mone in the early 19th century, this theory suggested that the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries targeted a surviving pre-Christian Pagan cult that had descended into a Satanic sect. Although this theory, popularized by Margaret Murray's book "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe," has been widely rejected by modern scholars due to a lack of evidence, it significantly influenced the modern perception of witchcraft.

The rise of psychoanalysis also influenced the understanding of magic and witchcraft. Much of white magic can be seen as rudimentary psychoanalysis, focusing on the inner workings of the mind and self-improvement. W.G. Gray incorporated Jungian psychoanalytic theory into modern magic, refining the symbolism of witchcraft. This is best exemplified by the four magical weapons:

The Sword: Divides, cuts, and inscribes.
The Wand: Points, directs, or indicates.
The Cup: Contains.
The Disc/Coin/Shield: A field upon which information is laid out. 

These symbols, rooted in ancient Celtic mythology and Arthurian legends, represent the four tenets of Wicca and Witchcraft, as well as a basis of a psychoanalytical understanding of the subconscious.

Magic and witchcraft evolved in this time through the influence of secret societies, literary contributions, emerging occult groups, and the integration of psychoanalytic theory. These developments laid the groundwork for modern practices and significantly shaped contemporary understandings of magic and witchcraft. They returned magic to its origins, not as something separate from religion or science, but as something complimentary, necessary and integral to understanding the world and ourselves.

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Flora Knight is an occultist and historian.

Whisky David - Rusty Rock (Out of Print)

Matt Sweeney June 17, 2024

Paul Major, frontman of Endless Boogie, turned me on this astonishing album. Impossibly, it sounds as good as it looks.

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Matt Sweeney is a record producer and the host of the popular music series “Guitar Moves”. He is a member of The Hard Quartet (debut album out Fall of 2024). Rick reached out to Matt Sweeney in 2005 after hearing his “Superwolf” album, and invited him to play on albums by Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Adele and many others. Follow Matt Sweeney via Instagram.

Gonzo

Hannah Peel Playlist

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Mercury Prize, Ivor Novello and Emmy-nominated, RTS and Music Producers Guild winning composer, with a flow of solo albums and collaborative releases, Hannah Peel joins the dots between science, nature and the creative arts, through her explorative approach to electronic, classical and traditional music.

The Moon (Tarot Triptych)

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Name: The Moon
Number: XVIII
Astrology: Pisces
Qabalah: Qoph ק

Chris Gabriel June 15, 2024

The Moon is yellow and raining down its influence over the waters and creatures of the Earth. The sky is filled with its rays. Two dogs look up upon it, and within the water there is a shelled creature. 

This card is the emblem of lunacy. It represents the maddening influence of the Moon, that makes dogs howl, transforms men into monsters, moves the tides and the creatures therein. This is the card of the unconscious.

In Marseilles, we find the “Man in the Moon” looking down morosely upon the earth. He is surrounded by a central halo of rays, and specks beyond that. On the earth, between two castles, two dogs are howling at it. Within the water, there is a lobster whose head and pincers are rising out of the depths.

In Rider, we see the same image, though here the Moon is seemingly disappointed. The towers are simpler, the emanating specks are distinctly in the form of the Hebrew letter Yod י, and the lobster is entirely out of the water.

In Thoth, we are given a similar form, but with major differences. The moon is faceless and fluidic, blood swirls within the water below. The towers remain, but the dogs have been elevated to forms of the Egyptian God Anubis holding wands and ankhs with his jackal form at his feet.. The shelled creature is no longer a lobster, but the scarab form of the God Ra, Keph-Ra, the dung beetle who rolls the Sun day by day.

The influence of the Moon in our lives is ubiquitous. We see it move the tides and we hear dogs howl at it. Our calendars are structured according to the lunar cycle, which also tracks to the menstrual cycle. We get tattoos of the Moon, we watch movies where werewolves are transformed by it. We expect strange things to occur on the night of a full moon, and they often do!

The watery unconscious is symbolized perfectly by the Moon, for under its zenith we dream night by night. The werewolf embodies our experience of this cycle well, when repressed bestial energy spills out and dominates our conscious self.

And the lobster, as Jung told us, is what we meet when we stare long enough into our own reflection and see what is beneath.

Marseilles and Rider show the influence of this dark Moon to hold what Edgar Allen Poe described as ‘illimitable dominion over all’. Thoth offers a significantly more hopeful image, the Sun is already moving through the sky to illuminate all that is dark.

When this card is pulled we are to consider these dark influences, the forces within us that may be brought out at random, and to hold it in our hearts that whether or not this dark night of the soul is but a night, a terrible week, or a cursed year, that the Sun is coming. And on the other hand, if we are engaged in acts that need this cover of darkness, that we can move stealthily therein.

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

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Film

The Could-Have-Beens

“Saint Paul, Hermit”, Salvator Rosa, Mid-seventeenth-century. Pen and brown and black ink with wash. 

Ale Nodarse June 13, 2024

Art has a name for the path not taken: the pentimento.

The word is Italian, and it is usually preserved as such in English. (Although, if you fancy Victorian novels, you might just stumble upon the now demoded “pentiment”). A 1611 English-Italian dictionary provides an initial translation: 

Pentimento: repentance, penitency, sorrowing for something done or past.¹

The primary focus is regret. The word’s original context was a religious one: the act of repenting for one’s sins. Outside the religious sphere, however, a pentimento might be described more generically: as the ability within us “to change one’s mind” or “to have a change of heart.”

In analyses of painting and drawing, however, the term took on another meaning. The pentimento came to describe any visible alteration to a work of art: any moment where the artist visibly changed her mind. Drawn pentimenti (the plural form of pentimento) allow us to follow the artist’s process, to trace ideas (half-) formed. With each pentimento, we follow a maze of creative possibility — without the risk of getting lost. 

Certain artists capitalized on these marks, turning erstwhile mistakes into a litany of meandering forms. In a drawing of Saint Paul (above), by the Italian artist, actor and poet, Salvator Rosa (1615–1673), the Biblical hermit appears in a state of bewilderment. He is (the trees tell us) in the wilderness, but it’s his flailing arms that signal wild. Looking closely at the drawing, we can follow the artist’s moves: all of those blurred limbs, so many pentimenti, stretching out below the final pair of fully raised hands. The effect is cinematic.

Saint Paul was defined by his repentance. He lived alone in the desert. He survived on crumbs — brought by a raven, the story goes — and prayer.² In Rosa’s image, however, repentance finds another form. The artistic definition comes into play as pentimento changes from sorrow to possibility, from a penitential gesture to a dazzling abundance of could-have-beens: to multiverses in ink.

No doubt, all of these marks could cause confusion. One seventeenth-century critic likened this compositional style to a “mass of sardines in barrel,” or, worse, a “market of maggoty nuts.”³ But a certain beauty, in all its perplexity, resides in this memorialization to the vagaries of journeys, embarked or imagined.

And so, if we allow it, the pentimento asks. Can we still marvel, without regret, at all the paths not taken?

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¹Giovanni Florio, A Worlde of Wordes (London: Arnold Hatfield, 1598/1616), 366.
²This was also depicted in images. See, for example, Saint Paul the Hermit Being Fed by a Raven, an oil painting by an anonymous Spanish artist in the Wellcome Collection, London.
³Marco Boschini, The Map of Painterly Navigation (La Carta del Navegar Pitoresco), translated in Philip Sohm, The Artist Grows Old: The Aging of Art and Artists in Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 125. Boschini, a Venetian, pointed his critique at artists in seventeenth-century Florence.

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Alejandro (Ale) Nodarse Jammal is an artist and art historian. They are a Ph.D. Candidate in History of Art & Architecture at Harvard University and are completing an MFA at Oxford’s Ruskin School of Art. They think often about art — its history and its practice — in relationship to observation, memory, language, and ethics.

Julie Greenwald

Film

A Brief History of White Magic. II, From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

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A Rosicrucianism seal, dense in magical symbolism.

Flora Knight June 11, 2024

The Medieval period heralded the start of the modern conception of witchcraft, shaping how we imagine it today. As Roman civilization collapsed into barbarism, the period from the Dark Ages to the High Middle Ages remained muddy and obscure, but two prevailing ideas emerged: the magical quest and spiritual alchemy. This era also saw the rise of 'witches'—folk healers using natural ingredients and traditional remedies that later informed the stereotypical witch. Alchemy, botanical mysticism, and, towards the end of the High Middle Ages, Dante’s "Divine Comedy" and the profound vision of the universe it created established a magical world that perseveres today.

Witchcraft and white magic during this time existed as a niche practice, a hangover from paganism and the 'Old Religions.' It is difficult to judge exactly how much magic was integrated into society, but there are several notable examples of its continued existence. Chartres Cathedral is rife with alchemical statues, magical imagery, and mathematical structures that point towards ancient and early Christian magic. There is also scholarship relating the rise of Gothic architecture, with its Pythagorean mathematical structure, to an ongoing interest in and practice of magic, especially among building groups such as the stonemasons and freemasons. Green Men statues, figures made out of natural material such as leaves or twigs, also pervade many churches of this time in England. Nature festivals such as maypole dances all point to magic being a continued part of life, not fully embraced but not completely rejected by the church. The alchemical process was also adapted into the understanding of the human psyche—alchemy was a way to realize a higher power, with the fastest route to this being through the earth. A naturalist and magical combination—witchcraft and herbalism—led to a higher plane of existence.

Four depictions of Saturn from an illustrated manuscript of Picatrix.

Healers were also prevalent, though they existed outside of official medical practices. Doctors of the time were learned and studied Aristotle and Galen, 'scientific texts' rather than indigenous practices, but the actual effect on the patient of these two approaches was nearly identical, so it came down to wealth and preference. Herbs, plants, tinctures, and potions were widespread, and though mostly passed down orally, there are a number of examples of written texts. The most important of these is the "Picatrix," a book of magic and spells originally written in Arabic, most likely in the 10th century. It contains numerous recipes for herbal and magical medicines as well as incantations. 

A Spell From Picatrix

O Master of sublime name and great power, supreme Master; O Master Saturn: Thou, the Cold, the Sterile, the Mournful, the Pernicious; Thou, whose life is sincere and whose word sure; Thou, the Sage and Solitary, the Impenetrable; Thou, whose promises are kept; Thou who art weak and weary; Thou who hast cares greater than any other, who knowest neither pleasure nor joy; Thou, the old and cunning, master of all artifice, deceitful, wise, and judicious; Thou who bringest prosperity or ruin, and makest men to be happy or unhappy! I conjure thee, O Supreme Father, by Thy great benevolence and Thy generous bounty, to do for me what I ask…

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The final major element of Medieval witchcraft is Dante’s "Divine Comedy." A synthesis of High Medieval culture, in which orthodox science and religion combine with white magic and ancient mystical religion. As briefly as possible, for perhaps no single text in history has as much scholarship, Dante is important to witchcraft in many ways. The “Divine Comedy” solidified a celestial and zodiac way of thinking, showed a path to a higher plane through the soul and introspection—the true purpose and essence of all white magic. It depicted the whole spectrum of human consciousness in terms of love—an all-inclusive system. This system was adapted and existed in the sorcery of the time. Where all good and bad in Dante’s world come from love, in sorcery or witchcraft all came from the Prima Materia, or first material. Prima Materia is ill-defined in contemporary works, but it is not unfair to suggest that sorcery even at this time was used as much as a philosophical framework to see the world as any sort of scientific process.

Witches Sabbath, Goya. 1798. Depiction of a renaissance witch cult.

The Renaissance, running roughly from the mid-15th to the early 18th century, was the most bountiful time regarding magic and witchcraft, for both good and bad. Before examining how white magic developed during this time, it is important to consider how it was persecuted and repressed. This was the time of the witch trials and the beginning of the ‘Old Hag’ understanding of witchcraft. Almost all of this can be attributed to a single book—"Malleus Maleficarum" by Heinrich Kramer—published profusely in the latter half of the 15th century. Prior to this, witchcraft was frowned upon by the Christian church but not treated as much more than a small pseudoscience that caused little harm. Kramer, however, argued that witchcraft was a communing with the devil and should be punished by death, with confessions extracted by torture. The entirety of the witch trials can be attributed to this work, and in the period that followed, thousands of women were brutally murdered and tortured. Modern scholarship suggests that almost none of these women were practicing modern or contemporary witchcraft, a malevolent act, though some would have been indulging in rituals of white magic. It is also important to note that the figures in magic at this time were mostly men. It was a deeply patriarchal society, and though we have records of women using magic, these come almost exclusively from the witch trials, where the magic recorded as being used, entirely under coercion and torture, was black magic, fall less prevalent in society than the white magic that quietly permeated across the culture. 

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“He was devoted to the planets and the natural healing magic of them and the earthly world that represented them, but he emphasized that he was simply amplifying natural forces.”

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While the witch trials were flourishing and popular thought was turning against magic, important developments were happening in Italy and across Europe. Marsilio Ficino was hired by Cosimo de Medici to translate ancient texts, reflecting the Renaissance obsession with Ancient Greece. During this period, he discovered a Hermetic text, the "Corpus Hermeticum." This was an important magical text that contained spells, incantations, and, most influentially, astrological readings that integrated characteristics and healing into the conception of the zodiac. As the public tide turned against sorcery and witchcraft, Ficino was careful to present the text as natural magic rather than angelic or demonic magic, avoiding any response from the Church. Ficino used astrology in medicinal ways, creating talismans, culling plants and herbs, and contemplating symbolic imagery. He was devoted to the planets and the natural healing magic of them and the earthly world that represented them, but he emphasized that he was simply amplifying natural forces. This work laid important groundwork for modern magic. Pico della Mirandola took the ideas of Ficino and added the invocation of spirits. Though these two figures contributed enormously to the 20th-century flourishing of magic, during their time, it remained in the realm of the intelligentsia, and the public conception of magic remained as it was in Medieval times, with herbal medicine, love philtres, and charm spells still at its center. 

Rosicrucianism arose at this time, a magical brotherhood from whom most modern beliefs and theories of white magic originated. A series of pamphlets published in the early 17th century marked the beginning of this new order with a story of the mysterious C.R. C.R had travelled far across the world to the Holy Land, meeting magical leaders in each country and learning much from the Turks in Damascus. He returned to Europe and formed an order that followed these six rules: 

The Temple of the Rose Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618. Magical depiction of a Rosicrucianist clubhouse.

1. None should profess to any other vocation than to cure the sick.

2. There will be no distinctive habit or clothing.

3. There will be meetings every year at their headquarters.

4. They will find a worthy person to succeed them upon their death.

5. The word C.R. will be their mark, seal, and character.

6. The order will be kept secret for 100 years.

They took their symbolism from alchemical treatises and the trump cards of the Tarot, and their magic was a benevolent one, using mathematics, mechanics, Qabalah, and astrology for scientific gain. Much of sacred geometry came from Rosicrucianism, with their headquarters informed by the Temple of Solomon, geomancy, and magical mathematics. Their significance lies in being a secret order devoted to magic, with influence across society. Rosicrucianism remained at the heart of magic for centuries, informing societies across the western world right up the ‘The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’ and Aleister Crowley. It marked a conclusion to the centuries long journey white magic had taken, removing it from an oral tradition and folk practice into an organised and formalised order.

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Flora Knight is an occultist and historian.

Iggy Pop Playlist

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Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Since forming The Stooges in 1967, Iggy’s career has spanned decades and genres. Having paved the way for ‘70’s punk and ‘90’s grunge, he is often considered “The Godfather of Punk.”

Amoralman

The Three of Disks (Tarot Triptych)

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Name: Works, The Three of Disks
Number: 3
Astrology: Mars in Capricorn
Qabalah: Binah of He ה

Chris Gabriel June 8, 2024

The Three of Disks is the beginning of material development in the suit of Disks, making it a very beneficial card. This is a card of labor and hard work, of laying the foundation for something great; the molehill that will become a mountain. 

In Rider, we see a craftsman, a monk, and an artist. They are working on a cathedral, beautifying a base structure. The column of the cathedral is mounted by the three disks. Each figure is doing their part, the monk overseeing, the artist designing, and craftsman realizing the design in stone.

In Thoth, we see three wheels forming a three faced pyramid. The wheels are the red of Mars, and the surrounding indigo is the Earth of Capricorn, moving almost cymatically. In the center of each wheel we find a symbol. Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.

These are the three Alchemical Principles, the masculine Sulphur, the feminine Salt, and the androgynous Mercury..

We find this trinity reflected in the majors where the Magician is Mercury, and the Emperor and Empress are Sulphur and Salt. This trinity is what allows for the materialization occurring in the card. This is “Blood, sweat, and tears”.

In Marseille, we find two disks being surmounted by a third. This is the image of a sprout arising from the earth. Qabalistically, the card is the Binah of He, or the Understanding of the Princess. 

The Understanding of the Princess is Work. Work is the condition of all material development. Even when we feel as if things “fall into our laps” colossal work had to occur beforehand. As William Blake says, “To create a little flower is the labor of ages.”

This card is that labor. And on the scale of ages, the little flower differs not from the cathedral.

Being Mars in Capricorn, this is the foundational groundwork that it takes to create and reach great heights. Mars is the aggressive action, and Capricorn is the Goat who scales the mountain. 

The Alchemical Principles are all vital parts of this creative process, the macrocosmic display of Thoth is brought down to humanity in Rider. The Monk guides what the artist envisions, what the artist envisions the craftsman materializes. We contain all three of these within ourselves.

One can almost envision the disks as gears, turning one another, if one is stuck, or smaller than the rest, the work cannot function. One can apply this to teamwork as well.

When dealt this card, we are being asked to labor, to work toward something great, to materialize our visions, and to refine our creative process.

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, CARDS

Questlove Playlist

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Questlove has been the drummer and co-frontman for the original all-live, all-the-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots since 1987. Questlove is also a music history professor, a best-selling author and the Academy Award-winning director of the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.