Devious Poetry (part two)

The “card twenty” refers to the twentieth Tarot card. And since this story is a depiction of “the history of magick”, the card is not being used for its intended purpose (a simple game). It is instead being repurposed for its now highly popularized, bastardized purpose of choice: divination.

And the card itself is a bastardization of the original, but we’ll get into that later.

As I said, Moore is prophesying here, and his prophecy is thus far accurate. But don’t give him too much credit: None of these are his ideas. He’s just parroting what he’s been told, like a good little puppet.

In the story, Moore’s not talking about the Rider-Waite Tarot deck (which would be the deck most would be familiar with). He’s presenting the Thoth Tarot, a deck designed specifically for the art of divination. It is used almost exclusively for Thelemic magick. In fact, it was commissioned and designed by Aleister Crowley himself. Card twenty just happens to be called “The Aeon”, and Crowley, full of pride, self-identified as “The Aeon of Horus”.

The esoteric meaning behind card twenty is transformation, change, utopia, rebirth, an awakening of powers, megalomania, misidentification, and self-deception.

All of these things can help describe the world we live in today. Megalomaniacs have seized power in every institution. People are embracing change for the sake of change while deceiving themselves willingly. People–even children–are misidentifying themselves, much like how Crowley misidentified himself as The Aeon.

Please also note that the figure depicted in the card is holding a finger to his lips.

The twin serpents are able to sell their lies by leaving out the most important information. By omitting key parts of the truth, they are able to manipulate and use this poor girl for their own ends. They have transformed her. They have her misidentifying as Promethea. They have turned her into a megalomaniac by giving her free powers and setting her on the path to revenge. They have her self-deceived by using fringe examples of injustice so she will believe all men are evil. But they would never tell her that this path for revenge cannot end in happiness. Instead, they have promised her enlightenment and utopia.

Card one of the Thoth Tarot is The Magus. Card four is Aquarius. Sound familiar? Thelema is the Western branch of Hermetic Qabbalah, and the word thelema means “to will, wish, want, or purpose”. The purpose of the magus is to guide the future toward the Age of Aquarius (or rather, through. It’s arguable that it’s already happening through the New Age movement), to force a utopian future of their own design. They do this by lying and keeping secrets. They believe this is a form of magick. They will usher in this future at any cost for what they believe is the greater good.

I have fragmentally spoken about these concepts in the past, and now hopefully it’s all beginning to come together.