One of the simplest and best was provided by Aleister Crowley in The Naples Arrangement—called this because, he said, the system was "worked out" in Naples, Italy. Combining a traditional mystical terminology with the scientific frame of the laws of thermodynamics (particularly the second law involving entropy), Crowley created both a simpler and yet still engaging version of the emanatory Tree of Life. Crowley's insight in "Book of Thoth" concerning the end of the energy evolution (Ten of Disks), that at the point of "exhaustion of all elemental forces" we nevertheless see in this a "hieroglyph of the cycle of regeneration", presages recent developments in the scientific theories of entropy. Scientists now think entropy, in some situations, is both a limited and reversible tendency, though whether that supports a regenerative basis for the workings of matter and energy in the Universe has not been determined—at least not by scientists.

*NOTE—I have adopted the occult spelling for Kabbalah—'Qabalah'—in this essay.

000 or 0*—First of the Triple Veils of the Negative, 61 is the Qabalistic number for the Hebrew word, AYN, the negative, or Nothing. There is much confusion about this Nothing. It is not, as some think, merely the absence of anything, though it is that in a literal sense. But the existence of this Nothing is said to be entirely the opposite of the supposed positive being in the manifested Universe—so AYN is literally nothing and negative compared to the Universe's shattered and imperfect existence. However, AYN is actually an indicible Supersomething, so alien to us because of its absolute unity that we can only talk about it in metaphors which are themselves necessarily misleading. Further, AYN is the source of all manifested existence, or "positive" existence. Crowley claimed that Mathers had made a mistake when the latter said that AYN was "negatively existing", but this was an outburst of Crowley's puerile need to spitwad his teacher and not an expression of any learned opinion.
*—See the Triple Veils supplement for much more on the question of how many 0's AYN, and AYN SVP AVR, rate, and what if any difference it makes.

00—Second of the Triple Veils of the Negative, 61 is the number for AYN, 146 is the number for SVP (sup, or soph)—AYN SVP is usually translated: limitless, meaning an infinite or, as Crowley put it, an "undefined" space. A space must be created in which the Creation will occur. As we know, physically, the creation of space and time are simultaneous with the expansion of the Universe—however, here there is NO time. All is eternal. This is God saying—"If I were to make a space," not "Let there be space." Yet, the subjunctive must occur for the command to have any meaning. Crowley wrote of this quality in contrast with AYN in Thelemic terms, suggesting AYN was equivalent to, or suggestive of, Hadit, the Secret Center, while AYN SVP corresponded to Nuit, the immensity of space in which Hadit is both lost and found. AYN SVP is AYN, the Big Nothing, moving toward the brilliant specifications of Creation.

0 or 000—The clash of the previous elements in the "Dualism of Infinity" (that is between the infinitely small and the inifinitely large) produces the last "negative" veil—Crowley once called it a "finite positive Idea"—Aur, or Light, although he says this in the same 1906 essay ("Qabalistic Dogma") wherein he bashes Mathers for talking about "negative existence". A lot of Crowley's early, very confident, pronouncements about Qabalah, got modified as he got older and wise enough to say less rather than more. Later Crowley simply says the Light becomes a medium of "interpretation" of the "absence of any means of definition". 61-AYN+146-SVP=207, the number for AVR (aur)—AYN SVP AVR is usually translated: the limitless light. Crowley compares this to the "Luminiferous Aether"—or lightbearing medium postulated by Victorian scientists. Crowley sees the word AVR as an anagram for the whole Creative process: A, aleph, the "Egg of Matter"; V, vau, is Taurus, "Bull, or Energy-Motion"; R, resh, Sun, the "organised and moving System of Orbs". Resh, the Sun, represents "the Universe immediately after Chaos", in other words when the lights first came on and formless matter was illuminated and so could begin to be shaped into specific forms. Yet this is the BASIS of Possible Vibration (so the idea may be finite, at least in Crowley's mind, but the Light is infinite)—everything is potential here, nothing has been posited. Indeed, from our perspective, these three veils and distinctions between them are meaningless—as Crowley notes they are "without form and void" and (contradicting his 1906 claim) "not positive ideas".

1. The Point: Positive yet indefineable

1. Kether (Crown) A Point is born. The veils condense a single brilliant drop of—divine secret light (or semen)—a border of existence has been crossed and some undefined position has been occupied. And even though these first three numbers exist in a Platonic Ideal state, they are not any longer negative (of God), but rather positive (from God). Thus, an Idea of Creation has literally been posited. Imagine here a light so bright that nothing can be distinguished as separate—here also there is a "nothing", but unlike the Nothing of AYN, which is the unknowable divine unity, here the nothing is less an unqualified condition, and is instead an effect of Creation. Only the seeds of things can be felt (not seen) here, but they are there, implied if not perceived openly and directly. From this point the impulse of Creation divides into genders—male (2) and female (3). The first three points form the Supernal Triangle.

2. Chokmah (Wisdom) The Male Creative power—Again, a very brilliant place, but now, the purest distinguishable expression of an energy or idea can be apprehended. It is the sprouting. Geometrically represented by the line, with an arrow on one end it is also a vector, implying motion (though Motion occurs in 5-Geburah) toward a development of some idea or theme. Here is Wisdom, of the proper applications of Knowledge (a lesser power, which reigns over the Abyss—see below) as nurtured through 3-Understanding. Because here things become "distinguishable" for the first time, Crowley says that for the "ordinary" person, this is the actually the first number, because to non-initiates the seeds of Kether essentially do not exist. This is the "original harmonious condition" of the elements and ideas manifested through the Tree.

3. The Point: Defined by relation to 2 others

3. Binah (Understanding) The Female Creative power—In the realm of the Ideal, this is the place of completion and perfection, still brilliant and pure (compared to where it is going). But it is not truly complete, for it has no substance or dimension, and must travel over the Dark Sea (or through the Great Womb of Binah) to become Actual. Geometrically, this point makes the triangle (first of many in the Tree), and thus the completion of the Supernal Triangle. In Qabalah the male creative energy is projective and penetrative, the female energy is formative and restrictive. To Qabalists this implied that the male energy was "merciful" in the sense of encouraging free and unrestrained expression, while the female energy was seen as "severe" in the sense of seeking to restrain and contain that freedom. The latter is of course a necessary "evil", for otherwise life would be formless and chaotic, or simply life would not be at all. The ambiguity regarding the virtues of the female role in Creation is an ancient prejudice, and one Crowley sought to correct, however his Victorian perspective on these matters often made it difficult for him to imagine a truly free female that was anything other than a whore.

The Abyss (Da'ath-Knowledge). In the realm of the Supernal Triangle, forms have only theoretical and ideal reality. They are not subject to the chaotic diversification of actual, imperfect, forms. While the womb of this morass of change is said to exist in Binah, the third point, dogma developed concerning a numberless point, corresponded to Da'ath (Knowledge), where we find the Abyss between the ideal and actual. On the one hand, here human reason achieves its greatest power of perception, the ability to both discern and multiply the endless diversity of the created Universe. It is also here that reason's powers to perceive are blocked and if one goes far enough they are destroyed by the realization that the Universe is, by its very nature (as typified by Choronzon—or Chaos) impervious and immune to the mere cataloging effects of accumulated Knowledge. In other words, to know something is to create the ignorance of a thousand other things. It is literally impossible for Knowledge alone to bring enlightenment, yet it is by knowledge and diversity that all life (and the concept of life) is brought into being in actuality. This is thus both the highest of the low points and the lowest of the high points of the Tree.

4. The Point: Defined by 3 co-ordinates: Matter

4. Chesed (Mercy), the idea of Matter. We started with a single point, made a line (in Two), a plane (in Three) and now, by positing a fourth point, in another (third) dimension, we create substance. This can be a bit confusing because here matter comes into being, but it is not physical—how can that be? Answer—we are still in the realm of subtle existence, just barely in a state of being, wafting back and forth over the argument of wave versus particle, position versus vector. In other words, the illusions of time and solidity (yielding density) have not been added yet. But the implications of the original impulse are now clarified and also the limits necessary to achieve the diversity are recognized and in a sense codified. This is a strange place, because it seems odd for limitations (of Law, natural and otherwise) to be merciful (noting that Chesed resides on the male, merciful pillar of the Tree), yet without the intervention of laws governing the orderly construction of the building blocks of matter, nothing could exist—in the sense of existence having relevance in time, our next consideration.

5. Motion (Time)—Hé, the Womb; for only through Motion and in Time can events occur.

5. Geburah (Strength), Motion and TIme. Now comes the element time. And in time, events occur (there is motion) and the substantial point, by this, obtains its meaning, through the relationship, not only of itself to other points, but of itself to the events that appear to make up that which is deemed Actual. Crowley notes that while the Hebrew letter Hé is normally attributed to the Great Mother, that is 3-Binah, Hé's numerical value is actually five, and so can also be corresponded to Geburah, which receives its power directly from Binah. Time allows life to be, but also introduces severe applications of the rules of change, ones which literally destroy all lives to provide life a continuity in time. Another metaphor is that the pangs of birth are not pleasant. One must even be encouraged (often through a violent act) to begin the lifelong labor of breathing. Everything about life, in its basic forms and dynamics, is violent (which is to say rapidly in Motion). Here also, in this violent womb, Crowley says the possibility of self-consciousness, realized in 6-Tiphareth, is introduced because at last the point has an opportunity to recognize a past, present and future, and so can see the promise and the consequences of further condensation into matter.

6. The Point: now self-conscious, because able to define itself in terms of the above.

6. Tiphareth (Beauty) "Self"-explanatory. Note the position of Six on the Tree diagram. It is in direct communication with One, the seed of things—the consciousness of self is a reflection (of 1 upon 6) of the original Self. Note also the balanced feeds this node receives from the surrounding nodes. It is the perfect position, the place where the original seed actually flowers and "can define itself in terms of the previous ideas". It is at this point in the expansion of the idea of nothing into something that we achieve perfection, but not material existence. It is where things would be better off being, but not where they actually are. Thus this point is both a goal of aspiration and a kind of Camelot of Creation, which because of the inevitability of change and its necessity to fuel life in time, must be lost in the relatively short term of Universal existence. Humans, once having obtained Eden, or a recognition of it, will always find a way to get kicked out of it. Or, if there is an apple, it will get eaten. However, therein and thereout is a way of redemption and, depending on your point of view, salvation.

7. The Point's Idea of Bliss (Ananda).

7. Netzach (Victory) Crowley notes that what he means here by "Bliss", in the Supernal way of looking at things, is the passion which drives Nothing to become something(s). The mode it chooses to do this, via change, will endlessly specify and thus falsify the unity of God. But the pleasure of Creation, of mirroring its Divine nature in explicit and diverse ways, encourages "the assumption of imperfection on the part of Perfection." Unfortunately, for the products of this assumption, including the human ones, ignorance is the main part of the bliss they can indulge here. Passions, divorced from reason, are dangerous and often self- (and otherwise) destructive.

8. The Point's Idea of Thought (Chit).

8. Hod (Splendor) When Bliss fails, we abandon ignorance, which feeds it, and seek solace in Pure Intellect. One might think—especially think—that correcting the passion error should be a good thing, but some problems are solved while others are created. The heart of the enterprise will not survive here intact. The mind slices up with razors what the emotions have not poisoned with love. While Chit is supposed to be "absolute consciousness"—only roughly rendered by "idea of Thought"—here the thinking is soulless and in some respects purely hateful. But as Crowley notes, at least here one may avoid "original errors" and only deal, as we do with our Adamic legacy, with myriad philosophies of imperfection.

9. The Point's Idea of Being (Sat).

9. Yesod (Foundation) Between the Eight (or technically, the Six) and the Ten, there is a realm, where Beingness is bought and sold, rather like a commodity, and that which lives and that which merely is, adopt their respective astral shadows or souls. Note that THIS is the true place of being, NOT Ten. It is also, seen from the point of view of one above all this, the place just before death, but, more optimistically, it is the best material expression of each elemental energy. Traditionally, and certainly in Crowley's system, this is an archetype of the sexual mitigation of the heavenly and human war (between heart and mind). It is through sex that the divine gift of life is channeled down to the deadest matter. It is also through sex that this divine gift is often degraded to purely material ends (in other words, those not elevated by an understanding of the divine role of sex as a spiritually reunifying agent). It is not, by the way, necessary that one interprets this, as many occultists do, as a natural call for humans to devote themselves exclusively to procreative (and thus heterosexual) "foundations". The divine necessity, if there was ever such a thing, of natural procreativity to maintain the species has already been rendered null and void by science and its resultant reproductive technologies. Beyond the blind drives of the mere beast—which do have their recreational attractions—sex stands as the best tool for instructing human souls on the humanizing topics of life, love and the laughter of pure happiness. That "Cruelty" lives here also is one of the Adjustment features of this system of checks and balances.

10. Malkuth (Kingdom) Imagine such an amazing thing as billions of particles (nothing much more than waveforms) collapsing upon one another through mutual attractions so tightly, so densely, that their relationships (their recognitions of other) form physical dense objects. And that is precisely what has happened here, the summit OR the depths of physical incarnation. It is also the place where the elements die (although the death is not so bad in things, like Disks, which are basically dead already). The Qabalists tell us that Malkuth is in Kether, and Kether in Malkuth, that they reflect each other, and provide a basis of interpretation of each other. In the same way that the Triple Veils condense implications (clouds) of shadows of the first nine sephiroth, and once reaching 10 have developed (as in the nine months of gestation) to the fullest extent and so must now give birth to 1-Kether, so here the positive illuminated manifestation of those nine shadows can only go so far into a process of development of an idea before the birth (the actualization) of that idea takes place, and it takes place here. As Crowley notes in the discussion of Disks, this place can be a graveyard or a true physical foundation for a great spiritual redemption, as matter is lifted up by human (or divine) intervention to become something much greater than if it had been left to silently hum in its natural matrix.

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ACE—Attributed to 1-Kether. Crowley calls the Aces the "roots" of the elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth), and also the seed of the elements or small suits. Whether root or seed, the idea here is of something potential or hidden or implied but not explicitly revealed. As seeds of potential developments, the Aces share 1-Kether's quality of Veiling in apparent sameness. This metaphor implies a planting, a beginning in a certain kind of matrix, whether of a veiling dark Earth, or a brilliant Light which blinds us to specifics. Difference is here, but one cannot see it, because at this stage the seeds look the same, or indeed look like Nothing. Unlike the other cards in the suits, the Aces have no card titles, no differentiations save for the implications of their diverse destinies via their elemental natures.

TWO—Attributed to 2-Chokmah. As noted above, Crowley said for the ordinary person, these cards are really the first cards of the suits, for these are the first indications they may acquire of the different qualities or virtues of the suits. Since "Chokmah is uncontaminated by any influence", which is to say it is sufficiently undeveloped for a pure notion of its destiny as a young plant to be apprehended, the card titles of the Twos give the "original harmonious condition", and so the main idea that shall be worked out in each suit:

Wands—Dominion
Cups—Love
Swords—Peace
Disks—Change

Recalling now that we talked about the Second Law of Thermodynamics as it relates to the Thoth deck, here is where that metaphor comes into play, as we start here with pure and simple ideas which, as they move toward a physical fulfillment, with its consequent complications, will suffer the slings and arrows of natural forces arrayed against a spinning top. Understanding fulfillment in each case as a kind of toppling over of a once brilliantly balanced object. The toppling is a consequence of a loss of energy, and a kind of mindless desire to rest, or to die, which robs the object and the system that expresses it of its vitality, which is to say of its ability to quickly adapt, i.e., change. It is important to understand that in Thelemic dogma, "Love" and "Change", note these two words balanced against each other here, are the same idea.

THREE—Attributed to 3-Binah. Here we get the first hints about why this Creation stuff is not going to necessarily be a good idea. For while the mind engages what it apprehends in the Twos and here names not the essences of the Suits, but the qualities that seem to dominate in their purest expression, what it notes is not in every way promising of a good outcome. But it is always the outcome one is due for bothering.

So:

Wands—Virtue
Cups—Abundance
Swords—Sorrow
Disks—Work

What we note here is that here we have stabilities "which can never be upset", which thus allow "a child to issue", so these pregnant notions give a suggestion of how the ideas of the suits will manifest and will distinguish themselves. "Understanding", the mode of 3-Binah, provides the intellectual means to begin the nurturing of the pure ideas of the Twos. It is interesting that in what should be its natural home of the Swords, the honest Binah answer to the question of what do you think about the effects of thinking on "Peace" is rather amusingly—"Sorrow"—in other words Binah knows that diversity is potentially divisive, and ultimately leads to rationalizations intended to defend the most heartless actions.

FOUR—Attributed to 4-Chesed. Though here we find "the highest idea that can be understood in an intellectual way", the weaknesses of the elements now begin to clearly present themselves. At this point we fall below what is called the plane of the Abyss into material existence (although it is not really tangible but virtual—we don't fall hard till Ten). The key point about the suits as expressed in Chesed is that something has definitely been lost—purity and a certain freedom of expression—while something has clearly been gained as well, which is an understanding and to some extent a codification of the laws affecting the manifestation of the original four elemental impulses. These laws will affect everything that happens from here down, partly in the way of limiting opportunities, and partly in the way of presenting "legal" obstacles against which the energy will rebel.

The card titles are:

Wands—Completion
Cups—Luxury
Swords—Truce
Disks—Power

The is a way in which it would be better to stop here, to accept this as the best compromise position we will obtain. Of course we can say it would be better to stop at a number of places, even further down, but the problem remains we cannot stop without killing the thing we hope to preserve. Life keeps moving, and so must we, or we too perish. Here is the establishment of law and order, when these are seen as essentially good things, and before the myriad abuses they imply have taken place. In a modern context, these are the rules of (Universal) War, before the absurdity of that idea has impressed the minds of creatures looking only for the convenience of using brute force to do their will in the world. The Geneva Convention is just a pile of pointless words if someone decides it is inconvenient to bother following it. The results of ignoring such conventions can have some very undesirable consequences of course.

SIX—Attributed to 6-Tiphareth. In everyone's life there is a moment when things are as perfect as they ever shall be. For some it is perhaps the first breath they take as a newborn, after which things simply go to hell; for others, it may be a supreme achievement as in some sport or in their career; for many it is their marriage or the birth of a child. When the Christians interpreted Qabalah, and this interpretation it must be recalled had much influence on the Hermetic Qabalah which is the occult version Crowley used, they placed the heart and mind (i.e., the consciousness) of Christ at this point, to say here was the point of highest possible attainment, while still bound to the physical world (literally—crucified). Six is in direct communication with the source—1-Kether—and Six has achieved a perfect balance of all opposing forces, as they feed their contradictory impulses to him not as destructive magnets seeking to tear him apart, but as a kind of genetic offering, to make better and stronger the "Son" of the myriad marriages of opposites. As Crowley says, the Sixes of each suit are "the respective elements at their practical best". Another way to say it—these are the goals of the ideas of the suits (which ideas recall were expressed in the Twos):

Wands—Victory
Cups—Pleasure
Swords—Science
Disks—Success

In each case these are not pure ideas; each has a certain moral aspect to its expression, but they are better for it, as they do not exist any longer in pure environments. They are, in other words, battle tested, and marked up a bit from the engagements; but in a world where violence is the main medium of exchange, this hardening, or tempering, is necessary (which is why these perfections are impossible without the trials of the Fives). However, as noted before we cannot stop here, as good sense would certainly indicate we should. We must move on, and to move on and downward from perfection is inviting the troubles we shall inevitably encounter as the energies of the suits develop and degrade.

SEVEN—Attributed to 7-Netzach. Once the perfection has been achieved the thing STILL must change (the great paradox of being born into evolving time and space), and in this changing comes the horror of the realization that we can not remain at any point, no matter how wonderful, forever, and live. As Crowley says, here the "utmost weakness" of each suit is revealed. The first reaction to experiencing these defects is, not surprisingly, emotional. However, the externals of the thing may appear as perfect and wonderful as they did in the glorious Six, but there is internal rot and decay that causes, depending on the nature of the suit, great anxiety and fear, and the reaction is to fight back with whatever energy is left to do so. In each case, the "fight" is done according to the nature of the suit:

Wands—Valour
Cups—Debauch
Swords—Futility
Disks—Failure

In each case the card title indicates an effect of the fight. In Wands, wherein some small chance exists to hold on to at least a bit of the Victory of Six, "Valour" is called for because the great power of "Dominion", which swept everything before it, has been worn down. Systems and governments have failed, and only individual efforts can save the day now. In Cups "Debauch" is the effect and the means of perverting "Pleasure" to unhealthy and unhappy ends—in other words to the destructive ends of addiction. In Swords, the Futility is one of having lost one's edge or being past one's prime. Whereas before, in Six, one could master the mind to make it deal with contradiction in a productive way, now the competing and seemingly chaotic divisions tear away at one's focus, until only daydreams substitute for rational plans. Finally, in Disks, the division is pretty obvious. "Sloth", in Crowley's words, dominates this anti-Six, producing even in simple Title terms, the complete opposite of the perfection of Success. As we see, even within the suits at this stage, there is a wearing down of the ability or the will to fight, from Wands to Disks.

EIGHT—Attributed to 8-Hod. While Crowley says here we have "the same inherent defects" being revealed as in the Sevens, the reaction is different, and in a way, it is an attempt to recover or repair the damage caused by the Sevens. Here, emotion is viewed as an enemy, and pure intellect (or what passes for that), or in some cases, numbness, is sought as a remedy. One of the things which we notice in all the numbers is a suit difference between the "Male" or active cards, Wands and Swords, and the "Female" or passive cards, Cups and Disks. As energy declines in the system, and especially in the Eights, we see a tendency in the Wands and Swords to take some kind of action to evade or repair the damage, while in Cups and Disks the policy seems to be just give up doing anything and hope for the best. And the latter policy is not necessarily always the weakest or least successful approach, although as we see in these later cards, the tendency to do nothing, or to rest upon one's laurels (or bank account) works much better in the more naturally dense suit of Disks than it does in the formerly buoyant suit of Cups. Also, in Swords, given that it is naturally weaker than Wands, the ability to come out of the fray undamaged or without losing something essential, is much less evident than it is in the suit of Fire, which while losing a great deal here is still able to manifest something "exalted", if however tenuous.

Wands—Swiftness
Cups—Indolence
Swords—Interference
Disks—Prudence

"Swiftness" or Eight of Wands has often confused people, even in the Waite version of the card it seems to lack a personality and appears as just a bunch of sticks. Crowley says the ideas of combustion and destruction, obviously somewhat negative features in certain applications, have here been removed from Fire, or simply energy, and what is left is something like the tamer aspects of natural physical light, or electricity. In other words, in this lower, but "ethereal" realm, the current is the thing, the applied and directed practical application of the formerly omnipotent energy. Even a brainwave might be seen as an example of this light or swift activity. Instead of codes (as in the Four), we have philosophies and technologies, and in a sense memoirs of past, more violent, exploits. After the storms, rainbows, that is pure symbols of a former glory. This relatively positive "remedy" in Wands is certainly not matched in Cups, where "Indolence" is the mind shutting down the heart entirely, and basically stepping down into the grave, perhaps testing the bed of death to see how it sleeps. One has literally lost all heart for the enterprise. In Swords, recalling our comment about its weaker position vis-a-vis Wands, there is a balance of good and bad luck, wherein the attempt to diminish the conflicts encountered in the Seven via good will and humor are met with the harsh reallty that such approaches fail in the face of a concerted opposition. So, in other words, it all depends upon one's partners in the negotiations. Where in the Four one had a balance of arms, this has been lost and one actually needs to win a popular vote based purely on his good looks and charm. The suggestion is that may not be enough. In Disks, as noted, the lack of action so deadly in the Cups, is actually not so bad and the seemingly lazy "Prudence", putting something away for a rainy day, seems perfectly brilliant (thus the Sun)—if and when it rains.

NINE—Attributed to 9-Yesod. Reading Crowley talking about the Nines is like reading a pitch for some futuristic action movie: "full impact of the elemental force!" Recalling that here we are supposed to be encountering "Being", and also here is where the "double excursion into misfortune" is solved in a final, third marriage, we see a return to the Middle Pillar (the balanced position on the Tree), just before the final manifestation in Malkuth. So, why then is this place "the most material sense" of the elements? Why isn't it in 10-Malkuth? Because in Malkuth the matter behind the moral attributes is all that is left. In the Nines we see the idea of the forces, that is the concepts of what these things will actually mean to us, in the real world, but still masking in a way the seemingly dead stuff upon which these concepts are built. In other words, the light is not the lamp, it is not the bulb, it is not the electricity that feeds the system made of these simple dead parts, but it is the concept we have built of the living material experience of light as it flows from whatever the material matrix may be. Looking at it this way, and recalling that nine is the month of fulfillment in the human design and development process (in the womb), there is a way in which taking another step, that is outside of the womb into the world of Assiah (10-Malkuth), is a death.

9-Wands—Strength
9-Cups—Happiness
9-Swords—Cruelty
9-Disks—Gain

The four reactions to the "full impact" are quite telling. In Wands, curiously, we get Strength out of seemingly the weakest components, at least astrologically. Underlying the curious power of Moon in Sagittarius is however the idea that true strength in the Universe is the result of an amazingly immense fabric of tiny parts put together in the most powerful manner. The "primal elements of Nature" guarantee "the order of Nature". They do this, Crowley tells us, by going (and in a sense falling) fast enough, that is being balanced in terms of the pulls and pushes of competing forces (of Mercy and Severity) by the ability to change. They who would doubt the limitless power of the tiny bits that make up the world need only remind themselves of the workings and changings of stars and nuclear weapons. In Cups we get Crowley's political position on love (not Love), about which he unambivalently had soured by the time he wrote his opinion of the full impact of the watery suit. That he views Happiness (the full impact of Cups) as only tenable or standable if it promises Satiety (which is to say its destruction), is a personal statement based on Crowley's often regrettable experiences with both love and happiness, more than any "scientific" conclusion about the role and nature of either emotion. However, he has a point: "there is no rest from the Universe". In Swords the full impact is not so surprising, it has been hinted at since the Three (Sorrow), and isn't it reassuring that the suit of human blather is so hatefully inept at providing solace? "Cruelty" is a fascinating concept, for it fuels the most horrible acts, and yet the most amusing humors. In Crowley's view it is a "cathedral of the damned", in the sense that it attracts a certain band of worshippers (of which he would count himself as one) who are looking for a terrible dark truth, but one which is guaranteed to rescue them from the blight of those "happy" fools enslaved in the Nine of Cups. In the end of course "nothing can lead anywhere". And that's not necessarily a bad thing. In Disks the "satisfaction" of Gain is not the same as the Satiety of Cups, for here no highbrow promise nor even a thought of some other world, or some dark cathedral, will interfere with the happy cat. Crowley makes reference to Dr. Pangloss, who saw the "best in the best of all possible worlds", even when his world had been thoroughly Towerized by full impacts. In the end, perhaps the question Crowley-Pangloss pose here is—"Is syphilis a good trade for chocolate?" Because, Dr. Pangloss tells us, Columbus necessarily brought back to Europe both those gifts.

TEN—Attributed to 10-Malkuth. Manifestation and "the death of all energy." You might say this is the idea of the elements taken to its irrational conclusion. At some point along the way, someone should have said "enough", but again it can never be enough, simply because time is ceaseless and human beings are certainly not that. Amazingly, in the instant of birth into matter the element necessarily becomes an insipid caricature of its Two-ness.

Wands—Oppression
Cups—Satiety
Swords—Ruin
Disks—Wealth

In Wands, there is only harsh oppressiveness and a desperation to maintain order and power at any cost, even self-destruction. (recall the insane justifications given by the US military for destroying villages in Vietnam—"we destroyed the village in order to save it"—or the essential glories of the 20th century's Gotterdammerung award-winner—Germany, or the present American idiocies in Iraq). In Cups there is the realization that one has had enough (but it is far too late for wisdom to do any good) and that any more of this thing, once thought so vital in 'love', will be far too much. And at any rate the price now to be paid is very high for a trip you just as soon not now have taken. In Swords there is the antithesis of peace—chaos and ruin. There is an interesting difference here between the Nine and Ten, with Nine being an individual madness (like that of philosophers and scientists who seek 'truth' at ANY cost), while the Ten is an expression of mass insanity, where some absurd end is thrown up as the idol about which the nations will accept any means to do their 'totentanz' (dance of death). Nietzsche, himself one who some have claimed as clearly a Nine-of-Swords native, did have the insight to point out—"Insanity in individuals is quite rare, in nations it is the rule." In Disks there is, oddly, Wealth. And material wealth is here understood to be the most spiritually dead manifestation of all energy one can reach—what is the living value of money? Why nothing of course. And when we invest our lives to its acquisition we obtain exactly that. BUT—here is the magick—by putting mind to the job of the resurrection of dead matter (precisely the operation that began the process in the first place) one CAN start things over again and thus it is not money that is dead and evil, nor the living of material life that is bad and unspiritual, but ONLY money and material life directed blindly and without a spiritual consciousness (spiritual in this sense—a consciousness that directs one to appreciate the true nature of his elemental origins=Dominion-Love-Peace-Change, as opposed to those distortions of it that seem real because of our lowly residence in material Ten-ness) that makes one evil or bad or dead.