The Tarot of Eli, LLC-Minor Arcana: Thoth Tarot-9 of Swords-Cruelty & Santa Muerte Tarot- 9 of Swords

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The Thoth - 9 of Swords-Cruelty, presents a ghastly image of 9 crooked, chipped swords, dripping blood. If this isn't gloomy enough, we have the celestial rule of Mars in Gemini, representing a primal raging hunger that has no restraint.

9 is a number of completion and the purest form of energy of the suit, and is also the number of the Sephiroth Yesod-Foundation, on the Tree of Life. Yesod is on the middle pillar of the Tree of Life, and has rectified the imbalances of the past energy disorders of Air. This, however, does not rectify the degeneration of the energy as it continues down the Tree.

Swords, usually depict the pure intellect that acts like air as its energy emoted that continually heats up with passion and cools down with rationale. In the case of the 9 of Swords, consciousness has fallen into an unenlightened void of rational thought, stirring heartless animal passions; passions that are of the psychopath and the fanatic. This is the character of the inquisitor; it seems intellectual but is operating in a rage that is without restraint. All this sounds just awful and terribly gloomy, yet, it is the cultural foundation of "Divide and conquer" indoctrination technique we know as "pleasure-pain" training.

Our consumerism society is based on "fanning the flames" of that primitive raging hunger of survival thinking in order to produce the "fanatical shopper “whose world is always lacking self-fulfillment. It is the realm of the Neti-Neti (Sanskrit for, “Not This-Not That") consciousness, that consumes unrelentingly, hoping for happiness in a future accumulation; a futile seeking of happiness because happiness isn't in accumulation nor resides in glutinous bellies, rather Happiness is a balance of inner and outer beauty. So if one insists on Neti-Neti, there is only one result in the completion of the greed of such hungry thought and that is the insanity of inner self cruelty. Here Self is never enough and must be sought by the approval of others.

Thankfully, some of us have enough strength in or character to know that happiness, is not a thing, but rather a "balance of Mind, body and soul" and have found out that by treating other people with respect, (do unto another as you would have done to you) we have a happier presence on this earth.

The 9 of Swords is the state of consciousness that is called "wanna-be", were one is not alive/happy until they achieve some future illusion of possession or goal. This person is a corpse, a zombie, who lives only in yesterday’s emotions and uncertain futures, leaving the moment of now vacant of their presence. This phenomenon of “walking corpse" is not a new thing that some Hollywood director dreamt- up as the latest horror thriller. Rather, you'll find this "living dead" concept in the 2-thousand-year old Gnostic Gospel of Thomas that is part of the Nag Hammadi Library. In paragraph 56, of the Gospel of Thomas, it is written, "Whoever has come to understand the World has found only a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world”, if you can understand this Gnostic statement, you can understand the 9 of Swords-Cruelty. Because the practice of "Self-inflicted cruelty" is going on in most human brains right now, most of us constantly belittle ourselves, in order to appease our dogma; i.e. our inner dogmatic Pavlovian- slaver.

Again, the Thoth 9 of Swords, is called THE LORD OF DESPAIR AND CRUELTY, or Cruelty in short. This is Mars in Gemini; this is Yesod influencing Yetzirah in the Astral World. With a smattering of astrological data, one knows that the fiery energy of Mars, does little good in a sign of dualities.

This "little good" is shown by the 9 rusty swords, dripping blood and poison on Crowley/Harris's card. One may shudder at the despair, meanings of illness, suffering and cruelty this card represents; But each of us, who are paying attention to our brain, know this to be a "inner self cruelty" of our consciousness, as it cuts us with the emotionally poisoned blades of embarrassment, low-self-esteem, humiliation, self-condemnation, and/or inner disgust. It is the internal Slave Master software that is installed in our Personality by our cultural authority and/or The Few Who Rule the Many, by controlling definition, the Patriarch makes sure this Internal-Mental Slavery is installed before you even reach 7 years old. Like rusty hooks of poisonous self-futility, this is a hard one to remove! Peer pressure, and media just drives this poison deeper into self-identity. The media, keeps slashing at your self-value...."you need this....you need that....to lack them, you are nothing!” Lack of self-worth Is at the very least implied, or blatantly rubbed in your face, daily, if not hour by hour. “Resistance is futile", blare the horns of the pusillanimous invertebrates who enforce "their masters will" on others. Faust never new such internal hell as this!

There is an axiom in Buddhism that states, “Life is Suffering” … but only if you live in the lizard brain of survival thinking. Life is indeed a mental/sensual experience, and we can be our own worst enemies, just by doubting our own value in the World. To see yourself as Lack, is the necessary software to continue the panicked consumerism that Muti -National mind programmers and/or definition peddlers- want! But think! Before any human judgment, you were already approved into being by your Higher Self. So once again, the Qabalistic axiom reads true, “Above all things, Know thyself"!

It's simple really; you had to be approved by all that is Holy, to be made alive! Your presence is your Judgment....and obviously you are good enough for God/Divine Creative!

You are a Divine answer, to a Divine question of the I AM, that is what Creation is!

Stop questioning yourself, and become answers instead! Action is the Fiery Spirit that moves you, reaction is usually run by the uncertain animal who thinks the whole universe is out to eat it! "I Am" dares ask, "What am I"? And you are the answer to that question, "I AM ME" and/or Spirit-Mind-body.

The 9 of Swords, Cruelty, is about you being your own worst enemy, divided against yourself, mentally and emotionally. Always nay-saying before you can ever start a motion. This is “a moment of doubt" drawn out as a Life-time. Sure we doubt ourselves after all every new motion is a risk! But if the Child of Wonder, that innocent curiosity, still has "I's" in you, you're are going to "do it" anyway. We are always striving forward, we are being Pushed along by the Inner Spiritual Self, just like Dark Energy pushes the Universe of Matter forever outwards. Life is a Driving Force...and the Body is the vehicle driven ! Death is how Life pushes itself along; inhale-exhale.

So what this Cruel 9 of Swords implies, is that "a house divide must fall". Get together with yourself and overthrow the Slaver program that divides Spirit from Mind and Body from both. Software can be erased even when it’s Garbage. (G.I.G.O). All software programs know of G.I.G.O., for when software is garbage and programed in, the hardware is operational garbage as well. Garbage in, Garbage out, i.e. G.I.G.O.!

The 9 of Swords implies that you must get control of your brain and rid it of constipated miserable perspective and re think the programing! Such as: "I am seeking happiness" to "I AM Happiness"! It's easy to fail, all you have to do is stop doing and live the "knee jerk life of the manipulated". Success, is a stubborn optimist, Your Soul--- even if it kills "itself" (destroys the hardware) trying to accomplish a goal, it just reincarnates and keeps at it! As psyche we all will pound out the bugs of our software (definitions), some sooner than others; but we all will do it eventually, that is the purpose of sensuality after all. For Life to continue in this Universe, the living must learn discernment by experiencing success and failure! Foolishly believing that you, a sensual learning conscious, can all learn all that is to be learned in one lifetime, keeps you from understanding the very nature of “Life Cycles” and or Karma. Relax and breathe deep. For if you die, the soul, will just "reabsorb" the software garbage in the personality/you that is now released, and try another revision of it in "Hardware" performance, that we know as "alive". Therefore, you are not rushed, and if you take only one step a day, you still are journeying towards your destination.

Therefore, "get over yourself and get on with you! Impeccability is what we do'' is a correctional software loop that I run in my self-doubting brain; it just overrides the "pity pot" of self-defeating thought every time it comes online. But installing that software loop, took determination, and plain old fashion "jackass” stubbornness and constant repetition, a meditation of seconds, done most minutes, until it becomes automatically a day. Don't you think it’s time, we programed our own Hardware! ABOVE ALL THINGS, KNOW THYSELF! That is the real message of the 9 of Swords. Yourself, has never been the indoctrinated ego, nor will it ever be. Until you grab your ego and look it in the "I", and tell it, "You are my servant, I am your master", and go about proving it by "rethinking Self".

Each of us has experienced the temptations to remain chained to the bedeviling thoughts of our subjugation- definitions of the few who wish to rule the many. The 9 of Swords, reminds us, that we are not performing well mentally, when we are under the rule of self-belittlement. Again, you are obviously good enough for God, you are good enough for you! In our God-ness Goodness), resides the constant ability in each of us, to become More Self, rather than becoming less by seeking more stuff to hold up a drafty and dilapidated house!

Energetically, the 9 of Swords represents the "defense mechanisms" of repression, projection, aggression and/or transferring emotional injuries to the outside world and/or others. Cruelty is also a form of undoing something or making amends (striving for punishment) through atonement, and devotion, which Crowley termed the acceptance of martyrdom of the way of passive resistance.

Mentally, one is tormented by the "inner demons" are a personification of threatening ruin. Now this is not always a concrete event for it can be also expressed in fear, guilt feelings, and experiences of powerlessness. Perception and understanding is the only cure here. You were made to feel powerless when young ("“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” -Aristotle), by understanding this you can break through this vicious cycle of experiences of failure, existential dread, and inner aggression. The path that goes there, leads directly from emotional pain into the center of fear-the "Survival Mind" which is the subconscious. Every avoidance just leads to more self-victimization and makes the condition worse.

Advice of the Dead:

Act with strength and prudence, ensuring your ideas are well focused and directing all your strength on these.

The Santa Muerte-9 of Swords, shows a preconditioned brain leading to a possible crisis due to a period of enclosure and isolation. However, seclusion (meditation) can also lead to new wisdom, new light in the dark halls of fear, and new nourishment of the Self Identity that leads to the rebirth of our conscience will sustaining our will and thereby limiting injuries, waste, ambiguity, and diffidence . Hence, the Book in the hands of the Santa Muerte figure.

When the 9 of Swords is thrown during a reading, the Querent will be or has been experiencing:

• Illness, malice, cruelty, pain, despair and suffering, in a period of nine days, or nine weeks or from self-cruelty thought processes in the past when nine years old.
• There is burden, want, oppression, as well as, subtlety and craft.
• There is also lying to oneself or others because of and "inferiority complex".
• All of this dysfunctional thought is basically from "self-belittlement", that is often so subtle that we don't even acknowledge it in ourselves. But the programed ego is clever, as you will notice whenever you try to mentally or physically, step out of "comfort zones", you will be challenged with worry and seemingly rational explanations on why you should not take that step.  
• The great deceiver within, makes you believe it is you. 

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If ill defined by surrounding cards:

• Shame.
• Guilt.
• Terror.
• Infamy.
• Misery.
• Hate.

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