The Witches Tarot-Page of Wands, choose a more traditional Page, rather than a Princess. The art of medieval tarots, used a page, as it was considered by the Church Fathers, to be an act of a heretic to picture a woman as having the power of Spirit, and to show her fearlessly naked. This was the time of the inquisition, and YHVH, the Jewish Secret Name of God, although known, was never hinted at by those who wished to keep from becoming a kebab in the public square. The Qabalistic Princess, represents the last Heh, of YHVH. Therefore, the Knaves or Pages are traditionally androgynous cards and Aliester Crowley replaced them with Princesses, simply because of the formula of Tetragrammaton (YHVH) is well met with Princesses who are Daughters of the Queen and carry her authority to earth. Knaves or Pages just didn't work in that Qabalistic formula which is well explained in his Book of Thoth.
The Witches Tarot Page of Wands, has the customary flowering Hawthorne wand of the Witches Tarot Fire Suit. Here, the Page is a young traveling male, wearing traveling clothes of golden tunic and red traveling cape and a sunflower amulet around his neck. The colors and amulet symbolizing the element of fire. The Sun flower represents, solar magic, success and fame. Traveling with the youth is a orange tabby cat. Cats are often considered to be "familiars" in witch culture and classically associate with fire. Having a wise old tom, as a traveling companion is a sure boon for this exuberant youth who is seen yelling out the news with all that he is worth. He is a news bearer, which was a common trade in medieval Europe. He obviously takes his job seriously and delivers news with great gusto. Hence, this page delivers happiness and enthusiasm wherever he goes. The clumps of ivy that surround the foot path, are associated with good luck and are used to ward off negativity.
This is a cheerful and auspicious card. When in divination, the page of wands, announces happy news and exciting times. Typically this news will come from a young person.
- The Page of wands may be announcing a new job opportunity, or a promotion, or this young person may be heralding an impending birth announcement.
- Expect and invitation or opportunity.
In some tarot decks wands are called clubs but no matter what you call them, wands are the fiery nature of Spiritual expansion and expression. The Princess of Wands, is also a male person in some cards and is often called a Page; However, these pages often look more androgynous than just male.
Since this card represents a combination of Fire and Earth (fire of earth card) it is truly an androgynous expression of mastery of internal blocks, obstacles and obstructions. Fearless, spontaneous expression. On the Crowley card she has the tiger by the tail! Implying fearlessness.
She is both magnetic and electric; a free and liberated spirit that resides in all of us as a divine inheritance. This is all about motion; "moving up" in new directions that fearless and energizing like her Sun wand.
Wearing the Aries crown, the Princess has placed her old obstructions and fears on the altar of spring and offers them as a spring sacrifice.Totally exposed and seemingly defenseless she boldly expresses her new motion creating her own beauty by her essential vigor and force. She believes in the power statement of "Grab a Tiger by the Tail"! Hence, she is fearless in her endeavors.
She is a Solar Self that owns and runs her physical self which is her own power tool. The Princess of Wands is the earthly part of fire and/or the fuel of fire. She represents the irresistible chemical attraction of the combustible substance, the connotations of which go beyond physical matter into Spiritual potency.
As before stated, the Princesses have no zodiac attributions, yet they represent four types of human being. They are more of an "elemental" personage, whose moral character---is often open and freewheeling. Lots of Passion but not a lot of "common sense" , that usually comes from experience. In the Thoth Tarot the Princesses are sub-divide according to planetary predominance, thus the Princess of Wands is associated with one quadrant of the sky above the North Pole.
When we examine the image of the Thoth card, we see that she has plumes of fire radiating from her brow; these symbolize justice. Since chemical action can only happen when each element is free to combine with its partner, thus she is shown unclothed. She is surging leaping flame, with the Sun Wand in her left hand and the "tiger by the tail" in her right, she shows both her solar power and fearlessness. She actually represents the Virgin Fire Priestess of the Lords of Fire (also the Roman Vestal Virgin keepers of the eternal flame) and is in attendance of the Rams headed flaming -altar of spring.
Just looking at this card tells you that this Personality is highly individual showing passionate qualities of brilliance and daring. This vigorous stellar Femininity is far too hot for the controlling male, her best mate must be one who loves heart rending passion without possession.
Her beauty is created by her own vigorous energy. Her passion is so great that one is dazzled by a chemical reaction that enforces the impression of beauty on the beholder. Being a type of "spontaneous combustion", in anger or love she is violent, sudden, and implacable. She can often be irrational, when displaying her enthusiasm, fiery ambition, and aspiring nature. Such a Princess Persona, never forgets an injury-----and the only patience she shows, is when lying in ambush to revenge a perceived wrong.
She is often self-absorbed to the extent that she is entirely reckless in achieving gratification and is notably insatiable. However, as is all Power-----it is as destructive as it is constructive, so caution and encouragement compete with each other in this one.
For myself, Passion is the foundation of the Universe, and this type of person is a thrill to behold and to a Prince of Cups, the proper mate of the moment, as his tempest of swiftness and vigor is to be "invoked" and her insatiable Passion will invoke the very rocks into flame and boil an ocean! But like all fires, one must know how to work with it to properly achieve the necessary transformations of their Great Work. I'll not go further into the Magick applications here, as this is not a treatise on eroticism, although if our eyes are not blinded by the fear of Passion, we'll see that the Universe is a hot-bed of Pure Passion to be; an insight that the Princess of Wands surely has.
Needless to say, if ill-defined The Princess of Wands person, would be the defects of such passion. She would be superficial and theatrical, shallow and false while never expecting that she is anything of the sort. She becomes predominately a "spasm of mood" and she can be cruel, unreliable, faithless and domineering.
To meditate on this card is to invoke the "inner fires" of the "Big Bang", be sure you are willing to become a Phoenix before you try. You must be strong in virtue (true to yourself) and need not a state of permanence for personal comfort; in other words, "Above all things know thyself" before entering the Core Fires of Solar sexuality, for in this state, the violent motion of change is breath- taking and often fatal to the weak personality. But for those who succeed----you'll love your fiery wings!
The Princess of Wands and the Ace of Wands
The Thoth Deck Ace of Wands, shown as a fiery club. (Flames in shape of Yods), represents the essence or seed of the Alchemical Element-Fire. It is a solar-phallic outburst of flame from which lightning springs forth in multi-direction. If you were looking at the Sun, it would comparable to multiple solar flares, as this is how the Sun acts as a phallus by ejecting its "seed" into the dark womb of space-time.
It is the earliest stage of Primordial matter, unwilled and violent and is the power wielded by the Princess of Wands.
It is important to remember that, although the small cards are sympathetic to their numbered Sephiroth, they are not identical nor are they Divine Persons. They are more like sub-elements and/or parts of "Blind Forces" whose ruling intelligences are of the Realm of Yetzirah, The Formulate World (Shemhamphorasch). What is astounding to note, if not confusing, is that each Major Arcana (Atu) has its own Tree of Life and hierarchy. Obviously this requires more investigation on the student’s part. As a student who teaches, I am still investigation this phenomenon.
To reiterate, THE PRINCESS OF WANDS: represents the Earthly part of Fire. She or he is the expression of the irresistible action of a combustible substance and rules from the Heavens from one quadrant around the North Pole (She=Magnetic Force).
It is interesting to note, that the Female Magnetic Force gives Form to the Fiery-electric male force, which in its primeval stage, as the Ace of Wands, is unwilled, unformed and undirected. But like the Magnetic Field of Earth, giving form to the Solar rays, not unlike the Aurora in the night sky, she justifies the direction of this male Force. Seen in the Thoth Deck Card with flames of justice leaping from her forehead, and wearing nothing as a sign that she is perfectly free to combine with her partner; she bears a wand crowned with the Disk of the Sun and leaping into Yod shape surging flame.
The Lords of Fire reside in the realm of Yetzirah, towards which she is leaping, thus she can be compared to the Virgin Priestess of the Lords of Fire. Further championing this fact, is the illustration of the flame topped Altar of Spring, in the left lower corner of this card.
The "seed of fire", The Ace of Wands" is now given a personal Willful expression in the Princess of Wands, as she is brilliant and daring. She has bridled passion, shown by grasping the Tiger by the Tail, and given it direction----where she goes--Passion goes.
Like Fire, it is her essential vigorous energy that describes her beauty. Beauty seen, as the force of her personality dazzles her beholder. Such force can also be expressed as love and anger, which is passionately charged into sudden forms of violence and implacability. Much like a Coral snake, stand back and enjoy its beauty, but don't try to possess it, as its anger is terminal.
Thus we have pegged the Princess of Wands or Page of Wands, as a personality/intelligence that harnesses the Ace of Wands or 1 of Fire, to Earth (mate to the solar phallus) and is volatile in nature. She consumes all within Her Sphere. She is ambitious, aspiring and full of enthusiasm and is often accused of being irrational. Being the Earthly Part of Fire, she is likened to the Polynesian Volcano Goddess, due to her Volcanic Personality. She is the Earthly fiery womb, rather than the Earthly Watery Womb. If the Princess of Wands is ill dignified or thrown together with the Ace of Wands, we have a person omnivorous in passion of whatever kind, entirely reckless in the means of obtaining gratification, and insatiable. It is notable, that She has given Will to the primeval violence of Male Force ...".by naming Him Father." using His fiery flow to impregnate her every action, as does Earth, the Sun.
As insinuated: The name Yod He Vau He, often called the Hebrew name for God, is attributed to the Court Cards, where Yod, is attributed to Knights, He-to Queens, Vau =is attributed to Princes and the last He-is attributed to Princesses, the Earthly Manifestation, as the ultimate issue of the original Energy in its Completion, i.e. crystallization. However, they also represent the counter-balancing and re-absorption of the Energy. They are also the Silence into which all things return.
The Princesses have no zodiacal attribution, thus they are likened to "elemental" people who are recognized by their lack of all sense responsibility and whose moral qualities are very flexible so they are sub-divided according to planetary predominance.
Of such elemental persona Eliphas Levi wrote:" The love of the Magus for such creatures is insensate, and may destroy him." Which it will, as lovers of the Scarlett Woman (Babalon) have found out. She will consume you, as fire does a wyrm, only for you to rise again as a phoenix out of the ashes of Universal consumptive passion, a form of Dragon is made manifest and magic abounds. However, be very cautious young magi, she is spontaneous and unforgiving! But if there is any of the Eternal Fire un-perverted in you, and your Will is unshakable in unrequited- Passion's extreme heat, she'll make you blaze as a Star! If your sanity doesn't return expanded, then your will was flawed. Needless to say, this Elemental Persona is not for the timid. For as in fire, her magic can be violently active.
In history, Atargatis was a fish-tailed goddess, who is represented by the Princess of Wands. She was reputed to give birth to men by swallowing them (oral sex-virginal sex of the Maid in Western Sex Magic called "giving birth to mind children" and/or the ejaculation, that was swallowed, was known as "witches milk"), and gave rebirth to Jonah in his earlier Babylonian form as the fish-god Oannes. The Philistines called Jonah, Dagon who was Atargatis’s mate. Lots of fun researching this!
All in all, The Princess of Wands represents a mysteriously dark power that is both irresistible and with great force. She may be misunderstood or misrepresented by misuse. Such is the reality of all great passions.
When the Princess/Page of wands card is thrown during a divination it states:
- That it is time to express one's sense of Freedom (from the Anglo-Saxon Free-doom--which means "I choose my own death"), adventure, passion to be and initiating something new.
- If you are male, it points to the anima within you that doesn't want to be limited or obstructed by fear and whose passion to create needs to be let out.
- This is the symbol of the ultimate free spirit within us all that overcomes fear and accelerates creative purpose.
- We are all "star seeds" and have a deep inner fiery nature that will not be subdued.
- This person’s inner passion is best/ or being, channeled in life fulfilling activities.
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