The Cardinal Importance of Names Aleister Crowley and the Creation of a Tarot for the New Aeon

Aleister Crowley’s The Book of Thoth makes four substantive changes to the traditional titles of the tarot trumps. Three of these relate to the cardinal virtues which had remained in the deck despite the almost complete esoteric revisioning of the tarot that had taken place over the preceding two centuries; the fourth is an integral part of the same topic. This article focuses on why Crowley felt impelled to make these changes as wellasthesignificanceof thenewnames(andassociatediconography).Thediscussion centres around Crowley’s rejection of the cardinal virtues that underly Christian ethics infavourof thenewsystemof moralitylaidoutin TheBookof theLaw andsubsequently encapsulated in Thelema. Consequently, the article first examines the development of the cardinal virtues in patristic and medieval theology and then shows how Crowley sought to overturn these values in his agenda of cultural reprogramming of which The Book of Thoth arguably constitutes the high-water mark.

tional decks and esoteric precursors is in the naming of tarot trumps viii, xi, xiv, and xx.4 It is no coincidence that the traditional titles of the first three of these are derived from the cardinal virtues, with that of the fourth implicitly part of the same debate.5 In elucidating the reasoning behind Crowley's name changes, I examine the origins of the traditional titles of the cards in question. Since the earliest evidence of the tarot dates to around the early to mid-fifteenth century, I necessarily consider ideas rooted in medieval moral philosophy which influenced the creation of the first tarot decks that emerged in Italy during the early Renaissance.6 It should be noted at the outset that Crowley placed great emphasis on etymological research. In a letter that appears in the introduction to Crowley's (posthumously published) epistolary work, Magick Without Tears, he advises his pupil of the importance of conducting her own research into the origin and meaning of words: Indeed, I want you to go even further; make sure of what is meant by even the simplest words. Trace the history of the word with the help of Skeat's Etymological Dictionary. E.g. pretty means 'tricky' , 'deceitful'; on the other 4 In Crowley's deck, the trumps viii and xi are transposed. In this paper I follow Crowley's order of the trumps. Differences in naming such as "Fortune" in Crowley's deck vs "Wheel of Fortune" in the Waite-Colman Smith deck are not deemed substantive for the purpose of this article. Likewise, Crowley's title "The Magus" vs "The Magician" in the Golden Dawn (and Waite-Colman Smith) is deemed sufficiently similar in terms of nomenclature not to require separate discussion. 5 The fourth virtue, Prudence, does not appear in the standard tarot deck comprising 78 cards, of which 22 are trumps (though it does appear in the non-standard Florentine deck of 97 cards known as "Minchiate" and Dummett speculates it was originally present in the non-standard "Visconti di Modrone" pack). On this point, like so many others, scholarly opinion and esoteric tradition part ways; the former claims that Prudence was never present in the traditional standard deck, the latter that it was, but has metamorphosed over time into a different trump (Dummett (with Mann), The Game of Tarot,388,104,118). Crowley follows esoteric tradition, believing like Éliphas Lévi that Prudence had been transformed into the trump titled "The Hermit" (Crowley,Magick Without Tears,488). There was clearly no need to re-name this card in the interest of purging his deck of "Old Aeon" concepts, Hermits being favourably mentioned in The Book of the Law cf. ii:24. Moakley's suggestion (Moakley,The Tarot Cards,(14)(15) that the four suits were inspired by the four cardinal virtues, with Prudence represented by the suit of coins, must be dismissed, as the suits derive from the ordinary playing cards originating in the Islamic world-see Decker,Depaulis & Dummett,A Wicked Pack,[29][30]A Cultural History,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]A History,Forward;and Decker,Depaulis and Dummett,A Wicked Pack,25,27. hand, hussy is only 'housewife' … This will soon give you the power of discerning instantly when words are being used to hide meaning or lack of it.7 For someone so sensitive to the meaning and usage of words, the act of renaming is one that would not have been undertaken lightly.
Crowley's perception of the cultural history of the tarot is firmly rooted in the occult tradition-i.e., the perennialist notions espoused by eighteenth and nineteenth-century occultists such as Court de Gébelin, Etteilla, Éliphas Lévi, Papus, MacGregor Mathers and A.E. Waite concerning the origins of the tarot. For occultists such as these, the tarot was a depository of esoteric knowledge, coeval with the Pharaohs and containing the secret wisdom of ancient Egypt. Crowley's adherence to this theory is nowhere better exemplified than in the sub-title of The Book of Thoth, i.e.: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians.
However, it is clear that the genesis of the tarot lies in fifteenth century Italy, the imagery of the trump cards deriving from a 'common pool of symbolism' particular to that place and time.8 This is arguably nowhere more visible than in the depiction of the cardinal virtues in the tarot-as is readily apparent by comparing early tarot decks with the typical contemporary iconographical treatment of the virtues.9 This conflict between the actual history of the tarot and the mythical history espoused by the occultists gives rise to some interesting anomalies. Crowley is a case in point here, bemoaning the decadence that had supposedly crept into the tarot designs over the ages: The traditional pack has itself been subjected to numerous modifications, adopted for convenience … The card originally called "The Hierophant", representing Osiris (as is shown by the shape of the tiara) became, 7  Focusing on those tarot trumps where Crowley departs fully from tradition with regard to names, I demonstrate that a major factor behind this decision was what Crowley perceived as the embedded "Christianisation" of the cards in question-a process of which Crowley, thanks to his extensive researches both into the origins of words and of religions, would have been fully cognisant. The irony of this, of course, is that Crowley, whilst indeed correct in his thesis that the existing decks were 'compiled by partisans of existing political systems' , arising as they did out of the socio-cultural framework of the Renaissance, a period in which the power of the Catholic Church was arguably at its zenith, was mistaken in seeing therein evidence of the corruption or elision of some ancient Egyptian occult wisdom in the iconography and nomenclature of the cards.
On the one hand, Crowley's endeavour to root out Christian vestiges was in keeping with the steady adoption of the tarot by occultists, which had begun in the eighteenth century with the first writers to publicly espouse an occult theory of the tarot, namely Court de Gébelin and Etteilla, and had continued through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. By the time Crowley came to write his work on the tarot in the 1940s, this process was almost comby Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano, c. 1278 with the trump depicting Fortitude from the "Visconti di Modrone" or "Cary-Yale Visconti" tarot c. 1445 (Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University); the quatrefoil panel depicting the figure of Justice on the south door of the Baptistery in Florence, executed by Andrea Pisano in 1330 & installed in 1336 with the trump depicting Justice from the so-called "Gringonneur" or "Charles vi" deck, c. 1480 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris); the sculptured figure depicting Temperance on the Arca di San Pietro Martire, Cappella Portinari in the Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio, Milan, executed by Giovanni di Balduccio in 1339 with the trump depicting Temperance from the "Visconti-Sforza" tarot, c. 1440-1470 (The Morgan Library & Museum, New York). 10 Crowley, The Book of Thoth,24. 11 Ibid., xii. It is worth highlighting that the 'Bibliographical Note' purports to be written by Martha Küntzel (1857Küntzel ( -1942, signed with the initials of her magical motto, I.W.E. = 'Ich Will Es' and showing her A.A. grade as 8=3, hence the use of the third person. However, the style is unmistakably Crowley's. The fact that Küntzel died 2 years prior to the book's publication would also seem to support this conjecture. plete, with key trumps restyled in a more esoteric manner, both with regard to the actual titles, as well as the iconographical treatment; notably the "Pope" and "Popess" had been recast as "The Hierophant" and "The High Priestess" respectively, and the "Juggler" or "Mountebank" ("Le Bateleur") had become "The Magician".12 It is important to note, however, that the changes made by these earlier occultists were not necessarily driven by some sort of anti-Christian agenda.13 Rather, they were arguably intended to remove the temporal anchor from the cards that so obviously betrayed them as being the products of a (relatively recent) Christian cultural milieu. In this way, claims for an ancient provenance for the tarot-a pre-requisite for the argument that the deck was a receptacle of ancient wisdom-could more easily be made. The fact that the trumps styled on the cardinal virtues had survived pretty much intact by the time Crowley came to write his work on the tarot arguably says much about the inherently Christian bias of "mainstream occultism" until that point.
But the cardinal virtues could have no place in the New Aeon.14 Whilst Crowley's renaming of trumps viii, xi, xiv, and xx brought to a logical conclusion the process of adoption of the tarot by occultists that had been ongoing since the mid-eighteenth century, his agenda was far more ambitious: his dual purpose was to expunge Christian values from the deck and, in what constitutes a deliberate act of "cultural reprogramming", encode therein the key tenets of Thelema, the religio-magical philosophy of the New Aeon.
In what follows, I briefly discuss the New Aeon and how the cardinal virtues came to be synonymous with Christian values, before finally turning to the renaming and restyling of the cards themselves. 12 For example, compare the traditional renderings of trumps v ("The Pope"), ii ("The Popess") and i ("The Mountebank") as exemplified in the Tarot

A New Deck for a New Aeon
The Book of Thoth was the last major work on magic Crowley published during his lifetime.15 It is clear that he regarded this book and the associated paintings as a work of the utmost significance for the new Aeon of Horus.16 Writing to a Mr Pearson of the Sun Engraving Co., the photoengraver responsible for transposing Frieda Lady Harris' original watercolours into engravings for publication, Crowley is at pains to explain his motive in seeking to limit Harris' involvement in the practicalities of getting the book published: It seems important that you should understand my motive. To me this Work on the Tarot is an Encyclopoedia of all serious "occult" philosophy. It is a standard Book of Reference, which will determine the entire course of mystical and magical thought for the next 2000 years.17 He considered this book the summation of his life's work, a means to 'reproduce the whole of his Magical Mind pictorially on the skeleton of the ancient Qabalistic tradition.'18 No doubt to the amazement of certain onlookers, given his notoriety for excess of all kinds, Crowley was rapidly approaching the proverbial "three score and ten" during the five years it took to complete the work. Any natural anxiety in this regard was doubtless heightened by the bombs falling on London during the Blitz of 1940-1941. This likely led him to view the project as his final chance to set down for posterity the magical philosophy underlying the New Aeon whose arrival had been proclaimed in The Book of the Law. Crowley was at pains to emphasise the originality of his work on the tarot. This is stated in no uncertain terms in a prospectus for The Book of Thoth: more valuable still is the completely fresh approach to the whole subject which permeates the book. This is no rehash of what has been said before on the subject … it is a brilliant revaluation of the entire field of occult 15 Originally All previous systems have been sectarian, based on a traditional cosmography both gross and incorrect. Our system is based on absolute science and philosophy. We have "all in the clear light", that of Reason, because our Mysticism is based on an absolute Scepticism.22 Given the above statement, it should come as no surprise that Crowley felt impelled to change the titles of a number of the cards-the traditional decks, as far as he was concerned, being based on fundamentally flawed assumptions.

The Four Cardinal Virtues in Medieval Moral Philosophy
The moral qualities that came to be known as the "Cardinal Virtues"-Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, and Justice-go back to the classical world, extending through Cicero ( find these qualities grouped together under the heading 'virtues' in the Bible, it is only with the early Church Fathers that they become a popular topic of discussion.24 Amongst the first to discuss them in a purely Christian context is Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215ce) who writes in his Paedagogus '… man's perfection is justice and temperance and courage and piety [prudence].'25 But it is with Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397 ce) that these moral qualities are named "Cardinal Virtues", with the term virtutes cardinales ("cardinal virtues") appearing in Ambrose's (first) funeral oration for his brother, Satyrus.26 Ambrose discusses these elsewhere in his writings. For example, in his commentary on Genesis, De paradiso (c. 375ce), the four cardinal virtues are equated to the four rivers which flow through Eden and in the sermon De Isaac vel anima they are likened to the four horses that drive the "chariot of the soul".27 In De officiis ministrorum, Ambrose writes at length how the cardinal virtues were evidenced in the lives and deeds of Old Testament figures such as David, Abraham, Job, and Solomon.28 Where figures from the classical world are mentioned, their contribution to the knowledge and practice of the virtues is downplayed versus that made by biblical figures.29 In so doing, Ambrose effectively reserves the cardinal virtues for Christians, incorporating them into the broader concept of Christian duty in an act of appropriation that arguably marks the beginning of the "Christianisation" of the cardinal virtues.30 24 Wisdom of Solomon, 8:7 (kjv). This is the only place the four virtues are mentioned in the Bible, though they are referenced in the non-canonical text 4Maccabees (1:18). As Bejczy highlights, the early Church Fathers would have known of these moral qualities directly from Stoicism and Neoplatonism thanks to the Roman education they had received (Bejczy,The Cardinal Virtues,12 This process of Christianisation continues with Jerome (c. 347-419 ce) for whom 'unbelievers' (i.e. non-Christians) are necessarily precluded from exercising the four virtues.31 In a letter to a cleric, Jerome, echoing Ambrose's chariot metaphor, enjoins him to make the cardinal virtues 'a four-horse team' that will bear him as 'Christ's charioteer' to his goal.32 In a similar vein, Augustine of Hippo (354-430ce) writes how the four cardinal virtues are dependent on the 'perfect love of God' and Julian Pomerius (fl. late 5th century ce) describes how the virtues are divine gifts and, as such, are only available to those who believe in God, with those who do not incapable of possessing them.33 This idea that the virtues are effectively dependent on Christian faith is also made explicit by Gregory the Great (c. 540-604ce). In Moralia in Job, Gregory identifies the four cardinal virtues with the four corners of the house where Job's sons and daughters were feasting, as well as with the four rivers of Paradise as per Ambrose.34  Is not this better than the death-in-life of the slaves of the Slave-Gods, as they go oppressed by consciousness of "sin", wearily seeking or simulating wearisome and tedious "virtues"?41 For Crowley, the very concept of virtue has been usurped and distorted by Christianity. Doubtless, his childhood experiences growing up amongst the Plymouth Brethren form the bedrock for what in mature years became a con- 38 Crowley, The Book of Lies, 131. Italics as per format in modern edition including commentary. This work was originally published in 1912 without the commentary that has become a standard feature of modern editions, the commentary being written by Crowley for the use of his students in 1921, nine years after the book's publication. 39 Crowley, Little Essays Towards Truth, 70. Crowley is correct on the etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the origin of the word from the Latin "virtus", meaning "manliness", "valour", "worth", linked to the Latin noun "vir" meaning "man". Clearly, the word "virtue" is another example of the importation into current linguistic usage of the sociocultural concerns of a different era. It is worth highlighting here that the 3 of Wands card in The Book of Thoth bears the title "Virtue". However, this is not virtue in its ethical sense, rather virtue in the sense of "useful quality" or "power". 40 Revelation 13 (1) Mankind must learn that the sexual instinct is in its true nature ennobling. The shocking evils which we all deplore are principally due to the perversion produced by suppressions. The feeling that it is shameful and the sense of sin cause concealment, which is ignoble, and internal conflict which creates distortion, neurosis, and ends in explosion.45 It is pertinent to note here that Crowley did on occasion (particularly in his earlier writings) draw a distinction between Christianity as an institution, the source of a dubious code of ethics he set out to attack, and the figure of Jesus Christ. For example, in an essay on Christianity in The World's Tragedy (1910) he writes how he holds 'the legendary Jesus in no wise responsible for the trouble' before going on to vow to destroy the deity worshipped by Christians as well as Christianity itself.46 However, this subtlety of thought tended to be the excep- figure 1 Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley, Atu viii, "Adjustment" used with permission by ordo templi orientis. © ordo templi orientis, university of london and agm-urania. all rights reserved. thoth tarot is a trademark of ordo templi orientis and university of london.
Since Thelema is based on 'absolute science and philosophy' , it follows that 'relative' constructs such as Justice have no place:54 This card in the old pack was called Justice. This word has none but a purely human and therefore relative sense; so it is not to be considered as one of the facts of Nature. Nature is not just, according to any theological or ethical idea; but Nature is exact.55 Crowley was at pains to emphasise how magic works in accordance with the laws of Nature, whose unfailing exactitude underlies the scientific conception of the physical world: For true Magick means "to employ one set of natural forces at a mechanical advantage as against another set"-I quote, as closely as memory serves, Thomas Henry Huxley, when he explains that when he lifts his water-jug-or his elbow-he does not "defy the Law of Gravitation." On the contrary, he uses that Law; its equations form part of the system by which he lifts the jug without spilling the water.56 The adoption of a scientific approach in the practice of magic is a constant in Crowley's work, as is apparent from the strapline of his semi-annual Journal, The Equinox-'The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion'57-or his insistence that the practitioner of magic should meticulously write down the results of their practices in a magical diary in the same way as a scientist would document an experiment.58 Although Crowley's card echoes traditional depictions of Justice in the tarot-the sword and scales clearly recognisable, albeit now symbolising the testes and phallus-he makes a radical iconographical departure. The female figure, on the card now titled "Adjustment", is portrayed on tiptoe, dancing, signifying that constant adjustment is required to maintain exact balance in motion. This contrasts with the typically static figure depicted in traditional tarot decks. 54 Crowley  The Universe is a Puppet-Play for the amusement of Nuit and Hadit in their Nuptials; a very Midsummer Night's Dream … for we understand the Truth of Things, how all is a dance of Ecstasy.61 Such a conception of reality is essential to Crowley's definition of Magic(k) as the 'Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will' .62 If the natural world partakes of the nature of illusion, then the magician, whilst acting in conformity with natural laws, can manipulate it to achieve the desired change.

Trump xi: From Fortitude to Lust
The tarot trump numbered xi in Crowley's deck is known as "Strength" or "Fortitude" in traditional decks, the latter often interpreted with respect to withstanding the sins of the flesh. The former is possibly derived from a misreading of the original Italian name of the trump, "Fortezza", meaning "fortitude" (or "fortress"), for "Forza", meaning "strength" ( Aries -Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism (2020) 1-31 figure 2 Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley, Atu xi, "Lust" used with permission by ordo templi orientis. © ordo templi orientis, university of london and agm-urania. all rights reserved. thoth tarot is a trademark of ordo templi orientis and university of london.
Crowley's choice of "Lust" as the new title for the card is thus a direct attack on the sexual morality espoused in Christian ethics; it will, of course, escape few that Lust is one of the seven deadly sins catalogued by Christian theologians. It is entirely in keeping with Crowley's polemical stance against Christian ethics that he should adopt concepts condemned by the Church, adapting them for his own uses.
Although commonly associated with sex, Lust more generally denotes pleasure and desire.66 Crowley writes of his renaming of the card: 'Lust implies not only strength, but the joy of strength exercised. It is vigour, and the rapture of vigour' .67 Hence we are to understand by "Lust" not only the unrestricted expression of the sex-instinct but also the free expression of desire in a wider sense. It is arguably in this sense that the word appears in The Book of the Law ii:22: 'Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this' . This is a striking juxtaposition of the ideas of strength as Fortitude and strength as Lust, where the latter encompasses all things of the senses; to be strong is to explore the world of phenomena as the will dictates. In his comment on the above verse, Crowley writes 'To "lust" is to grasp continually at fresh aspects of Nuit' .68 In the metaphysics of Crowley's religio-magical system of Thelema, phenomena, or "point-events" as Crowley terms them, are stripped of simplistic value judgments of what is good or bad: the universe is essentially perfect and phenomena are equally valued as manifestations of the union of the feminine principle, Nuit and the masculine principal, Hadit.69 Hence, Crowley's conception of Lust necessarily involves a perception of existence diametrically opposed to that incorporated in the prevailing Christian view of a fallen humanity occupying a post-lapsarian world marred by original sin.
The iconography of the cardinal virtue of Fortitude is often depicted as a woman struggling with a lion, a styling that found its way into the tarot at an early stage and continued to feature in later decks. 70  an implicit subtext of restraining the passions in keeping with patristic conceptions of Fortitude, Crowley's card inverts this, advocating an ecstatic expression of desire. Rather than struggling with the lion, the woman is depicted riding it, the reins she holds 'representing the passion which unites them' .71 Instead of being antagonists, the woman and the lion have now become lovers.72 The other major innovation of course, is that Crowley uniquely identifies the figures on his card with Babylon and the Beast from Revelation 17. The biblical reference is further modulated through his own visionary experience of Babylon (whom he later renamed "Babalon") whilst skyring the twelfth Aethyr of the Enochian system, an excerpt from which he includes in an Appendix to The Book of Thoth.73 Babalon plays a crucial role in Crowley's magical theory, being associated with the means by which the magician crosses the Abyss, a theoretical construct separating the phenomenal and noumenal worlds.74 Crowley writes of Babalon, 'For there is no other way into the Supernal Mystery but through her, and the Beast on which she rideth …' .75 Hence, giving rein to Lust in service of the Great Work, as personified by the figure of Babalon riding the Beast, is shown to be the ultimate key to spiritual advancement.76

Trump xiv: From Temperance to Art
In the re-naming of the trump numbered xiv, Crowley rejects the last of the three cardinal virtues that had found their way into the tarot. As noted, Temperance was often paired with Fortitude in the battle against the temptation exerted by the sins of the flesh. Alcuin, discussing the characteristics of Temperance, poses the question '[a]nd is not "Temperance" the distinctive trait of 71 Crowley, The Book of Thoth.,94. 72 They are described as being 'intimately united' (ibid). 73 Ibid., 136-139. 74 For It is important to distinguish this from simple libertinism. In keeping with the injunction of Nuit in i:51 and particularly that given in i:57, in Crowley's system love in all its manifestations is to be dedicated to the Great Work. In 'An Essay Upon Number' Crowley notes that xi, the number of the tarot trump, is the 'great number of the Magnum Opus' (see Crowley,777,49).
figure 3 Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley, Atu xiv, "Art" used with permission by ordo templi orientis. © ordo templi orientis, university of london and agm-urania. all rights reserved. thoth tarot is a trademark of ordo templi orientis and university of london.
him who governs his lust and controls his greed and calms and moderates all the passions of his soul?'77 Temperance is frequently equated with the idea of moderation more generally.78 For certain theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335ce-c. 395ce), the very definition of evil is encapsulated in the turning to extremes, in contrast to virtue which is to be found lying in the mean. 79 Crowley writes disparagingly of the concept of moderation: The Golden Mean, at its best, can only keep you from extravagant blunders; it will never get you anywhere. The Book of the Law constantly implies a very different policy: listen to its climax-exhortation: "But exceed! exceed!" (al ii:71).80 Crowley's desire to change the title of the card was therefore a necessary corrective to what he regarded as the leaching of Old Aeon morality into secular ethics. By the nineteenth century, the word "temperance" had also acquired a further meaning, that of moderation or complete abstinence from the consumption of alcohol.81 This would undoubtedly have been anathema for Crowley and another example of the sort of cowardly self-abnegation encouraged by Christian ethics. In an essay titled 'Liber cl, De Lege Libellum' he writes: The sot drinks, and is drunken: the coward drinks not, and shivers: the wise man, brave and free, drinks, and gives glory to the Most High God.82 77 Alcuin, The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne, 153. See also Augustine's comment in Chapter 19 of 'The Way of Life in the Catholic Church' that the function of Temperance is 'to restrain and still the passions' in The Catholic and Manichean Ways of Life, 30. 78 For example, Aquinas in The Summa Theologica ii-ii, Q. 141 Art. 2 notes this sense of the word as the first part of a two-fold 'acceptation' . 79 See Gregory of Nyssa, Ascetical Works, 32. 80 Crowley,Magick Without Tears,[225][226] The first temperance society was established in 1806 at Moreau in New York state as an anti-spirits association, the form taken by the majority of temperance societies that sprang up in its wake. The first English temperance society was founded at Bradford in 1830, similarly as an anti-spirits association. Such societies permitted the drinking of fermented beverages such as wine and beer in moderation. However, by 1832 there emerged a total abstinence society, which set the course for the development of the Temperance movement into a total abstinence, or "teetotal" movement (Anon, The Temperance Movement, 2-6). 82 Crowley,The Equinox Vol iii,No 1,[106][107] In December 1939, three months after the start of the second world war, Crowley published Temperance: A Tract for the Times, a collection of rowdy drinking songs designed to look like the wine-list of an expensive restaurant.83 But the publication had a serious intent, namely of combating another case of the infiltration of the secular sphere by a Christian ethics based on restriction and denial. 84 Crowley's new name for the trump, "Art", on the one hand references the Art of Alchemy, whose symbolism features extensively in the revised treatment of the card and, on the other, arguably constitutes an encoded meaning in the form of gematria, a kabbalistic numerology system whereby the number values of the individual letters of a word are summed to give a single numerical value for that word, akin to the Greek system known as isopsephy. Words of the same value are deemed to have a hidden correspondence to one another. Using gematria, the word "Art" sums to 210, as follows: A = Aleph = 1; R = Resh = 200; T = Teth = 9; and 1+200+9 = 210. I believe it is no coincidence that the title of the card is numerically equivalent to the word "Nox": N = Nun = 50; O = Ayin = 70; X = Tzaddi = 90; and 50+70+90 = 210. In his commentary to the first chapter of The Book of Lies, Crowley writes 'Nox adds to 210, which symbolises the reduction of duality to unity, and thence to negativity, and is thus a hieroglyph of the Great Work.'85 Traditionally, the cardinal virtue of Temperance is depicted as a woman holding two jars, one containing water, the other wine, representing the dilution of wine with water, a symbol of moderation. Crowley neatly reverses the image: rather than two jars there is one cauldron; and although there is one figure on Crowley's card, it is clearly an androgyne formed of two parts, representing the 'Consummation of the Royal Marriage' .86 The card hence depicts the mystical marriage, or hieros gamos, a classical alchemical trope denoting 83 d' Arch Smith, The Books of the Beast,33. 84 It is worth noting that the link between the consumption of alcohol and lust (implicit in the biblical story of Lot and his daughters), was also commented upon by the early Church Fathers (see for example Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator, 141, the story of Lot being found in Genesis 19:30-38). Given its quality of inciting lust, Crowley no doubt also wished to retain alcohol as a weapon in the armamentarium of the magician, and likely sensed in the Temperance movement an attempt to deny a tried and tested way of accessing states of ecstasy-cf. Crowley's commentary on The Book of the Law ii:22 where he writes 'Drunkenness is a curse and a hindrance only to slaves' (Crowley,Magical and Philosophical Commentaries,197). 85 Crowley, The Book of Lies, 13. Italics as per format in modern edition including commentary. The 'negativity' of which Crowley speaks lies beyond the Abyss, i.e. in the noumenal world. 86 Crowley, The Book of Thoth,102. the union of opposites, in both image and name-opposites (2) unite (1) and cancel out to zero (0): The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego …87 If Nox is a 'hieroglyph of the Great Work' and if in trump xiv is indeed 'foreshadowed the final stage of the Great Work,' then the conclusion is inescapable: access to the higher grades of initiation lying above the Abyss-arguably one of the key innovations of Crowley's system of Magick-relates to the uniting of opposites leading to their mutual annihilation.88 Hence there could be no place in Crowley's system for Temperance, whose traditional role in fortifying the soul against the incitements of lust, and its associations with moderation, is the antithesis of the ecstatic and lustful union of opposites which is the essence of the Great Work.

Trump xx: From Judgement to The Aeon
The renaming of trump xx is intimately connected with Crowley's programme of systematic excision of Christian ethics from his tarot deck for the New Aeon. Traditionally, this card depicts the Last Judgement when, according to Christian belief, the wicked shall be punished and the virtuous rewarded.89 This was classically used by theologians as a means of exhorting Christians to virtuous behaviour. For example, in a letter addressed to a 'fallen Virgin' , Basil of Caesarea (c. 329-379) exhorts her to mend her ways, reminding her of the day of Judgement: take thought of the last day … the distress, the suffocation, the hour of death, the instant sentence of God, the angels hastening on, the soul in 87 Crowley,Magick Without Tears,7. 88 The Book of Thoth, 103. Crowley, in his description of the card, refers the reader to an Appendix containing an excerpt from The Vision and the Voice which references the nature of opposites above the Abyss, another indication that this mystical marriage of contraries is connected to crossing the Abyss. For this excerpt, titled 'The Arrow' , see Crowley,The Book of Thoth,[139][140][141][142][143], with the original to be found in Crowley's skrying of the fifth Aethyr of the Enochian system in Crowley (with Neuburg & Desti), The Vision and the Voice,[197][198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206] Cf. Matthew 25:31-46.
figure 4 Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley, Atu xx, "The Aeon" used with permission by ordo templi orientis. © ordo templi orientis, university of london and agm-urania. all rights reserved. thoth tarot is a trademark of ordo templi orientis and university of london.
the midst of these things terribly disturbed, bitterly scourged by a guilty conscience …90 This conception of an external figure to administer punishment or reward in accordance with a given set of ethical dictates plays no role in Crowley's Thelema. Instead, the ultimate arbiter of conduct for the "Thelemite" is the twin injunction found in The Book of the Law i:40 and i:57: 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law' and 'Love is the law, love under will' . More broadly, the Last Judgement is implicitly connected with ideas of death and resurrection, concepts that for Crowley belong firmly to the Old Aeon, reflecting a primitive understanding of the facts of Nature: So, when the time was ripe, appeared the Brethren of the Formula of Osiris, whose word is I A O; so that men worshipped Man, thinking him subject to Death, and his victory dependent upon Resurrection. Even so conceived they of the Sun as slain and reborn with every day, and every year. Now, this great Formula being fulfilled, and turned into abomination, this Lion came forth to proclaim the Aeon of Horus, the crowned and conquering child, who dieth not, nor is reborn, but goeth radiant ever upon His Way. Even so goeth the Sun: for as it is now known that night is but the shadow of the Earth, so Death is but the shadow of the Body, that veileth his Light from its bearer.91 The shift from a geocentric to a heliocentric view also entails a new conception of the fate of the individual. Death does not mean an end to existence, just as nightfall does not herald the demise of the sun. 92 Crowley's re-naming of the card, "The Aeon", reflects his conviction that the reception of The Book of the Law in 1904 signified the advent of the New Aeon of which he was to be the Prophet. Consequently, rather than the traditional image of figures rising from yawning graves at the peal of the last trumpet, the design of the card is based on the Stélé of Revealing, the ancient Egyptian

Conclusion
The adoption and esoteric restyling of the tarot undertaken by preceding occultists-commencing with Court de Gébelin and Etteilla towards the end of the eighteenth century and continuing through occultists such as Lévi, Papus, Mathers and Waite-was driven by a desire to conceptualise the cards as a store of ancient wisdom. Crowley's changes to his tarot for the New Aeon, whilst bringing this process to its logical conclusion, were driven by a much more ambitious agenda: firstly, to excise Christian values from the deck and secondly to encode therein the key tenets of Thelema. Despite the increasingly esoteric styling of the cards, by the time Crowley came to write his work on the tarot the three cardinal virtues, Fortitude, Temperance and Justice, which not only lay at the heart of Christian ethics, but which had by the twentieth century subtly insinuated themselves into the ideology underpinning Western democracies, remained entrenched. Similarly, the Judgement card, even if, in an increasingly secular society, it might be interpreted as some form of spiritual rebirth, still held its traditional eschatological connotations, imbued with ideas of sin, punishment, and reward after death. 101 Crowley's fascination with the origin of words meant he was highly sensitised to the sources and socio-cultural implications of the titles of the tarot trumps, as well as being attuned to the symbolism that underlay these. The holy in Sumer' (ibid., 118) and variously spells the name "Aiwaz", "Aiwass" or even "Aivas". The name is given as 'Aiwass' in The Book of the Law i:7. 99 Crowley recounts how the realisation that it was his mission to teach others to attain the 'Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel' struck him 'like lightning from heaven' , suddenly triggered by a near-death experience when he was travelling in China (Crowley,The Confessions,516). 100 Crowley, The Equinox of the Gods, 61. I am indebted to Egil Asprem for highlighting this point. The 'destruction of the world by Fire' is envisaged as having occurred in 1904 with the reception of The Book of the Law. (Crowley,The Book of Thoth,115). See also Bogdan, 'Envisioning the Birth of a New Aeon' . 101 See for example Waite,The Pictorial Key,148. changes he made in his tarot for the New Aeon should be viewed as part of his ongoing battle to remove the fetters of Old Aeon value systems which he perceived as preventing humanity from achieving its innate potential and replacing these with the radically different approach to morality espoused by The Book of the Law and encapsulated in the system of Thelema. Whereas previous occultists had for the most part removed Christian imagery for the purpose of facilitating a narrative that the cards, as carriers of esoteric secrets, possessed an ancient provenance, Crowley did so out of the desire to supplant Christianity altogether. It is with this agenda that he undertook the renaming and restyling of the four trump cards in question.
As a final point, one could argue that Crowley left a glaring oversight in his tarot deck for the New Aeon: the tarot trump numbered xv retains its traditional title, "The Devil". Although Crowley considered the true identity of this figure to be something other than that depicted on the card, he nevertheless chose to retain the traditional title, most likely for the same reasons as he delighted in adopting the moniker of "The Beast 666" in his ideological campaign to unseat Christianity from its place as the dominant religion of the West.102 However, in spite of this singular example of inconsistency, one should be in no doubt that Crowley's real act of subversion lies not in his Romantic posturing as the Beast of Revelation, but rather in his carefully conceived and painstakingly executed strategy of cultural reprogramming, of which The Book of Thoth arguably comprises the high-water mark.103