- Water breaks into 5 Rivulets; in the Golden Dawn Philosophus
Initiation Ritual it is said: “...pouring upon the earth the Waters of Creation
which unite and form a River at her feet, the River going forth from the Supernal Eden
which floweth and faileth not” (Regardie, p 188). However, according to Genesis,
there are 4 rivers flowing from Eden, not five (???). There is another possiblity
given in Waite’s Manual of Cartomancy (p 135): “...the gifts of the Spirit
poured upon the earth of the individual.”
- This card is assigned to Aquarius, the Waterbearer, in the Golden
Dawn System. The correspondence seems to fit the figure in the Star image.
- Waite probably viewed the cards following the Tower as the final stages
of the mystical
journey. In The Secret Tradition in Alchemy (p 285), he says “The
revelation comes in a stillness which is as if after a tempest: it is then that the
darkness dissolves, the sun rises and the treasure is found. That treasure is,
according to Thomas Vaughan, a Mystery of
Christ, and according to the Rosicrucians it is the deep secret of a
Meeting in the Spirit.”
Based on original research by Robert V. O'Neill. To add to this collection of information, please email
Robert V. O'Neill.
