seventeen and four

the other day in my morning three card reading i turned up the nine of wands, flanked on the left by (17) star reversed and on the right by (4) emperor.

and i remembered that crowley had switched the hebrew letter attributions of the star and the emperor, though not their positions in the sequence, creating what he called a "double loop" in the zodiac, corresponding with his having swapped (8) strength with (11) justice.

case and others attribute the letter heh, the definite article, to the emperor, and tsade, to seek, to the star.

the story crowley tells, referring to himself in the third person under a latin name that means "i shall endure," cf. nine of wands, is that he received instruction from "a messenger of the secret chiefs" he did not himself understand, from which he later concluded that tsade should refer instead to the emperor.

lon milo duquette gives a good description of this in his book on thoth.

for myself, i take all of these talmudic commentaries as simply providing additional perspectives on both cards. while (17) star suggests to me primarily a path of seeking through meditation and humility, and (4) emperor suggests to me the frame through which an individual views reality, each can also reflect the other.

similarly with (8) strength and (11) justice, but that is another story.