1944 · CLOSE READING
The Book of Thoth
The Book of Thoth (1944), PDF p. 101
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XVII. THE STAR
This card is attributed to the letter Hé, as has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the
Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water‐ bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the
Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of
the Book of the Law.
The figure of the goddess is shown in manifestation, that is, not as the surrounding
space of heaven, shown in Atu XX, where she is the pure philosophical idea continuous and
omniform. In this card she is definitely personified as a human‐seeming figure; she is repre‐
sented as bearing two cups, one golden, held high above her head, from which she pours wa‐
ter upon it. (These cups resemble breasts, as it is written: “the milk of the stars from her paps;
yea, the milk of the stars from her paps”).
The Universe is here resolved into its ultimate elements. (One is tempted to quote from
the Vision of the Lake Pasquaney, “Nothingness with twinkles. . . but what twinkles!”) Behind
the figure of the goddess is the celestial globe. Most prominent among its features is the
seven‐pointed Star of Venus, as if declaring the principal characteristic of her nature to be
Love. (See again the description in Chapter I of the Book of the Law). From the golden cup she
pours this ethereal water, which is also milk and oil and blood, upon her own head, indicating
the eternal renewal of the categories, the inexhaustible possibilities of existence.
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