The following quotes for the Major Arcana are from Aleister Crowley, who provided verses at the conclusion of his master-work on Tarot, The Book of Thoth.
This book is essential reading for all Tarot students as it contains many pearls of wisdom upon the tarot, albeit couched in Crowley’s unique cosmology.
The quotes below do not include additional lines of interpretations for each Major Arcana that are in the full Book of Thoth summary section.
0.
KNOW NAUGHT!
ALL WAYS ARE LAWFUL TO INNOCENCE.
PURE FOLLY IS THE KEY TO INITIATION.
SILENCE BREAKS INTO RAPTURE.
BE NEITHER MAN NOR WOMAN, BUT BOTH IN ONE. BE SILENT, BABE IN THE EGG OF BLUE, THAT THOU MAYEST GROW TO BEAR THE LANCE AND GRAAL! WANDER ALONE, AND SING!IN THE KING’S PALACE HIS DAUGHTER AWAITS THEE.
I.
The True Self is the meaning of the True Will:
Know Thyself through Thy Way.
Calculate well the Formula of Thy Way.
Create freely; absorb joyously; divide intently;
consolidate completely.
Work thou, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, in and for Eternity.
II.
Purity is to live only to the Highest; and the
Highest is All; be thou as Artemis to Pan.
Read thou in the Book of the Law, and break
through the veil of the Virgin.
III.
This is the Harmony of the Universe, that Love
unites the Will to create with the Understanding
of that Creation: understand thou thine own
Will.Love and let love. Rejoice in every shape of love, and get thy rapture and thy nourishment thereof.
IV.
Use all thine energy to rule thy thought: burn
up thy thought as the Phoenix.
V.
Offer thyself Virgin to the Knowledge and Conversation of thine Holy Guardian Angel.
All else is a snare.
Be thou athlete with the eight limbs of Yoga: for
without these thou are not disciplined for any fight.
VI.
The Oracle of the Gods is the Child- Voice of Love in Thine own Soul; hear thou it.
Heed not the Siren-Voice of Sense, or the Phantom-Voice of Reason: rest in Simplicity, and listen to the Silence.
VII.
The Issue of the Vulture, Two-in-One, conveyed;
this is the Chariot of Power.
TRINC: the last oracle.
VIII. JUSTICE
Balance against each thought its exact opposite.
For the Marriage of these is the Annihilation of
Illusion.
IX.
Wander alone; bearing the Light and thy Staff.
And be the Light so bright that no man seeth thee.
Be not moved by aught without or within:
keep Silence in all ways.
X.
Follow thy Fortune, careless where it lead thee.
The axle moveth not: attain thou that.
XI. STRENGTH
Mitigate Energy with Love; but let Love devour
all things.
Worship the name ____, foursquare, mystic,
wonderful, and the name of His House 418.
XII.
Let not the waters whereon thou journeyest wet thee. And, being come to shore, plant thou the Vine and rejoice without shame.
XIII.
The Universe is Change; every Change is the
effect of an Act of Love; all Acts of Love
contain Pure Joy. Die daily. Death is the apex of one curve of the snake, Life:
behold all Opposites as necessary complements,
and rejoice.
XIV.
Pour thine all freely from the Vase in thy right hand,
and lose no drop. Hath not thy left hand
a vase?
Transmute all wholly into the Image of thy Will,
bringing each to its true token of Perfection.
Dissolve the Pearl in the Wine-cup; drink, and
make manifest the Virtue of that Pearl.
XV.
With thy right Eye create all for thyself, and with the left accept all that be created otherwise.
XVI.
Break down the fortress of thine Individual
Self, that thy Truth may spring free from the
ruins.
XVII.
Pour water on thyself thus shalt thou be
a Fountain to the Universe.
Find thou thyself in every Star.
Achieve thou every possibility.
XVIII.
Let the Illusion of the World pass over thee, unheeded, as thou goest from the Midnight to the Morning.
XIX.
Give forth thy light to all without doubt;
the clouds and shadows are no matter for thee.
Make Speech and Silence, Energy and Stillness,
twin forms of thy play.
XX.
Be every Act an Act of Love and Worship.
Be every Act the Fiat of a God.
Be every Act a Source of radiant Glory.
XXI.
Treat time and all conditions of Event as Servants
of thy Will, appointed to present the Universe to
thee in the form of thy Plan.
And: blessing and worship to the prophet of the
lovely Star.