AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here is another instance where Aleister Crowley’s tinkering with the Golden Dawn’s title for one of the Minor Arcana does not really capture the original intent (or so it seems to me).

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn presented the 5 of Cups as the “Lord of Loss in Pleasure.” Use of the word “in” here is very subtle. I interpret it to mean loss “during, through or because of” a pleasurable experience. Crowley’s “Disappointment” seems to be speaking of a failure to achieve, or preemptive loss of, such a state of bliss. In casting around for another single-word title to align with the Golden Dawn’s definition, I find that “Indiscretion” may have been a better choice. If you don’t mind a little indelicacy, read on!

The Golden Dawn’s description reminds me of the Monty Python sketch in which Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and James McNeill Whistler are attending a party at which the Prince of Wales makes an appearance. All three attempt to outdo one another with witticisms that start out by vaguely insulting the Prince, and then each wag tries to pin his increasingly offensive barbs on one of the others. The attacks soon get more sarcastic and vulgar (and also more difficult to deflect). Near the end of the sketch, Wilde (Graham Chapman) comes up with “Your Majesty is like a dose of clap.” Outraged, the Prince shouts “What?!!!” as Whistler finishes for Wilde: “Before you come is pleasure, and after is a pain in the dong.” Wilde and Whistler in unison try to redirect the Prince’s wrath with “One of Shaw’s, one of Shaw’s,” after which the scandalized Shaw (Michael Palin) scolds “You bastards!” and all four chuckle appreciatively.

As was typical for the egotistical Crowley, he figured he could make better sense of what the Golden Dawn was up to and, to his credit, he was usually successful. I’m not on-board with his Thelemic religious aspirations (or pretentions) because I dismiss the virtue of religions in general as just so much psychological manipulation (or, more pointedly, irrational “group-think” in the form of spiritual brainwashing), so I haven’t bought into all of his modifications to the Major Arcana. But, when relying on the Tree of Life framework, his treatment of the Minor Arcana is mostly on solid ground (with the possible exception of his sexual reading of the astrological implications for the 6 and 7 of Cups, which I’ve taken to task from a seasoned astrologer’s perspective in previous essays. Scorpio is not always libidinous, it is sometimes just plain mean-spirited).

His sexual fixation may have moved me at one time but I’ve since grown more philosophical about it. Just as I don’t believe the Lenormand deck needs a specific “sex” card despite efforts to commandeer one for the role, I don’t waste much thought on the subject in my tarot work. It’s neither my inclination nor my place to attempt answering what somebody once asked on one of the tarot boards: “Does ‘X’ want to have sex with me?” Talk about cutting to the chase! Although I didn’t voice it at the time, my snarky Scorpionic retort was “Is he or she still breathing?” Although I seldom take on such inquiries, I’ve assumed that a sitter asking “Does Joe or Mary like me?” means much the same thing in more oblique terms. I call these episodes of veiled prurience “hiding behind the tarot,” and I avoid becoming involved in them if I think that’s what is afoot. The aim of third-party mind reading is (or should be) beneath the dignity of any legitimate diviner who aspires to be more than a fortune-telling opportunist.

In any event, the 5 of Cups is not a charitable or sympathetic Water card. In the past when it came up in a reading, I’ve advised my clients to salvage what remains of their dignity and leave the mess behind (“Take the best and leave the rest.”) With the RWS card, all the dejected individual has to do is raise his head and turn around, grab the two upright goblets and get on over the bridge in the background where the hope of redemption beckons in the distant castle. In the Thoth version one must grapple directly with the prospect of frustrated pleasure as described by Crowley in The Book of Thoth.

As an astrologer with an interest in classical rulerships, I don’t agree with his assumption that Mars in Scorpio is entirely debased; there is a hard-nosed, durable toughness to it that suggests being able to pass through the emotional maelstrom relatively unscathed, and perhaps take a few telling whacks at the adversary in the process. My money would be on Mars in its own sign to vanquish the turmoil and outlast the disappointment, and that is the gist of what I tell my clients.