Sinister Tarot Reading

Below is a beta version of a customized tarot reader that uses Christos Beest’s Emanations deck (Major Arcana only for now, used in accordance with a Creative Commons license). There are still some bugs to iron out, but the reader is fully functional. While we believe that tarot is best conducted physically in a sacred space rather than in a digital medium, this is meant to be both an introductory tool for those not familiar with how to use or interpret the Sinister Tarot, in addition to being a fun way to familiarize oneself with the various correspondences of the Septenary spheres, the Dark Gods, and the Tree of Wyrd.

Instructions:

Click an individual card to flip it. Once flipped, click it again for more information about the card.

There are two types of tarot spreads typically employed in the Order of Nine Angles: a "Septenary" spread and the traditional Celtic Cross spread. The one employed here is the Septenary spread, which is structured according to the following diagram:

Each card in this layout corresponds to a Septenary sphere on the Tree of Wyrd:

  1. Moon
  2. Mercury
  3. Venus
  4. Sun
  5. Mars
  6. Jupiter
  7. Saturn

As written in NAOS: A Guide to Modern Magick, these relations should be considered with respect to the energies and correspondences of each sphere. Additionally, it notes the following:

1 are unconscious factors
2 and 3 are the past
4 is the present
5 and 6 are the immediate future
7 is the outcome

In turn, 1-2-5 are negative elements/energies, while 1-3-6 are positive. 1-4-7 are what needs to be done to either bring about 7 or prevent it from arising.

Finally, NAOS notes: "In both this and the Celtic pattern all combinations should be seen as how energies flow and change, or become altered through the other influences present. Intuition should enable the practical manifestation of these energies to be understood - e.g. a particular influence/energy might represent an actual person or event in the client's life."

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ATU VII Azoth / 4 Satanas

ATU VII Azoth / 4 Satanas

Satanas is the salt/unconscious level-Dark God of the Sun and is associated with the fourth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from the Moon to the Sun.

The ruby is the password
She of the white robe
Rides the transparent horse
The maiden closes.
On broken legs he steps forth
He becomes the Dragon …

The Menstruum – the Sinister aspect implicit within the ‘homogenous metallic water’: the explosive factor in the delicate balancing of life-enhancing elements. Change by adversity – the ‘Accuser’. The brutal realities that threaten to devour the abstract, the romantic. Insight and control via the understanding of the Primal – or destruction by it.

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ATU XIV Hel / 5 Aosoth

ATU XIV Hel / 5 Aosoth

Aosoth is the mercury/ego-level Dark God of Venus and is associated with the fifth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from the Moon to Jupiter.

The Bleeding Earth
From the throats of fools,
in brooks
From the Gate
A red bird
This, the corn needs
Containment of Winter:
The Maiden is ready

Self-possession; knowledge that allows one to consciously improve/evolve and use natural abilities (or ‘gifts’) – such as sexual charisma – to the advantage of personal Destiny and Wyrd, and to confront and resolve those qualities within character which are detrimental. Self-honesty. In early stages of development, such an individual causes unforeseen disruption and resentment amongst others. Beginnings of that which is re-presented by atu III.

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ATU X Wyrd / 6 Azanigin

ATU X Wyrd / 6 Azanigin

Azanigin is the salt/unconscious-level Dark God of Saturn and is associated with the sixth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from the Moon to Saturn. Along with those of Lidagon and Nemicu, Azanigin’s path is one of the three hidden paths on the Tree and one of the most important, as Her tarot name (Wyrd) suggests.

In red desert
Three fingers and a skull
Are laid on fur
The stones of a circle
Turn to frogs
The skeleton of a child
The birth of an army
A Nexion is opened.

That which is beyond personal Destiny. That which causes expression of itself via the implementation or provocation of acts which in their design achieve long term aims beyond the causal death of an individual; changing aspects of a society by significant creations and thus changing a whole race of people – fulfilling the destiny or Wyrd of the ethos of a civilization. Acts that inaugurate a new Aeon. The causal nature that is dictated by the essence of things – ‘fate’ etc.

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ATU IX The Hermit / 20 Sauroctonos

ATU IX The Hermit / 20 Sauroctonos

Sauroctonos is the sulphur/self-level Dark God of Mars and is associated with the twentieth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from Mars to Saturn.

A crippled boy
A tunnel of bone
A Star descends into a forest
Faces are removed
And She sits in the stone house
Unheard.

Withdrawal and a revealing; the lying between two stages of alchemical Change. Intimations of the Abyss. The culmination on a personal level of energies created by Change – the surfacing of individual factors hitherto only known on an unconscious level. A process of discovery that will lead to insight, (further) knowledge of wyrd; or madness, death.

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ATU III Mistress of Earth / 19 Davcina

ATU III Mistress of Earth / 19 Davcina

Davcina is the mercury/ego-level Dark God of Jupiter and is associated with the nineteenth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from Mars to Jupiter.

From a mountain of skulls
Blue Trees
A rose garden cracks
Two women walk through;
The corpse in a wedding dress
No longer guides
Four waterfalls flood the Earth
And books become ash …

Empathic manipulation (such as ‘enchantment’) to create Change via causal structure – amoral acts that may conventionally be seen as ‘evil’. Actions provoked by unfettered passions and a reveling in the physical pleasures and challenges of life. “Ruthless ambition”. Creativity and Change via destruction – i.e. War, culling.

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ATU XI Desire / 10 Lidagon

ATU XI Desire / 10 Lidagon

Lidagon is the salt/unconscious-level Dark God of Jupiter and is associated with the tenth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from Mercury to Jupiter. Along with those of Azanigin and Nemicu, Lidagon’s path is one of three hidden paths on the Tree.

Autumn
A marriage beneath the Earth
In Elixir
She washes Her hands
A Black Eagle
A Palace of Light
She becomes the snake
Who offers the sword
To sever the arm …

Alchemy: the union of two balancing forces that, as a nexion, create Change through Sinister Intent – the energies in action as earthed and affected by that which is re-presented by atus VI, VII and VII.

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ATU VI The Lovers / 12 Karu Samsu

ATU VI The Lovers / 12 Karu Samsu

Karu Samsu is the salt/unconscious-level Dark God of Venus and is associated with the twelfth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from Venus to the Sun.

Sappho dance in still water
Chains and roses in blue
Invoke the Sun
To an arch of fire
Gravestones, butterflies
And rivers of snakes.

The double tetrahedron a nexion created via the union of balancing forces. The sowing of the seed of Change that which may transform and carry evolution beyond the Abyss, and thus beyond ‘self-image’ – or that which may destroy. The invoking of energies that coerce to create something beyond ‘self’.

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ATU IV Lord of Earth / 16 Kthunae

ATU IV Lord of Earth / 16 Kthunae

Kthunae is the mercury/ego-level Dark God of Mars and is associated with the sixteenth path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from the Sun to Mars.

The Elixir of Recalling
Flows into clear water
The contracting of the Dark Star
The severing of the attractant
The Pool is opened
Go deeper
Against all other
And ever Darker, Recall.

The nature of the changes in the causal, beyond the actions of those who initiated them; how the acausal relates dynamically to the causal and vice-versa (‘Sinister Dialectic’). The flowing of energies according to the greater Wyrd and Destinies of those directly and indirectly involved – thus, the presence of unforeseen factors and the pitfalls implicit in this which may create errors of judgement. The maintaining of an ethos or ‘tradition’ via ‘timeless’ acts.

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ATU XIII Death / 2 Nythra

ATU XIII Death / 2 Nythra

Nythra is the sulphur/self-level Dark God of the Moon and is associated with the second path on the Tree of Wyrd, which leads from the Moon to Venus.

A canal route lined
By white Griffins.
A vortex of grey starless space.
The chalice spills its
White blood
And the Herdsman’s light shines
In the Chamber of the Sphinx.

That which follows hubris; the consequence of attempting to escape that which is ill-fated by Destiny. Personal destruction from self-delusion and the cessation of self-evolution. Energy vortex in the Abyss. The stripping away of the self-image that, if successful, will produce a genuine Master/Mistress; confronting the Chaos within and without.

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