XI. Strength. Aquarius

General Book of the Tarot, by A. E. Thierens, [1930], at sacred-texts.com

XI. Strength. Aquarius.

The astrologer says, that the Eleventh house is the house of the 'friends.' This means, that it contains those who are with us, and that which we have within the limit of our power, because 'friendly,' is that which is understood. The forces of nature, which we have mastered, are friendly to us and this is very well expressed by the woman who "is closing the jaws of a lion." The latter stands for passion more particularly. She derives this force from the eternal or superhuman and this is indicated by the lemnescate above her head. In older editions of the card 4 we find half the symbol for Aquarius, as a line of vibration added to it: . Viewed from a purely astrological standpoint it is evident, that the force to conquer Leo should be found in the opposite sign, Aquarius. Early Renaissance must have seen this in the same way, as we find exactly the same image--only with one difference: it is there a young man, not a woman--a man closing the jaws of a lion in the capital of a pillar in the church of St. Andrew-the-Less in Vienna. Which proves at the same time, that the chosen image is not of a very recent date. (Musée du Trocadéro: Paris.)

P. identifies it with the Hebrew letter Kaph, which he says "is a reinforcement of the Gimel--(Gemini)--so that we might say that it designates the hand of

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man in the act of grasping strongly. Ideas of strength are therefore applied to this letter." We should say it is the grip of friendship. A well-known symbol in many societies of brotherhood consisted of two hands united in a close grip of friendship.

"It is connected with the mystery of union . . . in all planes . . ." (W.), and this also is evident, because we are united with that which we have mastered and with people who are able to respond to our (electric) emanations of thought, or to whose emanations we ourselves respond.