#tarottraditionalqabalahelitarot2strikingly.com
Above all things, know thyself.
Tetragrammaton as Living Motion in Western Hermetic Tarot
In Western Hermetic Qabalistic Magick and Tarot, the doctrine of Tetragrammaton (יהוה, YHVH) reveals the Divine Name not as a static symbol, but as a living vortex of creative action. As expressed in the Oracles attributed to Zoroaster, the Name is a “rebounding, whirling forth, crying aloud.”
This image is crucial: YHVH is not a dead formula but a spherical motion of Divine Becoming.
In this doctrine, the final Heh—the Daughter, the Princess, the Bride—is set upon the Throne of the Mother. This act awakens the Eld potency of the All-Father. Creation turns back upon itself. The end crowns the beginning. Manifestation calls Wisdom awake.
This profoundly initiatory mystery is not explicitly revealed in traditional Tarot iconography. It is absent from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and similarly veiled in nature-based decks such as Animal Totem systems. Its full expression only becomes visible within Western Hermetic Qabalistic Tarot, and most coherently within the Thoth tradition.
Tetragrammaton as the Map of the Soul
The four-letter Name, יהוה, is the central glyph through which Western Hermetic Qabalah understands creation, consciousness, and spiritual realization. It unfolds simultaneously across multiple layers:
The Four Elements
The Four Worlds
The Four Sephirotic Stations
The Four Court Functions
The process of incarnation and return
Rather than describing God as distant or external, Tetragrammaton reveals the Divine as a process that thinks, feels, connects, and incarnates—and which does so through the aspirant.
Court Cards and the Core Personality
In the Qabalistic Tarot of Thoth, the significator of a person is not chosen arbitrarily but is rooted in Western Astrology. The Tarot Birth Wheel assigns a Court Card personality based on one’s Sun sign. This card represents the core personality—the soul’s starting posture in this incarnation.
Although each of us contains all sixteen Court archetypes, one pattern dominates as the initial lens through which the soul experiences manifestation.
Kings / Knights → Yod
Queens → Heh
Princes → Vav
Princesses → Final Heh
Thus, the Princess is not “lesser,” but the completion point where Spirit enters matter.
The Princess of Cups and the Living Womb
Within this structure, the Page of Cups—revealed in Thoth as the Princess of Cups—occupies a uniquely potent role. She is Final Heh in the suit of Water: Earth receiving Water; manifestation receiving feeling; matter being understood into being.
Mythically, this archetype aligns with Nimue, the Lady of the Lake—consort and eventual nemesis of Merlin. She is the youthful face of the Triple Goddess: Maiden before Mother, Dream before Form. She is renewal, enchantment, and the dangerous sweetness of vision not yet anchored.
Here lies the caveat of the card:
Without grounding, the dream becomes a labyrinth.
To truly understand the Ultimate Womb, one must meditate deeply on this card—not intellectually, but imaginally—reading Goddess myths with the Eye (I) of the Soul.
Love as the Engine of Creation
Modern culture often frames love as transactional—measured, negotiated, exchanged. Hermetic doctrine says otherwise.
Creation itself arises from desire: “I Will Be.”
Love is not a reaction—it is the original act of Being.
Love built Me to be Itself.
The Goddess is not sentiment; she is Understanding (Binah). We are not merely born—we are understood into manifestation. The Princess of Cups carries this mystery: Love made visible through form.
The Four Letters and Their Hermetic Functions
Yod (י)
Element: Fire
Sephirah: Chokmah
Court Function: Kings / Thoth Knights
Principle: The Seed, the spark of Divine Will
Heh (ה)
Element: Water
Sephirah: Binah
Court Function: Queens
Principle: The Womb, the matrix of Understanding
Vav (ו)
Element: Air
Sephirah: Tiphareth
Court Function: Princes
Principle: Integration, mediation, harmonization
Final Heh (ה)
Element: Earth
Sephirah: Malkuth
Court Function: Princesses
Principle: Manifestation, embodiment, completion
The Princess is therefore not passive. She is the necessary ignition point where the circuit completes and the Name becomes alive.
The Four Worlds as Conscious Descent
Atziluth – Yod – Divine Emanation
Briah – Heh – Creative Blueprint
Yetzirah – Vav – Formation and Pattern
Assiah – Final Heh – Physical Action
The aspirant does not escape the world; they learn to bring Heaven into it.
The Name as a Tool of High Magick
In High Magick, YHVH is a functional engine, not a theological abstraction. It is invoked to:
Balance the elements
Structure ritual space
Align the microcosm with the macrocosm
The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is not symbolic theater—it is the Name in motion, ordering consciousness.
Meditation upon the letters awakens their internal correspondences, transforming the practitioner into a living Temple.
* You will find the Lesser Banish Ritual (LBR) @:
The Princess of Cups and Venusian Gnosis
Aleister Crowley, in the Thoth Tarot, associated the Princess of Cups with Venusian current—not as superficial romance, but as Love as formative intelligence. Venus here is the magnetism that draws Spirit downward into form and draws consciousness back toward beauty.
Thus, the Princess/Page of Cups is not childish sentiment. S/he is the Gate through which Love enters matter.
Creation is Love daring to be visible.
In the Triple Goddess Tarot, the card may bear the traditional title Page of Cups, yet its imagery speaks in a distinctly initiatory and contemplative tone. The card depicts a young, barefoot girl clothed in a simple brown robe, standing upon a sun-washed shore. She gazes in quiet wonder at a golden chalice resting before her, from which an octopus emerges—an unmistakable symbol of the deep, many-armed subconscious rising toward conscious awareness. Behind her stretches the vast ocean beneath a radiant sky, emphasizing both emotional depth and limitless possibility.
Within this deck, the Page is often referred to as the Student of Cups, a title that reframes youthful naivety not as a flaw, but as a sacred stage of becoming. The Student is one who has not yet been hardened by the world and therefore still possesses the capacity to marvel. Learning unfolds not only through experience, but through imagination—through the courage to dream while standing at the threshold of emotional understanding.
This card speaks to child-like wonder, romantic idealism, and the formative stages of emotional intelligence. It reflects a state of gentle emotional detachment—not as avoidance, but as openness—where feelings are observed, explored, and allowed to arise without yet being bound by expectation or outcome. As the child learns, the world reveals itself as a living mystery, rich with symbols, meanings, and new discoveries waiting to be received.
In this way, the Page of Cups in the Triple Goddess Tarot becomes an image of the soul’s first conscious relationship with feeling itself—a quiet initiation into the mysteries of the hea
Hermetic Comparison: Rider-Waite-Smith vs Triple Goddess
In the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, the Page of Cups emphasizes emotional curiosity responding to an external stimulus—the fish rising from the cup surprises the Page, suggesting messages from the unconscious arriving unexpectedly. In contrast, the Triple Goddess Tarot presents the Page as already contemplative and receptive; the octopus does not intrude, but calmly reveals itself. Rather than surprise, there is recognition. The RWS Page learns through encounter, while the Triple Goddess Page learns through attentive presence. One listens; the other beholds.
The Page of Cups as Final Heh: Princess of the Watery Womb
Hermetically, this card expresses the mystery of Final Heh (ה) within the suit of Water. As the Princess of Cups, she is the point at which emotional and imaginal substance enters the world of form. She is not yet active or directive—she receives, contains, and incubates. The beach itself marks the liminal boundary between Water and Earth, perfectly expressing the Princess function: the threshold where feeling becomes experience.
The octopus rising from the chalice symbolizes the many-tendrilled subconscious—Binah’s depths—emerging into conscious awareness through the vessel of the Princess. This is emotion before definition, intuition before articulation, love before story. In the doctrine of Tetragrammaton, the Princess completes the Name by grounding Understanding into lived reality. She does not act yet; she allows the mystery to arrive.
Thus, the Page of Cups is not merely youthful sentiment, but the Goddess in her first act of manifestation—the Daughter set upon the Throne of the Mother. In this state, the soul learns not by doing, but by being with what arises. This is the sacred stillness before choice, where imagination remains pure and the dream has not yet been fractured by necessity.
What is received with wonder is later shaped by will.
When the Page (Princess) of Cups Is Thrown in a Divination
This card implies the presence of a fair or youthful person, often gentle in disposition, who is impelled to render service and whose influence will be directly connected to the Querent. This may refer to an actual youth, a student, or a person newly entering the Querent’s emotional or imaginative field.
It also signifies a studious or reflective temperament, one inclined toward learning, contemplation, and inner development. News, messages, or communications of an emotional, artistic, or intuitive nature are often indicated—sometimes subtle, sometimes symbolic rather than overt.
The Page of Cups further denotes:
Reflection and meditation
Application of feeling to learning or creative work
Emotional sensitivity directed toward practical or business matters
Ideas, opinions, and impressions forming at an early stage
As with all Pages or Princesses, this card does not only represent young people, but incipient states of consciousness—new feelings, thoughts, or imaginative impulses that are either in harmony with, or quietly opposed to, the matter at hand.
When Ill-Defined or Reversed
When reversed or ill-dignified by surrounding cards, the Page of Cups suggests:
Aesthetic affectation or false taste
Artifice or emotional insincerity
Excessive attachment to fantasy or desire
Seduction through charm rather than sincerity
Emotional deception, self-deception, or misplaced trust
Hermetically, this indicates Final Heh unanchored—emotion without grounding, imagination without containment. The dream has not yet found its vessel.
Hermetic Note:
As Princess of Cups, this card represents the first embodiment of emotional consciousness. Upright, it shows the Goddess receiving the waters of understanding into form. Reversed, it warns that feeling has not yet matured into truth.
- Thank you for your interest, your thoughtful comments, subscriptions and your generous support.
Your donations help keep this work alive and accessible to all sincere seekers.
May your generosity return to you in abundance. May you live long and prosper.
3 Western Hermetic Tarot and Magick Websites Helping people become more magick and less tragic since 2010.
Traditional Tarot Blog and tarot store.
Tarot Home Page, Tarot Store, Master Tarot Classes, and Nontraditional Tarot Card Comparisons.
Western Hermetic Magick ritual and invocation website and Magick blogs.
