Art

A single figure with two heads, the fused king and queen of the Lovers, pours fire and water together into a golden cauldron; a lion and an eagle, their colours now exchanged, stand at her feet, a raven perches on a skull, and an arrow of light rises through a rainbow. Around the figure runs the alchemical formula VITRIOL.

Samekh, the prop or support, on path 25, the middle pillar from Yesod to Tiphareth: the Path of the Arrow, the straight flight of the aspirant from the Moon to the Sun. It supports because it is the road of the Great Work itself.

Sagittarius, mutable Fire, ruled by Jupiter: the archer whose arrow is the aspiration. The decans of Sagittarius are the Eight, Nine and Ten of Wands.

Fourteen, twice seven, and Samekh's value 60. Crowley reads Art as the completion of the Lovers: the six of the alchemical wedding raised and fulfilled.

The transcendent function realised: the coniunctio, the third thing born of two opposites held in tension. This is Jung's image of the psyche healing itself, and the card most often used to describe the goal of analysis.

Waite's angel Temperance pours water between two cups; Crowley makes the pourer the married pair of the Lovers, replaces the cups with a cauldron of fire and water, and names the card for the alchemical art rather than for moderation.