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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Monday, 3 May 1920
I don't want to learn the technical tricks of drawing, the dodges of getting a head or a hand 'right' by putting it into a square, and so on; I want to acquire the absolute faculty of indicating my Will (as to the hand or head) by the direct perception of my model and reproduction of the lines as I see them.
Painted a small panel, 'Leda and the Swan', with snow mountains à la Chinoise. The lines are too horizontal; the composition needs a statue one side of her, and some smaller object on the other.
Why do the Tarot Cards give the Knight as the father, the King as the son? It is an echo of the legend of the Wandering Knight who wins the Queen, and whose son becomes a King. This, in turn, relates to the customs of matriarchy. (See Fraser and my story, 'The Hearth'.)
But why should this custom have arisen? Why the exogamy? Possibly to prevent contest between the young men of the tribe (bucks of the herd) by ruling them out.
This Wanderer or Goer is naturally represented as carried by a steed—or a boat, or a swan. Hence possibly the Palm Sunday episode of Christ on an ass, derived from Dionysus, Wanderer from the East. And I think Dionysus is a veil of the All-Father Juppiter not only because he is his son, but because he is Diphues[1] as Zeus is Arrhenothelus.[2] It is very important, both archaeologically and magically to recognize that the 'King' is not the spouse but the son of the Queen. She is impregnated by the Knave, that is, by a stranger, that is, by Zeus or the Holy Ghost. People have mixed this up; they do not understand, e.g. that Jesus can only ride when he is about to become a Ghost. This reflection opens up countless fascinating theories. For instance, the slaughter of the 'King' makes a ghost of him, i.e. raises him in rank to 'Knave' who can wander about and impregnate 'Queens'.
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