Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: New Edition

Guide essentiel pour accompagner le tarot de thot

This offering from Mr DuQuette serves majestically well in providing a deep insight into the raison d'etre behind the Thoth Tarot. A brief background into Crowley and Frieda, Lady Harris is provided, as well as a few basics regarding the Golden Dawn and Qabalah. DuQuette's writing style is lucid and punctuated with humour and irony in sufficient amounts to make a rather complicated subject matter accessible. Most of the other books on the Thoth Tarot tend to gloss over the engine under the bonnet, focusing instead on the paintwork and upholstery. In other words, they devote their pages to furnishing the reader with the divinatory meanings behind the cards, with a few cursory glances at the use as a tool of meditation and contemplation. Crowley and Lady Harris managed to cram in the equivalent of a set of occult encyclopediae into some breath-taking artwork, and DuQuette's book serves to draw attention to details and concepts hidden in plain sight. With a reasonable grasp of the Qabalah and comparative mythology, the cards become like zen koans or Sufi teaching stories; the entire deck embodies the Qabalistic Sword and Serpent. DuQuette reminds us that Crowley intended the Thoth Tarot for such meditational practices, rather than a mere fortune telling toy - in modern parlance, using the Large Hadron Collider for interrogating the mysteries of the universe instead of an ornate pencil-sharpener. There is enough to satisfy the left hemisphere of the brain with maps, meanings and minutiae which means the right hemisphere can play with the indescribable and experience non-thought and awareness beyond logos. This book seems to me to be designed to help the meditative student. Just the description of the Rose Cross on the backs of the cards was a huge eye-opener for me. Yes, there are divinatory meanings towards the rear of the book, but it seems such a waste not to digest the Thoth Tarot in the way its design was actually intended. This book hit all the right spots for me and proved to be (and will continue to do so) a reward for all the previous studies of, and work I have conducted of the Qabalah, mythology, etc.

Muito bom

As someone who has owned the Thoth deck and Crowley’s Book Of Thoth for over twenty years, this text has become somewhat of a skeleton key to his and Lady Harris’ deck for me. Many of the more difficult if not inscrutable aspects of the deck and Crowley’s decisions are explained with a clarity unmatched in anything I’ve read on the subject. Lon not only provides helpful information on much of the “inside baseball” of the idiosyncrasies of the deck but also provides some of the most clear writing on some of the attributions and concepts that are foundational to communing and interpreting the cards for oneself. The sections on the Tree Of Life and the Hermetic Cross were some of the most manageable, clear and illustrative I have ever read and I walked away less perplexed yet still full of awe than other texts on the same subjects, which often left me feeling confused and frustrated. Crowley’s Book Of Thoth is much less daunting of a read and Harris and Crowley deck feels so much more familiar and welcoming than ever before. I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone truly interested in building a relationship to this material. Many reviewers critique the amount of space dedicated to the interpretations, which is understandable but not really what this book is entirely about. It helps one to think about this deck and to understand its mechanics and structure. If one is mostly looking for spreads and prepared interpretations I recommend Banzhaf and Theler’s book—however I think this book belongs on any serious students shelf.

As much as I enjoy reading it, not sure the Book of Thoth was intended to stand on its own. Often there are references to books that I just don't have. So, I do appreciate the research the author did to fill in those gaps. I will definitely stay in my library.