MakoMoonPool
Aside affirmations, are there any "non-traditional" journaling exercises for the Thoth?
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Banzhaf adds cultural associations like places, music, myths and literature; that's nice, too, and for me, that works better than ready-made affirmations. I don'[t know how his book is called in English; in German, it's Der Crowley-Tarot.
Nemia said:Another thing I do regularly with my Thoth is sort the cards according to different criteria. For example, all cards with a connection to Venus or Saturn. Or all cards with a certain basic colour. Or all cards with birds.
In English it should be The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards.Nemia said:
This is a really great idea, and I will try this myself.
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Well said Nemia, I agree with everything you said. I was also intrigued by some of the methods you suggested, I must try them out myself sometime.
It is also important to keep in mind that you don't have to know everything from the start. What I mean is that I often feel people are put off by what they feel is an impossible learning curve and the absolute necessity of being experts in everything before they even look at a card. But that really isn't the way of it. Some basic knowledge really is necessary to get you up and running but the Thoth is a great learning tool for exactly those subjects that work as its structure. When I started my study of the deck I did take a few months to familiarize myself with the basics of Qabalah but I was far from being an expert. However, after studying the deck I know a lot more now than I did then and become more adept in using it.
All you really need is a basic understanding of the mechanics of the Tree of Life plus a few definitions and you're ready to roll. However you do that, after a few cards you find yourself using the same symbolic tools over and over. Everything in the deck is connected to everything else, and keeping just that in mind opens it up dramatically. As per Nemia's example, all the Saturn cards have some connection, all the fives, etc.
In a way, people create their own Thoth. For me the deck is beautiful Kabbalistic music, while Michael (with whom I butt heads on this occasionally) is far more astrologically inclined. Neither of us is wrong, merely different fingers pointing at the moon.
No head butts, it was merely an example of how, even when two people more or less go by "the rules," there can such disparate viewpoints. People talk about the "traditional" method of using the deck when no two traditionalists are ever the same. And that's a good thing, it makes the deck all the more wonderful, that there are so many ways to approach Crowley, his deck and his work. In the past you yourself have challenged me to rethink many of my accepted views of the deck even though our opinions may differ radically.
So really, I think the best thing to do about learning the Thoth is just to start, and the rest will follow. It has a weird way of taking you places you never expected or never knew you wanted to visit.