Thoth a Pagan themed deck?

inanna_tarot

Is the Thoth a Pagan deck?

After reading an article on the SuperTarot website..
http://www.supertarot.co.uk/tarot/pagan.php#
I've been pondering this and the more I look at my cards the more 'pagan' things I can see in them.
The importance of elemental dignities would be something a pagan could relate to very easily as they study the nature of each element in turn etc.
A lot of the mythology goes back to the classical pagan religions (though not the fashionable Celtic mythology) which could be understood and worked along a pagan path.
The importance of kabbalah is also being openly used and celebrated in some pagan traditionals and circles (I'm thinking the Witches Tarot inparticular by Reed and her two books that go with it).
The importance of the balance and the duality of nature that a lot of pagans will find important is also here.
It may not have the overt God and Goddess kind of pictures, the devil is not the horned god (though could he be the fool instead?), but for me it seems the Thoth can be a great pagan deck :)

What do you think? Or is the summer melting my brain ;)

Blessings,
Sezo
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bladeraven

Hmm...interesting question...I would say that it could be seen as a pagan theme...but that brings the question of what is "Pagan" ..It certainly can be adapted and seen as such..

Since there is a strong emphasis on the Kabbalah and that is being merged into the Pagan culture...it would be fair to see the Thoth as that.
 

Aeon418

It's a difficult question because first of all you have to define the word Pagan, and that's no easy task is it ? ;)

Crowley used symbolism from many different traditions in the Thoth deck and grouped it together under the umbrella of Thelemic symbolism. But there is no contradiction between Thelema and Paganism. In fact I find your original question very odd for some reason. How much do you know about Thelema ?
 

Alta

That's a thought, but I wonder if it is more just the coincidence or partial coincidence of trains of ideas.

There seem to be a lot of decks that could easily be used by pagans because they have enough overlap to work. Thoth could be one of them I assume, not being a pagan and not being entirely sure of what is encompassed by being a pagan.

Crowely appears to have thought of himself as a magician, among other things, and I suspect that many of the pagan beliefs could fall into that realm.

Edited to add: Aeon418 and I appear to have posted nearly simultaneously.
 

inanna_tarot

Try and define pagan?! I'm not silly enough to lay my head on the chopping block like that ;)
Actually thinking about it a lot of modern paganism comes in a round about way from gardner and his Wicca religion - which again comes in around about from ceremonial magick and various occult orders and he tried to get Crowley in the one act as well.
So I suppose one has the dot of the other inside. If the modern pagan movement can have some roots in Crowley and his beliefs, then thoth deck could be considered pagan - though saying that what I understand from thelema is a philosophy that works very well with pagan beliefs.
Which means in a round about way I have answered my own question lol.
Mercury going retrograde today doesnt help either hehe.

Thanks folks
Sezo
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Zephyros

I agree with others here, that, while the deck was not meant to mirror a specific religion, it can easily fit itself into many, or all. Just as you may say that it can be a "Pagan" deck, it can also be Jewish, Buddhist, Christian or Islamic. Crowley was interested in uniting all the religions of the world under his "vision" as he saw it, and his deck reflects that. Perhaps that is the greatness of it...
 

inanna_tarot

perhaps it is :) Something for everyone in the Thoth but yet you either love it, hate it or keep it in the collection hoping that one day it will speak to you lol.

Blessings,
Sezo
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kwaw

inanna_tarot said:
Is the Thoth a Pagan deck?

Crowley was actively interested in the promulgation of a popular 'pagan' type religion based upon rituals celebrating nature and fertility. In a letter written to Charles Stanfeld Jones ( a neophyte of the OTO) in 1914, he wrote:

quote
"........I hope you will arrange to repeat this [lunar ritual] all the time,
say every new or full moon so as to build up a regular force. You should
also have a solar ritual to balance it, to be done each time the sun enters
a new sign, with special festivity at the Equinoxes and Solstices. In this
way you can establish a regular cult........"
"........The time is ripe for a natural religion. People like rites and
ceremonies, and they are tired of hypothetical gods. Insist on the real
benefits of the Sun and Moon, the Mother-Force, the Father-Force and so on; and show that by celebrating these benefits worthily the worshippers unite themselves more fully with the current of life. Let the religion be Joy,
with but a worthy and dignified sorrow in death itself; and treat death as
an ordeal, an initiation. Do not gloss over facts, but transmute them in
the Athanor ....... of your ecstacy. In short be the founder of a new and
greater Pagan cult in the beautiful land which you have made your home. As
you go on you can add new festivals of corn and wine, and all things uselful
and noble and inspiring."
end from letter quoted in "The Great Beast" by John Symonds.

And it was another OTO member of course who promulgated the pagan religion of 'wicca', Gerald Gardner; the central ritual of which is an adaption of Crowleys 'Gnostic Mass'.

Kwaw
 

inanna_tarot

thanks for that! Always good to know! I knew Gardner was in the same hermetic circles as crowley but didnt know he was part of the OTO.
Great stuff :) Thanks Kwaw!

Blessings,
Sezo
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Aeon418

Hi Kwaw. Can you give me a page reference for that quote ? It's been a few years since I read The Great Beast. ;)