"The Key" to "the true"

Ange

I suppose it is just my thinking at the moment, until I learn more.....

It's like I won't keep my cards in a black bag....and I wouldn't have secondhand cards.....

Odd really are'nt I....

Ang x
 

Aeon418

Umbrae said:
Sounds like DuQuette's is better and not as 'dry'
I've just finished reading The Thoth Companion, and I'm really not sure about DuQuette being better. Different? Yes. Better? Maybe, maybe not.

DuQuette is very good at summing up the ideas behind the cards, and presents it all in a light, witty and easily digestable fashion. Snuffin, although he is a bit dry to read, focuses on the individual pieces of symbolism in each card and covers many important things that Lon brushes over or completely neglects to mention. I think both books complement each other and provide a good stepping stone to Crowley's Book of Thoth.

A word of warning. Snuffin expects his readers to have at least a basic grasp of qabalah. Lon DuQuette's, Chicken Qabalah fits the bill nicely. Also Snuffin uses upright and reversed meanings in his interpretations. Grrrrr. But it's easy enough to read them as dignified and ill-dignified if you use elemental dignities.
 

Scion

VERY glad to hear that Aeon!

My copy of the Snuffin should be here today or tomorrow. :thumbsup: Annoying about the reversals thing, but then I suppose it's the Tarot zeitgeist; perhaps the publisher suggested it or SNuffin felt people would expect it.

Now I'm looking forward to this one. :)
 

Aeon418

Scion said:
VERY glad to hear that Aeon!
I doubt that you will be blown away by it, Scion. But I think you will be pleasently surprised. I was. :)

On quite a few occasions while reading the book I was looking at the cards and saying, "ahaaa", while nodding my head in a profound manner and stroking an imaginary beard. :laugh:
 

Scion

Just finished reading it. It's fine. Not great, not thrilling, but a good solid intro that sort of makes the Banzhaf books redundant.

It's definitely a supplementary book, and it does expect you to know certain things without having explained them: basic Qabalah, alchemy, and astrology, the concepts of Aeon, Thelema, Nuit, etc. But it would be a good textbook for a class. In fact, that's what it reads like: a well-organized textbook by someone who's an educated fan of the deck.

IN a way, I feel like it's the kinnd of book that keeps being produced for te Waite-Smith over and over and over: a more-than-cursory look at symbolism, attractive tables and graphics, meanings... So that either means that Crowley is officially mainstream, or else Llewellyn realized that there is a group of people who want to use the Thoth for divination but can't find a concise keyword/symbolism guide. It IS a great compliment to the Duquette (especially since Lon isn't always thorough in his look at the individual cards).

As you say: not blown away, but perfectly happy to own and have read it... and I'd definitely recommend it in some cases.

Scion
 

tmgrl2

Good review, Scion. Well thought out and specific.

I have a little stack of books to read on the Thoth....project for a future date...so perhaps I will add this to the others.

terri