Thoth workalikes or Is it the One?

I'm hoping this week to experiment with my Thoth, various sizes (Large-AGM Mueller blue box with gray frames, not grey-green/Medium-U.S. Games in Lavendar Box/Mini from Rider/Thoth Complete Tarot Set) and a new Thoth workalike, the Via Tarot

Now this might not work for Thoth purists, but for Aeclectic sorts, have you done comparative readings with a Thoth workalike/feels-similar-but different slant such as a Gill, Haindl, Rohrig, Tarot of the Spirit, Vision Quest (Native American style from AGM Mueller), Quest or Quest Tarot (morphed computer generated figures)...or other deck? Or once you settle on the Thoth, does it become in your eyes...(big breath)

"***the one and only***"

I'll retire quietly to my other corner if this is a horrid, horrid thing...by the way has anyone ever done a Thoth workalike page or collection of links...

Mari who is paddling
quickly to other forum waters

LOL! - "the one and only"...

the only 'clone' that works for me on a level even close to the original is the Magickal Tarot, although the Haindl is not bad.

many people don't like the Magickal due to it's rather barren artistic quality. but to me, nothing could be less important than how it looks. i'm not critiquing art here, i'm working with the tarot!
and from a tarot point of view, i see this deck as second ONLY to the Thoth.

I often work with Gill in comparative readings but never together with thoth.
The only deck i really worked with comparativly together with Thoth is the Spiral. The two seem to complement eachother really well somehow.

I've recently started a journal comparing the Thoth, Haindl, Wheel of Change, and Herbal tarot decks. I find that although the basic meanings are similar, the energies from each card is different. It seems to give me a different slant on the meanings. So far, I like the Thoth a lot but I'm not sure if it's the "one and only" for me yet. It's too early to tell right now.

For me, there is no one single Golden Dawn deck. My mental deck is generally an eclectic combination of the Golden Dawn's _Book T_ and the RWS pictures. I like the Gill and Duquette for the Golden Dawn colour scale colours. Excellent all-round decks are the Thoth and RWS. The Hermetic would be good, if U.S. Games eventually gets around to reprinting it. Tarot of the Spirit -- now really, what's with all the stars in almost half the cards?

The Thoth caught my eye the first time I went shopping for tarot decks. It is still one of my main two decks, the other being the Hermetic, however, I go through cycles where other decks take my attention for a while. At the moment, I'm studying the Marseille decks but have no intention of giving up my Thoth. It will always be one of "the ones"

I used the Navigators of the Mystic Sea for a while - the majors are largely drawn from the Thoth [no Lust, though, but Strength in a circus ring, if I remember correctly], while the minors are in the Colman-Smith tradition. No princesses, sadly. I didn't really find it satisfying, though some of the cards were beautiful and the majors deployed a huge amount of visual information.

I just got a Thoth deck for my birthday, and when I went through it, discovered that many cards are similar with my Enchanted Tarot (Zerner-Farber). So, while for a long time I thought this deck was mainly inspired by RWS, now I've discovered that there's a lot of Thoth influence as well. I don't know if anyone has The Enchanted too, but if you do, you should compare it with the Thoth. I forgot to mention that I'm in love with The Enchanted Tarot (Zerner-Farber).

The Ancient Egyptian Tarot (Clive Barett), while HUGELY different in appearance, bears a few notable simliarties. The card's titles listed in the book are the same as those on the Thoth cards. The similarities in the court cards are striking (although in the A.E. deck, the Queen is holding a scuplted head rather than what appears to be a real one!)
The Kings are still called Kings in A.E., but they are on horses and seem to be acting like traditional Knights. The Princes are in chariots, too.

So, while Ancient Egyptian is definately not a clone, there's no doubt it was directly inspired by Thoth.

Hi Mari,

I have a few Thoth workalikes (I love that term, did you invent it?). Crowley's Thoth as been my power deck since I first picked it up in the store. And, at least for me, it clearly has overall masculine energy. Of the others that I have along the same line, Tarot of the Spirit has announced herself as my power deck of the feminine side. Spiral is another that works well for me, but just not as powerful as the other two. I also have the larger sized Thoth, but have not attempted to use it for readings - I have enough trouble shuffling and handling regular sized decks in my small hands. I would love to have a pocket version just for the ease of handling - I could always pull the larger cards later to get a better/closer look and not miss anything. Haindl is another I have but have not felt much of a pull to work with so far. Then again, I've had some decks sit in my box for months before the feeling comes to work with them.

But to answer your question, overall, Thoth will probably always be my power deck, with Spirit a gentler second. I will not use these to the exclusion of all other of that style, but definitely have a preferance to their energy.

Thea Lynx