Beginner's Book on Thoth Tarot

smw

It has this stubborn, bristly way of saying: if you think one kiss is enough for this beauty, think again, no go and eat your kabbalah soup, astrology stew and alchemy pudding, and we'll talk again...

:laugh: I found the BOT completely and utterly impenetrable aside from providing information, mostly cryptic. Having slurped an attempt to eat some Kabbalah soup, skived astrology stew and stomach boggled with alchemy pudding... FINALLY... I briefly hear talking - patient and considered, even kind?? :)
 

fractalgranny

:laugh: I found the BOT completely and utterly impenetrable aside from providing information, mostly cryptic. Having slurped an attempt to eat some Kabbalah soup, skived astrology stew and stomach boggled with alchemy pudding... FINALLY... I briefly hear talking - patient and considered, even kind?? :)

some people might recognize me from an earlier post about the thoth ... try as i might, i find alchemy, astrology, kabbalah and esoteric symbolism quite meh - but i do love thoth decks. quite the conundrum.

having said that, and having pawed through piles and piles of library books on this, i did thoroughly enjoy duquette's book, and have started reading his chicken kabbalah. he has some great videos on youtube, too.

has anyone here read wang's books on tarot?
 

Shade

Has no one said Angeles Arrien's Tarot Handbook yet? I'll say it then.

Angeles Arrien's Tarot Handbook.

I really liked liked DuQuette's book and it's my favorite for the Thoth but you said a beginner book and you mentioned trepidation about Kabbalah and whatnot and while LMD does a faboo job at that, at this stage you might be better with Arrien's take on the deck.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Someone somewhere did mention Wang but I can't remember why it isn't the the first book on the list if you only really want to start with minimum numbers of books first.

I will look up Angeles Arrien.

I am ambivalent about all that stuff too fractalgranny. Truth be told, I am always more driven by trying to understand the art of the deck. If through that it speaks to me then it is a bonus :)
 

Zephyros

Robert Wang's book is an excellent Qabalistic primer (as says its name) and does deal with Tarot, but it is more general. It doesn't deal too much with the Thoth in-depth, but more in the general terms of its Qabalistic system. I recommend it together with what I think of its "compnion book," Dion Fortune's Mystical Kabbalah. The two, together with Duquette's Qabalah book, work very well together and complement each other.

Angeles Arrien's book is problematic, and there have been some heated threads about it in the Thoth forum. Its main problem is that, by admission of the author, it deliberately eschews all of Crowley and contains Arrien's own second-hand interpretations. You learn a lot mainly about Arrien herself in the book, less so about the Thoth and Crowley. I can't really recommend it based on the simple reason that if you want to learn about the Thoth, it makes little sense to work with something that isn't Thoth. While I don't like her book in any case, I could see someone getting something out of it, as a compilation of alternative interpretations, after they've gained some basic familiarity with the deck.

Ultimately, when studying the Thoth it helps to remember that it is a system, and everything is interconnected. Once you learn a few Kabbalistic definitions, they apply to all other aspects of the deck and you can really start working with the system on your own. It really isn't difficult, and is well worth it. Someone here said you can't hurry study of the Thoth and that's true, but you can try to breeze past the underlying system in order to get it over with and then move on to really getting a grip on the deck itself.

Kabbalah isn't the main thing, it is merely the language in which the deck expresses itself. While I do see it as a necessary stepping-stone, don't get bogged down by its minutiae because you will have ample opportunities to work with and understand your tools better when you move on to the deck. Get the basics down and move on, then look at every card through that lens and not only will things then "magically" start to make sense, but with every card you analyze in this way your proficiency in the deck's language will improve.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Thanks closrapexa. To be honest I am not sure about Crowley and Thoth at this moment. But I have recently became intrigued by Lady Harris' art. I have always wanted to understand astrology better but was never motivated enough to do anything about it. Kabbalah kept getting mentioned here and in many decks which art I like. So that became the driving force for me wanting to know more about it. If all this culminates in Crowley as a starting point so be it. I don't know much about him so I thought I really ought to read a good biography of his life. One written not from the point of view of a 'convert', but an interested bystander. I suppose what I am saying is that I am actually moving the other way around, I seek to understand the Crowley deck because I want to know the other stuff better. Which I guess is OK for now.

From what you said it seems that the Wang book is what I need.

Will check out Dione Fortune's Mystical Kabbalah.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Hm. Robert Wang's one aggressive title on one of his books rather put me off reading anything penned by him.... I know this is a bit judgemental and I really shouldn't but I am really put off by the vibe he gave out through that particular title (not the book we are discussing here).

So I will check out Dione Fortune and add that to my Thoth basic package and leave Wang out for now.
 

Zephyros

What book is that?
 

The Happy Squirrel

The title includes the word "rape", which is a strong word not to be taken lightly, perpetrated by 'Christian theologians' against Jewish Mysticism. Me no like. I don't care if he has a case, his choice of words betrayed his emotive position. I can understand emotive languages and titles on books like "The Rape of Nanking" given the nature of events which unfolded in that particular part of history. But by the logic behind his choice of that particular title and his short self description of the book on Amazon, I should write a book called 'The Rape of my Culture by Western Hegemony'. Sorry, that word just rub me the wrong way. Maybe I'll check his book out some other time.