Jerry Kay Book of Thoth Tarot

Fulgour

Also curious... any recent news? :) Thanks!
 

Rosanne

Now I am very confused. I looked in Kaplan at this deck and it said 1968. Now the Thoth deck of Lady Harris was unpublished until 1969. So who is Jeremy Kay? His deck looks like another version of the Thoth of Lady Harris. Who copied who? Was the Thoth of Lady Harris available to view for some? I have been looking at the Projective Geometry that was suggested by jmd and to me that is the driving force behind Lady Harris's Thoth, if you compare the two decks. Are there any more such like decks out there? ~Rosanne
 

Fulgour

The card backs are very interesting too:
 

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Emily

Rosanne said:
Now I am very confused. I looked in Kaplan at this deck and it said 1968. Now the Thoth deck of Lady Harris was unpublished until 1969. So who is Jeremy Kay? His deck looks like another version of the Thoth of Lady Harris. Who copied who? Was the Thoth of Lady Harris available to view for some? I have been looking at the Projective Geometry that was suggested by jmd and to me that is the driving force behind Lady Harris's Thoth, if you compare the two decks. Are there any more such like decks out there? ~Rosanne


I'm not really much into Thoth history but wasn't the deck first used to illustrate Crowleys 'Book of Thoth' - then made into the deck in 1969? Maybe this Jeremy Kay published his deck based on the Thoth in 1968 not realising that a year later Crowleys Thoth would be published. When was 'The Book of Thoth' first published.?
 

Fulgour

Emily said:
When was 'The Book of Thoth' first published.?
"The Book of Thoth" was actually a magazine article,
with a 'first edition' on 220 copies published in 1944.
I strongly doubt that it was illustrated at that time.

According to the MKG timeline:

1944 The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley.
Also a very limited edition of the cards produced
in monochromatic brown.

1969 Publication of the Thoth deck through the auspices
of Grady McMurtry. The photography is not very good,
distorting the colors (Llewellyn or Weiser)

http://www.tarotpassages.com/mkgtimeline.htm
 

Rosanne

Some of the cards are distinctly alike- some not so alike. I find the 22 majors of Jeremy Kay very interesting. If he had seen the Harris deck and wished to copy it- I would have found more similiarities I am sure. Emily might be right as to not knowning about the publishing date of The Harris Thoth. Or-maybe the interest after Kay was high and then someone suggested "hey lets publish the Harris Thoth" There is a common basis and I guess it must be the Book of T. I enlarged the first two cards of Kaplan and the same cards of Harris Thoth for comparison. Harris Thoth looks like Projective Geometry was used on an already designed model/or Kay removed the projective Geometry in his illustrations. Interesting Neh? ~Rosanne
 

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Aeon418

Fulgour said:
"The Book of Thoth" was actually a magazine article,
with a 'first edition' on 220 copies published in 1944.
I strongly doubt that it was illustrated at that time.
:laugh:
Sorry Fulgour, the first editions of the The Book of Thoth were, and are, beautifully produced hardbacks. The contents are identical to the modern paperback edition.

http://666books.com/Firsts/thothfin.JPG
 

Fulgour

Aeon418 said:
:laugh: Sorry Fulgour, the first editions of the The Book of Thoth were, and are, beautifully produced hardbacks. The contents are identical to the modern paperback edition.[/url]
Sor-r-r-r-y :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Aeon418, there was a world war,
you see, and drugs were being used for needy things
so cold turkey Crowley winged a frenzied jibberjabber
and could only get it in print by doing so in his journal.
 

Fulgour

update pending

This is a set of Tarot cards and a 64 page booklet, The Book of Thoth: the Ultimate Tarot by Jerry Kay published by XENO Publications 1968, 1969. These cards and booklet are in mint condition. They are 4 inches by 6 inches. The booklet is the same size as the cards and is contained in the same plastic case. These cards are in black and white and were intended to be colored by the owner. There are no marks on any card or in the booklet. The plastic case has a piece of tape and a crack on the front. 78 cards, booklet and case.
It's in the mail...;)
 

Rosanne

Hehehe "Cold Turkey Crowley".
Anyways if I had had the sense to turn back the page from Kaplan- I would have seen a paragraph about Jeremy Kay's Book of Thoth Deck.
At the time that Jeremy Kay designed his book of Thoth Tarot, Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth was not widely available to the public.
So I take it that Kay was an 'insider'?
The Artist wished to create a deck that was similiar in concept and imagery to Crowley's work, while being artistically distinct from the art created FOR Crowley by Lady Freida Harris.
Strange is it not, that if he (Kay) was an insider he published his deck before Harris's was published.
The intricate, gracefully drawn black and white cards are generally quite different from those of Crowley(surely they mean Harris????) although the influence is clear in such cards as 11 Priestess and 1 Magus.
There are others that look like are copied from Harris, without the geometry angle-= maybe both had another source of illustration to draw from?

The author redrew the 0 The Fool in 1980, and it is clear he wished to depart from Crowley tarot in his new design.
I wonder why?
I would like to know more about Mr Jeremy Kay. Does anyone know any more?~Rosanne
Yay Fulgour you lucky little...... delver?