New member drawn by the Thoth...

Symulacrum

Hello... Within my Introduction post, similia recommended that I share my observations of the Thoth deck with the members of this forum. I hope you won't mind if I simply copy and paste the major portion of my post here (including my specifics... just incase they might help influence a reply)... as well as add a few follow-ups. I respectfully plead for forgiveness if the length or wording of the post becomes tedious.

Creativity, Knowledge, and Communication fascinate me on a deeply spiritual level and compose the doctrines of my unlabeled and solitary faith. To walk a path of Symmetry and Balance is my eternal Quest; Ecocentricity is my Mantra; & I find skillfully crafted Humor to be a representation of The Divine.

My heroes have always been men and women of extraordinary genius, creativity and/or balance, and I have felt the strongest psychological pull towards Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci since early childhood.

I am one who has always been slightly out of phase with humanity and more drawn to the company of animals and plants, though I do continually seek to observe brief glimpses of the Big Picture as it applies to our human race and our relative position in the Ecosystem. In my more recent attempts I have most often experienced a heavy depression, which has begun to severely trouble me.

I am a Monkey born on the Scorpio/Sagittarius cusp of Revolution on the Day of the Scrambler. My Numerical Tarot is 2 x 10 The Wheel of Fortune; my Astrological Tarot is 13 Death… and my daily meditation is currently focused on: Everything that has a beginning has an end, and every end is a new beginning… which I have come to believe provides the essential fuel to stimulate the perpetual Revolutions of Evolution.

Until recently, I had only been drawn by one deck... The Tarot of the Ages... and against all of my attempts to redirect towards the Tarot of the Cat People or the Medieval Cat Tarot... it was INSISTENT. I have been aligned with it for 13 years, but have only truly begun to understand it's potential over the past 3.

I've always found my attraction to the deck cosmically amusing as I have been struggling only a fraction of a degree away from complete misanthropy... but there is an undeniable will of wisdom at work behind the Tarot and I have since accepted and embraced it utterly.

Yesterday, however, I experienced an overwhelming attraction to The Aleister Crowley Thoth deck... and the realization of the symbolisms of my dreams was undeniable. To be honest, I found the urgency with which the Thoth deck invaded my dreams last night to be quite overpowering. I am equally tempted to both embrace it and avoid it with all due caution.

I will need to meditate on this further and any suggestions (pro or con) will be genuinely appreciated.
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On a side note: I have a "feeling" that I should also mention that I have twice received the World (Universe = Tarot of the Ages) card as my Celtic Cross Outcome on two consecutive Full Moon readings... both heavy with the presence of the Major Arcana.
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As a follow up, I have attempted an online reading of the Thoth, and though I approached the process with some skepticism due to the electronic methods... I found it to be vividly accurate to my current situation. I am beginning to feel as if the Tarot of the Ages Deck has only been priming me for this moment so that I may overcome my deep fear of genius=insanity.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated and well received.

Thanks in advance to those who will offer precious time to help me to resolve my conundrum.

Sincerely, Sym
 

Grigori

Am glad you stopped by Sym

It is funny that you comment on a fear that "insanity = genius" for this deck.Most people consider that Crowley was either insane or a genius. Of course many recognise both. I think his deck is visually stunning, and an ongoing riddle to me that encourages me to learn more and seek more.

I am not familiar with the "Tarot of the Ages" but I assume from what I have seen online that it is based on the RWS tradition. In which case I think studying a deck like the "Thoth" that illustrates the concordances etc. graphically will complement that very well. My personal preference is for RWS styled decks, and I found studying the Thoth has enriched my understanding of that deck, it's derivitives, and the Golden Dawn tradition generally.

This deck also inspired my still preliminary study of astrology, and in particular encouraged me to study Cabala which has been an incredibly rewarding process for me spiritually in such a short time.

If you do decide to spend some time with this deck, I highly recommends Lon Milo Duquette's book "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot". It is an entertaining and approachable introduction to the concepts of the deck, and also gives some insights into Crowley as well as his relationship with Harris (the artist). After that there are many good books on the deck, that will offer stronger assistance for using the cards for divination etc..

There are many people in this forum with great experience and expertise with the Thoth deck. Hopefully they will stop by and offer opinions. Consider these the comments of a beginner. :)
 

Alta

Welcome to the Thoth Forum Sym. I feel sure that you will be contributing to and starting many interesting discussions.

Marion
 

Lillie

What's the day of the scrambler?
 

Diwha

similia

Hi Similia
At what level did you start learning the Cabala, there is so much..
Thank You
Diwha
 

Grigori

Diwha said:
Hi Similia
At what level did you start learning the Cabala, there is so much..
Thank You
Diwha
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Yep there is a lot :D I've only been reading books on the Hermetic Qabala as it applies to tarot also, I've not touched on pure Kaballah stuff yet.

First I read Duquettes books on Thoth and then Qabalah (this one being the best place to start in my opinion). Then Pollack's (which is a good read and has some interesting stories included). They were both a useful starting place and helped me work out the basic roadmap.

I then found Wang's book (Qabalistic Tarot) which was incredibly useful for starting to really apply the information to the cards, as well as giving me guidelines to start working with the concepts practically. Just this week I also read Dee's Tarot Mysteries that was good basic info again, but also compared a few of the different attribution systems and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each, which was not a part of the other books that focused solely on the Golden Dawn tradition.

So obviously I am a very beginner at this really, but have gained a great deal from what I've learnt so far. Also an old panic inducing fear of mine has been cured from what I've learnt of the qabala. :)
 

Diwha

Thanks Similia

Thank you for the info, isn't it funny that the more you learn, the more conscous you become of how much more there is to learn....
Thanks once again
Diwha
 

Symulacrum

similia said:
...If you do decide to spend some time with this deck, I highly recommends Lon Milo Duquette's book "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot". It is an entertaining and approachable introduction to the concepts of the deck, and also gives some insights into Crowley as well as his relationship with Harris (the artist). After that there are many good books on the deck, that will offer stronger assistance for using the cards for divination etc..

There are many people in this forum with great experience and expertise with the Thoth deck. Hopefully they will stop by and offer opinions. Consider these the comments of a beginner. :)
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You have my sincere gratitude for the reference and for the suggestion of posting this topic here. Thank you yet again.

The welcome that has been offered to me on this messageboard has been healing for me. Thank you all.

Lillie: My sincere appologies for the cryptic style of my self-expression... it is often a hinderance when I am attempting clearity of communication in a new environment.

The Label "The Day of the Scrambler" comes from the Personology guide The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers. I have found it most accurate in it's description of my essence.

The Date represented by the label is November 20th.

Sym
 

Lillie

Symulacrum said:
The Label "The Day of the Scrambler" comes from the Personology guide The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers. I have found it most accurate in it's description of my essence.

The Date represented by the label is November 20th.

Sym
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Cool.

What's Nov 25?
 

Grigori

I must apologise to you Symulacrum, it seems I told you a big lie earlier :D I looked again at pictures of the Tarot of the Ages, and while the minors seem based on RWS images, the majors have the Cabalah concordances written on them, and they are not the same as the Golden Dawn or Crowley. From the couple cards I saw I assume they are from Levi (as the Fool is clearly Shin and so likely illustrate Levi's astrology concordance also... I think... maybe you can tell me. They are a beautiful deck, that much I can say for sure and that is about all :D )

Hope I didn't lead you to far astray. I still recommend Thoth though :D
 
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