Favorite Thoth Clone?

Barleywine

I realize it's impossible to improve upon "perfection," but - since we talk about the Thoth deck as a model that is often emulated (similar to the RWS and Marseilles lineages) - I'm curious which Thoth-based "wannabe" decks we all own and which is our personal favorite.

I have the Magickal and the Haindl decks, and just got the Tarot of the Spirit, which looks at first blush to be Thoth-inspired. I think the last one is going to become my Thoth surrogate of choice, unless the Liber T or the Rosetta bump it when I eventually get them. The Navigators of the Mystic Sea seems "Thoth-y" but I can't quite make the connection.

A few others that don't make the club since they are more "pre-Thoth" (as in Golden-Dawn-derived) descendents rather than true Thoth mirrors would be the Golden Dawn Magical Tarot (which I own but haven't warmed up to) and Robert Wang's Golden Dawn Tarot (on my list to buy).

I know it's all about personal taste, but (perhaps as readers more than collectors) which Thoth emulator do you find to be the most successful from both a visual and a symbolic perspective?
 

Zephyros

I have no Thoth clone, I guess I always felt I wanted to get the original down first (although I'm not holding my breath of me reaching that stage!). However, were I to get one, it would probably be the unpublished Amun-Ra, if it ever gets published. The only one I feel holds a candle to the original, and perhaps even surpasses it.

www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/418/
 

Cassandra022

I have no Thoth clone, I guess I always felt I wanted to get the original down first (although I'm not holding my breath of me reaching that stage!). However, were I to get one, it would probably be the unpublished Amun-Ra, if it ever gets published. The only one I feel holds a candle to the original, and perhaps even surpasses it.

www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/418/

I agree on both counts. Unlike RWS, don't really feel any need to mess with clones much with Thoth unless there was something about them individually that appealed which so far, not so much....

That one is quite interesting though I must say. Pity it doesn't exist.
 

Sulis

Is there even such a thing as a Thoth clone? There are decks which are based on Thoth like Liber T then there are decks that vaguely use the Thoth system and meanings like the Sun and Moon Tarot but I can't say that I've ever seen a Thoth clone in the way that there are loads of decks that are exactly the same as the RWS but with differing art styles.
 

Barleywine

Is there even such a thing as a Thoth clone? There are decks which are based on Thoth like Liber T then there are decks that vaguely use the Thoth system and meanings like the Sun and Moon Tarot but I can't say that I've ever seen a Thoth clone in the way that there are loads of decks that are exactly the same as the RWS but with differing art styles.

Although I don't have them in hand yet, the Rosetta and the Liber T have images on some cards that look suspiciously identical in artistic construction to the Thoth paintings. Not sure if it makes them "clones," but the designs were clearly "borrowed." Perhaps "clone" is too strong a word since it implies a near-exact replica. Anyway, I wasn't looking for slavish mimicry, I was more interested in decks that convey underlying Thoth symbolism as distinct from RWS, Marseilles, druid/pagan, etc.
 

ZKEI

My favourite ones would be Liber-T and Rosetta, especially cardstock of the latter is quite remarkable.

Rohrig (thoth-inspired) and Via work well for me either.
 

Barleywine

I have no Thoth clone, I guess I always felt I wanted to get the original down first (although I'm not holding my breath of me reaching that stage!). However, were I to get one, it would probably be the unpublished Amun-Ra, if it ever gets published. The only one I feel holds a candle to the original, and perhaps even surpasses it.

www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/418/

Absolutely, I've found the Thoth to be a life-time study. (This makes me think of the old, dead-pan humorist's comeback: "You studied the Thoth all your life?" . . . short pause for effect . . . "Not yet!") I certainly don't need a stand-in for the Thoth, I'm just interested in whether any of them measure up at all, and how well.
 

WolfyJames

I think the Liber T is more than a clone, I like it much more than the Thoth.

As for the Tarot of Vampyres, that one is thothy IMHO.

I love them both.
 

Zephyros

I think the Liber T is more than a clone, I like it much more than the Thoth.

As for the Tarot of Vampyres, that one is thothy IMHO.

I love them both.

Interesting, what would constitute a Thothy deck in your eyes? For me it would either be similarity in art or art "atmosphere" like the Via or Rosetta, or Thelemic undercurrents like the Liber T. The Vampyres seems to have none of this, at least from a cursory glance.
 

GoldenWolf

I think there are no Thoth clones the ways there are RWS clones. Even with the latter, there are many decks referred to as clones that might better be described as RWS inspired IMO.

Having said that I would recommend the Rosetta and the Liber T as following the Thoth system most closely. Which you might prefer is probably a matter of taste in art. I would be fairly reluctantly though to do readings for third parties with the Liber T unless I knew that they were pretty liberal in their thinking given some of the art on the minors lol.

I've never understood the concept of Thothy decks frankly, Navigators of the Mystic Sea may look like the Thoth superficially, but it based on a very different Tree of Life system.