Advice for a beginner?

kingsofsleep

thanks

Triquetra said:
Welcome to the boards KoS. :)

Why thankyou. I am loking forward to many discusions...


BOT is a bitch at times to understand. Crowley expects a rather high level of expertise in many areas of the occult. Everytime I read it, something else comes through and I have one of those "ah ha!!" moments.
I would definitely agree that reading others interpretations for the cards is a good thing. You also have to take into account what the books were written for and what you are going to use the cards for. For example, Duquette's book is all about alchemy and magick, while Arrien (in my opinion) is all about personal development from a different, rather new agey perspective. All points are valid, it's just where are you coming from that really decides what's going to work for you best.
My own weakness is a real lack of knowledge about the kabbalah. Something I am going to try and rectify in the future. I also study a lot buddhism and have been able to see a lot of simliarities in eastern philosophies and tradition "western" occult theories.
I rarely, if ever, use them for divination. Rather, they are a mirror, a tool if you will for my own personal development. I hardly ever read for another so the Thoth is intensely personal. I guess thats why self-honesty plays such a huge role it for me. I actually try and use the cards to keep me honest at times...
 

Mimers

When I first bought my Thoth deck, I also purchased James Wanless' book, New Age Tarot. It is very simplified and has very creative spreads that help you learn the meanings of the cards. It is not a Crowley oriented book.

I am currently reading DuQuette's book, and I highly reccomend it! wonderfully written.

Mimi
 

Imagemaker

Please visit this Thoth site and let me know what you think--the home address is hrih.hypermart.net and you can work through to the tarot divinations, or the link below opens directly to a choice of spreads. In revealing the card, I find the full range of keyword points and questions to be very insightful and challenging. Better than books I've seen on Thoth.

http://www.hrih.hypermart.net/divinations/tarot/openings/
 

lark

Wonderful site Imagemaker thanks for sharing it!
I just bought DuQuettte's book yesterday.
I started reading it in the store and couldn't put it down.
It's written with such a wonderful sense of humor.
And very understandable.
Can't wait to dig into it deeper.
 

Imagemaker

I don't know if the descriptions and keywords of the card on the HRIH site come from published books, but I like the questions and the "personal" communications that come with each card overview.

I was using this site before I even knew what deck these cards came from. And after joining AT, I get so much more from HRIH. It's an odd, rather cryptic place--based in the Oriental College in Amsterdam, I gather.
 

Ani

I've been working with the Thoth deck on and off for a few years, all the books are good but I still needed to really understand the energies of these cards. I recently started using the Ancient Egyptian Tarot by Clive Barrett which is really easy to understand just by the pictures but is also based on the same energies of the Thoth, when I am studying the cards I lay down the large Thoth cards and place the Egyptian cards over top so the names are exposed ( these names apply to this deck also ) after meditating on the energies of a card I can compare this with the Thoth card. This is working surprisingly well for me.