Aleister Crowley's Thoth - should i or shouldn't i ? Any advice would be welcome!

ravenest

Oh no! Damn! They found the secret tunnel! Is nothing sacred? I just hope they dont find the tunnel that goes from my place to Queensland and branches of to Western Australia to allow me, another member and a certain forum moderator to work our infernal book exchanges ... hang on, I could have just used the postal service, damn!

I have to wonder though what sort of answers one would get if they posted the same question in another forum that wasnt Thoth, like .. maybe RW or something?

Anyway, Black star dust mags, one is BOUND to encounter the A.C. wierdness eventually, best get it out of the way at the begining, clear the path so to speak. If AC HAD wanted to raise the dead in that cemetary I am sure he would have just walked across the road ... all dressed up ... AND called the newspaper previously :D.

Reminds me of a story we had at the catholic school; the priests had dug a tunell under the road to gain acess to the nuns convent. :laugh: - how wrong we were ... more than likely any tunnel constructed would have lead to the basement of the local SM nightclub, orphanage, or ... take your pick.

I guess it could be true ... about the stone and tunnel, I will just have to wait for an investigative Froggy to check it out and report back ;).

But, hell yes, get a Thoth deck, you can always place it inside the front window to repel unwanted, door-knocking, convert-to-my religion types.
 

Lillie

I have to say that from what I recall it would have been a damn sight easier for AC just to have walked across the road...

For a start it's only about 200 feet from his front door, and second it's not like it's busy round there.

It's not busy now and it would have been a lot less busy a hundred years ago.

I love the idea of a tunnel, but I can't see the point.

Look it up on google maps.

Put in Boleskein house.
It's not called that any more, but it will get you there.

Loads of wonderful masonic graves though!

Also this thread started out in Tarot decks and these were the answers it got.
 

thorhammer

ravenest said:
Oh no! Damn! They found the secret tunnel! Is nothing sacred? I just hope they dont find the tunnel that goes from my place to Queensland and branches of to Western Australia to allow me, another member and a certain forum moderator to work our infernal book exchanges ... hang on, I could have just used the postal service, damn!
Jeenyus! Why didn't you think of that? :p

I was holding forth via PM this morning to another member about the Thoth. In my opinion, it's actually "easier" than the RWS, because the RWS is so padded and laid over with draperies to conceal the "true mysteries" that even the worthy often can't find them, or else they're so weighed down by frippery that they can't get the message across anyway. With the Thoth, there's none of that. It's all there for you. You won't get it, not straight away, but before long the first "AHA!!!!" moment will hit and then it just doesn't stop after that. They just keep on comin'. There's no milky glass ceiling like there is with the RWS.

But then, I have it in for the RWS. So YMMV and all that crap.

\m/ Kat
 

chriske

Late reply

MagsStardustBlack said:
Hi - Mags here, i am new to tarot and i have been studying a deck i bought and reading lots. Although i find myself increasingly drawn to the AC Thoth deck, i find the images fascinating and am intrigued by the complexity of the symbology of the deck.

Hi MagsStardustBlack. Welcome to the Thoth Forum. Sorry for the somewhat late reply - you are getting good advice here from the replies that I read. For what it's worth, IMO you should get a large deck. The printing quality since the 1986 edition is much better than earlier versions. So any new edition will let you see everything clearly. A magnifying glass is excellent advice. As you are new to tarot, you will find the Thoth a lot to take in. DuQuette's book is excellent. Please also consider "The Thoth Companion" by Michael Osiris Snuffin - great book and complimentary to DuQuette's. You will then discover the need to read more on Qaballah and Astrology and there are a lot of good recommendations here.

Good luck.
 

Lillie

chriske said:
Hi MagsStardustBlack. Welcome to the Thoth Forum. Sorry for the somewhat late reply - you are getting good advice here from the replies that I read. For what it's worth, IMO you should get a large deck. The printing quality since the 1986 edition is much better than earlier versions. So any new edition will let you see everything clearly. A magnifying glass is excellent advice. As you are new to tarot, you will find the Thoth a lot to take in. DuQuette's book is excellent. Please also consider "The Thoth Companion" by Michael Osiris Snuffin - great book and complimentary to DuQuette's. You will then discover the need to read more on Qaballah and Astrology and there are a lot of good recommendations here.

Good luck.

I'm not really wanting to criticise, or anything because I know what you are saying and it's good advise, but I have always felt that posts like this (especially 'need to read more on Quaballah and astrology') can put people off the Thoth big time.

You see I have heard it said many times that the Thoth is difficult, that it needs study, that you have to learn Quaballah and astrology and geomancy and god knows what else.

I have also heard people say they will start using the Thoth when they have learned more. Or they can't use it until they have done enough study.
And most of the time I am sure that most of that learning and study never gets done and so the Thoth never gets used because it has this reputation for being difficult.

And yes, of course it can be approached like that, and all those difficult things do illuminate the symbols and the meanings of the deck.

But!

But the lack of this knowledge shouldn't stop people from using it, and the fear of this knowledge shouldn't be a bar, and the thoughts that 'Oh I will never learn all that' shouldn't stop someone from picking up the Thoth and giving it a go.

I have said this before and I suppose in time I will say it again, but for me the best illustration of this is myself.

This is what I wrote to someone yesterday in a PM

A long time ago (early 80's) when I was about 18 I got a deck of tarot cards, 1JJ swiss, and I didn't like them so I went and got me a Thoth, because Crowley was cool and I was a bit gothy and all that.
I have to say I knew nothing, but that didn't stop me and over the years I learned stuff, and it's like the Thoth was always there for me, and I learned along side it, I learned as I went along.
And there was no time when I thought that the deck needed too much study, or that I didn't know enough.
It was always like it met me wherever I was at the time.
And as well, it has never been like I finished learning with it, like I knew all there is to know. There is always more.

It's a deck that grows with you.
Or at least that's what I found.


And so I am a big believer that anyone can use this deck, they can use it intuitively, or they can use it astrologically, or Quaballistically (if that's a word!) and it don't matter.
Learning will come if that's what people want.
But learning will never come if people are too put off by the reputation of this deck to ever start.

'I will begin using the Thoth when I have learned enough' is one of the saddest things I have ever heard about Tarot.
It shouldn't be like that, people shouldn't think like that.
Instead they should think (if they want to use this deck) 'I will learn enough while I use the Thoth'.

It's much better that way.
Really it is.
 

MagsStardustBlack

yeh i just realised that after looking for ages, then found the forum through it, thanks, been reading the opinions, great forum, lots of interesting points of views, so controversial
- cheers for all your help everyone xxMags
 

MagsStardustBlack

As for the tunnel, probably an old wifes tale, i'll ask my mum for more info, i do think that AC did do the rituals in that cemetary though as my mum said there is a stone tablet saying that the cemetery was exorcised not with AC name though...The stone tablet is apparently behind a wall now....I'l ask my mum..
 

MagsStardustBlack

My mam also said the house is also seriously haunted...Another little story...The circular room with the star of david had chairs at each point of the star, somone for whatever reason moved the chairs to the back of the wall (maby to clean the floor), went out the room, when they returned minutes later the chair were all back in there original places on the points of the star...
 

MagsStardustBlack

The thoth deck at the window as a religion repellant - now there is an idea, do you think it would work on canvasing MP's??? lol
 

thorhammer

Lillie said:
I have to say I knew nothing, but that didn't stop me and over the years I learned stuff, and it's like the Thoth was always there for me, and I learned along side it, I learned as I went along.
And there was no time when I thought that the deck needed too much study, or that I didn't know enough.
It was always like it met me wherever I was at the time.
And as well, it has never been like I finished learning with it, like I knew all there is to know. There is always more.
Lillie, your whole post was such a profound read, but this bit in particular (emphasis mine) really struck me. Yes, I had learnt a little bit about Hermetics/astrology/qabalah/etc prior to picking it up, but the thing that really got me going on the Thoth was the deck itself, in tandem with the Book of Thoth. Coz the two of them send you in a myriad directions of enquiry and you keep coming back full circle, only it's like one of those carparks where you're just circling over the same bit of ground and going up in spirals - up in knowledge and understanding. It's the most amazing journey I've ever been on, and it won't ever end.

\m/ Kat