Thoth Tarot Survey

[Aeon418]

Yet he always stops short of proclaiming allegiance to the sinister side. I believe his conscience would not allow it though it is obvious he desperately wanted to. This is reflected in his Tarot, in my opinion.

Could you define what you mean by "sinister side"? I'm totally baffled. Without wishing to cause offenese, the mention of a "sinister side" suggests a complete misreading of Crowley's writings.

 

[Namaste]

25 years ago, I bought the large card, green hued Thoth, and an accompanying book (The Book of Thoth - Egyptian Tarot). At first, the deck did seem intimidating, so I set it aside.

Yesterday, I did what I've been meaning to do for a while since it came out: I bought the vividly coloured Crowley Thoth. I couldn't find the large card edition, so I bought the smaller cards.

I couldn't believe how beautiful these new cards are!

Since my first Crowley deck, I have become an amateur Egyptologist, so I was gratified to find in these cards, that I am now seeing anew for the very first time, a wealth of Egyptological references.

What can I say? I look forward to joining those of you who have and love this deck, and have studied it extensively.

Does the deck still intimidate me? Could I possibly find it sinister? No way

Whatever else Crowley may nor may not have been, he was definitely knowledgeable about many things, Egyptology among them.

 

[Abrac]

Could you define what you mean by "sinister side"? I'm totally baffled. Without wishing to cause offenese, the mention of a "sinister side" suggests a complete misreading of Crowley's writings.

Aeon418 - Sinister is a Latin word meaning "left" or "of the left hand." In English it has taken on overtones of evil, or wickedness. The left-hand path is the opposite of the right-hand path. The right represents restriction, tradition, herd mentality, law-and-order, all that well-mannered society considers morally good, proper, and respectable. The left represents the opposite - expansion, liberalism, creativity, individual liberty, situational ethics, all that is considered evil by those on the right because it can't be pinned down or pigeonholed to fit an acceptable norm. These are extremes of two polarities. Crowley seemed to be caught somewhere in between. Whether he represented himself this way on purpose, or was simply unable to break from the religious indoctrination of his past we may never know. He lived in different times. It is possible he was following a magical formula that he viewed as necessary for succes, success being not getting lynched.

-fof

 

[Aeon418]

Thanks for the clarification fools_fool. I thought you were originally refering to Crowley's own use of the terms "Left and Right hand path" and not your own interpretation of those terms.

 

[Abrac]

Inevitably, there is one passage from the Book of the Law that is quoted most often when I bring up this subject: "Love is the law, love under will."

It must be understood that Crowley's interpretation of "love" is quite different from what is normally thought of. Usually we think of love as the "golden rule," i.e. do unto others what you would have them do unto you. It involves discrimination, doing what is "right" and morally "good" to another, and the avoidance of doing harm. In Crowley's view of love, there is a distinct lack of discrimination. It means "live and let live," and anything goes. This view is what made him an icon of the hippies generation who adopted many of his views. Trying to twist around the saying, "Love is the law, love under will" to mean a moralistic, traditional ideal of love is simply out of place and doesn't work in the overall context of Crowley's work.

All ya need is love, love....

-fof

Edit To Add: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law; love is the law, love under will" should not be confused with, "An ye harm none, do what ye will," from the Wiccan Rede. The Wiccan Rede has nothing to do with Crowley or Thelema and came much later. Nowhere does Crowley ever use the phrase, "An harm ye none."

 

[mysticmonkey]

I actually really like the images on the cards I've seen but I hate the back of the cards. I know that they were designed that way for a reason but I'm only interested in the images on the other side and the backs just bug me.
It's one of the reasons that I haven't bought this deck yet.

The other is because of Crowley himself. I don't know a huge amount about the guy so I'm not going to explain myself fully incase I look like a complete ass but it's not for the spooky reasons that most people shy away from these cards.

 

[Netzach]

I voted "other", so I'm explaining as requested! I've only recently bought a Thoth deck. I like the art work and I find I can read intuitively with it, but I've only used it a couple of times so far. It hasn't grabbed me like some other decks where as soon as I got them I thought they were wonderful (or even before I got them - I'm hankering after a Vargo Gothic). But I think it's an interesting deck to work with. Not great - at least not so far in our acquaintance - but attractive and interesting.

 

[Aeon418]

Inevitably, there is one passage from the Book of the Law that is quoted most often when I bring up this subject: "Love is the law, love under will."

I'm sorry fools_fool, you've still got me baffled and not because I don't know Crowley and his work. I'm very familiar with Crowley's work and that's why much of what you say puzzles me. In fact some of what you are saying reveals a very shallow understanding of Crowley. I'm not picking a fight here, I'm just saying it as I see it.

If you wish I could go over your posts point by point via PM as this isn't the best area for discussion of this sort.

 

[Brock Johnson]

I was originally going to choose the "Burn it" category but then realized that one of my favorite decks would not be in existence without it; The Liber T:Tarot of Stars Eternal. I love that deck. Instead, I chose the "What's all the noise about" category. I don't like the deck's lack of illustrations. I find it to be a terrible deck to read with. My first reading that I ever had done "to" me used this deck and thought I should buy it. I will never sell it because I have to refer to it too often because of fanatics of the deck talk about it all the time. I don't like the artwork or the coloring except for one card, "The Star" which is my favorite card of all time. Aside from that, after the Liber T is created, burn it.

Brock

P.S. I'm very well aware there will be lovers of this deck coming to attack me on this and I say, "I will do it only if it is a mature DEBATE. Not arguement, as that has no formal structure." Structure meant lightly. No, sliting the throat because it's just my opinion and I see I'm one of, if not the only, to stand up for the other side.

 

[Grigori]

P.S. I'm very well aware there will be lovers of this deck coming to attack me on this and I say, "I will do it only if it is a mature DEBATE. Not arguement, as that has no formal structure." Structure meant lightly. No, sliting the throat because it's just my opinion and I see I'm one of, if not the only, to stand up for the other side.

haha No one is gonna slit your throat Brock. If you want to cut off your nose to spite your face, then go right ahead The nice thing about Thoth devotees is that they are pretty happy for you to do what works for you. Its part of the code ya know (although they also don't mind waiting for the world to realise they are right kidding)

I already voted, but since the last time I love the Thoth doubly, so will post again at least! Yay Thoth