Book and other resources - tips for Thoth newbies and lovers
Posted: 27 Jun 2018, 17:51
I was lucky when I bought my first Thoth - I didn't know what a myth surrounds this deck 
and that it's thought a difficult deck. I just liked the way it looked and bought it.
For people who'd like to work with the Thoth but dno't know where to start, we can talk here about the books or websites that helped us.
(Isn't it typical for me that I think about books before anything else....
)
I can put the Thoth books that I read into three categories:
- very good - recommended!
Snuffin and Milo DuQuette belong into this category, and of course also Crowley's own writings. Don't start with them, though!
Snuffin and even ore so Milo DuQuette make the Thoth really transparent and understandable.
I'll write more about each later if you want to know which is better. Have to dig into the books again before I say more
- okay but not my first choice
Hajo Banzhaf's book about the Thoth is solid and based on Crowley but it's also dry reading, and contains additional material for each card that is Banzhaf's own. Reading it, you never know whether the places of power or associations from literature or music are Crowley's or Banzhaf's. I found that after I understood more about the Thoth, I realized that Banzhaf actually contained a lot of this information - but in a form that made it difficult for me to absorb it.
Much of the book is card meanings, and he gives less attention to the structure behind the deck.
I always find that once you understand the esoteric theory behind the Thoth, it's possible to intuit the cards by looking at them and absorbing their message. That's why I think Thoth books that contain mainly card meanings put the emphasis on the wrong point.
Henry Ho's books is weird. He is a very young guy and goes off to rant about all kind of things that annoy him, and he hardly hides his misogyny. But some of his explanations are good. I disliked his style so much that I returned my Kindle version of his book but I remember that parts of it were good.
If you have Snuffin and/or DuQuette, you don't really need Banzhaf or Ho. If you can't get your hand on either, then try Banzhaf.
- superfluous - don't touch
Angeles Arrien wrote a book of Jungian associations about the Thoth that has made huge (negative) waves in the tarot world. It seems that she was good teacher, and her famous pupil Mary K. Greer is able to explain what Arrien wanted to do with the book. She was not interested in Crowley's own thoughts about the deck but in her own. Fair enough. Her problem is that imho most of these ideas are simple, trivial and don't really add up to much when you want to interpret the cards.
Even worse is Ziegler. He copies Arrien's ideas and his whole book is a collection of cliches. There are no remnants of the original ideas that form the backbone of the deck.
And about reading Crowley himself: don't do that to yourself before you know the Thoth. First, read other books, work with the deck, start to build your own relationship with the deck. Then, read Crowley. Keep in mind that he doesn't write in order to make you understand. He writes to make it difficult. (He would have roasted Arrien and Ziegler for making his deck SO shallow and slick). He expects you to know alchemy, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, astrology, kabbalah and gematria (numerical values of Hebrew letters) - you didn't learn all that at school? Oh well...
If you need a nice, short, concise card meaning with all the esoteric information, try Corax. The site gives you all the basic information you need to understand the card in the context of your reading. That's so much better than Ziegler's three pages of bla bla!
I'll add links later...
and that it's thought a difficult deck. I just liked the way it looked and bought it. For people who'd like to work with the Thoth but dno't know where to start, we can talk here about the books or websites that helped us.
(Isn't it typical for me that I think about books before anything else....
)I can put the Thoth books that I read into three categories:
- very good - recommended!
Snuffin and Milo DuQuette belong into this category, and of course also Crowley's own writings. Don't start with them, though!
Snuffin and even ore so Milo DuQuette make the Thoth really transparent and understandable.
I'll write more about each later if you want to know which is better. Have to dig into the books again before I say more
- okay but not my first choice
Hajo Banzhaf's book about the Thoth is solid and based on Crowley but it's also dry reading, and contains additional material for each card that is Banzhaf's own. Reading it, you never know whether the places of power or associations from literature or music are Crowley's or Banzhaf's. I found that after I understood more about the Thoth, I realized that Banzhaf actually contained a lot of this information - but in a form that made it difficult for me to absorb it.
Much of the book is card meanings, and he gives less attention to the structure behind the deck.
I always find that once you understand the esoteric theory behind the Thoth, it's possible to intuit the cards by looking at them and absorbing their message. That's why I think Thoth books that contain mainly card meanings put the emphasis on the wrong point.
Henry Ho's books is weird. He is a very young guy and goes off to rant about all kind of things that annoy him, and he hardly hides his misogyny. But some of his explanations are good. I disliked his style so much that I returned my Kindle version of his book but I remember that parts of it were good.
If you have Snuffin and/or DuQuette, you don't really need Banzhaf or Ho. If you can't get your hand on either, then try Banzhaf.
- superfluous - don't touch
Angeles Arrien wrote a book of Jungian associations about the Thoth that has made huge (negative) waves in the tarot world. It seems that she was good teacher, and her famous pupil Mary K. Greer is able to explain what Arrien wanted to do with the book. She was not interested in Crowley's own thoughts about the deck but in her own. Fair enough. Her problem is that imho most of these ideas are simple, trivial and don't really add up to much when you want to interpret the cards.
Even worse is Ziegler. He copies Arrien's ideas and his whole book is a collection of cliches. There are no remnants of the original ideas that form the backbone of the deck.
And about reading Crowley himself: don't do that to yourself before you know the Thoth. First, read other books, work with the deck, start to build your own relationship with the deck. Then, read Crowley. Keep in mind that he doesn't write in order to make you understand. He writes to make it difficult. (He would have roasted Arrien and Ziegler for making his deck SO shallow and slick). He expects you to know alchemy, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, astrology, kabbalah and gematria (numerical values of Hebrew letters) - you didn't learn all that at school? Oh well...
If you need a nice, short, concise card meaning with all the esoteric information, try Corax. The site gives you all the basic information you need to understand the card in the context of your reading. That's so much better than Ziegler's three pages of bla bla!
I'll add links later...
