The Thoth Companion: A Brief Critique
AUTHOR’S NOTE: At this point I’ve penetrated deeply enough into my Kindle edition of Michael Snuffin’s book, The Thoth Companion, to attempt a critical review. In general, I find it to be well written and largely true to its aim of being a “companion work,” but it errs a bit on the side of brevity and perhaps carves too close to the bone. As a dedicated Thoth scholar I would have preferred a little more “heft” consistent with its source material.
By far the weakest part of the book is the Major Arcana section at the beginning. Its abbreviated take on the Atu is of little use to the Thoth student who has Crowley’s tarot masterwork, The Book of Thoth, at hand, or even Lon Milo DuQuette’s Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. It doesn’t conflict with the original, it just doesn’t add anything of note that is compelling. It is more about cataloguing all of the minute details in the cards than about delivering an authoritative overview that does justice to Crowley’s erudition. In short, echoing the old Saturday Night Live skit about decaf coffee, it’s another instance of “Why bother?”
Things get dramatically better in the court-card section. It does a decent job of economizing on Crowley’s original essays. offering concise character snapshots that will be useful as a “ready reference.” He doesn’t delve into Crowley’s I Ching afterthoughts, which is no great loss. For the most part his esoteric sensibilities are spot-on.
For me, the Minor Arcana section offers the most value because its guidance is sound and it provides a fairly exhaustive itemization of the Golden Dawn color scales as they are used in various features of the imagery. I’m not well-versed in all four scales; as a more recent convert to the Tarot de Marseille I’ve stayed mostly at the metaphysical level of the primary and secondary hues of red, yellow, blue, purple, orange and green, along with the other essential colors indigo, brown, white, black, silver, gold and “flesh-colored,” so I expect Snuffin’s work will lead me farther down that path. I can see using it in conjunction with Pat Zalewski’s “color-corrected” Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn as well.
The biggest failing in the book lies in Snuffin’s weak grasp of basic astrological principles. He seems to have a good handle on planetary rulership for the signs, but gets all confused when attempting to assign detriment, exaltation and fall. Either he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he is following a system that departs radically from the traditional one used over many centuries of practice.
A couple of examples: in the Chariot segment he says that Mars is exalted in Cancer but, as any competent astrologer knows, it is in fact exalted in Capricorn (he does get it right later when he covers the 3 of Disks); in discussing the 7 of Swords he says that the Sun is in its fall in Aquarius but, as the ruler of the opposite sign Leo, it is actually in its detriment; under the 8 of Swords he describes Jupiter as being in its fall in Gemini when, as the lord of the opposite sign Sagittarius, it is in its detriment; finally, perhaps worst of all, in the 10 of Swords text he notes that Libra is exalted in Saturn, when the reverse is true (he also gets this right elsewhere). This is clearly a mistake that reflects inattention to detail.
The book could have benefited from a good astrological scrub by someone with a solid knowledge of basics. (For the zodiacally unfamilar, the sign of detriment is the diametrically-opposite and contrary expression of a planet’s fundamental energy as defined in its sign of rulership; in the sign of its exaltation it operates even more harmoniously and effectively [I have seen it called “an honored guest” in the sign]; and it is at its absolute worst in the opposing sign of its fall. Here is a link to a wikipedia article on the subject.)
To his credit, although I seldom concur with all of his definitions since there is often too much “Waite” and not enough “Crowley” in them, Snuffin offers reversed meanings for all of the cards. This aligns with my own belief that interpreting reversal is a legitimate practice for divination with the Thoth deck because it serves a different purpose than the Elemental Dignity championed by most Thoth aficionados. The latter affects the potency of the “principal” card, while the former only changes the mode of delivery and angle of attack for the energy, so I see no reason to avoid using both (and I’ve been doing it for five decades).
So is Snuffin’s book worth reading? Maybe once, but I doubt I would buy the hard-copy version to use as a reference work. (I find Kindle very difficult to apply in that way.) While it is hardly the most comprehensive “Thoth companion” (and I certainly would have liked to see more depth in the culling of Crowley’s genius), I think Snuffin’s goal was more distillation than creative elaboration, and in that he came reasonably close to hitting the mark. I will probably revisit it if and when I conduct a more detailed study of the color symbolism in the Minor Arcana of the Thoth deck. Until then, it goes back on the electronic bookshelf as I “cleanse my palate” with the Book of Thoth yet again.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on March 15, 2024.
