Thoughts on Thoth
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve written about the Thoth deck many times in the past but lately, as I roam the online tarot community, I’ve encountered Thoth novices who have just discovered it and who, while fascinated by its esoteric depth, are nervous about having anything to do with its co-creator, Aleister Crowley. (They have yet to separate the man and the myth from the message.)
I’ve done my best to assure fearful newbies that, as the saying goes, they can “jump right in, the water’s fine!” The Thoth is an amazing deck, and in writing its companion tome, The Book of Thoth, Crowley was on his best behavior, with only an occasional mean-spirited potshot to offend the unwary. The worst that can be said about it is that the section titled “APPENDIX to the ATU” that immediately follows the text on the Major Arcana is extremely abstruse and mystical in both writing style and content, which tends toward arcane metaphysical exposition with a euphoric neo-religious slant derived — at least in spirit — from his Book of the Law. If there is any part of the book that deserves the snippy criticism of the introductory “Autobibliography” that it was written “without help from parents,” this would be it.
I usually steer those who are new to the book toward the short essays on the Minor Arcana right after they finish reading the historical background chapters, then aim them at the extensive court-card material, and finally direct them to the Major Arcana coverage near the beginning of the volume. This lets them dip their toes in Crowley’s approach without first encountering the occult extravagance (viz. the Fool) he brought to the trump cards. The “APPENDIX” can be left until later since it is of little practical value in reading the cards; in reality its ambiguity is what makes the Book of Thoth a “lifetime study” because it is rife with bewildering labyrinths of high-flown verbiage that might be revisited for contemplation but certainly not memorized for any useful purpose. (After four readings over the years I’m still trying to get my head around some of its puzzling opacity.)
My personal experience is that the court-card definitions are some of the best to be found anywhere since they amount to proto-psychological descriptions that predated by roughly 20 years the Jungian thrust of New Age interpretation. Crowley considered his observations to offer a portrait of “moral characteristics,” but I believe they convey reasonably well-rounded personality profiles that require only minor tweaking to meet modern standards.
The Minor Arcana with their wonderfully evocative color palette and artistic excellence are next in line as far as utility, not least because they make convincing use of the Qabalistic “Descent of Spirit into Matter” paradigm. Some critics complain about the keywords on the bottom borders, saying they are too limiting to support any kind of intuitive assimilation of the images, but in my opinion they follow the Golden Dawn curriculum presented in Liber T closely enough that, once the knowledge has been internalized, they can safely be ignored except as a memory-jogger. What one shouldn’t do is attempt grafting the RWS “canned narrative vignettes” onto the Thoth minors because in many cases they send the wrong signals.
My current take on the Major Arcana in all tarot decks is that they aren’t as big a deal as they’re made out to be when it comes to predicting future events and circumstances. More than 50 years of working with them has convinced me that the significant developments they supposedly portend (even those of the Tower) just don’t occur with any marked regularity. So I’ve relegated them to the role of background theme or stage-setting for the mundane affairs envisioned by the minor and court cards. They may create the environment for such spectacular events but they don’t often deliver on the promise. The best posture is to keep one eye open for them but don’t get your undies all in a bunch over the likelihood of experiencing either dire upheaval or sublime delight; you could be waiting in vain.
If the “small” cards in a reading suggest that something unusual might happen, look to any nearby trumps to either accentuate or de-emphasize the consequences. Except for those instances where Crowley tinkered with the traditional meanings, a thorough grounding in the RWS definitions for the Major Arcana (which spring from the same Golden Dawn roots as the Thoth) is perfectly adequate to make pragmatic sense of them. Even where Crowley did alter things, it’s not particularly critical that his innovations be acknowledged in practice since the Golden Dawn material (even Waite’s deliberately “expurgated” version) is sufficient for most situations.
I realize that I’ve restated my previous observations quite a bit here, but if I get the opportunity to offer these insights to curious neophytes, I will have this recent synopsis to present for their consideration.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on February 5, 2024.
