The Magickal Tarot - Thoth

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 24 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Robbiegirl	24 Mar 2005
The first deck I had purchased because the Hebrew alphabet drew me, is the deck by tony Willis and the issulstrations by Anthony Clark. I see now when I went to look it up on the web pages, that it is out of print. I also have the traditional deck. As a beginner, should I stick with learning one deck first? Do decks ever conflict each other? What would make a deck go out of print?

Alta	24 Mar 2005
I would suggest that if you wish to learn the Thoth then use the real Thoth deck first and learn it well. The Thoth family will then take you in slightly different directions while staying near the original. Decks go out of print because demand for them trickles out and the when a printing run gradually gets sold, the publishers estimate that another run likely wouldn't sell. Sometimes there is a hot secondary market for a few decks, but a few enthusiasts don't make for a real demand.

fyreflye	24 Mar 2005
The original instruction book, issued with the Magickal Tarot before it became a "set" with Tony Willis' unhelpful book, contained a note to the effect that the best companion book to be used with Clark's deck was The Book of Thoth, by Aleister Crowley. So in fact the symbol correspondences on both decks are identical. Use whichever one you like the most, or use them together, as long as you learn them from the difficult but indispensible Book of Thoth. "What would make a deck go out of print?" Clark's isn't as pretty as Crowley's.

Lillie	25 Mar 2005
Personally I rather like the Magickal Tarot. It is very unusual in regard to the illustrations.

Robbiegirl	25 Mar 2005
Lillie, thank-you for your reply. When I purchased my first deck, this was the one I was drawn to, the Magickal Tarot. Since it seemed, however, that most of the books were in the Rider-Waite deck, I purchased one of those as well.

Lillie	25 Mar 2005
Hi A lot of people go for the RWS because of the illustrations on the minors, and it is a very beautiful deck, but it is not compulsory! I have been doing Tarot for 20 years and only got my first RWS a couple of months ago. I learned with the Thoth, which I love still. Did you get your Magickal deck on it's own, or in the set with the book? If you have the book, which I think is OK, you will find a lot that helps explain the stuff in the illustrations, the Hebrew words etc. Personally, I think that a person should use which ever deck seems right for them, and if you were drawn to the Magickal then perhaps it is the right one for you. However, I also think that it dosn't hurt to have loads of decks. I mean, if you don't get them and have a good look you won't know if you like them or not! :D You are quite right, many of the books about Tarot do use the RWS, but there are quite a few about the 'Thoth' family of decks too. The first and 'best' being Crowleys. (best cos it's the foundation for the Crowley deck itself and all the others that followed in that tradition. It is actually a little difficult to read, but worth the effort!) There are also 2 books by Tony Willis, and I believe that both are 'about' the magickal Tarot 1.The Magickal Tarot. Which you will have if you bought the set. This is the book that was written to accompany the deck. 2. Magic and the Tarot (I think I have got the name right) I don't know anything about this but I have seen that it has cards from the Magickal deck on the front cover. Good luck with which ever deck you use.

Robbiegirl	25 Mar 2005
Lillie, I do have the book that came with the deck and have the case etc and all. I like your explainations and I guess should use them if that is what I feel most comfortable with. I think the first thing I need to do is go forth and trust my judgement. I seem to quick to look up the meanings of the cards when I do readings before I actually read the card first. NOT a good habit to get into. I want to be able to read for other people as I seem intuitive enough for them to want to talk things over with me. At this point, I am too stuck on learning everything perfectly. Some sites talk about cards that go along with this one and that one and the card means something more if it follows or preceeds another card. How do you memorize all of this?

SunChariot	26 Mar 2005
Robbiegirl wrote: The first deck I had purchased because the Hebrew alphabet drew me, is the deck by tony Willis and the issulstrations by Anthony Clark. I see now when I went to look it up on the web pages, that it is out of print. I also have the traditional deck. As a beginner, should I stick with learning one deck first? Do decks ever conflict each other? What would make a deck go out of print? Yes, I would suggest learning with just one deck. And yes the reason for that is that different decks have different meanings for the same card, sometimes drastically different. It helps, I think to learn with just one and try others later once you have the technique down. I started with the Haindl deck, btw. It might interest you. I find the artwork quite attractive. And it also had the Hebrew letters on the cards, as well as Rune andn I-Ching symbols. The meanings of all these are given in the book. I would agree with Marion. If I were going to learn the Thoth (and I am actually about to. I got it, read some books on it, and will use it for the first time soon). I would go for the real Thoth deck, by Aleister Crowley (and Lady Freeda Harris (may have spelt their names wrong). But I don't think it would be an easy deck to learn on. It seems to be the most complex I have ever come across. Bar

SunChariot	26 Mar 2005
As for why decks go out of print, I would imagine for the same reason as books... , their popularity dwindles to the point that the company who prints them cannot make enough selling them to cover their printing costs. Bar

Lillie	26 Mar 2005
Robbiegirl wrote: At this point, I am too stuck on learning everything perfectly. Some sites talk about cards that go along with this one and that one and the card means something more if it follows or preceeds another card. How do you memorize all of this? Hi I understand what you mean. I remember thinking 'How can I remember all this!' Well, really it seems to me that there are 2 ways of reading Tarot Cards. One way works for some people, and the other way for others. The first way is to memorise the meanings etc. and 'go by the book'. This has a couple of problems. First of all, as you have said, it is not an easy thing to do. Second, you will find that different books/sites give different meanings. Some only slightly different, some radically so. So then you have to decide wether to go with meaning A, or meaning B. (sometimes there is also a C,D,E etc!) The same thing goes for 'Card A is good when next to Card B, but bad when reversed and 3 spaces away from card X, except for the third Sunday of every month, unless it is a leap year when you should change every meaning to it's exact opposite'. So, if you want to 'do it by the book' you first have to decide which book! The second way of reading cards seems to be that you kind of make it up as you go along. Throw all the books away and just say what you feel. I guess there are a few problems with this way too. In a sense doing it like this might as well throw away the cards too. There is a long history of Tarot and during this history the meanings of the cards have been developed and studied. It seems a shame to cast all that aside. So, what seems to me to be the best way (and I expect a lot of other people do this too) is to memorise the basic card meanings and use them as a basis for your reading. But still to allow space for your own intuition. If you have a strong feeling that a card in a spread means something different to what the books say, go with your feeling. In this way I think you get the best of both worlds. You also give yourself chance to learn all those meanings over a period of time as you get more familiar with your cards and with what works for you in particular. Another good thing to do is to get your cards and study them, meditate on them. Look at them and say to yourself 'The books say you mean... what is it about you that says that... What are you saying to me...' I would also say that although it would be limiting to only allow yourself one deck, and to stick to it regardless of wether it is working for you or not, it is still better to have one main deck, especially if you are starting out. To try to use two or more decks could well prove too confusing, and could easily end up with you getting to know neither of them. Lastly I'd like to say that Tarot is a life times study. You have years and years to look at, read, get to know all the decks you could ever want. Don't worry too much about memorising everything all at once. There are years and years in the future for that. But by then you will have become so comfortable reading Tarot Cards you will have all this knowledge (the knowledge that is right for you) from practical experience rather than books! All the best with it. And yes! Trust your own judgement. You will know in your heart what is right for you.

Robbiegirl	26 Mar 2005
Lillie, Blessings upon you and Namaste. Thank you for making it all make sense and come together.

The The Magickal Tarot - Thoth thread was originally posted on 24 Mar 2005 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.