Marseilles and Thoth pips....

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 03 Dec 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moonbow*	03 Dec 2003
Hi All, This question occurred to me in another thread and Diana suggested it might be a good point to make here. What do you think: "Is there any link between the marseilles decks and thoth? I'm thinking particularly about the pips. Is it me or does anyone else think that the pips in both of these decks have very deep meanings, to the point where you have to study them beforehand. With RW decks (on the whole) you can just pick them up and use them, (granted there can be alot to them as well)" Moonbow* :)

jmd	03 Dec 2003
There is undoubtedly a connection, as Crowley claims that he wanted to restore a deck to its original Mediaeval pristine connection... also, apart from the non-Tarot Sola-Busca, there was neither reason nor support for the pip illustrations introduced by Colman Smith in Waite's deck. It should also be remembered that he had a quite low opinion of Waite (witness his comment about Waite in Crowley's translation of E. Levi). Hence also why he maintains the traditional sequence of Justice at VIII and Strength (nevermind its renaming) at XI... pity he numbered the Fool, and used so much of the GD Hebrew letter correlations (even if he did further swap Heh and Tzaddi).

The Marseilles and Thoth pips.... thread was originally posted on 03 Dec 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.