Thoth: Loves newbies, hates muddlers?

Thoughtful

So if the Thoth calls out to you, go for it and re-discover it.

That's just what l have done, after years of curiosity l have got it in my hot little hands. Wish l had got it sooner, it seems though this is my time to start with it, l have more time to really go in depth. Have fallen in love with it.
So far l am doing one question with one card a day to see how it goes. So far third day and all is well. Answering me beautifully at the moment, though l am sure it will challenge me as l go through my study.
 

earthair

Yup, I also experience beginner's luck with early readings...then when I found AT and read this Thothy forum I got very bogged down for a while!

Beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel again :)
Getting a big version and trimming it has very recently helped me too. Something about spending a few minutes carefully planning where to cut and admiring the art, and one's trimming handiwork afterwards is a great bonding process. 'It's just a deck' I keep telling myself- and it's designed well enough that it works as a reading deck even if I can't remember which path or mythological person is at the bottom corner of a particular card.

Thoth is like driving an amazing classic car- you first get in it, and as someone who has driven other cars, you find you can drive this one too. Then you look under the bonnet and think oooooooooooo look at all the complicated, delicate stuff in this engine - I'd better look after it - yikes. So you start driving it differently; slower maybe. But like a car, Thoth is supposed to be used, not left in the garage and admired.

Also I've personally found Thoth+ CC doesn't work for me...but OotK and the 15 card spread does :)
 

Zephyros

I suppose it could be said that people have "beginners' luck" with the Thoth and in a way it was like that for me, too. But I came, as many do, from an scenic-pips background, free-associative readings, the lot. I tried to do the same with the Thoth but found over time, as others have said here, that this didn't work for me. I found the answer lay in my own development through the Thoth, that my whole attitude towards Tarot had changed and my old thought grooves didn't work anymore.

The frequency and types of readings I do today have changed dramatically. They became more introspective, more action-oriented rather than predictive, more abstract and dealing with "energies" rather than specific. Were I to keep forcing my old Tarot methods and aims upon the Thoth I doubt I would be using it today. Maybe this is true for others who have passed the "honeymoon" stage?
 

Thoughtful

Beginners luck, honeymoon stage :eek:

l so want to study this deck properly that's why l an going to take my time with it. As earthair puts it "like driving an amazing classic car" that's how l feel at the moment with this deck. l feel so different about this deck, unlike my usual tarots with which l zoom in and start reading rightaway. l just know that there are many layers, many hidden signs lots of mysteries to open up. l approach this deck with respect, and yes, a little awe knowing l have something very special.

If after a while it does kick me in the butt l will let you know :joke:

The AT Forum is a treasure trove of information on the Thoth. l have spent the afternoon looking at the books people recommend, peoples opinions on the Thoth and spent most time on the study forum. From the links that people have kindly given l have read the interview with DuQuette and Diane Wilkes, very interesting. Also opened the link to the Thelema Org which is a PDF book, will read that at leisure no time now. One can get so much info here its wonderful.
 

Awakened Queen

My experience with the Thoth has been an interesting one. When I had just started learning Tarot, I remember picking up the Thoth and getting crystal clear, eerie accurate readings with it. The clarity was such that it would make me laugh out loud.

Time have passed, and I have learned a lot, but not enough. Mostly what happens is that the reader in me resists sticking to a particular system, or even making up one, and insists instead in muddling through them all, picking up bits and pieces here and there, using or discarding them at whim. I try to convince this part of me to be more consistent, more thorough, but it just won't listen.

And alas, as I have discovered, at this stage of my learning, the Thoth is closed to me. I can of course lay down the cards and parrot learned meanings, but can't really see anything anymore, and especially not the big picture.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

It sounds like you need to clear the residual energy from it. I think a clear quartz sitting on top of them would help. Putting them in the window of a full moon would be good for them too.

http://www.biddytarot.com/how-to-clear-and-cleanse-your-tarot-cards/

Sleep with the deck under your pillow to connect. And start with one card readings and work your way up with more, as the cards' messages become clearer.

I'm not sure if you believe in spirit guides, but you could always ask them to help you read the cards. I have a set of "Tarot Guides" who help me and I have set an intention with them that every reading be for the Highest Good.
 

FLizarraga

Wow, what a wonderful, wonderfully varied array of responses.

I have been lurking for a while and not posting, among other things because I was just too busy to put together a proper post.

There's one thing I want to add, though. The Thoth is the ONLY deck I was able to read with off the cuff, as a newbie. Beginner's luck? Perhaps. I have a theory, however. I think Crowley designed the deck to engage your senses in a way that no other previous deck ever did, and that's why he gave free reign to Harris, with her swirls of vivid colors and her sacred geometry studies.

Pixie's drawing hand is a lot surer and more competent than Lady Frieda's, but her art is remote, sedate, static, meant to be observed and decoded. It doesn't jump and grab you, and, whatever its virtues, it's definitely not sensuous. Where Waite and Smith keep it clean and simple, Crowley and Harris throw in everything and the kitchen sink. Compare any card from their decks (the Lovers is one that quickly comes to mind) and you'll see what I mean. These are very different mindsets at work. One is subtle and guarded, the other is definitely nothing of the kind.

What I'm trying to say is that I think Crowley intended his deck to be picked up and read, no blinds, no questions asked. The depth of the reading would depend on the reader's preparation.

It doesn't explain why it's so closed to me now --although ravenest may have a point, or at least I hope that's close to the case here :).

" He who knoweth little, thinketh he knoweth much; but he who knoweth much hath learned his own ignorance. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool, than of him. "

http://hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib30.html

I HOPE. Although I don't think I have the full measure of my own ignorance yet.

And I think this is probably the best, most succint description I have read of the Thoth, bar none:

Like Bruce Campbell as "Ash" with his boom-stick, it's just saying "Come get some!" :D
 

FLizarraga

I'm not sure if you believe in spirit guides, but you could always ask them to help you read the cards. I have a set of "Tarot Guides" who help me and I have set an intention with them that every reading be for the Highest Good.

This particular piece of advice is striking a chord with me, Awakened Queen. I happen to be a medium from a family of mediums, who very early in life chose to close that door and not do any kind of spirit work. I have been wondering of late if I did the right thing....
 

Awakened Queen

This particular piece of advice is striking a chord with me, Awakened Queen. I happen to be a medium from a family of mediums, who very early in life chose to close that door and not do any kind of spirit work. I have been wondering of late if I did the right thing....

As long as you're asking for the Highest of Love, Light & Wisdom, I don't see anything wrong with it :) It's a personal choice.
 

Samweiss

I think Crowley designed the deck to engage your senses in a way that no other previous deck ever did, and that's why he gave free reign to Harris, with her swirls of vivid colors and her sacred geometry studies.

Harris didn't have free reign, actually. Crowley was really demanding with the cards and could be quite a slavedriver. :) In DuQuette's "Understanding Thoth Tarot" you can read some of correspondency between Crowley and Harris, and some of the Crowley's feedback could be quite scathing. Fortunately Harris was up to the challenge and delivered she did. :) That projective geometry was pure Harris, but the colors are done mostly according to Golden Dawn's color scales. That could probably explain the effect of the colors.
 

Awakened Queen

Harris didn't have free reign, actually. Crowley was really demanding with the cards and could be quite a slavedriver. :) In DuQuette's "Understanding Thoth Tarot" you can read some of correspondency between Crowley and Harris, and some of the Crowley's feedback could be quite scathing. Fortunately Harris was up to the challenge and delivered she did. :) That projective geometry was pure Harris, but the colors are done mostly according to Golden Dawn's color scales. That could probably explain the effect of the colors.

He really put Harris through the wringer. She must have had the patience of a saint to deal with his perfectionism.