gregory
This is an awesome post, Zeph - thanks.I find that many new, or budding, Thoth users seem to have the impression that it is a deck in which all must be done "by the book," and there is lacking that element of intuitive imagination that goes into mainstream readings of the RWS. While reading Tarot using esoteric attributions does demands knowledge of its symbolic language and structure, I myself find it a wholly abstract and creative process because there are no real rules that dictate how much weight is given each element. The structure affords a greater picture of a given card, a more interconnected symbolic vocabulary through which to look at an idea expressed but the process of linking them all together is far from sterile, you just need to keep in mind that many of the most important symbols pertaining to a card aren't on the card itself.
Oh my. If there is one Thoth book I hate more than anything but Arrien, this one is it... (Arrien has far more to do with Jung than with Thoth, and I find it profoundly unhelpful.)Thanks for book refs. Have found a 2nd hand Ziegler.
The ones I found helpful were DuQuette - yes - Snuffin ad Banzhaf.