Is the Thoth used much for reading?

ann823

I'm really drawn to the imagery on the Thoth, but don't see much about reading with it. Is it mainly a deck people study? It seems most threads talk about it in a way that seems really complicated-kabalah...astrology...etc. Or is it a good reading deck too?
Ann
 

jackdaw*

There are people here who never read with anything else, or who give their very best readings with the Thoth. It's a wonderfully deep and layered deck, with lots to explore in a reading.

Don't let the study threads intimidate you, but it is true that the more you put into it the more you get out of it.

It's a deck I plan to spend a lot more time with in the near future.
 

Le Fanu

You can go however deeply you want. If you want to read nothing and respond to the images, it works. If you want to spend your lifetime studying the Kabbalah and astrology and whatnot, it will reap ample rewards too.

I love the Thoth and so do many others here. If you go to the Thoth Forum, I think you will find all that you need to know. And many, many people read with it. Don't feel you have to be an expert!

People do read with it. And read with it well. I think it is one of the best-loved decks around. It has certainly been capturing people's imagination sine it was first published 40 years ago.

Im hopeless at remembering all those astrological facts and I have never read the Kabbalah. I think that if you read Snuffin's Thoth Companion and DuQuette's Understanding The Crowley Thoth, you'll be off. I think they contain all you need to know to get started.

Other than that, just respond to those extraordinary art-deco, hallucinatory images.. They still take my breath away... I constantly feel that I am a novice with the Thoth, but relatively recently it has become my main reading deck. When I do readings with it I get much more depth, nuance and truth than I do with any other deck.
 

Nevada

YES! I use it for reading all the time, and have for the past 22+ years. I mainly read with it for myself and my spouse, and I use it nearly every day.

ETA: When I started reading with the Thoth I knew nothing about Crowley, or any of the esoteric information and symbolism behind the Tarot deck. It worked fine for me -- once I realized I could take general meanings and my reaction to the images and read that way. I do have perhaps more background with astrology than the average newbie with Tarot, but that didn't make much difference starting out with the Thoth.

It was my second ever Tarot deck after Voyager, and is still my all-time favorite.
 

ann823

It was a deck I hadn't even looked at until a few days ago. I had looked at a couple of decks people had mentioned as Thoth influenced and really liked them but never even considered looking at the Thoth. Then I looked at it and thought it looked intriguing, interesting, but from what I read it is intimidating and used mainly for esoteric purposes, deeper than I want to go right now.

I'll look at the books you mentioned. Again it seems that most books are way too deep or considered "bird cage liner". I think I learn best alternating the "just look at the cards method" with read the book method. I've struggled with how best to learn tarot, I have a very different learning style( I was nicely kicked out of a learning and memeory study in college because I was skewing their results. I could learn but not in the way I was supposed to, LOL.)

I am also curious: What exactly did "Uncle Al" do? (OMG, That sounds like the kind of thing we used to say at family reunions!). It seems a lot of people don't like the deck because of some unmentionable deed by Crowley.
Ann
 

Nevada

I still don't know much about Crowley, myself, but as I understand it he was raised in a rigid religious environment, and it seems as if the rest of his life was in large part a rebellion against that, if that provides any clue. But I think that is for the most part unrelated to his work with the tarot -- except maybe in his use of the number 666 on the Ace of Disks and referring to himself as The Beast. He also used some drugs, and for me that may be what makes his writings incoherent -- though they're less incoherent to me now than in the past -- if I take them a little at a time.

There are lots of threads here about him if you want to know more from those more expert than I.

I love his and Lady Frieda's deck nonetheless! :) And, hey, we all have a few skeletons in the closet....
 

Always Wondering

Nevada said:
But I think that is for the most part unrelated to his work with the tarot -- except maybe in his use of the number 666 on the Ace of Disks and referring to himself as The Beast.

Actually, the more I learn about the Thoth the more I see how it is very related to the rest of Crowley's work. It is rather amazing when it all starts to come together.

But don't let that put you off. Thoth was the only Tarot deck I knew for the first few years, I knew nothing about Crowley in that time. And I got some awesome readings.

I say take what you like and leave the rest.

AW
 

Nevada

Always Wondering said:
Actually, the more I learn about the Thoth the more I see how it is very related to the rest of Crowley's work. It is rather amazing when it all starts to come together.
I didn't mean it was unrelated to his work, only unrelated to his reported nastiness as a person.
 

Always Wondering

Oh, sorry Nevada. I misunderstood. :|

AW
 

Lilija

Love it! I use it every day, several times a day, for many situations. Amazing deck, it's a maze, it's a hall of mirrors, it's an exquisitely crafted funhouse of colors, shadows and light, movement, symbols, history, lunacy, numbers, connections, lines, just everything in the universe, literally...and it just gets deeper and deeper every time I pick it up (which is about a dozen times a day).