Is it a 'Male Tarot'?

OK.

Can't bear it.

I'm going to interrupt my big sulk to say two things.

1. Yes, women can't use the Thoth, we are weak, fragile and prey to our emotions.
We fail to do anything logical or difficult, we can't read maps, use intellectual decks, park cars or anything like that.
Thank god we can stand bare foot in the kitchen having babies for men who are 'not very clever but good a lifting things', or we would be totally redundant.

Bring me back a mammoth to throw on the fire, dear, the brats need feeding...

2. Yes, lets have nothing but positivity in tarot.
Let the 10 of Swords mean that fluffy bunnies are going to come lick you all over and snuggle you with love.
And let the 3 of swords mean that angels are going to carry you home when your feet are tired and unicorns are going to poop magic poop on the lawn to make the roses grow.

Oh Yay...
Lets forget anything about balance, about male and female, good and bad, light and dark.

Let's all live in happy happy land where men are the masters of the universe and women don't like bad things...

Now, excuse me, I'm going off to carry on my sulk, please don't anyone post anything that provocative again or I will feel the need to post again.

fyreflye said:

The Thoth is a "male" deck in the sense that its interpretive system is very intellectual and involves dealing with and putting together a number of unfamiliar ideas in order to understand Crowley's intentions rather than a deck that can be easily read intuitively. But if you've a knack for it you can also read the Thoth intuitively if you ignore Crowley's writings and strike out own your own. I strongly suspect that you'll find Crowley's writings unreadable; try them online and see. If not, then study them. If you do, then try letting the images speak to you personally. But do get the deck; It's beautiful.

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The Thoth is not a male deck it has androgynous energies. All a person has to have is a basic knowledge of astrology and the qabbalah and they can begin to use it,mastery of these issues will come with time. The receptive aspect of the deck is hand in hand with the active part,one must use the intuitive aspect of themselves to probe why certain qabbalastic attributions appear in your reading. The Qabbalah provides the logical structure of understanding how the elements of nature relate to each other and what a certain card or spread may mean,but to take it further than that you must be intuitive because the logical aspect is just one part.

The Thoth is a deck of very beautiful cards. Anyone who chooses to try can use it. And goodness knows Uncle Al left us the wherewithal to understand it, too.

Some men don't get it at all - with or without the book. Some women do, ditto.

And I suspect NONE of this is helping the OP. Pity, that.

I've never thought of the Thoth deck as *male* . . . and, as others have already noted, the images were painted by a female .

The Thoth has long been one of my favorite decks. I've never gotten an *evil* vibe from it, either, by the way.

I hang out every Saturday in a shop that sells tarot cards and would say that there are as many women buying Thoth decks as there are men buying them, if not more.

I got caught up in the hype about Crowley a few years ago and parted with my Thoth deck but have bought it again (all three sizes!) and will always have a copy. It's hauntingly beautiful, intriguing and multi-layered. I don't think it can be labelled as a "male" deck (whatever that is), it's far too complex to be pigeon-holed like that.

avalonian said:

... it's far too complex to be pigeon-holed like that.

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Well said! And good advice to the OP, too.

What she said

All tarot decks are male arent they ... until Mother peace came along

thorhammer said:

They're not evil at all, at least I don't think they are. They are evocative,

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That hit the nail exactly on the head! I think that one comment can suffice to explain sooooo many negative comments and feelings and uneasiness some people feel about the Thoth deck (and why others dont )

Evoke;
to call up or produce (memories, feelings, etc.), to elicit or draw forth,
to call up; cause to appear; summon, to produce or suggest through artistry and imagination a vivid impression.
And from where? I'd suggest the observers unconscious and if that is 'disturbed' or a source of unease or 'evil' (?) then that is what the conscious mind will feel and detect. Of course, the nature of the human mind wont detect the problem within ... it will look for some type of external source to place the blame on.

I agree with all of you!

I think it is the style that evokes a masculine feel. You see Art Deco and Cubism came after curvy sensuous Art Novelle all clevage and exotic flowers, and after Victorian- well which was Victorian all buttoned up.
Art Deco as a style was formed by the age of machines and has sharp edges trapezoidal, zigzaggy, geometric, and jumbled shapes. If I was looking for a word- I would explain the style came in the age of war and was opulent and like all Art it seems , it was reaction to the style proceeding it. So the deck is typical of the time whereas the RWS is a hangover of Victoriana- and the RWS was what was available all those years the Thoth was not.
The Art gallery here tried an experiment, because it was said men do not go to Art Galleries as a rule. They put a display of of Posters and Jewelery of Mouran this guy (unknown to us really)
http://www.art-deco-style.com/ajm-cassandre.html
advertised at the door and next to him was the Guy John Waterhouse who also did posters as well as paintings.
Overwhelmingly the Art Deco male artist Mouran/Cassandre was chosen by men (and it drew many more men into the Gallery)
The Artwork of the Thoth is strong and opulent and evocative, but I can see why it may be considered a males deck- but that is the style not the content.
It is a great deck and also offers lots of choices of directions to take with Tarot.

~Rosanne

The Thoth was created deliberately as a tool for propagating Crolwey's "Law of Thelema." As such it can sometimes be difficult to divorce from Thelema. I do think it's possbile though if you really want to. I don't think it's necessarily male biased. In Crowley's world the Whore of Babylon is every bit as important as the Beast.

I think the Thoth gets an evil rap because Crowley went out of his way to incorporate as much "evil" symbolism as he could from the Bible, especially Revelation. Of course to his mind it all represented good. So I think it might depend on where you're coming from. If you already have an anti-Christian bias you'll probably feel right at home with the Thoth; if not, you may find it all a bit over the top.