Newbie to Thoth needs advice

Michellehihi said:

I used to believe also that ones needs to follow completely Crowley's line of thought in order to use his deck but I changed my mind on that.

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Ah ! .... you escaped 'the demon'

Richard said:

By no means is that necessary. However, why use the Thoth if one is not in agreement with Crowley? Why not use a deck which follows more closely your own line of thought? Just curious.

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I guess 'following slavishly' and 'Crowley's line of thought' are pretty different things.

but going some where in the middle , I can supply my own reason .

Liber resh is a great example , AC recommended its practice (which is 4 times a day ) every day .

Whaaaat ! ? I am not going to do that ! 4 times a day every day ? get outa here ! besides, I am a Lunar person , I am not going to invoke the Sun like that .... I have always been lunar and has worked fine for me thanks !

Then 'things' kept moving me towards it .... eventually I was doing it .... it was fantastic, also it balanced my overly Lunar nature - I had not realised I was so out of balance ... and many other amazing and surprising benefits ( well .... do ANYTHING 4 times a day every day and see what happens ) . If I had not taken that advice .... I ma not sure where I would be now ?

Also it lead me to take some other of his recommendations .... equally impressive results, and that led me to throw myself into some of his initiation rites .

But also , one does need to make distinctions in such things.... some of Crowley's stuff is instructional and worth taking up ( as in his instructions about 'The Holy Magick of Light' via , eg. OTO ) and other more radical and personal practices that applied to him - I WOULD NOT take them up.

One must be able to make the distinction ... or you could end up worse than you started.

One may study ancient Greek Philosophy and adopt it .... but need not adopt their sexual proclivities ( if you know what I mean ) .

ravenest said:

Ha! He called that 'The Demon Crowley' and according to him, it will come after you if you slavishly try to copy him instead of applying what he taught individually to yourself

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For once, the Corvus is correct.

Crow-ley detested the notion of blind followers and preferred people to experience for themselves what he was talking about.

The noisy prattler !

ravenest said:

The noisy prattler !

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Don't be so judgmental about yourself.

Thoth deck could be seen as art, but it is not meant to be an art. It is meant to be a tool for divination.

One doesn't have to follow Crowley to use Thoth deck, but knowing about his ideas and philosophy behind its design would definitely help understand Thoth deck better.

Richard said:

He did strongly believe that he had an important message for the world: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will." His Tarot was designed to reflect this. (Of course, this doesn't mean that one should do whatever whim comes to mind, but rather that one should establish contact with the Higher Self, aka the Holy Guardian Angel, and learn thereby what one's true will actually is.)

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That is my (very far away) aim If it hadn't been for stumbling on to the Thoth and the very helpful and knowledgeable people here, I might not have found such inspiration.

Richard said:

For once, the Corvus is correct.

Crow-ley detested the notion of blind followers and preferred people to experience for themselves what he was talking about.

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Ah, that's good to know!

According to most masters of occultism, this world and life is a "fall". Everyone including Crowley himself some point of his life was / is blind and deaf searching for the light, God, enlightenment and savior. Otherwise there would be no need for religion, occultism or divination.

Not sure what would be purpose of Crowley's followers experiencing themselves what he was talking about.

As an occultist, that seems jarringly incorrect. I imagine it is also incorrect for many Thelemites and people actually practicing Magick.

It can be fixed up by changing it to ' searching for the light, God, enlightenment OR savior '

nah ... that still sucks ...


' searching for the light, God or enlightenment '


~ 'a savior' ? .... in Thelemic magick ? ? ?


The purpose of ' followers ' experiencing what he was talking about ? One is not to be a ' follower ' . Thats the point of not trying to emulate him.

Experiencing what he was talking about is an entirely different matter . It could be your main purpose if you did .... if you get to experience it yourself .... living out your 'True Will' .