Looking to try to tackle the Thoth again need some help

Siochanai said:

Progress there really is no progress just a mess of non understanding and chaos. Feels way over my head.

The best way to explain it is my impressions of The Fool...
"The beginnings of everything are there but in reality it is pure unorganized chaos due to the lack of understanding."

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Perhaps the first step of learning is having a glimpse of what we don't know. You might be in a good place that doesn't feel good. I still often look at the Fool and don't understand. We can't understand everything. For me it has become enough to try, thus my signiture.

AW

Always Wondering said:

Perhaps the first step of learning is having a glimpse of what we don't know. You might be in a good place that doesn't feel good. I still often look at the Fool and don't understand. We can't understand everything. For me it has become enough to try, thus my signiture.

AW

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Always love your responses AW. Sure I do not expect to know everything but something sure would be nice so I can attempt to use them for readings. There really is so much to each card makes it even harder to start. I think I might just have to shuffle draw and read about it till my eyes bleed. Maybe I will remember something.

It can be difficult to learn the Thoth by heart, and it sounds as if you may need a little structure to your studies. How are you studying, from what book, and are you studying any associated things?

closrapexa said:

It can be difficult to learn the Thoth by heart, and it sounds as if you may need a little structure to your studies. How are you studying, from what book, and are you studying any associated things?

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Right now I have Understanding. The Thoth by DuQuette, Book of Thoth, 777, and Book T. Right now I am trying to learn by using. Simple 3 card and 1 card draws. I have always been a learn by doing. I also have a RWS I do not use and a set of oracle cards I am learning.

Keeping in mind, I don't read much for other's, just myself.

I study wide and read narrow. That's means it is fine for me to study deep and high, but when it comes down to a reading the typical divinatory meanings such as DuQuette's Understanding starting on page 278 may be all I use. If I have trouble getting that pragmatic after my head steeping in the esoteric stuff, I like the General Character of the Trumps as They Appear In Use (Book of Thoth pg 253) and I notice DuQuette using them at the beginning in italics in his Major Arcana Trumps section. Those help ground me a bit without feeling as if I lost the essence of the card.

I find journaling the most helpful. I just journal what is going on each day and then pull a card. I do not pull a card and then journal. The magic seems to happen the other way around. It never fails that the deck has heard me and responds, though it might take a day or two to understand that it has. This is how I gained my trust in the deck.

It can be very overwhelming. The Fool and the High Priestess gave me much trouble. I've been know to overlook them and pick another card in the beginning. Or draw a second card to narrow the field on those two.

It is a lot to remember for me and I have never been one to sit down and read for someone ad lib. I usually will take my time and do an email reading, if someone asks. This way I can stick to the facts and monitor myself so I don't get to "out there" and also so I can be more reflective and less reactive.

You will find you own way though if you stick with it, I am sure of it.

AW

Siochanai said:

Right now I have Understanding. The Thoth by DuQuette, Book of Thoth, 777, and Book T. Right now I am trying to learn by using. Simple 3 card and 1 card draws. I have always been a learn by doing. I also have a RWS I do not use and a set of oracle cards I am learning.

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It is, of course, very subjective, and I'm sure that in time you'll find your own way. That being said, I myself did try that route, and didn't actually get very far. DuQuette's book is a great introduction, and really puts things in context. However, the book that really helped me see the context of that context was his Chicken Qabalah. It helped me see the overall structure, how the deck is built and really helped order everything. Although not Thoth-specific, I highly recommend it.

Chicken Qabalah is invaluable! It is a no-nonsense introduction to what Qabalistic Tarot is all about. There is really nothing much to learn except the terminology (for the sake of communication). Qabalah is not a doctrine or belief system. It is a way of organizing concepts into a rational pattern which facilitates understanding. It is akin more to logic than metaphysics.

Hello Everyone,

I figure I will keep this thread going instead of opening up a new one until it is warranted.

So I picked up a copy of the Chicken Qabalah on my kindle reader. At the same time I read the whole thing today as I just could not put the darn book down it was amazing. So amazing I think I am going to have to grab a hard copy as well for easy reference and re reading.

So let me bring up a few points that I made on my first read. The major point I picked up is how it just hit me in retrospect to how well the Qabalah fits the Tarot be it the RWS or the Thoth. It is just profound at how much sense it makes of things and how it really gave me a stepping stone. I can see how it both fits the RWS and Thoth decks in different ways in the respect that different aspects are shown between the two different card types and the Tree of Life in particular. The RWS will show one aspect but the Thoth shows a different aspect. The major difference I did pick up on is according to the RWS Golden Dawn Tazaddi would be the star but to Crowley and the Thoth it is not. I am not sure why yet but time will tell.

The other major point I have discovered after reading the book was the shear can of worms I just opened up in my brain and I really think it gave me the starting point I needed to start learning the Tarot over all. Ironically the connections I noticed through my first read and meanings of the cards started to somewhat connect together and become cloudy instead of black and blank. I think with further investigation my answer to truly learning tarot will be a study of Qabalah, astrology, and maybe some more stuff. The ironic thing that I notice is that the Tarot will help me learn things about the aforementioned subjects and the aforementioned subjects will help me learn the Tarot.

Oh geeze I probably sound like I am off my rocker already ha.

On a more sane note at this point I don't know if I want to look at it from the RWS perspective or the Thoth perspective now because both make much more sense to me then they did before I read this book... But all of a sudden the sun on the genitals of the fool makes sense now...

Ok I am going to stop talking otherwise this post will never end so now you can do the I told you so part...