ok here goes....

Hi every one,

I am not new to this forum but I come and go for long periods of time but this has got to change!!
As so many things in my life I am really committed to start with and then give up out of pure laziness etc etc....

But no more and to start this off I have bought the standard Thoth deck and DuQuette's book to study in 2014 (they should arrive next week hopefully at some point)

So I am reading older threads in this section of the forum and have started looking at Fortune's Mystical Qabalah (bloody hell, I just can't get into it but I shall keep trying as I had this book for some reason already on my book shelf) but I have already placed DuQuette's chicken Qabalah in my amazon basket lol.

Any ways this is just me saying hi and I am a newbie as some more people here and I would love to hear from you how your all getting on.

Amber

I think the Thoth is a never ending learning process; that may be the most frustrating aspect about it but also the greatest as well- you never stop learning and you will never be bored- of course that is my opinion - Best of luck !

Just a suggestion. Read Chicken Qabalah first. And don't do it as a duty or obligation. Have fun!

I'd second that. Chicken Qabalah is great. Fortune has a good reputation, but honestly I found her book fairly dull and not nearly as helpful.

It is true that Chicken Qabalah is perhaps more modern in its teaching methods, and I myself loved it. But if you already have Fortune's book, I see no reason not to read it, rather than spend more money. Try it, if you don't get anything out of it, keep in mind that it may indeed be due to her approach, rather than a blanket statement about Kabbalah itself. But it still is a great book. In any case, the beginning is all about learning definitions, and in less than a month you can know and understand all the basic ones and get a general understanding good enough to form a basis for further study, whatever book you use. Read it with a diagram of the Tree next to you and a notebook and you should be fine.

After basic definitions, it's all a question of looking at each card Kabbalistically using the same tools over and over (attribution, path, placement on the Tree). Since you use the same tools, they eventually become second nature, and faster than you may imagine.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone!

I shall have virtue by my bed and attempt a page or 2 a night just cause I have it already in my possession but for the rest I'm am just going to wait till my deck arrives and the DuQuette book and go from there!

I can't wait to actually just look at the cards and absorb the colours and shapes etc.
Like some of you said I need to have fun with it so I'm am going to have a great time once I can just get my hands on my cards!

got my notebook!

Just dropping in to say I got my notebook!
I went for just a plane unruled number so I can draw the tree of live easy if I want and 'doodle' symbols if needed

I've seen the book of Thoth study group here but as I won't be getting that just yet are there any of you out there who are interested in a DuQuette study group or something along those lines?

And I've seen people saying here on the forum that you don't use the deck for readings as such my question is what do you use the deck for? Meditation? Shadowwork? Magic? Occultstudies? I myself just for some reason had to get it because the art just all of a sudden made me feel alive and I just gotten a little obsessed for getting it (I even had a dream where Crowley gave me a ball of energy and he very strictly said get on with it)

Now I know who Crowley is and I've seen some docu's of him but I've never read anything from him but now it feels like he is everywhere ( I'm not crazy by the way I'm just describing what happened in the last week or so that made me want to get the deck.

Ok I best stop here and hope I get some responses and hope you all not think I'm a crazy person.

Love and Light Amber

AmberFox said:

And I've seen people saying here on the forum that you don't use the deck for readings as such my question is what do you use the deck for? Meditation? Shadowwork? Magic? Occult studies?

Click to expand...

Yes.

All of the above and more

In a way I envy you. There's nothing quite like the budding romance with the Thoth. Sure, it is replaced years later by a loving relationship, more mature perhaps although less butterflies, but the beginning of a romance... well, you have some head-bumping-against-the-wall ahead of you, but also amazing discovery and excitement.

Also, remember that every question asked in the Thoth forum is an opportunity to learn, to, especially for whoever is answering the question. Every question is a gift, really, so don't be shy in being generous with them! I myself learn so much when teaching, I so enjoy it.

Don't let that put you off using the deck for readings though. You can use it for a lot of things, but it reads great also. I use it exclusively when reading for myself, and frequently when reading for others. I use a RWS clone for some types of readings for other people, when I feel too snobbish about their question to involve my Thoth LOL

AmberFox said:

.....And I've seen people saying here on the forum that you don't use the deck for readings as such my question is what do you use the deck for?.......

Click to expand...

I use it for reference. People usually don't post scans of the cards they are discussing, because they assume that everyone has the deck, so why should they bother. If someone says, 'Wow! Look at that thingie on the Art card,' I can pull out my handy-dandy Thoth (the big green box one) and see what they're talking about.

For my personal use, I like simpler, cleaner images, without all the Qabalistic training wheels (Hebrew letters, astrological glyphs, etc.). This is not the place to get into the issue of whether Harris' artistic style is appropriate for the subject matter, but the self-conscious use of converging and non-converging straight lines is distracting to me. It's too much like the stuff I had to draw on the board for calculus class.