Confused over not connecting with Thoth

smw said:

I wasn't really thinking about divination particularly with all the interesting connections that have come up Christianity, Gnostics, Schools of Magic, black white red, yellow, cars...

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For me, they were all about getting better divination

I picked up the Aeon card this morning , and saw AC in it.
It was saying, common do what thou wilt, so I did, and it worked.

Crowley relegated divination to an appendix in The Book of Thoth. He considered it a tool for developing psychic awareness, inferior to contemplation but possibly more generally accessible. But, of course, the prevailing attitude on Æclectic seems to be that the opinions of a Tarot author are irrelevant. This is expressed often in other parts of the Forum, such as UTC.

During 45+ years of involvement with Tarot, including divination, my attitude toward it has not remained static but has evolved in accordance with my personal understanding of it and its usefulness to me.

foolMoon said:

For me, they were all about getting better divination

I picked up the Aeon card this morning , and saw AC in it.
It was saying, common do what thou wilt, so I did, and it worked.

Click to expand...

I haven't seen AC in any cards before... What worked? Or am I being nosey

Richard said:

Crowley relegated divination to an appendix in The Book of Thoth. He considered it a tool for developing psychic awareness, inferior to contemplation but possibly more generally accessible. But, of course, the prevailing attitude on Æclectic seems to be that the opinions of a Tarot author are irrelevant. This is expressed often in other parts of the Forum, such as UTC.

During 45+ years of involvement with Tarot, including divination, my attitude toward it has not remained static but has evolved in accordance with my personal understanding of it and its usefulness to me.

Click to expand...

While reading books by Crowley and Paul Foster Case I always got the impression that divination was not their main concern, but they recognized that majority of people use the cards for that purpose, so they decided to throw these people a bone. The instructions for divination are almost hilariously simple "shuffle the deck, cut, tell a story. Now here's a list of divinatory meanings".

Richard said:

Crowley relegated divination to an appendix in The Book of Thoth. He considered it a tool for developing psychic awareness, inferior to contemplation but possibly more generally accessible. But, of course, the prevailing attitude on Æclectic seems to be that the opinions of a Tarot author are irrelevant. This is expressed often in other parts of the Forum, such as UTC.

During 45+ years of involvement with Tarot, including divination, my attitude toward it has not remained static but has evolved in accordance with my personal understanding of it and its usefulness to me.

Click to expand...

I don't attach any particular importance to it being in Appendix A; it could just as easily have been Part V. He doesn't seem to give it short shrift in the introductory paragraphs, suggesting that it is a less demanding but still effective way for the average aspirant to forge a long-term relationship with the cards as "living individuals," building them into his or her "living Temple." Perhaps it heightens psychic awareness, but I didn't get that idea from what he wrote - it seemed more like a conversational "live-in" dynamic between the cards and the student. Maybe he expressed that opinion elsewhere?

It's probably the fact that the Book of Thoth isn't a "how-to" manual on how to approach the cards - it suggests far more than it explains, and when it does explain it often does so via unapologetically exalted concepts - that encourages less dedicated and persistent types to forego its profundities and just go into "seat-of-the-pants" mode when using the deck. The "auto-pilot" for this unfortunate turn of events is almost always previous exposure to the Waite-Smith model, a sketchy roadmap at best.

smw said:

I haven't seen AC in any cards before... What worked? Or am I being nosey

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Nothing exciting smw had to decide on something, and I think it turned out to be ok.
The Aeon card tells me to make decision on something, upright for to go ahead and reverse, not to.

foolMoon said:

Nothing exciting smw had to decide on something, and I think it turned out to be ok.
The Aeon card tells me to make decision on something, upright for to go ahead and reverse, not to.

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"Do what thou wilt" was okay. The card celebrates the Age of Horus (self realization, the new Law), which Crowley believed had supplanted that of Osiris (self sacrifice, the dying and rising god).

Richard said:

"Do what thou wilt" was okay. The card celebrates the Age of Horus (self realization, the new Law), which Crowley believed had supplanted that of Osiris (self sacrifice, the dying and rising god).

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I was able to come to the msg from the card due to the Thelemic rule, "do what thou wilt", and the Aeon's image projecting as AC. The Banjaf's Thoth book seems good for Thoth divination.

There is also a thin divination book by Crowley and Snuffin's book which seem good for Thoth divination.

The book meanings and personal intuition work together for Thoth divination for me.
I would like to expand Thoth divination scope by getting more into the astrological, cabalistic, Thelemic and alchemical associations.

foolMoon said:

I was able to come to the msg from the card due to the Thelemic rule, "do what thou wilt", and the Aeon's image projecting as AC. The Banjaf's Thoth book seems good for Thoth divination.

There is also a thin divination book by Crowley and Snuffin's book which seem good for Thoth divination.

The book meanings and personal intuition work together for Thoth divination for me.
I would like to expand Thoth divination scope by getting more into the astrological, cabalistic, Thelemic and alchemical associations.

Click to expand...

That stuff is not difficult when you take small bites at a time. Some people get overwhelmed by trying to do it all at once.

By the way, that was your post 666.

foolMoon said:

I was able to come to the msg from the card due to the Thelemic rule, "do what thou wilt", and the Aeon's image projecting as AC. The Banjaf's Thoth book seems good for Thoth divination.

There is also a thin divination book by Crowley and Snuffin's book which seem good for Thoth divination.

The book meanings and personal intuition work together for Thoth divination for me.
I would like to expand Thoth divination scope by getting more into the astrological, cabalistic, Thelemic and alchemical associations.

Click to expand...

I find Banzhaf's Keywords for the Crowley Tarot a more useful resource than The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards, and Crowley's "thin book" (at least the one I have) was based on his 1912 Equinox material that seems like a Golden Dawn derivative with perhaps the first glimmering of a personal philosophy.

I don't dip into reference books too much any more, but I still get a lot of pleasure and insight out of opening the Book of Thoth and revisiting the master's words when I'm looking for inspiration.