Reading with this deck: suggestions?

So I've had my Thoth for almost a year now (It'll be a year in March) and I find myself in a fluctuating relationship with the thing. Sometimes, particularly with other people, I can tell them exactly what the cards are saying, but the vast majority of the time I just get confused by the vast majority of things that I must think about to get a meaning out of the cards (Qabalah, Astrology, etc.) I posted this in the Thoth deck forum because this is a problem that I have specifically with this deck: silent cards and bizarre symbols that have nothing to do with my situation. And yes, I've read the Book of Thoth so many times and in theory everything makes sense, but when I actually sit down to do the readings, the things from the Book of Thoth concerning the cards either have NOTHING to do with my situation or they just confuse me.

Here's an example of both the types of cards that I get, as well as my (perhaps flawed) method of interpreting them.

I asked a question about where things would go between a girl and I over the next few months. I drew the Princess of Wands.

The confusion automatically begins: is this representative of her? Me? The situation?

And then the attributions...this card is attributed to Cancer, Leo, and Virgo and it's Final Heh of Atziluth showing the manifestation of the will........ -_-

What I'm trying to say here is that when reading the cards in this deck I find so many layers of meaning that I end up confused. When I see a card ALL of these attributions explode in my head; astrological, qabalistic, elemental, divinatory meanings, things mentioned in the Book of Thoth.....then after having all of those things strike me at once, I become overwhelmed and I either end up with no meaning to the card at all (silent card) or I end up with a meaning that has nothing to do with my situation.

I've even started to study every minute symbol in the deck (in the above example I know what the alter represents, what the green in the flame represents...etc.) yet that only adds more things to overwhelm me.

For those experienced Thoth users, what's a more manageable, paced way of approaching these cards in a reading? Because my current state of remembering every single thing I've read about them only serves to confuse me and the symbolism of the cards is often absolutely mute to me.

The mass of info needs to be holistically related to each other part of it ... it requires an Hermetic outlook and consciousness ... not everyone has that, nor gets it, nor gets the how of it ... sometimes , if that isn't a natural ability, one needs training to develop it. The sensible associations need to be drilled into the non-consciously operating parts of one's mind before those 'instant' correlations can be made in the conscious mind.

It IS a very specific deck and can be used that way ( Crowley def had that type of mind and thought process ) ... but it can be used well in other ways , as many people seem to affirm.

I would suggest; go with what is the easiest method of comprehension for you ... if that leads to some unclarity in some situations or combinations and placements of cards THEN bring in something else (the astrology or the mythology or Kabbalah) ... one or two of them only ... and preferably the ones you have the best affinity or understanding with .

To try and bring it all together , before you are ready to do that, will result in the mass of , seemingly conflictual, information that is assailing your comprehension of the reading.

imho, sworm, it sounds like you could do with a break from the Thoth deck to give your subconscious time to assimilate all the details you've accumulated. Maybe work with another deck for a while or, if you haven't got one, try some readings from a website such as llewelyn which has a few different decks and layouts free.

The other thing that occurs to me is that what you've described is a left-brain approach and maybe you could go more with your intuition or gut feelings instead of over-intellectualising.

As for the reading at hand:

I asked a question about where things would go between a girl and I over the next few months. I drew the Princess of Wands.

The confusion automatically begins: is this representative of her? Me? The situation?

Click to expand...

Are you prepared to take the tiger by the tail and go for a wild ride? Show some interest and a bit of initiative and you never know where you'll end up with a girl in the next few months.

Thanks for the replies!

What I've effectively tried to do is cut down the amount of things that I think about when I look at a card. In the readings I did for myself today I stuck to ONLY looking at the astrological aspects of the cards, as that's what I relate to most strongly as Astrology is something that I know fairly well.

Thanks for the recommendations

sworm09 said:

Thanks for the replies!

What I've effectively tried to do is cut down the amount of things that I think about when I look at a card. In the readings I did for myself today I stuck to ONLY looking at the astrological aspects of the cards, as that's what I relate to most strongly as Astrology is something that I know fairly well.

Thanks for the recommendations

Click to expand...

While true that the Thoth has many, many elements on each card, all of them are interconnected, and are all, in a way, symbols of the same thing. It's just a matter of distilling them into their essence. Let's take, for example, the Hermit, one of my favorite cards. It is attributed to the Hebrew letter Yod, the point, symbol of the male, of infinite potential, of the seed, of the beginning of everything, the sperm. Popularly, the Hermit is a loner, and the reason for that is the Yod; the Hermit is alone because nothing else has yet been created.

Now, its astrological attribution seemingly isn't as clear, it is Virgo. Virgo has many meanings, among them virgin, womb, earth and other things. Here its virginity takes on the mantle of almost the same infinite potential as Yod, being on the brink of creation, pre-potential. But Virgo, as a "female" symbol, could also be the womb, the shell of the universe, etc. Connect the two together and you have the sperm swimming in the ocean of potential, the two participating in the dance of life, playing off each other. Too much of either, and you're barren; a virgin who keeps her virginity isn't participating in the dance, and a sperm who stays alone dies and goes nowhere. So the key idea of both is "potential."

I could go deeper into the card itself, but you get the gist. It's ultimately all connected. Concentrate on what you know best, but the more you challenge yourself to broaden your scope, the more rewards you'll reap.

At the end of the day, the Tarot is an intuitive tool. I would say don't actively think about the attributions. Let them "pop up" in your brain when you look at the card. I usually find that the card will tell you which aspect of it it wants you to focus on.

This only comes with experience I'm afraid. The attributions have to memorized to the point that they're second nature and you don't have to think of them. That's how I've managed to balance the intuitive and logical sides to the Thoth anyway.

sworm09 said:

I asked a question about where things would go between a girl and I over the next few months. I drew the Princess of Wands.

The confusion automatically begins: is this representative of her? Me? The situation?

And then the attributions...this card is attributed to Cancer, Leo, and Virgo and it's Final Heh of Atziluth showing the manifestation of the will........ -_-

Click to expand...

I'm not sure that this is really unique to the Thoth as it's common experience of people reading Court cards, but I can see that this would be increased in a deck like the Thoth. I'd suggest thinking about the attributions more selectively. In this case for example, the Princess of Wands is related to multiple astrology signs only in so much as she's attributed to 1/4 of the planet. Since your question isn't geographical in nature, I'd consider this information irrelevant for this reading and ignore it. Instead I'd look at the meanings of the card, as with any other deck. She's fun, flirty, dynamic, exciting. This could describe the girl, or the relationship, but either way sounds like a good time to me. She's perhaps flighty, I'd think more short term fun than ing term commitment, but that's typical for the first few months of anything so who know

Similarly with other cards, I'd consider the attributions when they are helpful, or specifically connect to the question in a way that is meaningful or useful to you. Just like any feature on any other card.

Grigori said:

I'd suggest thinking about the attributions more selectively. In this case for example, the Princess of Wands is related to multiple astrology signs only in so much as she's attributed to 1/4 of the planet. Since your question isn't geographical in nature, I'd consider this information irrelevant for this reading and ignore it. .

Click to expand...

I agree ... you have a Swiss Army knife ... you want to open a bottle of wine, the corkscrew is the obvious tool, you don't have to apply all of the tools in the 'kit'.

Once again thank you. I've been practicing distilling the meaning from the simple attributions and becoming more complex as I go along.

For example that above card; Princess of Wands, Earth of Fire


If it represents her it seems to show that she's a sensual person as Fire is passionately attracted to Earth like fuel. She likes experiences that excite her and she's a bit of a thrill seeker. This is true.

If it represents myself then it may show that I'm extremely attracted to her and that I see her as very exciting and thrilling to be around. This is also true.

If it represents the situation, it shows a pretty exciting time, but perhaps it'll involve taking a few unhealthy risks just for the sake of seeking a thrill.

I think the most interesting potential meaning is that this represents someone else entirely who'll stoke my passions over the next few months.

I think reading with one card is what makes this particular meaning hard to whittle down to one thing.

I'm by no means an expert but I think your question was too vague.

Think well before you lay out your cards. Write down what you want each position to say beforehand.

For example: the girl's view of your relationship, your view, the relationship seen objectively.

Or: what you know about the girl, what you don't know about the girl, how she feels about you.

Although other might disagree, I can tell you that from my experience, cards give more effective readings when asked about issues that you have control over. Why it may make us very curious to know what others think, feel, or hide, I think these are intrusive and sometimes unethical questions. You have to respect the boundaries of what another person protects from you.

So if I were you, I'd ask the cards: what do I have to know to take this relationship to the next level? What do I want, what do I need, what will happen? or similar questions.

Prepare a piece of paper with the positions, define pretty precisely what your question and the card positions are, and then go ahead. Write down the result - in free writing sometimes ideas come up which are difficult sitting there all alone.

And then don't ask the same question again until you've implemented some of the advice the cards gave you.

If you treat the cards that way, even spikey old Thoth, you will over time find that meanings accumulate.