Which Thoth Companion Book Would be Best?

Frayling0 said:

Then DuQuette is the book for you - he explains ALL the symbolism of every card. The geometry, golden dawn symbols, qaballa, planets, elements... This will be the book you're looking for

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I just received DuQuette's book in the mail, and the very first page grabbed me. Looks like he encountered Crowley right around the time I did (~1970) Right after the first Weiser-distributed printing of the Thoth deck came out in 1969. Frater Achad also led me there. And there really WASN'T much Crowley material readily available then, until Weiser (and possibly Llewellyn but they seemed more interested in Wicca) opened the floodgates and poured out many hardbound volumes of Crowley and others, which I snapped up eagerly. They are now the core of my hermetic/qabalistic/magical library.

I recommend Understanding the Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo as well.

Ziegler I do not; his interps DIRECTLY contradict the BoT.

Lastly I would always look in the BoT first, contrast with other writers then go back to the BoT.
You will be amazed at how certain lines jump out at you at relevant times in the BoT.

This is coming kind of late to the thread, but I just found my 1981 reprint of Crowley's "Tarot Divination," which has an undated reference to original publication in The Equinox, so it must predate the Book of Thoth by a bit. The card descriptions appear to be GD-based. The main focus is on the court and small cards, with only very brief meanings given for the majors. Could be interesting to compare to the BoT to see how his personal vision grew.

I have Duquette's book, Snuffin's book, Zeigler's book, Akron/Hajo Banzhaf (sp?) book, and Arrien's all on the Thoth tarot. (besides BoT, of course!)

Duquette's book has lots more info to chew on about the Thoth system itself, makes a lot of complex info easier to understand, Snuffin's has a lot less info/fewer words in general & is sort of a short book, but has some good info on the symbols as related to GD and stuff not in Duquettes book. I like the Akron/Hajo book for the mythology and systems it weaves into each card interpretation, and it is good reading and has some good spreads. Not a big fan of the Zeigler or Arrien books at all. In order I'd rank them as Duquettes, Akron/Banzhof, Snuffin as what I'd recommend in that order, and to skip the other two.

Thoth Book

Damn, I bought the Ziegler

Dear god.

Well, it is REALLY good for wobbly tables...

Kathy123 said:

Damn, I bought the Ziegler

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It could be worse, such as the Arriens, for example. It's not so much that these are inherently bad books, but that they do not adequately address the matter of what the Thoth is really all about. At least this is what I have gathered from reviews and such. (I don't waste my hard earned US and state retirement pittance on such books, finding the standard references such as BoT to be very adequate.)

Hahaha @ Gregory!

LRichard... I did purchase The Book of Thoth as well... so all is not lost....

I have a vacation day coming up, I'm going to spend it getting to know my Thoth!

I will put the Duquette book on my wish list as well And maybe I will throw in my two cents about the Ziegler after I dive in!