Eeviee
First, pardon my n0obish fangirl-ism. I simply cannot contain it!
My Thoth deck arrived yesterday! A day ahead of schedule! For reasons not completely known to me, I was ever so anxious to recieve this deck. I'm generally not patient with waiting for package delievery (I'm the person that obsessively refreshes the tracking page), but this delivery took it to a whole new level! - Perhaps it was the wait. You see, I was first drawn to Thoth and Crowley six years ago, at the very start of my Tarot and spiritual journey. I remember there being only two choices in my mind when I placed the order for my first Tarot deck: RWS or Thoth. I went with the Original RWS, and boy do I regret it! I made the choice due to the vast majority of material being used to learn Tarot was based on the RWS, and the common controversy over the Thoth (and what I'm now beginning to read into: Crowley himself). I'm now wondering where I would be if I had chosen the Thoth instead of or in addition to the Original RWS...
Since then I've had Thoth and Crowley in the back of my mind for years now!
In addition to my medium Thoth deck (USG purple box, Belgium printing, 3 Magus cards), I bought The Book of Thoth, DuQuette's Understanding, Banzhaf's Keywords, and The Wieser Concise Guide to Aliester Crowley (written by Kaczynski, author of Perdurabo). Thus far, I do not regret any of my purchases! The guide is a wonderful and compact outline of Crowley and his beliefs. Indorced by the OTO and DuQuette as the best starting point to Crowley. While it may not be the end all, it is exaclty what I wanted it to be! In conjunction with the beginning chapters of DuQuette's Understanding, I feel I have a good base knowledge of Crowley, and has provided me with a spring-board for futher Crowley enlightenment! The Guide declares that Crowley rhymes with "holy"; something once unknown to me, and debated by others (the source materials may come in an additional post soon). The author also provides a list of top 11 Crowley works, which I have been exhaustively searching for to no avail. As the author is one of a highly reccomended biography, his opinion holds much authority for me.
The deck itself is fantastic! I do not see what others claim is so scary about this deck. It is intense, it is detailed, it is bold, and it is beautiful! But scary? No! I simply do not see it. It is not morbid or dark. Perhaps someone can open my eyes. What is it that you/others found "scary" about this deck? While I may be a little darker than the average person, I am usually very perceptive. This, however, I simply cannot wrap my head around.
I was concerned with the common issue of the Thoth lacking scenic pips. I do not know if I was misinformed or misinterpreted what others have said in regards to the Minors, but for whatever reason I was under the impression they would be minimalistic. While they may not display a full scene of imagry, the pips are very talkative! The expressive style of Harris' rendering of them, in conjunction with the keywords make these Minors VERY readable! Add in astrological correspondences and Quabala, and BAM! -In your face meanings.
I can see myself making the purchase of the Large Thoth deck for study and futher clairification of Harris' artwork. -Something I never thought necessary with the RWS! Those are so basic and bland in comparison to Harris's depiction. The imagry itself, in conjunction with Crowley's mad genius enlightenment make this deck stand far above RWS in my mind. Yes, Crowley was a stickler with Harris' artwork, but I have read that she pressured him to create the deck; she paid him money to tudor her in the ways of magick. But, as such, every symbol, every colour, every "backdrop" has meaning! I've read that The Book of Thoth and Thoth Tarot are Crowley's magnum opus, the final culmination of 40 years of magickal/esoteric/spiritual study. That in itself makes this deck far more approachable to me. I cannot wait for the Thoth to "meet me" at whatever level, and I cannot wait for it to grow and adapt to my knowledge base!
Finally, I must add that the "official" Magus card is my favourite! The others are nice, too, but this one just "fits" with everything I know about the card. Perhaps it is not important to some, but the fact that I had/have a choice and chose the original speaks volumes to me. I am very individualistic, and I love personalization; but in this case I felt it was not necessary. Crowley's final decison resonated with me, and I'm thrilled!
Perhaps my studies in Paganism/Wicca/magick were turning to the esoteric/ceremonial/high magick studies already (my Amazon wishlists reflect that), as much of the aforementioned studies refer back to the latter. Or perhaps my studies of Tarot were leaing to Crowley and Thoth, which in turn lead to the esoteric/ceremonial/high magick. I do not know. But the destination now seems inevitable, and I am thrilled to be aboard this ride!
My Thoth deck arrived yesterday! A day ahead of schedule! For reasons not completely known to me, I was ever so anxious to recieve this deck. I'm generally not patient with waiting for package delievery (I'm the person that obsessively refreshes the tracking page), but this delivery took it to a whole new level! - Perhaps it was the wait. You see, I was first drawn to Thoth and Crowley six years ago, at the very start of my Tarot and spiritual journey. I remember there being only two choices in my mind when I placed the order for my first Tarot deck: RWS or Thoth. I went with the Original RWS, and boy do I regret it! I made the choice due to the vast majority of material being used to learn Tarot was based on the RWS, and the common controversy over the Thoth (and what I'm now beginning to read into: Crowley himself). I'm now wondering where I would be if I had chosen the Thoth instead of or in addition to the Original RWS...
Since then I've had Thoth and Crowley in the back of my mind for years now!
In addition to my medium Thoth deck (USG purple box, Belgium printing, 3 Magus cards), I bought The Book of Thoth, DuQuette's Understanding, Banzhaf's Keywords, and The Wieser Concise Guide to Aliester Crowley (written by Kaczynski, author of Perdurabo). Thus far, I do not regret any of my purchases! The guide is a wonderful and compact outline of Crowley and his beliefs. Indorced by the OTO and DuQuette as the best starting point to Crowley. While it may not be the end all, it is exaclty what I wanted it to be! In conjunction with the beginning chapters of DuQuette's Understanding, I feel I have a good base knowledge of Crowley, and has provided me with a spring-board for futher Crowley enlightenment! The Guide declares that Crowley rhymes with "holy"; something once unknown to me, and debated by others (the source materials may come in an additional post soon). The author also provides a list of top 11 Crowley works, which I have been exhaustively searching for to no avail. As the author is one of a highly reccomended biography, his opinion holds much authority for me.
The deck itself is fantastic! I do not see what others claim is so scary about this deck. It is intense, it is detailed, it is bold, and it is beautiful! But scary? No! I simply do not see it. It is not morbid or dark. Perhaps someone can open my eyes. What is it that you/others found "scary" about this deck? While I may be a little darker than the average person, I am usually very perceptive. This, however, I simply cannot wrap my head around.
I was concerned with the common issue of the Thoth lacking scenic pips. I do not know if I was misinformed or misinterpreted what others have said in regards to the Minors, but for whatever reason I was under the impression they would be minimalistic. While they may not display a full scene of imagry, the pips are very talkative! The expressive style of Harris' rendering of them, in conjunction with the keywords make these Minors VERY readable! Add in astrological correspondences and Quabala, and BAM! -In your face meanings.
I can see myself making the purchase of the Large Thoth deck for study and futher clairification of Harris' artwork. -Something I never thought necessary with the RWS! Those are so basic and bland in comparison to Harris's depiction. The imagry itself, in conjunction with Crowley's mad genius enlightenment make this deck stand far above RWS in my mind. Yes, Crowley was a stickler with Harris' artwork, but I have read that she pressured him to create the deck; she paid him money to tudor her in the ways of magick. But, as such, every symbol, every colour, every "backdrop" has meaning! I've read that The Book of Thoth and Thoth Tarot are Crowley's magnum opus, the final culmination of 40 years of magickal/esoteric/spiritual study. That in itself makes this deck far more approachable to me. I cannot wait for the Thoth to "meet me" at whatever level, and I cannot wait for it to grow and adapt to my knowledge base!
Finally, I must add that the "official" Magus card is my favourite! The others are nice, too, but this one just "fits" with everything I know about the card. Perhaps it is not important to some, but the fact that I had/have a choice and chose the original speaks volumes to me. I am very individualistic, and I love personalization; but in this case I felt it was not necessary. Crowley's final decison resonated with me, and I'm thrilled!
Perhaps my studies in Paganism/Wicca/magick were turning to the esoteric/ceremonial/high magick studies already (my Amazon wishlists reflect that), as much of the aforementioned studies refer back to the latter. Or perhaps my studies of Tarot were leaing to Crowley and Thoth, which in turn lead to the esoteric/ceremonial/high magick. I do not know. But the destination now seems inevitable, and I am thrilled to be aboard this ride!
Hope to see more posts. Folks around here have been very helpful to me. 
(e.g. check The Great Rite {especially the original versions}