Crowley handbook

lisashomeoffice

I just got a set of Crowleys. I am looking for a good handbook, guide. Can anyone out there tell me what handbooks are the best and easiest to understand?

Thanks
 

Scion

Hey Lisa,

If you've never used the Thoth at all, I'd recommend Lon Milo Duquette's Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot to start. It will give you a lot of useful basics so that you understand the undderlying system a little more coherently. If you've been reading primarily with Waite-Smith base decks, be ready to toss out a lot of what you thoguht was "standard" in interpretation. Thought the WS and the Thoth are both based on Golden Dawn's Book T, they are literally worlds apart.

Eventually (and Duquette says this constantly in his own book), if you want to learn the Thoth properly, you must read Crowley's own companion text, but this is a great option for the beginner. If you're just starting with the Thoth, I strongly, strongly urge you to consider getting down to business with the Thoth on its own, card by card, for a while. And using the Duquette book alongside Crowley's Book of Thoth is well worth the time invested. Secondarily I'd recommend Snuffin's Thoth Companion which is complimentary to Duquette's book but less overlapping that you might imagine. Each of them provide a pragmatic path through the Thelemic woods. At the very least, these two books will help you to read Crowley's own dense text without swallowing your tongue.

If you do use the (good) Banzhaf books Psychebleu mentions above, you should know that Banzhaf is solid, but tends to be a little keyword-y and doesn't actually explain much of the deck in a way that helps you understand it; he pretty much intereprets cards and expects you to accept his reading whole whether you understand the logic or no.

Scion
 

gregory

What he said. Duquette is REALLY helpful :)
 

Abrac

lisahomeoffice, it probably depends on your current level of familiarity with Crowley and what he was all about.

It's my view that the Thoth Tarot is very difficult to really grasp out of context. DuQuette supplies some context but not nearly enough in my opinion. Very often he simply parrots Crowley's companion book without any comment or explanation. I like having DuQuette's book handy for an occasional reference, but honestly I haven't learned that much from it.

I would suggest some of the Crowley biographies. There are a lot of good ones. You might just have to read some of the reviews to find one or two that are right for you. There's also a lot of good info here and elsewhere on the Web.
 

lisashomeoffice

Thanks.
I will check out the book written by Duquette. It sounds good. I realize that these cards are advanced;however, I plan to take my time and study the cards when I'm not using the RW. Ironically, today I ran across this 7 part series put out by the Catholic Herald of Colorado on tarot and Ouija. The Catholic Church condemns them. I will leave the link in case any of you are interested. http://www.coloradocatholicherald.com/display.php?xrc=646


Thanks
 

thorhammer

LHO - hi! And welcome to the Thoth! I agree with Scion on many points, though don't have the DuQuette book yet, so can't comment on that. Abrac, too, makes a good point in that the deck out of context can be very discouraging. I've found lots of books helpful in my approach to the Thoth, so be prepared to bump your reading list in favour of some of these:

The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford (DuQuette)
Book T (available free to download on lots of sites)
Magick Without Tears (Crowley - and so very enjoyable, makes more sense than most of his other stuff at first!)
Book of Thoth (Crowley - dense, yes, makes no sense upon first reading so you will get frustrated . . . just consider yourself warned and put it away, read some other stuff on Qabalah, Thelema, Western Magickal stuff . . . come back, try again . . . rinse, repeat.)

And sometimes the Thoth will seem like the enemy - in those times, get in contact with someone here who's passionate about it. This deck needs a support group!

\m/ Kat
 

gregory

Chicken Qabalah is WONDERFUL. I still don't get Qabalah - but at least it made me laugh.

A lot. *giggles* Think I will read it again !
 

Lilija

I love Chicken Qabalah! I love all of LMD's books, though, consider me a fangirl.

I have nothing else to add, but enthusiasm, and my votes for both Lon Milo Duquette's Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot and The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards just for starters. They're great, sensible intros to a crazy crazy world :) Enjoy the journey.