Thoth-suited spreads?

The Night Dances

Hello everyone.

I'm new here, and whilst not new to Tarot in general I'm very new to Thoth, since i got my pack I feel like the cards are compelling me to learn as much as I possibly can about them.

So I have a couple of questions, which i am sure will have been asked here before...

1. can anyone explain the significance of the Kaballah tree of life on the cards? i have read some of crowley's writings on the subject but have found it hard to decipher..

2. i have read that traditional card spreads don't work so well with Thoth, as they are better read using the elemental dignities, could anyone recommend some spreads suited to Thoth please?

Thanks very much!

Elisabeth
 

The Night Dances

Hi Eowyn.

Thanks very much, I'll check those out now.

E
 

Yygdrasilian

Do you know the way to Hera's orchard?

Aloha,

The attached graphics may be of use to you, though I'm not sure it's permitted to link these within this forum - there are rules about that sort of thing...

Crowley is intentionally cryptic on certain aspects of his deck & you may notice that that has become something of a tradition amongst Thelemites. Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah may be a more accessible introduction to the use of Number within the Book of Thoth, but figuring out how these 'spreads' fit together presents its' own sort of narrative concerning One's journey through the Tree.

In much the same way that Checkers or Chess possess their field of play in the form of a checkered board, Tarot utilizes the matrix of 10 points (sefirot) and 22 inter-connecting lines (pathways) known as the ‘Tree of Life’. By using the simple number trick of adding the individual digits of a number together until reaching a single digit sum, One is able to group the Tarot’s enumeration of Hebrew Letters into 9 sets.

This method of assembling our ‘game-pieces’ is a formulaic device for establishing the components of an even larger puzzle - One we are to construct upon our ‘game-board,’ the Tree of Life. To be more precise, the arrangement of these components upon the Tree constructs an allegorical scenario wherein the alchemical craft of transmuting Lead into Gold serves as a metaphor for the perfection of our ‘puzzle’.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3eKuFFHGH30/TBA4AH9xopI/AAAAAAAAAIc/JtBzFVfVtVM/s1600/1gg.jpg

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http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/3_home.html

The court cards also have a function within this 'scenario' that is hinted at in Atu VII: The Chariot (Merkabah), but you must first detect the 'flaws' within the deck & how they relate to the essential dignities of astrology.

Good Luck.
 

Grigori

The Night Dances said:
I'm new here, and whilst not new to Tarot in general I'm very new to Thoth, since i got my pack I feel like the cards are compelling me to learn as much as I possibly can about them.

Welcome The Night Dances :) We like questions here, so don't be shy! :thumbsup:

The Night Dances said:
1. can anyone explain the significance of the Kaballah tree of life on the cards? i have read some of crowley's writings on the subject but have found it hard to decipher..

I think Lon Milo Duquette's "The Chicken Qabalah" is a really great introduction, and a fun read. I"d recommend it as a great place to get started. Ross G Caldwell also posted to this thread recently, post number 10 is a great introduction to the concept.

The Night Dances said:
2. i have read that traditional card spreads don't work so well with Thoth, as they are better read using the elemental dignities, could anyone recommend some spreads suited to Thoth please?

I found the same thing when I started using the Thoth, spreads I had used before with the RWS didn't work as well for me. I actually like using small spreads with he Thoth, like a 1 card spread, or a simple 3 card spread.

One spread I quite like for relationships (or anything involving two parties) is a hexagonal spread.

...1.....2.....
...3..7...4....
....5......6....

1) Your role
2) Their role
3) How you see them
4) How they see you
5) How you see the relationship
6) How they see the relationship
7) The actual relationship

Because this spread is all about comparing pairs to each other and back to the central card, its got a lot of scope for getting used to ideas about Elemental Dignities or just comparing the cards to each other. And it works really well I find.

Banzaf's book I found useful when starting to read with the Thoth. It's not pure Crowley stuff, but good for a resource to think about the cards for fortune telling, and at the back is a great selection of Thoth specific spreads.

Generally I find spreads that work in blocks, rows, or groups are great with the Thoth. But my favorite and most common way to read is just draw a card, and if you want to ask more about something based on the answer draw another and so on. So its like a conversation, with "Spread positions" whose meaning is defined by the question that comes to mind in response to the last card.
 

Professor X

Elemental spreads would indeed work very well with the Thoth. I havent really tried it yet with the Thoth.

For me personally I have found that one card spreads are working wonders for me and have proven to be very very accurate. 2 and 3 card spreads are working out well for me also. I suppose it all just depends on what works well for you,some people may need spreads with more cards in them than that.

I will eventually perform a OOTK spread with the Thoth as well.
 

tarotreader2007

I would recommend the Opening of the Key (OOTK) spread personally with use with the Thoth. I learned and will probably always be a strict intuitive reader but the depth of this spread and all the intricacies in it AND the Thoth have got me on a research streak about the occult associations (Kabbalah, ancient astrological associations, numbers, elemental dignities, etc.) and how they all relate. Very complex and intriguing system I must say!

The OOTK spread seems very complex and at least daunting when looked at once. In The Book of Thoth, Appendix A (page 249 in my book), Crowley outlines this spread which has 5 operations:

1. The Tetragrammaton
2. Houses of the Zodiac
3. Signs of the Zodiac
4. Decanates/Decans of the Zodiac
5. The 10 Points on the Tree of Life

I have only used the first operation as the others just sort of expand on the same question/scenario, however, the first operation itself, the few times I've done it, can take half an hour without even getting that far into it!

This is known as a sequential spread as it is not read by positions but by stacks and the cards are then linked to each other based on elemental dignities and a system of counting.

Pretty complex huh?

There's a really detailed version that fortunately is out of copyright :) This also has a lot of other information about the card meanings in general but it's focused around the OOTK spread.

**See post 8 for link :) Thanks Grigori!**

Hope this helps! It's well worth learning and I'm still a beginner at using it!

Peace and Love
 

Grigori

tarotreader2007 said:
There's a really detailed version http://www.tarot.org.il/Library/PFCase/Oracle of the Tarot.pdf that fortunately is out of copyright :) This also has a lot of other information about the card meanings in general but it's focused around the OOTK spread.

**Apparently hyperlinking doesn't work anymore???**

I'm not sure why that link is not working, seems to be formatted correctly to me. Trying again :)

http://www.tarot.org.il/Library/PFCase/Oracle of the Tarot.pdf
 

Αρσιησισ

...not so much as spread as much as it is an operation, but nevertheless here follows an excerpt from Crowley's The Book of Thoth concerning divination & the behaviour of the Tarot:

A.C. said:
THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE TAROT

It being now established, at the conclusion of the Essay, that the cards of the Tarot are living individuals, it is proper to consider the relations which obtain between them and the student.

Consider the analogy of a debutante at her coming-out ball. She is introduced to seventy-eight grown people. Assuming her to be a particularly intelligent girl, with a very high social education, she may know all about the position and general characteristics of these people. This, however, will not imply real knowledge of any one of them; she will have no means of saying how any one will react to her. At most, she can know only a few facts from which deductions may be made. It is unlikely, for example, that the V.C. will hide in a cellar if somebody thinks that there is a burglar in the house. It is improbable that the Bishop will indulge in the more blatant types of blasphemy.

The position of the student of the Tarot is very similar. In this essay, and in these designs, is given an analysis of the general character of each card; but he cannot reach any true appreciation of them without observing their behaviour over a long period; he can only come to an understanding of the Tarot through experience. It will not be sufficient for him to intensify his studies of the cards as objective things; he must use them; he must live with them. They, too, must live with him. A card is not isolated from its fellows. The reactions of the cards, their interplay with each other, must be built into the very life of the student.

Then how is he to use them? How is he to blend their life with his? The ideal way is that of contemplation. But this involves initiation of such high degree that it is impossible to describe the method in this place. Nor is it either attractive or suitable to most people. The practical every-day commonplace way is divination.

The traditional technical method of divination by the Tarot here follows: It is taken from The Equinox, Vol I, No.8, and its publication is authorized by Frater O. M. Adeptus Exemptus.

THE SIGNIFICATOR

1. Choose a card to represent the Querent, using your knowledge or judgment of his character rather than dwelling on his physical characteristics.

2. Take the cards in your left hand. In the right hand hold the wand over them, and say: I invoke thee, I A O, that thou wilt send H R U, the great Angel that is set over the operations of this Secret Wisdom, to lay his hand invisibly upon these consecrated cards of art, that thereby we may obtain true knowledge of hidden things, to the glory of thine ineffable Name. Amen.

3. Hand the cards to Querent, and bid him think of the question attentively, and cut.

4. Take the cards as cut and hold as for dealing.

First Operation

This shows the situation of the Querent at the time when he consults you.

1. The pack being in front of you, cut, and place the top half to the left.

2. Cut each pack again to the left.

3. These four stacks represent I H V H, from right to left.

4. Find the Significator. If it be in the Yod pack, the question refers to work, business, etc.; if in the Heh pack, to love, marriage, or pleasure;, if in the Vau pack, to trouble, loss, scandal, quarrelling, etc.; if in the He' final pack, to money, goods, and such purely material matters.

5. Tell the Querent what he has come for: if wrong, abandon the divination.

6. If right, spread out the pack containing the Significator, face upwards. Count the cards from him, in the direction in which he faces. The counting should include the card from which you count. For Knights, Queens and Princes, count 4. For Princesses, count 7. For Aces, count 11 For small cards, count according to the number. For trumps, count 3 for the elemental trumps; 9 for the planetary trumps; 12 for the Zodiacal trumps. Make a "story" of these cards. This story is that of the beginning of the affair.

7. Pair the cards on either side of the Significator, then those outside them, and so on. Make another "story", which should fill in the details omitted in the first.

8. If this story is not quite accurate, do not be discouraged. Perhaps the Querent himself does not know everything. But the main lines ought to be laid down firmly, with correctness, or the divination should be abandoned.

Second Operation

DEVELOPMENT OF THE QUESTION

1. Shuffle, invoke suitably, and let Querent cut as before.

2. Deal cards into twelve stacks, for the twelve astrological houses of heaven.

3. Make up your mind in which stack you ought to find the Significator, e.g. in the seventh house if the question concerns marriage, and so on.

4. Examine this chosen stack. If the Significator is not there, try some cognate house. On a second failure, abandon the divination.

5. Read the stack, counting and pairing as before.

Third operation

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE QUESTION

1. Shuffle, etc., as before.

2. Deal cards into twelve stacks for the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

3. Divine the proper stacks and proceed as before.

Fourth Operation

PENULTIMATE ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION

1. Shuffle, etc., as before.

2. Find the Significator: set him upon the table; let the thirty- six cards following form a ring round him.

3. Count and pair as before.

(Note that the Nature of each Decan is shown by the small card attributed to it, and by the symbols given in Liber DCCLXXVII, cols. 149-151.)

Fifth Operation

FINAL RESULT

1. Shuffle, etc., as before.

2. Deal into ten packs in the form of the Tree of Life.

3. Make up your mind where the Significator should be, as before; but failure does not here necessarily imply that the divination has gone astray.

4. Count and pair as before.

(Note that one cannot tell at what part of the divination the present time occurs. Usually Op. I seems to indicate the past history of the question; but not always so. Experience will teach. Some times a new current of high help may show the moment of consultation.

I may add that in material matters this method is extremely valuable. I have been able to work out the most complex problems in minute detail. O. M.)."

It is quite impossible to obtain satisfactory results from this or any other system of divination unless the Art is perfectly required. It is the most sensitive, difficult and perilous branch of Magick. The necessary conditions, with a comprehensive comparative review of all important methods in use, are fully described and discussed in "Magick", Chapter XVII.

The abuse of divination has been responsible, more than any other cause, for the discredit into which the whole subject of Magick had fallen when the Master Therion undertook the task of its rehabilitation. Those who neglect his warnings, and profane the Sanctuary of Transcendental Art, have no other than themselves to blame for the formidable and irremediable disasters which infallibly will destroy them. Prospero is Shakespeare's reply to Dr. Faustus.