Thoth - List of Editions.

Lillie

Hello to all Thoth owners and Thoth lovers.

Recently I discovered that there had been many editions of this deck, all of them with subtle and not so subtle differences. I also found that I was very confused by all these differences.
I was perplexed.
In light of my puzzlement I have been trying to get together a list of all editions of this wonderful deck.
I thought this would be a useful resource for anyone trying to identify their cards, and anyone thinking of buying a particular deck.
Anyone who owns a Thoth deck is invited to list the following detials.
Even if your edition has already been listed I would still like to hear from you, perhaps you could confirm, or add to the details already listed.

This is the information I would like.

Date of deck
Publisher
Box design, it's colour etc.
Card Size.
Fronts, borders, their colour and decoration (if any), etc.
Backs, wether they have white borders or not.
Extra cards, hexagram, OTO cards, magi etc.
LWB, contents
ISBN.

And of course anything else you would like to tell.

Also any links to similar resources would also be welcome.

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The very first edition I am unlikely ever to see. It must look very strange.
"The first (and little known) printing was done privately by Carr Collins and his Texas based Sangreal Foundation...."
It appears that the designs were simply line drawings, in red and blue.

Thank you to Vincent for finding the quote.

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The earliest colour edition was printed in Hong Kong by LLewellyn.
The box is shown here. Link provided by Cerulean.
http://www.llewellyn.com/history/event.php?id=230

Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1969
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Printed in: U.S.A
Box design: hard cardboard outer box - white on one side & copy of card back on other side, gold slipcase inner box
Card Size: 140 x 95 mm
Fronts: Light blue plain border with no design, no astrological symbols or Hebrew letters on bottom of Majors
Backs: No borders, design covers entire back of card
Extra cards: OTO card, no unicursal hexagram card
LWB, contents : No LWB (at least not in the deck I have)
ISBN: None

Rusty Neon also has these, with the difference that his are printed in Hong Kong instead of the USA.
He gives a very complete discription of the outer box in his post. See below.

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In the 70s a very similar edition was 'distributed' by Weiser. These appear to be the ones pictured here.
www.themysticeye.com/pics/thothj.htm

Listed by Lillie

Date; Seller thought 74, but no date given on box.
Publisher; The box says 'distributed' by Weiser and printed in the USA. No publisher is mentioned by name.
Box. White outer box, with OTO design on front and Rose cross on back. 'Gold' inner box with 2 notches on front and back.
Card Size; 5.5 x 3.5 inches (14 x 95 cm)
Fronts; Borders are plain, pale blue, very variable in depth of colour. Title and number in blue. There are no hebrew letters, and no planetry symbols etc.
Some cards are very poor, washed out.
Backs; Usual rose cross, no borders.
Extra cards; no hexagram, no OTO card, No extra cards.
LWB; No LWB
ISBN; No ISBN.

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The first US games edition seems to have been in 77, and this seems to be the start of the 'green decks'.

Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1977
Publisher: U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
Printed in: Belgium
Box design: White
Card Size: 140 x 95 mm
Fronts: Green border with design, astrological symbols and Hebrew letters on bottom of trumps
Backs: No borders, design covers entire back of card
Extra cards: OTO card, Red Unicursal Hexagram card
LWB, contents : 46 pages, by James Wasserman, plus two essays by Lady Frieda Harris with commentary and footnotes by Stuart R. Kaplan
ISBN: 0-913866-15-6 LWB

Cerulean also has this deck with an additional blank card as well as the hexagram and OTO cards.
He gives a complete discription of the writing on the box in his post. See below.

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Weiser seems to have published a very similar deck in both 78 and 83.

Listed by Emily

Date of deck - 1978
Publisher - Samuel Weiser Inc, York Beach, USA
Borders - decorated
Box Design - White with Ordo Templi Orientis on the front - very pale back design of cards on the back of box
Backs - no white borders
Extra cards - Black and red hexagram and Ordo Templi Orientis card
LWB - printed in USA - James Wasserman with Lady Frieda's essays and footnote my Stuart Kaplan
ISBN 0-87728-452-0

The booklet has two dates - 1978 and 1983. If I was to take a guess I would say my cards date from 1983 even though they have 1978 on the Ordo card.
I didn't buy these cards from new but 1983 seems to be right.

******************************************************

Listed by Lunakasha
Date of deck: 1978
Publisher: Weiser
Borders, their colour and decoration (if any): Green borders, cards also green
Box design, it's colour etc.: Green box, Two of Pentacles on the front
Backs, wether they have white borders or not.: Colorful rose cross design, no borders
Extra cards, hexagram, OTO cards, magi etc.: Unicursal Hexagram, red on black background; also a blank (white) card w/rose cross on back
LWB, contents: Includes commentary by Frieda Harris and Stuart Kaplan
ISBN: 0-87728-452-0 Price: $18.00

I purchased mine about three years ago; I believe that this edition is now OOP,

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In the 80s cards with a grey patterned border were published by A G Muller.
I believe this was the first time that a pack contained the three alternative Magus cards, thouh only in the standard size deck.

A Finnish version of these was listed by Aure.

Date of deck: 1986
Language: Finnish
Publisher: Unio Mystica, Finland
printed in Belgium by A.G. Müller
Box design, it's colour etc. : Blue A.G. Müller box
Card Size: Regular size (similar to English A.G.Müller versions)
Fronts, borders, their colour and decoration (if any), etc.: See the answer above.
Backs, whether they have white borders or not.: white borders
Extra cards, hexagram, OTO cards, magi etc. : Two extra magi cards, no hexagram or OTO cards.
LWB, contents: Has no LWB
ISBN: 3-905021-88-9

**************************************************
The 90s saw the deck published again, in various sizes and by various publishers.

Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1996
Publisher: AGM AGMuller
Printed in: Switzerland
Box design: Dark Blue
Card Size: 140 x 95 mm
Fronts: Gray border with design, astrological symbols and Hebrew letters on bottom of trumps
Backs: White borders
Extra cards: OTO card, Rainbow Unicursal Hexagram card
LWB, contents : 41 pages, by "the Hermit", an excerpt from Aleister Crowley's original Book of Thoth
ISBN: 0-88079-469-0 Box, 3-905021-60-9 LWB

*********************************
A Finnish version of these cards was listed by Aure. Please note the grey Hexagram card.

Date of deck: 1996
Language: Finnish
Publisher: Unio Mystica, Finland
printed in Belgium by A.G. Müller
Box design, it's colour etc. : Blue A.G. Müller box
Card Size: Pocket size (similar to English A.G.Müller versions)
Fronts, borders, their colour and decoration (if any), etc.: See the answer above.
Backs, whether they have white borders or not.: white borders
Extra cards, hexagram, OTO cards, magi etc. : Grey hexagram card, OTO cards, no extra magus.
LWB, contents: Has no LWB
ISBN: 3-905219-19-0

**************************************************
Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1996
Publisher: U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
Printed in: Belgium
Box design: Lavendar
Card Size: 110 x 70 mm
Fronts: Gray border with design, astrological symbols and Hebrew letters on bottom of trumps
Backs: White borders
Extra cards: 2 extra Magus cards
LWB, contents : 46 pages, by James Wasserman, plus two essays by Lady Frieda Harris with commentary and footnotes by Stuart R. Kaplan
ISBN: 0-88079-308-2 Box & LWB

**************************************************
Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1997
Publisher: AGM AGMuller
Printed in: Switzerland
Box design: Dark Blue
Card Size: 89 x 58 mm
Fronts: Gray border with design, astrological symbols and Hebrew letters on bottom of trumps
Backs: White borders
Extra cards: OTO card, Rainbow Unicursal Hexagram card
LWB, contents : 43 pages, A Descriptive Essay by Aleister Crowley, edited by Frieda Harris with a foreward by Hymenaeus Beta
ISBN: 3-905219-06-9 Box & LWB

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The deck is still being published in the 2000s and a new edition by Urania Verlags appears to be the latest.

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Thank you to all the people mentioned above, and also to Rachelcat, Creative Fire, Diwha and Marion for their help.

If anyone would like to give the details of their deck, please do. Any more info will be edited into this list.

I am also interested in things like the exact date of publication for the first (slip case) weiser edition, and any subtle differences between this and the LLewellyn deck. Also differences between the 77 US Games edition and the 78/83 Weiser editions, (Green and white boxes)

Thank you to every one.

Lillie
 

Rusty Neon

My vintage Llewellyn Thoth deck

Lillie said:
The earliest colour edition was printed in Hong Kong by LLewellyn.

They look like this www.themysticeye.com/pics/thothj.htm

That's basically what my cards look like; blue hue differences between various cards are different than in my deck. I also note that the IV Emperor and XI Lust cards (and the various other cards that have red) in my deck are more reddish than the ones in the scan. If those scans are of from a HK Llewellyn deck, the red hues in the Emperor and Lust cards don't match those in mine. Maybe the difference is because of scanning and because of appearance on the monitor?

Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1969
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Printed in: U.S.A

That's strange, because, in the case of the vintage Thoth deck that I received yesterday, both the box and the OTO card indicate "Printed in Hong Kong" rather than U.S.A. Nonetheless, my deck's box indicates that the deck was published by Llewellyn Publications.

Any assistance in determining the year of publication of my version of the Thoth deck would be appreciated! :)

Box design: hard cardboard outer box - white on one side & copy of card back on other side, gold slipcase inner box

My vintage Thoth deck still has the hard cardboard outer box but unfortunately the inner box is missing. Luckily, the online bookstore site was honest and told me that the deck was being sold with "part box" :).

As for the outer box: it is white on one side and there is a copy of the card back on the other side.

Front of box:

Ordo Templi Orientis
(logo of OTO)
THOTH TAROT CARDS
Designed by:
ALEISTER CROWLEY
Artist Executant:
FRIEDA HARRIS

Bottom of box:

THOTH TAROT CARDS
by Aleister Crowley

Each side of box:

THOTH TAROT CARDS by Aleister Crowley
Published by Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minn. 55165, U.S.A.
Printed in Hong Kong

Card Size: 140 x 95 mm

Yep, based on eye-balling. No ruler.

Fronts: Light blue plain border with no design, no astrological symbols or Hebrew letters on bottom of Majors
Backs: No borders, design covers entire back of card
Extra cards: OTO card, no unicursal hexagram card
LWB, contents : No LWB (at least not in the deck I have)
ISBN: None

Me too.

In my deck, the OTO card gives the OTO's address as Box 2043, Dublin, CA 94566.
 

Cerulean

Pic of U.S. Games box (tiny) circa 1978 and text on box

http://www.manstenen.com/4021_thoth.jpg

Top Flap:
ALEISTER CROWLEY THOTH TAROT DECK (in red)
Published and Distributed by
U.S. Games Systems, Inc., New York, N. Y. 10016 (these two lines in black)
Cards pritned in Belgium AC78


Top Flap, Back:
The top flap of the box is tucked into the back: the lettering is red, a 50 percent screened image of the back of the cards with the rosy cross. The following text is written in two columns in black printing, centered under a title of three lines written in bold uppercase:

ALEISTER CROWLEY
THOTH
TAROT DECK

Aleister Crowley was born October 12, 1875, and he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898, rising rapidly thre grades of the Order.

In 1904, while in Cairo, Egypt, the climax of his career occured when he claimed to have received the direct voice transmission, the first communication to mankind from the hiearchial forces ruling the earth during the present Age of Aquarius. Known as the Book of the Law, it forms the cornerstone of Crowley's teachings and profoundly influences the imagery of his Thoth tarot deck.

Crowley poured the entire contents of his magical mind into his tarot deck. Although members of the Golden Dawn were sworn to the most solemn oaths of secrecy, Crowley published many of the Order's secrets.

Neither Crowley nor the artist of the Thoth tarot deck, Lady Frieda Harris, managed to publish the tarot deck during their lifetimes. Crowley died in 1947 and Lady Harris died in 1962. The Thoth tarot deck remained unpublished until 1969.

Lady Frieda Harris was born in 1877. She married Sir Percy Harris, a distinguished member of British Parliament.

Although Lady Harris had little or no previous knowledge of the tarot, she possessed in her own right an essential pereption and understanding of the spirit of the Book.

Crowley and Lady Harris expected the project of the tarot might involve three months of work but the preparation of the cards required than five years of labor between 1938 and 1943.

Sometimes many versions of the same card were painted to achieve the desired effect. Crowley was a fanatical slave driver and his rough sketches and descriptions often went far higher and deeper than anything Lady Harris had previously known.

Ten original essays on the Thoth tarot are reprinted with this deck - one edited by Lady Harris from the writings of Crowley, the other written entirely by Lady Harris. Both essays provide unique insight into the artist and her interpretations of the tarot of Crowley.

Front of Box:
in red:
ALEISTER CROWLEY
THOTH
TAROT DECK

Ordo Templi Orientis (in black, ornamental lettering, curved over an almond-shaped shield in red with a triangle, dove pointed downward, small bower over cross in a cup. Lines radiating from the triangle.

To the left, in black

Designed by
ALEISTER CROWLEY (in red)

To the right, in black

Painted by
LADY FRIEDA HARRIS (in red)

BOOKLET OF INSTRUCTIONS (text in black)
Two essays by Lady Frieda Harris & foreword by S.R. Kaplan (text in red)

COMPLETE 78-CARD CROWLEY TAROT DECK
IN STUNNING NEW EDITION BASED UPON
THE ORIGINAL PAINTINGS (in black)

Both sides have the same printing:

ALEISTER CROWLEY THOTH TAROT DECK
CARDS PRINTED IN BELGIUM . BOOKLET AND BOX PRINTED IN USA
ISBN: 0-913866-15-6

Extras:
One white blank card
One Ordo Templi Orientis card with shield and "Do what Thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" with the text given by Rusty Neon in another post....signed by Hymeneus Alpha, Caliph, Ordo Templi Orientis and under this, Thoth Tarot Cards, printed in Belgium
One black card with five-pointed star which actually looks like arrowheads and a five-petalled rosy cross--motif is orange-red on a glossy black background.
Pamphlet/LWB: 45 pages
 

Lillie

hank you both for your replies.

Rusty Neon.
I'm so glad you managed to get a deck of these.

From everything I have read the first edition is said to have been published by Llewellyn and printed in Hong Kong. This seems to be the one you have.
Lucky you.

That Strange2 seems to have a Llewellyn pack printed in USA is one of the many confusing things about the early editions of the Thoth.
Perhaps it was printed in both countries.
Mine does not even have a publisher, just a distributor!

As yours is different (in that small way) from Strange2's I will not list it totally, but will just make mention of the difference.

Cerulean

Thankyou for your very detailed discription.
Yours seems to be the same as Strange2's 77 US Games deck, except you have a blank card as well as the OTO card. I will mention that in the 'big list' and direct people to your discription.

Thank you both. All these editions are very confusing, but if everyone who has a deck mentions it here we should be able to name them all.
 

tzuki

ok now, just to put the cat amongst the pigeons...

in York, England, in the late 1980's, in a second-hand bookshop (the smart, expensive kind!)..in the window in a pack of Thoth cards in a BLACK box with silver writing!

And the shop was closed!!
And I didn't live in York!

Anyone have a clue what they were? I do wonder from time to time....
 

Aure

I have two Finnish Thoth decks, probably not very common.

Pocket size
*********
Date of deck: 1996
Language: Finnish
Publisher: Unio Mystica, Finland
printed in Belgium by A.G. Müller
Box design, it's colour etc. : Blue A.G. Müller box
Card Size: Pocket size (similar to English A.G.Müller versions)
Fronts, borders, their colour and decoration (if any), etc.: See the answer above.
Backs, whether they have white borders or not.: white borders
Extra cards, hexagram, OTO cards, magi etc. : Grey hexagram card, OTO cards, no extra magus.
LWB, contents: Has no LWB
ISBN: 3-905219-19-0

Regular size
*********
Date of deck: 1986
Language: Finnish
Publisher: Unio Mystica, Finland
printed in Belgium by A.G. Müller
Box design, it's colour etc. : Blue A.G. Müller box
Card Size: Regular size (similar to English A.G.Müller versions)
Fronts, borders, their colour and decoration (if any), etc.: See the answer above.
Backs, whether they have white borders or not.: white borders
Extra cards, hexagram, OTO cards, magi etc. : Two extra magi cards, no hexagram or OTO cards.
LWB, contents: Has no LWB
ISBN: 3-905021-88-9

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I can give more info if anyone is interested. These editions are published by a very small company but they are still available where I live.
 

Lillie

Thank you all for your imput.

Especially to Tzuki for confusing me even more.

Rusty Neon. I have looked at my cards and they are the same as the pictures in the link that I have posted (a slight difference in colour tone, but I put that down to the computer), therefore I have put the link with my listing (Weiser USA), rather than Your's and Strange2's. I have put the Llewellyn pack link there instead.
I think I recall you mentioning that one card was misprinted, without it's number. Is this correct? Are there any other anomalies in your deck?
In mine the 3 & 4 Swords, and the 6 Discs are very badly printed, very faint. Is it the same with yours?
Also, in the link to those cards, and in mine, if you look at the knight od Swords you can see that the tips of his 4 dragonfly wings are clipped by the edge of the card. This is not so in the b/w image in the Thoth book. How is it on yours? Or indeed any other edition?

Cerulean. Thankyou for those links. I have used the top one in the big list, and I may put the others in when I think of the best place for them.

Aure. Thank you. Your Finnish cards are very interesting. It makes me wonder how many other languages the cards were printed in. That grey hexagram is also curious. Thank you for telling me about it.

Tzuki. AAAGH! I don't know what they are and I don't know where or how to list them. Hopefully someone will be able to tell us more.

Thank you all.

Lillie
 

Alta

okay, okay RN!

Sorry, I saw this thread and I meant to contribute, honest!

My oldest deck I got via Kiama's auspices. That is, she searched on the net and found it and I bought it. It seems to conform exactly to this description:
The box is shown here. Link provided by Cerulean.
http://www.llewellyn.com/history/event.php?id=230

Listed by Strange2

Date of deck: 1969
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Printed in: U.S.A
Box design: hard cardboard outer box - white on one side & copy of card back on other side, gold slipcase inner box
Card Size: 140 x 95 mm
Fronts: Light blue plain border with no design, no astrological symbols or Hebrew letters on bottom of Majors
Backs: No borders, design covers entire back of card
Extra cards: OTO card, no unicursal hexagram card
LWB, contents : No LWB (at least not in the deck I have)
ISBN: None
Except: mine has no OTO card, though it is quite used, the cards are soft from handling. I also got the Book of Thoth with it. Gorgeous. It comes with actual plates, some in b&w and some in colour.
Printed by Samuel Weiser, Inc, New York, 1973. ISBN 0-87728-047-9
Original printing 1944, This edition, 1969, second 1971, third 1972, Fourth 1973 (and that is my 'impression'). I really like this copy of the book.

Also I have:

Date of deck: 1996
Publisher: AGM AGMuller
Printed in: Switzerland
Box design: Dark Blue
Card Size: 140 x 95 mm
Fronts: Gray border with design, astrological symbols and Hebrew letters on bottom of trumps
Backs: White borders
Extra cards: OTO card, Rainbow Unicursal Hexagram card
LWB, contents : 41 pages, by "the Hermit", an excerpt from Aleister Crowley's original Book of Thoth
ISBN: 0-88079-469-0 Box, 3-905021-60-9 LWB
Very nice deck, very crisp images.

And, I have:

Date of deck: 1996
Publisher: U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
Printed in: Belgium
Box design: Lavendar
Card Size: 110 x 70 mm
Fronts: Gray border with design, astrological symbols and Hebrew letters on bottom of trumps
Backs: White borders
Extra cards: 2 extra Magus cards
LWB, contents : 46 pages, by James Wasserman, plus two essays by Lady Frieda Harris with commentary and footnotes by Stuart R. Kaplan
ISBN: 0-88079-308-2 Box & LWB

So, no new ones not already listed.
 

Rusty Neon

Thanks, Marion!

At our next Ottawa tarot club meeting, it should be fun to compare your Llewellyn USA deck with my Llewellyn Hong Kong deck.