Lillie
chriske said:Please consider the following scenario:
1. Person wants to buy a Tarot deck - he/she has 20 pounds to spend.
2. The Thoth deck has the most appealing artwork and the buyer thinks that Crowley has a high "cool" count.
3. The buyer buys Thoth and attempts to make sense of it. Whilst the LWB is helpful, the buyer finds it's not enough.
4. The buyer buys a copy of the Book of Thoth. Another 10 pounds. The Book of Thoth is fascinating but the buyer is even more confused.
5. The buyer learns that there is an excellent book by DuQuette and buys a copy - 10 pounds. The book is fabulous and really helps but the connections with astrology and the Tree of Life are not 100% perfectly explained.
6. DuQuette recommends an obscure astrology book - a copy is found on EBay - 10 more pounds.
7. Buyer finds that Snuffin's Thoth Companion book is highly recommended for the parts that DuQuette cannot reach. Ditto Dion Fortune's awesome "The Mystical Qaballah" - 10 pounds each.
The question is this:
Do you want the buyer to have this information before he/she starts or not?
This is very valid and you are right that people should know this.
If they are going to want to delve into the Thoth deck, (or anything really) it will cost.
But Oh! The journey!
Back when I got my first Thoth there was really only the Book of Thoth, and I got it, of course. But there was nothing else, there was no DuQuette, no Snuffin, no nothing specific.
I remember hunting through second hand shops, market stalls, book catalogues got from the backs of magazines, hunting down info, finding things out, triumphing when I found something I felt taught me something, being annoyed when I felt I wasted my very limited money.
And the paths it took me down, that quest for knowledge!
The weird and wonderful byways of life and experience!
Getting to places I hadn't been looking for, finding places I didn't even know existed.
In a lot of ways that journey made me the person I am today. If had never ever bought that Thoth because Crowley was 'cool' and I was 'gothy' I would be someone else, not the person I am now.
In many ways I am the bastard child of the Thoth deck and the John Peel radio show.
I just want to encourage people to start that journey, so they can see if it takes them anywhere or not, see what strange places they get too.
Or maybe nowhere at all.
Maybe their journey lies elsewhere.
Who knows till they try?