Was Crowley a good tarot reader?

You can also find the spread in the BOOK called 'the golden dawn'...as further proof that it was a systematic spread, not crowley's.

Yes.

It's the GD spread.
Everyone knows that.

Who said it belonged to Crowley as it's maker and creator and sole owner?
Cos they were wrong.

Anyhow, if I had made it up, I'd disown it.

I'd like to know what the 'right old ways' were that he perverted.

I've been skimming through Crowley's diaries for 1914-1923 lately, and - along with being a long-time Crowleyist - it seems to me that his preferred method for questions was the one-card draw. And it seems he used the Trumps alone mostly. He also used I Ching (in the late teens-early twenties) and geomancy as well quite a bit.

I really can't recall a single instance of him using the long GD method.

One of his decks is illustrated in Kaplan II - he owned a Wirth trumps-only pack and painted his own Hebrew letter attributions on it (because Wirth's Continental ones were wrong according to GD doctrine).

As for being a good tarot reader, you could do a statistical test with all the information he gives you - and I think he comes out just about as accurate as most tarot readers, when predicting the future: not very good. Certainly not bet-worthy.

lonewolf said:

But as for crowley, he perverted many of the right and old ways.
He once stated that “I am an enemy to god, and am here to destroy his truth. As I have done over many life times"

Click to expand...

Where did he state that, not disputing, just like a reference.

Kwaw

Abrac said:

When you read about some of his magickal experiments that involved - for lack of a better word- channeling, you get the feeling that he was ofentimes not quite sure if the entities he was communicating with were pulling his leg or not.

Click to expand...

I know, he keeps applying all these boring 'tests', phew! Not only was he unsure himself, but he warned others, don't take these 'entitities' on face value, can't have been a good diviner with such scepticism surely.

I don't know if this was because of the befuddled state he and his mediums were in most of the time or something else.

Click to expand...

Like what, that entities may pull your leg [how ridiculous].

All of the drugs he did wouldn't be very conducive to clear thinking seems to me.

Click to expand...

Despite the drugs, his thinking was clearer than many, it seems to me. And with or without drugs, some are incapable of clear thinking anyway, it is clear to me.

Kwaw

Please don't start me with the drug thing.

You all know those comments get right up my snout.

Lillie said:

You all know those comments get right up my snout.

Click to expand...

Keep it under your tongue.

Until it disolves.......

Ross G Caldwell said:

I've been skimming through Crowley's diaries for 1914-1923 lately, and - along with being a long-time Crowleyist - it seems to me that his preferred method for questions was the one-card draw. And it seems he used the Trumps alone mostly. He also used I Ching (in the late teens-early twenties) and geomancy as well quite a bit.

I really can't recall a single instance of him using the long GD method.

Click to expand...

the one card draw does seem to be a useful way of obtaining guidance from tarot. If I am remembering right though he gives the long GD method in the Book of Thoth. Or maybe that was in his other pamphlet book on tarot reading. I'll have to look again. I wonder why he would give that cumbersome method if it wasn't the method he used and not even mention one card draws which are so useful and flexible.

Ross G Caldwell said:

As for being a good tarot reader, you could do a statistical test with all the information he gives you - and I think he comes out just about as accurate as most tarot readers, when predicting the future: not very good. Certainly not bet-worthy.

Click to expand...

I guess, for me anyway, there is more to being a "good reader" than predicting the future. I don't find predictive readings very interesting although elements of prediction might come into other types of reading. Not that I dont believe it can't happen, it certainly does happen.

sweet_intuition said:

Well, in my humble opinion, ever since I got the Thoth Deck, my understanding and appreciation of the Tarot has increased more than a 100%, and through Crowley's qabalistic system, my reading abilities have been enhanced. But then again, this is just my experience, to each their own.

Love and Blessings



Edited to add: No I don't follow the divinatory system given in the Book of Thoth, and neither do I follow the card meanings (I read intuitively with Thoth, crazy huh? But works for me). However, I feel these cards came to me as a blessing

Click to expand...

That is great! I am just starting to explore this qabalistc system after avoiding it for a long time. I feel like it is throttling my intuition but I'm glad to hear that it does work in an intuitive way for some people. Maybe once I get more used to it.

--Myrrha

It's, hmmm how does one put this... totally irrelevant. If you work with something often enough you get good at it. Tarot wasn't Crowley's perferred divination tool (I Ching was apparently, needs confirmation) but he studied tarot enough to make sense of the revelations pointed out during the whole Equinox of the Gods thing.
It would have been neat to have had him do a reading though. even if he was an old pervert.
My uncle always said "you're only ever a pervert if you get caught". heh.