To buy or not to buy?

Abrac said:

Crowley's autobiography, The Confessions might be a good place to start, or The Great Beast by John Symonds. There are a few other good biographies available but most of them get the bulk of their information from the previous two sources.

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Hardly!

While writing his Crowley biography, John Symonds had at his disposal almost everything that Crowley ever wrote, both public and private. He had a golden opportunity to set the record straight once and for all. Instead he chose to go "digging for dirt" and proceeded to print rumours of the "I know someone who said that they knew someone who knew Crowley" variety. Unfortunately this same nonsense is rehashed again and again by uninformed people who are too lazy to do a little honest homework.

Is the Thoth deck evil? It's 78 pieces of card stock, for crying out loud. Buy it, try it, make up your own mind. Forget second hand opinions.

The Thoth is a deck I struggle with - I'm very firmly rooted into RWS symbolism and when I use the Thoth most of this is out of the window and so I struggle with it.

But this deck is so worth it, especially if you are already drawn to the artwork as I am.

Go for the bigger deck for study and maybe the smaller deck for reading with, although if you learn how to shuffle top over top then the bigger deck on its own will suffice.

I did draw a card for you from my Thoth and I got the Star - a beautiful card of swirling pink, blue and purple, butterflies and roses - a nice card to get.

I know how it can be, I too have been debating whether or not to get a Thoth deck, finally today I decided to pick up a deck, for some reason I felt drawn to them, they do have a certain energy to them.

The only evil thing about it was when US Games was printing those awful ones that looked like they had green slime all over the pictures.

That one I threw away because the colouring was nausea-provoking. But I found a Swiss one that didn't look like it was covered with bile, and that was much better.

My understanding is that US Games is printing halfways decent ones now (though I distrust US Games decks on principle, and most of the new ones smell awful).

But hey, I've even known people who like the greenies. There is no disputing tastes. It's a rich deck. I generally prefer the RWS, or those quirky post-Marseille-just-before-Golden-Dawn Italian things that nobody else reads with, but the Thoth is a nice tarot.

I have a white box greenie too LOL - it was my very first Thoth and, yes, they do have a different energy about them especially when you buy them used and then not be sure what they have been used for.

I've grown to have an affection for my greenie, I didn't like it at first but they do grow on you but for use and study its best to get a 'normal' coloured one. Saying that the greenies are now getting hard to find so if you did find one, it might be wise to hang onto it.

I too would tell you to buy it.

I was put off from buying it for my first (or second) deck but when I did buy it I felt it clicked for me. Do get the DuQuette book and the Book of Thoth and read them both.

Personally I use the Pocket version of the deck for general use and the Large for study.

Yes

I did a reading too; yes it said! Buy the special one.

"Once owned by a magician" ... and ... "blessed by a witch".

Large version $670
(P.M. Ravenest for details)

Green is a color commonly associated with Thoth/Hermes. I suspect this might be one reason US Games and Weiser published the greenies. Some of them look pretty nice but there are some that are a tad "icky." I agree with Emily, if you can find a nice one, hold onto it.

ravenest I did a reading too; yes it said! Buy the special one.

"Once owned by a magician" ... and ... "blessed by a witch".

Large version $670
(P.M. Ravenest for details)
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I wanted this deck for ages, but kept putting it back on the shelf, but eventually bought it at christmas and I love it. I'm using The Lovers Card in the 21 ways study group at the moment, great deck.

Nicki