Which Banzhaf's book is suitable for the beginner?

ZKEI

I've just bought a Liber T deck because I love the Serio's artwork (though, I personally don't feel connected to the Dante tarot) and the way Negrini keeps most of the traditional Thoth characteristics in the deck.

As I am a Thoth newbie, I have searched for a book that can guide me through this new journey (aside from Book of Thoth, of course).
Fortunately, I found a Crowley partner-set by Ziegler with a very good price (around 11 pounds incld. P/P); Crowley's thoth deck and a book (two birds with one stone ;) )
Firstly, I think a deck would come together with Ziegler's Mirror of the Soul.
However, yesterday I got the package and found out that a companion book is Ziegler's Mirror of Your Relationship.
:( (the book is good but is not suitable for my situation right now)


At the beginning of my new journey, I would like to focus on all of the symbols in the Thoth (i.e. astrological, hebrew, pictorial symbols).


So, the questions are;
(Sorry for a long introduction :p, because I think the information above would be of interest to others)

- What are the differences between
Banzhaf's "The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards" and
Banzhaf's "Keywords for the Crowley Tarot"?
(As looking through the Table of Contents of those books, both of them are quite similar to me)

- If I would like to buy only one book (focusing on the symbols alone), should I buy either one of Banzhaf's books? or Ziegler's Mirror of the Soul? Integral Tarot? Or do you have any suggestions for the other books?

- In tarotpassage's reviews, it seems that Arrien's Tarot Handbook contains more information on the astrological signs.
But, someone here suggested that the Thoth's true meanings are distorted
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=764560&postcount=23
So, should I avoid this book?


Thanks in advance :thumbsup:
 

Aeon418

ZKEI said:
At the beginning of my new journey, I would like to focus on all of the symbols in the Thoth (i.e. astrological, hebrew, pictorial symbols).
Ah! So you're not merely interested in fortune telling. In that case forget Banzhaf, Ziegler, and Arrien. They are not interested in the meaning of the symbols found in the Thoth Tarot. But they are more than happy to give you their personal spin on the symbols.

For an introduction to the symbolism try The Thoth Companion by Michael Osiris Snuffin.

For a general overview of the deck give Lon Milo DuQuette's, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot a whirl.

Both books complement each other and provide a very good stepping stone towards Crowley's own Book of Thoth.
ZKEI said:
- What are the differences between
Banzhaf's "The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards" and
Banzhaf's "Keywords for the Crowley Tarot"?
The first book is Banzhaf's lengthy explanation/exploration of the symbolism found in the Thoth. The trouble is, unless you already know something about the Thoth you won't be able to differentiate between useful info and Banzhaf's inane and misleading waffle.

The Keyword book is a short and snappy summary of Banzhaf's personal meanings for the symbolism. It's basically a condensation of the first book, complete with the same faults. Caveat emptor.
ZKEI said:
- If I would like to buy only one book (focusing on the symbols alone), should I buy either one of Banzhaf's books? or Ziegler's Mirror of the Soul? Integral Tarot? Or do you have any suggestions for the other books?
Again, for symbols - The Thoth Companion by Snuffin.
ZKEI said:
- In tarotpassage's reviews, it seems that Arrien's Tarot Handbook contains more information on the astrological signs.
But, someone here suggested that the Thoth's true meanings are distorted
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=764560&postcount=23
So, should I avoid this book?
If you want to do more with the Thoth than tell fortunes avoid Arrien like the plague. Arrien is not interested in the meaning of the Thoth deck or the depth of it's symbolism. (She says as much in the introduction.) But she is very clear on what she wants it to mean. Self help, dippy, white light, psycho-babble of the worst sort. Simply awful.
 

Always Wondering

ZKEI said:
(Sorry for a long introduction :p, because I think the information above would be of interest to others)

Welcome, ZKEI. I look forward to more of your posts. :p

AW
 

chriske

Welcome!

Welcome ZKEI!

Just wanted to back up Aeon418 - I found the Snuffin and DuQuette books superbly complimentary. If you're only interested in the Thoth tarot, IMHO they are the most important third party (ie. not written by Crowley) books.

If you develop a general interest in Crowley (as I did), you will probably want to check out some of his many books. There are some great lists in this forum.

Good luck.
 

WolfyJames

In my case I have the The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards by Banzhaf and I really like it. Duquette briefly touches the minors and I dislike that when authors do that. Also Duquette splits the meanings in two parts and one has to search at two places to get informations on one card, I dislike that too. Banzhaf has everything on the card at the same place and he devotes at least a page for each card for the minors, and his book is very tall so it's a big page, and he does not seem to scuff at fortune-telling, one of the most traditional and oldest art of the world. The Keywords book is just a repeat of this one there is no point to get it.

Duquette's book is a must though to get to understand the Thoth Tarot, I suggest to start with his first and then dabble in other books after.
 

ZKEI

Thank you, Aeon418.

It seems that I should consider all of them :p (and avoid Arrien's book).
So, compared between those two books of Banzhaf, I should choose "The Crowley Tarot: Handbook..".


BTW, if I would like to know how I can interpret or include those symbols in my fortune telling (maybe not all of them, which I think I should learn more from the AT forum), do you have any recommended books, please? :)

As looking through some examples of those books from google and amazon, it seems that Snuffin's book doesn't explain how to do that, neither do DuQuette's book (I think)

So, in that case, is Banzhaf's "The Crowley Tarot: Handbook..." worth buying?

This is because I like Ziegler's writing style as it is easy for me to digest, but found that Banzhaf's book did similar work but with more information (which IMO seems not totally relevant to Thoth, or as you said, misleading waffle :p)


PS.
Thanks to "Always Wondering" and "chriske" as well :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 

ZKEI

Thank you for your comment on the books too, WolfyJames. It helps me a lot.
 

Aeon418

ZKEI said:
It seems that I should consider all of them :p (and avoid Arrien's book).
So, compared between those two books of Banzhaf, I should choose "The Crowley Tarot: Handbook..".
You seem set on buying Banzhaf, so go with The Crowley Tarot: The Handbook to the Cards. It's the lesser of two evils. :laugh:
ZKEI said:
BTW, if I would like to know how I can interpret or include those symbols in my fortune telling (maybe not all of them, which I think I should learn more from the AT forum), do you have any recommended books, please? :)

As looking through some examples of those books from google and amazon, it seems that Snuffin's book doesn't explain how to do that, neither do DuQuette's book (I think)
I'm not 100% sure what you are getting at here. Snuffin's book does explain a fair amount of the symbolism. How you interpret symbolism within the context of a reading is another matter altogether. That's basically the art of Tarot reading in a nutshell.

It sounds like you want a book of card meanings. If so you're probably better of with Banzhaf, Ziegler and the gang. They will be more than happy to interpret the cards for you.
 

ZKEI

Thank you again for your reply, Aeon418. :thumbsup:


BTW, I wonder why I haven't found any thread talking about "Tarot for the New Aeon" by Tarantino or "Integral Tarot: Decoding the Essence" by Wagner, while these two books get the 4.5 - 5 stars from the AT review.

Aren't those books really good? :confused:
 

Aeon418

ZKEI said:
BTW, I wonder why I haven't found any thread talking about "Tarot for the New Aeon" by Tarantino or "Integral Tarot: Decoding the Essence" by Wagner, while these two books get the 4.5 - 5 stars from the AT review.
Good god almighty, you're right!

Edit:

Hang on a minute. Bonnie Cehovet also gave the Tarot Handbook 4 stars....... ahem! *ghack*

Anyone for jaded cynicism? :laugh: