Best Thoth book to start with

Miss Woo

Barleywine said:
I'm stealing LRichard's response to another thread to respond to this. I think he's right overall. You've obviously found the second way, but it seems a lot of the richness might be escaping you. In practical terms though, as a reading deck, it makes no difference as long as it produces useful results. Personally I find having that depth available to me gives my readings multiple dimensions and subtleties they wouldn't otherwise have.

"I can't use a deck unless I understand (or at least have the delusion that I understand) the imagery. The symbolism of the images in the Thoth, especially the Majors and Courts, can be elusive since they incorporate esoteric, mythological, and philosophical concepts which are often unique to the deck's author. Apparently, it is possible to 'read' the Thoth simply by looking at the images and imagining (intuiting?) meanings, but I am constitutionally unable to do this. If you want to use the Thoth, you will need to find a way to 'understand' it which you find personally satisfying."
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Oh yes, I agree. I'm interested in learning about it now on a deeper level :)

Yes, I know. That means I have to read LOL :)
 

Fianic

I have to recommend Tarot and the Path of Initiation by Henry Ho. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the contraversy it has caused, it is still the best book that goes into the "deep" stuff in a beginner friendly way.

One potential weakness for you however is that you have expressed the need to have the symbolism explained. Ho goes a lot into the esoteric stuff and barely touches the visuals. He does so for the Majors however.

If symbols are the important thing for you, then Snuffin is my recommendation for you. But you still have to have the esoteric knowledge to undestand Snuffin, and so I would recommend you read Snuffin in conjunction with Ho.

Hope that helps.
 

Miss Woo

Fianic said:
I have to recommend Tarot and the Path of Initiation by Henry Ho. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the contraversy it has caused, it is still the best book that goes into the "deep" stuff in a beginner friendly way.

One potential weakness for you however is that you have expressed the need to have the symbolism explained. Ho goes a lot into the esoteric stuff and barely touches the visuals. He does so for the Majors however.

If symbols are the important thing for you, then Snuffin is my recommendation for you. But you still have to have the esoteric knowledge to undestand Snuffin, and so I would recommend you read Snuffin in conjunction with Ho.

Hope that helps.
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Thank you, that makes a lot of sense! :)
 

Aeon418

Fianic said:
I have to recommend Tarot and the Path of Initiation by Henry Ho. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the contraversy it has caused, it is still the best book that goes into the "deep" stuff in a beginner friendly way.
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What isn't "beginner friendly" is Henry Ho's feeble grasp of the philosophical system behind the Thoth Tarot. In places his lack of understanding is ugly and quite disturbing.
 

Barleywine

Another good one is Keywords for the Crowley Tarot by Hajo Banzhaf and Brigitte Theler (not to be confused with The Crowley Tarot, Handbook of the Cards). It's far more than a keyword dictionary; each card has two fairly comprehensive columns titled "Symbolism" and "Meaning" that are independent of the interpretive text. The meanings are brief and lacking in author's commentary, but they're right to the point, and assembling them into a coherent web of associations produces a workable matrix for understanding them without having to read long, dense passages of text. Also, it's good practice :)
 

Zephyros

Aeon418 said:
What isn't "beginner friendly" is Henry Ho's feeble grasp of the philosophical system behind the Thoth Tarot. In places his lack of understanding is ugly and quite disturbing.
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I remember there was a thread about him. Isn't he a third chapter literalist?
 

Miss Woo

Barleywine said:
Another good one is Keywords for the Crowley Tarot by Hajo Banzhaf and Brigitte Theler (not to be confused with The Crowley Tarot, Handbook of the Cards). It's far more than a keyword dictionary; each card has two fairly comprehensive columns titled "Symbolism" and "Meaning" that are independent of the interpretive text. The meanings are brief and lacking in author's commentary, but they're right to the point, and assembling them into a coherent web of associations produces a workable matrix for understanding them without having to read long, dense passages of text. Also, it's good practice :)
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Okay, I will check this out! Thanks! :)
 

Barleywine

Fianic said:
I recently found that he has made a blog a few months ago. I wonder what you think of his comments:

http://starrytarot.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/addressing-aeon418s-criticism-of-my-book.html
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I just read Mr. Ho's counter-attack. My impression is that he has mainly failed to achieve a balanced and nuanced perspective on some of the harsher statements in the Book of the Law. He seems to take too much at face value and could stand to revolve it in his mind a bit more and see if he can't find a way in. I'm still making headway on that after 40+ years with it. I'm convinced that every one of those statements (what he sees as the nasty, violent, brutish stuff) has a mystery buried within it. The objectives may not be debatable, but I think there are layers of subtlety implied in the suggested methods. Mr. Ho states that he's after the "unfurnished truth" (sic); I don't think he'll find any to let in Crowley's opus. I'm almost tempted to buy his book to see if there are any more howlers in it.

Crowley had a remedy for such a one as this (From "Laughter" in Little Essays Toward Truth)

"Truly it slays, with jolliest cannibal revels, that sour black-coated missionary the serious Ego, and plumps him into the pot. Te-he! - the Voice of Civilisation - the Messenger of the White Man's God - bubble, bubble, bubble! Throw in another handful of sage, brother!"
 

Michael Sternbach

Barleywine said:
I'm not sure how much good it does to embellish the BoT material with a load of psychological freight - or the RWS and TdM, for that matter - much of Crowley's thought seemed to be more in the exalted mystical vein, even though it was informed by some of the scientific advances of his time.
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Right. The BoT is spiritually very interesting, but it doesn't give you practical advice on how to deal with everyday difficulties - yet that's exactly what most querents want to know. There, a book like Ziegler's Mirror of the Soul comes in handy. That's why I like it, and so would the OP, I believe.
 
Ceremonial Magick and Tarot Atu XXI, The Universe- The end of a journey is the start of another!