Zan and BC's Excellent Thoth Adventure: Crowley Biographies

Hedera

Ooooh, what a great thread, and such beautiful timing!

I've just received the Book of Thoth, and I'm ready to dip my toe into Thothiness yet again (it's one of those things I keep circling over the years).

I will be following along from the sidelines with great interest!

I think someone mentioned a Crowley biography further upthread (and I'll look up which one it was in a minute), but does anyone else have any recommendations for biographies?
Seems the ones I can find tend to be rather... slanted one way or the other.
I'd love the read one that doesn't take Crowley (or itself) too seriously.

And I don't suppose there is a book with the letters of Crowley and Lady Harris about creating the deck?
I've read some snippets of them here and there, would love to read more.

Right, off to track down one of my decks and put them in order.
I have a lovely deck from the Tarotphile, sort of burnt orange with crazy-looking birds, that I think will be perfect... :D
 

zan_chan

Le Fanu said:
Have you (zan & BC) read all about The Fool yet? Don't you think it might be interesting to identify the symbols you see and reflect on what they might mean before you go to the Book of Thoth? Some of the imagery - butterfly, crocodile, bag of coins, gold boots, floatingness &c - you might get to grips with before reading BoT.

And it is always interesting (& gratifying) seeing whether you were on the same wavelength, or what additional elemtents you can pick up from reading.

I always like to have a good look myself before I start reading about the symbolism...

Yeah, I've had/am having a fairly good look before and during reading the BoT. When I'm doing a deck study, I keep the large version of the current moment's card in a frame on my desk, so it is always there to contemplate. I'm truly not the type for passing the hours gazing into a card, or card meditation or that sort of thing - I simply don't have the hours to pass.

I'm curious, however, about the general consensus on symbol-guessing with the Thoth. For whatever reason, the Thoth feels incredibly different than all other decks in that it feels somehow inappropriate to make my own connections to the imagery and symbolism on the cards. To use a techy metaphor, most decks feel like Linux - you can put yourself into it, build, explore, mold it into your own creation using only the base tools provided. The Thoth feels more like Windows; a monster that has been very specifically created to be used in a very specific way. Does that make any sense?

But anyway, I've finished the BoT bit on the Fool. 90% went right over my head, but then at the end, the summary of it all, it started coming together a little. Now I'm on DuQuette's chapter on the Fool to see if he brings it together a bit more clearly. Might try Snuffin after work, too.

At very least, he certainly seems more...substantial than the Fool of other decks. Makes the RWS Fool look like Big Bird, that's for sure.

Le Fanu said:
I love threads like this but even threads by so-called beginners always lose me! Something about numbers a few pages back. What on earth was that all about? I went out for some tapas at that point but now I'm back...

The numbers bit does seem confusing at first, but is actually quite simple when you work it all out. Follow the way Grigori came to relate Bat Chicken to the Beast and it'll start making more sense.

I suppose you could call me a half/beginner. I became very interested in Thoth when I first got into tarot - even read the BoT and Duquette way back when. Then I decided, perhaps foolishly, (though a good choice in retrospect) that it was too much too soon into my tarot career, so I put it all away and went for the Haindl instead. (Then I got sick of it all and went for TdM, but that's another story :p )

Point is that now I'm back here with a completely fresh perspective and ready to keep as an open a mind as possible towards the whole thing.

Anyway, must go be a teacher now. Will be posting my initial thoughts (queries most likely) on the Fool when I get home tonight.
 

Grigori

Thanks Maskelyne!

Hedera said:
I think someone mentioned a Crowley biography further upthread (and I'll look up which one it was in a minute), but does anyone else have any recommendations for biographies?
Seems the ones I can find tend to be rather... slanted one way or the other.
I'd love the read one that doesn't take Crowley (or itself) too seriously.

Le Fanu linked to The Concise Guide To Aleister Crowley a little bit back. I've not read it, but from the authors would guess it to be very good. Both are Crowley followers, so it would be from the perspective of someone following his philosophy. One of the authors also wrote this biography which is widely considered the best. It OOP, but avaiable for pre-ordering in a new release that is coming soon.

I've read [http://www.amazon.com/Do-What-Thou-Wilt-Aleister/dp/0312288972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275388699&sr=8-1]this[/url] and this one and found them quite balanced also.

Of course there is also Crowley's autobiography, which is OOP but not that hard to find.

While not a biography, this book "The Legend of Aleister Crowley" is really interesting reading, its written by one of Crowley's publisher's who was not a Thelemite, but was interested in addressing some of the more ridiculous rumors and slander during his publishing career. It's been commented on and reprinted by the Australian OTO.
 

thorhammer

You're the master of linkage, you know that, G? Great post.

\m/ Kat
 

Le Fanu

Grigori said:
Le Fanu linked to The Concise Guide To Aleister Crowley a little bit back.
I should receive it this week but I had a flick through it in local bookstore then picked it up off an amazon seller for 2.00 GBP (I know, I know, I'm killing boosktores but you wouldn't believe the difference in price!) It isn't a biography but a series of essays on Crowley's thoughts and books. Looked very easily laid out and clear to understand and not at all thick (nice bonus! :D) maybe 150-200 pages with diagrams... I too was swayed by the author's name...

Grigori, do you know anything about that Aleister Crowley scrapbook? I'm intrigued by it... is it worth getting (while we're on the subject of bios)
 

Grigori

aww thanks Kat

Le Fanu said:
Grigori, do you know anything about that Aleister Crowley scrapbook? I'm intrigued by it... is it worth getting (while we're on the subject of bios)

Nope, I didn't even know it existed. I just had a quick look at it's info online, if you get it would love to hear your opinion.
 

thorhammer

You da man, G

On the topic of biographies (of AC, that is) I've read Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley and found it to be very enlightening. Sometimes a little heavy, but then I'm very much not into biographies so I'm probably a biased opinion there. It was quite balanced, which impressed me. And it's fairly comprehensive and a big volume - it'll keep you going for a while.

\m/ Kat
 

zan_chan

thorhammer said:
On the topic of biographies (of AC, that is) I've read Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley and found it to be very enlightening. Sometimes a little heavy, but then I'm very much not into biographies so I'm probably a biased opinion there. It was quite balanced, which impressed me. And it's fairly comprehensive and a big volume - it'll keep you going for a while.

Ooh that's the one that I was planning to start this weekend. Have it sitting here now. Hope its any good. Anyone out there read it to comment?

(Meanwhile, could this be useful as a split-off thread on Crowley bios?)
 

Grigori

zan_chan said:
Ooh that's the one that I was planning to start this weekend. Have it sitting here now. Hope its any good. Anyone out there read it to comment?

I've read it, I actually meant to link to it in my last post, but copied the wrong url over, sorry! Thanks for the save Kat. I've update that old post now. I think its the most informative biography I've read thus far, though I've not yet had a chance to read Kaczynski's. "Do What Thou Wilt" was the first thing I really read about Crowley the person, at the time I found a lot of things in it very shocking, being a naive and sheltered sort of a soul. Now a lot of it makes me giggle like a schoolgirl, funny how things change eh?

zan_chan said:
(Meanwhile, could this be useful as a split-off thread on Crowley bios?)

A grand idea, Done :)
 

Aeon418

thorhammer said:
And it's fairly comprehensive and a big volume - it'll keep you going for a while.
Sutin's bio is comprehensive, up to a point. He's quite good when he talks about the objective, surface phenomena of Crowley's life story. But his bio is strangely lacking when it comes to the prime motivator behind Crowley's life, his spiritual world view and initiatory experiences. Without some degree of insight into Crowley's inner world much of what he did doesn't make sense. Previous authors have made the same mistake, and in an attempt to make sense of the man have had to resort to the same old mud slinging and slander game started by John Symonds.

In my opinion Perdurabo by Richard Kaczynski wipes the floor with Sutin's book. It's being republished in an expanded edition later this year. ;)