Thoth Questions

As you may have noticed I haven't had this deck long (this is my second time around with it). I have not yet bought a book but I may do sometime in the future.

Can anyone tell me what all the sharp shards of glass (my phrase) are in the Swords?

and....

In the LWB there is a Tree of Life showing Crowleys atrributions of the Tarot against the tree. Now, I kinda understand that he has attributed numbers to the spheres beause there are ten!

But.... he also puts the Trumps with Kether (aces), the Wands and Knights with Chokmah (twos), The Cups and Queens with Binah (threes), the Disks and Princesses with Malkuth (tens) and the Swords and Princes with Tiphareth (sixes).

This does not make any sense to me, can anyone ellaborate?

If you find a description of the Tree of Life in combination with Tarot, that is the standard placement of those cards according to Qabalah-istic definition. The Golden Dawn and Papus both spent time explaining that. I am not much more versed in it than that at the moment, but I am learning...hehehehe.

Thanks Merc

I know that in the Gill Tarot the colours on the pips all correspond to the spheres - great idea! Do any of the Thoth colours correspond to them though?

The 'shards of glass' are triangles. If you ever watch the A&E series, Hercule Poirot, they are used in the introductory sequence. In fact the sequence ends showing a stylized sword card. I believe they stand for the mental process. Also note the use of butterflies in the RWS swords cards. In some Thoth cards the triangles are drawn to sort of make stylized butterflies. The thought process, or even thoughts again.
Later in the swords suit the triangles get rather grim and disorganized, showing disorganized thinking or thinking that has lost its focus.

Ah. thank you Marion

I am looking at the cards now and I find this facinating. Earlier on today I chose the Princess of Swords to study and it looks to me as though this patterning was on her back almost like a propeller.

I have just looked at the two of swords and in this card they look to me like Swastikas..... in the four of swords they are squared off to represent the solidity of the number four.

I'm off now to look at others....

Moonbow* said:

In the LWB there is a Tree of Life showing Crowleys atrributions of the Tarot against the tree. Now, I kinda understand that he has attributed numbers to the spheres beause there are ten!

Click to expand...

Yes.

Moonbow* said:

But.... he also puts the Trumps with Kether (aces), the Wands and Knights with Chokmah (twos), The Cups and Queens with Binah (threes), the Disks and Princesses with Malkuth (tens) and the Swords and Princes with Tiphareth (sixes).
This does not make any sense to me,

Click to expand...

It is not really a 'But....', it is an 'And...'

Crowley followed the Golden Dawn system of correspondences of the court cards.

Therefore, as Crowley puts it;

These [court] cards constitute a pictorial analysis of the powers of the four letters of the Name and the four Elements.

So we have the following correspondences for the Divine Name (YHVH);

Yod - Fire - Wands - Father - Knight - Chokmah - Twos
Heh - Water - Cups - Mother - Queen - Binah - Threes
Vau - Air - Swords - Son - Prince - Tiphareth - Sixes
Heh - Earth - Disks - Daughter - Malkuth - Tens

Even from a fairly basic study on these sephiroth, you can see where the correspondences come from, for instance one of the alternative names for the sephira Chokmah, is 'Supernal Father'. An alternative name for the sephira Tiphareth is 'Son of Man'

Moonbow* said:

can anyone ellaborate?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Aleister Crowley can elaborate.

http://www.choronzon.com/brainwav/thoth/thoth.htm


Vincent

Vincent thank you

I am slowly working my way through the Book of Thoth link in the hope that something might go in! This will certainly keep me out of trouble for a while

I use the middle size deck for handling and laying but the larger deck to really see the card details. Can't handle it easily though, for shuffling.

i've bought the 3 magus version. its nice for the major arcana. beautiful pictures with abstract art or what-so-ever style you call that. you will have plenty of spaces for imagination for those.

But sadly to say the minor disappointed me. I felt the cards don't stand up for their meanings. the illustrations are all the moody, (at least i can see that) but they are just representations of the symbols. I can't get the meaning unless looking at the words below. Anyone felt the same way?

anubis

I think this is a deck where a mixture of study and intuition comes in. This is one of the rare decks where I do take a little notice of the keywords, but mostly I have found I like the interpretations that I come up with from what I get when meditating on the card or researching some of the symbology.

I am still a beginner with the Thoth but I am seeing more and more in the cards each day and also learning from what others are seeing. I have been doing the Daily Thoth card (in the Your Readings forum) in order to get to know the cards. Not so much a guidence for my day but to encourage me to meditate on the card and then research the symbols.

There is also a pathworking group starting in the Kabbalah forum if you are interested.

If all this does not appeal to you yet then maybe it will at some later date but either way it is an important deck (to me) and therefore worth a little hard work. I hope it grows on you like it has with me.