Recommended Reading?

spiral

Well to reiterate what's been said - basically it's a huge undertaking. The BOT is the key - start from there. Read it. Reread it. Ad nauseum. The way I see it, you've got 78 quite unique personalities to get-to-know fairly intimately - not only themselves but their relationships with the other cards. I think you really have to be quite obsessive about the whole thing and make it a daily study. Read up on a card - if you find a reference to something you don't understand then stop and go away and find out what it means. If it references some legend or other then go and read up on it. Then return to where you were and carry on.
 

TheoMo

hey all,

i want to really second (or i guess third at this point, lol) what fyreflye and and spiral have been saying. I have been studying the book of thoth and thoth deck for about a year now and i barely feel like i've been cracking the surface, lol. but it really all begins with the book of thoth. I've reread the descriptions of the cards so many times now (and I've only barely been able to get through the earlier chapters) but each time you pick it up you learn something really interesting and new, even if it's a passage you've been over a bunch of times before. It's like the encyclopedia that keeps on giving i suppose, lol. I have no idea about the I Ching stuff that Crowley references, but I think he's providing it just as another angle to interpret the various cards (so it's not completely necessary). The qabbalah stuff (tree of life) and so forth is much more integral to the deck, it would seem, but even then I think he provides a very good introduction with the BoT itself, especially how the energies all relate and so forth.

It's a dense read, almost every word is packed with something. An amazing undertaking the more that I think about it. I would be lucky to get through the whole thing in my lifetime, much less understand all of it.

theo
 

isthmus nekoi

BOT is excellent although I would recommend one must have a basic grounding in world mythologies and ancient history, and at least one other esoteric system (e.g. astrology, I Ching or Yi King - the Cantonese pronunciation).

The other book I would recommend is Crowley's Liber Legis, preferably a version w/his commentary.
 

earlbecke

Thanks everyone!

So I bought a copy of "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot" today and I haven't even gotten to the descriptions of the cards yet, but it's a really cool book. :) It has a lot of information about Harris that I find really fascinating, so I guess it was worth buying if only for that. I'm looking into some of the Qabalah books that have been recommended, so when I have the time and money to invest in a couple new books, those are next on my list.
 

Babylon_Jasmine

fyreflye said:
The Thoth is a complex deck because Crowley's was a complex mind and Lady Harris's art one of complex imagery. You cannot fully understand what Crowley intended by reading works that reduce his vision to the level of the "average reader." Say what you want about him, but Crowley was not "average". You actually do have to learn about all those things Crowley knew in order to understand and appreciate his Tarot, just as you have to know many different things about the world of Renaissance Italy in order to understand and appreciate the Sistine Chapel. The Thoth deck was not intended for the "average reader" any more than quantum mechanics was intended for the average plumber.

If you want to learn more about the relationship between the Qabalah and Tarot get a copy of Robert Wang's The Qabalistic Tarot from http://www.marcusaureliuspress.com/ for an excellent and detailed overview, and continue to study - study - Crowley's book. He's not an easy read because he's not writing for "average readers," he's writing for the handful who will have the energy and motivation to do the kind of work he did in order to write his book. If you're not willing to do that - and there's no shame in that - then just forget about it. There's no reason to put a lot of energy into studying something that doesn't interest you. But reading popularizers who've done all the research and then reduced it to a Dick & Jane primer for a quick buck is a waste of both your time and your money.
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Maybe it is just that I was on LSD when I first studied the book of thoth, but I have found it to be the easiest, clearest, and most useful book I have read on the Tarot. My Kabbalistic background is not very deep, nor is my astrological or alchemical one but I did understand enough with the help of his refgerence guides included in the book to understand most of what he had to say. At least it seemed that way to me and still does. As far as further reading I believe Crowley himself has several books on Kabbalah, 777 is a good one for numerological and symbolic connections in general.
 

Babylon_Jasmine

I believe Crowley does include a bibliography or a reccomended reading list. I am not certain of that but I think I remember seeing one in the back of the BOT
 

Grigori

After reading Du Quettes books on Thoth, and perhaps also his book on Qabalah, I am finding Wang's Qabaistic Tarot immensley helpful. It discussed the Golden Dawn tradition, and the varitation on the system between the Golden Dawn deck, Thoth and Rider Waite.

It covers the Qabalah in quite a bit of practical detail for each card.
 

rachelcat

So which is the best Kabbalah book? Garden of Pomegranates, Dion Fotune's, or Wang's, or DuQuette's? (I've got a Border's 30% off coupon!!!)
 

Aeon418

rachelcat said:
So which is the best Kabbalah book? Garden of Pomegranates, Dion Fotune's, or Wang's, or DuQuette's? (I've got a Border's 30% off coupon!!!)
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That all depends on how much you already know about the Qabalah. If you already know about the structure and development of the Tree of Life, the meaning of the four qabalistic worlds and the attribution of the hebrew letters it would better if you bought a more advanced book, ie Wangs. On the other hand if your new to the Qabalah, DuQutte's book might be a better option.
 

Teheuti

rachelcat said:
So which is the best Kabbalah book? Garden of Pomegranates, Dion Fotune's, or Wang's, or DuQuette's? (I've got a Border's 30% off coupon!!!)
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In addition to the ones you've mentioned I also often recommend Will Parfitt's _The New Living Qabala_ which I believe has been republished as something like _The Complete Book of the Kabbalah_ (search on his name rather than the book title). Anyway, he provides one of the most practical and experiential intros I've ever found to the Western Magical Qabala.

Mary
 
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