Silly Me

All this time I thought the handbook for Crowley's deck was the Book of Thoth (the blue book), but I guess I was wrong. I will check out the Handbook (the purple book) when I get the chance, I heard that it's great. I do like the blue book though because it explains a lot of stories from long ago, like the Green Man, and Zeus. It links Tarot to Mythology, and I love that.

Krystian...

I believe that the blue book you're referring to would be The Book of Thoth? If that's it, then that's the book that Crowley wrote to explain his deck. I guess you could call it the "official" book for the Thoth deck. However, because tarot is so open to individual interpretations and also because many find The Book of Thoth to be a confusing read, other authors have come out with their own explanatory books. There are some other threads about which books are good for exploring the Thoth deck. If you have the time/money, you could check out a few and see which you like best. Otherwise, fellow Aeclecticans make great recommendations.

Kes

now I am confused !!!

HEY HEY HEY!!! Hold on now!!!

I thought that The Book of Thoth was simply another name used to indicate the tarot deck that Mr Aleister Crowley (of whom I am the latest Avatar, I might remind you) designed!

LINK OF SUPPORT: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/2110/
(kindly provided by Vespertine )

Hey Pollux,
You're right. The Book of Thoth is another name for the Crowley deck. But it's also the name of the explanatory book that Crowley wrote for the deck. Here's the amazon link if you want to take a peek:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0877282684/ref=nosim/aeclectic/

Kes

Crowley's book The Book of Thoth is likely to only confuse people unless they study Crowley's earlier works and know where Uncle Al is coming from. It was written with for an audience that followed his work as a whole and doesn't explain the card symbology in a way that will make sense for the casual reader. Heck, even after eight years of hanging around hardcore OTO folks, it doesn't make all that much sense to me.

If you're studying tarot for tarot's own sake, its okay to skip it.

Laurel

Just to confuse matters even more, it should be remembered that the appelation 'The Book of Thoth', as applied to the Tarot, antidates Crowley by quite a few decades.

Hence, by calling the Tarot the 'Book of Thoth', one may be signalling a Crowleyan outlook... or one may, in fact, not be!

I just ordered Angeles Arrien's The Tarot Handbook which might be the book you were describing. I can't wait to get it! I'm hoping to be able to better understand my Thoth and my Rohrig (Thoth-based) deck. I'll let you know what I think when I get my nose in the book though I haven't cracked The Book of Thoth and can't compare.

Kes

book of thoth

pollux--

or anyone else for that matter. here's a link that'll give you crowley's book of thoth-- http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/Crowley/thoth/thoth.html

it is a rather difficult read.

angeles arrien's book is a very well done interpretation of the thoth deck. and comprehensible.

there are a couple of other books about the thoth deck; one written by the author of 'the journey of the hero'. i would think that one to be another good interpretation of the deck.

raven

Thanks Ravenswing!!!
Yet another book to be eliminated from my shopping list!! WOHA!
I hope the site won't be disabled before I get a Thoth Deck...
*bookmarks the link*
THANK YOU RAVENSWING!!!! GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!

$ EDITED TO ADD £
Stepping out of the page, to the following link:
http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/Crowley/
it is possible to download the book in Zip format.
I have a fast connection so it took me less than 2 minutes.

letters

the corrospondence between crowley and lady harris are worth downloading too.

raven