Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

Lon Milo DuQuette's "Thoth Tarot" is *Excellent* in its discussion of symbolism, significance, historical context, and connections and insights into Tarot, Tree of Life, and Tarot as a spiritual journey or meditation practice. As other reviewers point out, Aleister Crowley managed to impart and condense a lifetime's study into 78 cards. Heady stuff, and not especially easy to get or master. Additionally, Thoth tarot cards have a way of unfolding (unpacking) more info and insights as you continue your relationship with them. DuQuette's book comes in handy for all these purposes. Divination: A section toward the back contains condensed descriptions or highlights of the individual cards for divinatory purposes. "Thoth Tarot" can be used to help understand cards in readings or spreads, though Ziegler's "Mirror..." is better for this purpose; it's more immediate or practical for an introduction or crib. Ziegler's "Mirror" is a fine Intro or go-to book. **A note about the Thoth Tarot deck by Aleister Crowley and Lady Freida Harris: It simply is the best, deepest, most "correct" deck you could have or want for insights, clarity, or social/spiritual understanding. The artwork (by Lady Harris) is beautiful and powerful, and enables you to enter the card / meaning from whatever orientation you have -- color, numeric (numerology), chakra-based, astrological, physical, ..., whatever. You can start with what you know and work from that, or build on that through reflection. Compared to other tarot decks, experience lends me the confidence to say THOTH is the BEST deck, ever, for high-level mastery and understanding of greater, highest good. Others, e.g. Rider-Waite, are anachronistic, patriarchal vehicles for fear mongering or are well intentioned but skewed/off.

I really wanted to find out about The Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn first to understand Crowley' s Thoth Tarot Deck. I am pretty sure that I did a good beginning. I will recommend to first try to read Tarot Decoded, then Women of the Golden Dawn, and finally Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Book. You will may have a good quality of information to get Crowley's idea. Mr Lon Milo Duquette did an extraordinary job writing this book. His writing is very clear. He knows how to give the real concept about what he wants to let us know. I enjoy very much the book. I think that the book could have been more extensive regarding the amount of information. There would have been very well if Mr. Duquette would have tell us more about astrology to understand the correspondences of the Minor Arcana. Suffice to say, I really appreciate to have read this excellent book. Be aware, you need to know about the Golden Dawn System, the Tree of Life and Qabala to start to comprehend what the Thoth Tarot Deck is about. This is not a book for beginners. You will really enjoy it.

Truly an excellent book. And I must disagree with the earlier reviewer who felt that Crowley had somehow been "dumbed down" or sanitized. Nothing could be further from the truth. Duquette spends a significant amount of space and time (nearly 100 pages) on explaining such things as the Holy Guardian Angel, the new Aeon of Horus, the Tree of Life, the significance of the Book of the Law as it relates to Crowley's tarot, etc. The bulk of the book is filled with detailed descriptions of each card, and their significance in the Tarot as a spiritual journey...rather than dwelling on divinatory meanings. There is a section at the back that gives brief divination meanings for readings, but clearly he (and Crowley too), thought that divination was a side effect produced by the Tarot...useful certainly, but not the main significance. My only complaint really, and it is a very minor complaint, is that Duquette keeps apologizing for having to spend so much time on the background stuff. One apology would have been enough...anyone completely unfamilar with Qabala et al should know what they are getting into, and EXPECT some time spent explaining it. Continually apologizing for it was not necessary. I particulary liked the inclusion of bits of correspondence between Harris and Crowley, while the paintings were still being done. Duquette suggests that Crowley's original Book of Thoth (book) would be required reading alongside this book, and I must agree. It doesn't replace the original, it just makes jumping into it a lot less painful. I wish this book had been available years ago when I first read the Crowley book!

I loved this book but only gave it four stars because I was so distracted by the numerous spelling and grammatical errors it contains. The same words were consistently misspelled throughout and the wrong word or words that made no sense were inserted where they had no business being. As someone who majored in English in college and respects the proper useage of the language, I found it very unprofessional on the publisher, editor and proofreaders' parts that they failed to catch these myriad errors before rushing to publish the book. It's really a shame because Lon Milo Du Quartet is a "hermetic hero" to me and I doubt that he intentionally ignored the syntax and structure of our language considering his attention to the finest details of the magical system he writes about in this excellent resource on the Tarot. On the upside, DuQuette shines in his interpretation of Crowley's Thoth Tarot. He makes Crowley's work readable and understandable in a way that gives me a new appreciation for the Qabalah and The Tree of Life and their place at the foundation of the Thoth Tarot.

I'm not a Hermetic Order initiate or expert, but a long-time student of astrology just getting into Tarot and numerology. I can't speak to how accurate the information provided is, since I don't have much context/other material to compare it with. However, I find it a great place to start in terms of understanding the Thoth deck. The author's tone was the subject of many reviewer's complaints but it wasn't that bad to me. It didn't take away from what I learned and wasn't such a problem that it made the book unenjoyable. Yes, he did spend a good chunk of the book on the Rosy Cross but it helps to have context and theory behind the deck. If anything, I would've liked more about spreads and using the deck (It seems Crowley's intent of the deck was more for self-evolution/awareness/growth as opposed to divination and some details on using the deck for this purpose would've been great). Also, the author says the Major arcana tell a story (Fool's Journey?) so read about them in order but since the deck is more unique, deviating from the traditional/Rider-Waite deck, a page or two narrative on them would've been appreciated. There is ample material on each card, as well as divinatory meanings. Some anecdotes of Crowley and Harris are nice. I mean, occultists or not, we're all human beings. It's a thick book with plenty of informative material, not very much filler. Maybe not the best book for one who is advanced or well-versed in the subject but a great starting point.

I've learned SO much from this book that I can't recommend it enough. If he simply went through all the cards, as so many other books do, well, his book would be like the others. But he goes over the underlying theory (if I might be forgiven for calling 5000 years of mysticism "theory") and sets a very nice basis for the things that are revealed in the Thoth Tarot. There are not all the many people who are actually qualified to explain all this complicated mystic information but he certainly is. And of the people who can explain it many of them would, no doubt, make it dry. But, good lord, he keeps it interesting. And all this explication is essential because the Thoth Tarot really is the culmination and the bringing together of many many mystic lines of inquiry over thousands of years. It would be truly overwhelming if Mr. Duquette didn't treat the subject with his incredible depth of knowledge and excellently accessible writing! As you might have guessed by this point, I highly recommend this book!

This book is amazing. I have learned so much from it, and not just about Crowley and his Tarot, but about the history of the metaphysical movement in the late 1800's and early 1900's. This period is so important to the current ideas in the metaphysics and spirituality movement of today, and this book makes the connections that seem most important to me at this time. Even if you don't want to learn to read Tarot, you will also find value in this book in terms of better understanding the universe about you. This book is also a great interpretation of Crowley's writing, making it understandable to today's minds. Thank you Lon Milo Durquette!

The Thoth deck, while beautiful in appearance, is vastly different from other Tarot decks. How different you ask? Well Crowley changed two trump numberings (VII is now Justice, XI Lust/Strength which was common in older decks) and the big change, assigns trump XVII The Star the Hebrew letter/path Heh, and trump IV The Emperor Tzaddi. Kings are called Knights, and some of the small cards have been renamed (as far as their esoteric titles) as well. So to fully appreciate all these changes and to understand why Crowley did them, you'll need to understand a little bit of background info before studying this deck. Cue Lon Milo DuQuette. As a Tarot master and high ranking member of Crowley's OTO, he has all the credentials one would want from someone writing about Crowley's tarot deck. Thankfully DuQuette is also a brilliant mind, and one with a great sense of humor. He explains everything important you'd need to know before studying the deck, and then takes you card by card, through the deck. I'd recommend anyone interested in the Thoth deck (especially those who are studying Qabalah/magick) to get this book when you get your Thoth deck.

トート・タロットの講座に行ったとき講師の方から薦められた本の一冊です。『トートの書』の副読本といえます。すべての基本をシンプルに説明してあって、私のようなタロット初心者にも理解できる優れた入門書だと思います。 全体がパート1とパート２に分かれ、パート１は『トートの書』に書かれていない背景、クロウリーと黄金の夜明け団、ハリス女史、ホルスの時代、カードの裏側のバラと十字の絵柄に込められた意味、生命の樹、色階、聖守護天使、など、必要な知識を網羅しています。パート２は各カードの説明と占い方です。 日本語で書かれたトート・タロットの本も今では何冊かありますが、この本の良さは、もしクロウリー自身が平易な解説書を書く気があったら、こんな内容だったかもしれない、と思える点です。筆者はクロウリーの思いを代弁しているように思います。 『トートの書』を初めて読んだときは内容の難解さに半ば絶望しましたが、この本を読んで希望が持てました。 そんなに難しい単語や構文の英語で書かれていないので、『トートの書』の日本語訳より易しいかも？！

You definitely need this book for studying Thoth!

Understanding the Thoth tarot is not so easy. Mr DuQuette did a very good book, using a lot from The book of Thoth from Crowley but simpler, more accessible !

PRO *accurato *moderno *fedele agli insegnamenti *sintetico *tratta più di iniziazione che di divinazione CONTRO *molti disclaimer *divinazione trascurata, intenzionalmente. *Se dovessi trovare un aspetto negativo di questa preziosa opera, potrei dire che l'avrei preferita lunga il doppio. L'autore, persona estremamente ironica ed autoironica, definisce il libro "il compendio di tutti quei frammenti di conoscenza necessari ad affrontare il libro di Thoth". Ed infatti, dopo i necessari disclaimer (Crowley non era il diavolo in persona; lo studio dei suoi tarocchi non ti garantisce un biglietto per l'inferno, ecc ecc,), troviamo una rassegna di concetti base, spiegati semplicemente, coerentemente con gli insegnamenti della "Bestia". Le carte sono trattate una per pagina; Avrei voluto almeno ottanta pagine per ogni carta, ma tant'è. Vuol dire che approfondirò sperimentando da solo. Lo stile è leggero, a volte forse troppo, perché l'autore a mio avviso percepisce la fin troppa paura generata dal nome Crowley, e vuole mettersi al riparo dal bigottismo; il risultato è una sfilza di disclaimer, MA GLI ARGOMENTI IMPORTANTI, COME LA MAGIA SESSUALE, IL SIMBOLISMO VOLUTAMENTE FASTIDIOSO E PROVOCATORIO DI CROWLEY, ED I RIFERIMENTI ALLA RELIGIONE, NON SONO NE DILUITI, NE STORPIATI. L'unico metodo di divinazione incluso, occhio, è QUELLO DEL LIBRO DI THOTH ORIGINALE; per cui, niente divinazione for dummies, qui. Ottima bibliografia e note curatissime.

Lon Milo DuQuette, Masón y miembro prominente de la Ordo Templi Orientis, escribe este increíble libro que hace un excelente trabajo para explicar la relación entre el Tarot y la Qabbalah. Entra a profundidad en la simbología y todos los que estén dispuestos a estudiar el tarot de Thoth, ideado en primera instancia por Aleister Crowley, van a encontrar en este libro todo lo necesario para comenzar a comprender de que va el asunto. Altamente recomendado aunque la primera barrera de entrada es que está en inglés.