The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians

This book is indispensable for learning and knowledgeably using Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck. Written by Crowley at the end of his life, the book contains a magickal lifetime's worth of insights about the meaning of occult Tarot symbolism, as modified in light of Crowley's religion of Thelema.

The book is an excellent introduction to Crowley's ideas, and at the same time it can be pretty baffling to newbies to those ideas, since Crowley so often references his other works to help clarify some of the more difficult notions he is discussing. In spite of its double-edged quality for beginners, "The Book of Thoth" is the most important book on occult Tarot ever written.

Crowley's introduction to occult Tarot, and particularly to his version of it, the Thoth Tarot deck. This is not an easy book, nor deck, for beginners, but it is still the best place to begin one's exploration of Crowley's ideas in the Tarotic language.

Indispensable. Anyone who studies the Thoth Tarot, or perhaps any tarot, should read this. It really brings out the mythos surrounding each card into full bloom, making a living form of divination that allows and encourages further personal introspection and commentary. The connection with astrology, which is my favorite divination and study, helped me understand and associate the symbols along with planets, colors and numbers.

This is a book I keep near at hand. I use the Thoth deck for readings and sometimes I just open the book instead of getting out the cards.

The illustrations are in B&W, but the explanation of the cards is complete and includes esoteric information about each card that is not found in most tarot books. However, this book is written exclusively for the Thoth Deck and the symbols contained therein.

I'm not a Crowley fan, but this book does the job it sets out to do.

Classic text describing the tarot card system, based on Ancient Egyptian mysticism.

S-001695-080509