Customer Reviews

Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was very disappointed when I received this deck. I fell in love with the Thoth Tarot after recieving a reading from a friend. Her cards were beautifully vibrant. I immediately ordered this deck. When it arrived, I was stunned to discover that the cards were not as beautiful as I remembered. The cards had a murky green tinge to them. When I compared them to my friend's deck, I discovered that they were not the same. Her deck was printed in Switzerland and mine was printed in Belgium.

There was a huge difference in the appearance and feel of the cards. The green tint on the cards printed in Belgium made readings seem ominous and foreboding.

I had to search the Internet for months before I found someone who had a copy of the large deck printed in Switzerland. At that time Amazon did not have the Swiss version, however, they now have it listed as "Swiss Crowley Large Thoth Tarot Deck"..... Ifyou can get a copy of the Swiss deck, I highly recommend it for it'sbeauty and powerful readings. But don't waste your money on the deckprinted in Belgium. It is an insult to thebeautiful art work of LadyFrieda Harris and not at all a pleasure to read with.

I have worked with this deck for many years, and I must say that it gives very accurate results. I do not think it is a great Beginner's Deck (try Rider-Waite for that, or purchase one of the books mentioned below)--however, the woman who created this deck infused a wealth of information into the Artwork.

The Major Arcana are quite Beautiful and the Esoteric Symbolism worked into the Deck, throughout, is a Wealth of Knowledge. The placement of two Major Arcana cards are different than most standard decks, but comparable with a set of Egyptian Tarot Cards, from another Mystery school (and, as I have been informed by a reader of my reviews, many decks previous to this era, had the same attributions).

As with all things in life, it is best to investigate many different branches of this field of study, but I know that Most of the Tarot Readers I have met use The Thoth Deck more than any other deck in their collection. The Wonderful Artwork and Fascinating Symbolism give the Reader a vast-array of information to draw-from. My Wife is a locally renowned Tarot Reader and she swears by this deck, for accuracy....and, ALL of her friends swear by her Accuracy.

The Thoth Deck has some Great Companion Books, such as: "The Tarot Handbook : Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols," by Angeles Arrien --and, of course, "The Book of Thoth" by Aleister Crowley, Frieda Harris (Illustrator).

I suggest buying the hand-sized Deck, because Large Decks are usually very cumbersome and it is hard to get a good psychokenetic feel for the cards. It is always best to have a deck that can be easily manipulated in the hands, for better accuracy in readings.

Thousands of people believe this is the best deck on the market, and I am one of them.

I also highly recommend Lon Duquette's Ceremonial Tarot Deck, to be used in conjunction with The Thoth Deck.

The Rider-Waite deck, one of the most popular Tarot decks, was designed by a member of the Golden Dawn, but watered down to avoid giving away that Order's symbolism. Crowley was another member of the Golden Dawn, and at one time favored to succeed its founder, and when he founded his own magickal order he put his whole heart and arte into designing this deck. No tricks, nothing held back.

The Book of Thoth, Crowley's commentary on his deck, is awfully dense for a beginner or for someone just interested in Tarot and not the occult underpinnings. On the other hand, the little cheat sheet booklet that comes with the deck is pretty good, and probably all you need to start doing readings.

As for doing readings, treat the deck in the same way you would treat a friend - with respect, casually when appropriate, never carelessly, always with great personality.

Owned at least 20 decks before, and always return to this one.

M

Note that the printing problems refered to in some reviews is NO LONGER an issue. This is the correctly colored best in-print edition of this deck. Buy with confidence!

There are at least two types of printings of the large format of this deck. In one type the deck looks great (basically excactly like the smaller version), in the other the color quality is terrible, the fronts of all the cards having a sage-green tint.

You can tell them apart in several ways:
1) Certain editions (see ISBN: 0880794690) are known good but they're also hard to find.
2) Look at the ends of the box, if you see the words "Printed in Belgium" anywhere on the box, you've probably got a bad one, but I've found good decks in the wrong boxes sometimes, so to be certain...
3) Take the cards of the box, leavinging them still sealed in their internal plastic wrapping and look at the border of the bottom card (or request that your seller do so). Only if the border of the card is a silver/gray (NOT at all green-ish) should you buy it. I personally am offended that the publisher hasn't recalled the ones with poor printing.

While I agree with other reviewers that the suit cards have far simpler images on them than you'll find in many decks, they're still far from flat or offering "few clues as to the meaning of the cards". They're quite evocative, and if you're lost, the one-word meaning on the card will point you atleast in the right direction.

Many of the comments I've read about the "dark" and "harder to read" qualities of this deck sound to me like they're describing the cards with poor color. Find a well-printed deck, and, whether you know all their symbology or not, these cards will speak to you.

In addition to the glowing reviews you're already seeing on this particular deck, there's a little bit more to add....and I do so without paying attention to any of the nutty 'warnings' related reviews or 'not for the weak at heart' rubbish.

Decks are largely a matter of taste...some will tickle yours, and some will not. Over time, decks which you thought were amazing looking will start to seem trite and juvenile. What I'm not going to worry about here is the taste aspect. That's for you to decide and will depend largely on your influences.

What can be said for certain is that there's a lot of interesting symbology on the Crowley-Thoth deck. Unlike my other standard favourite (the Rider-Waite), the symbology and correspondence references are immediately obvious, even to those new to that aspect of the readings.

Having one deck of each of the sizes for this set, I'd reccomend the 3 1/4" x 5 1/2" (large/oversized) deck for those meditating on or studying the artwork of the set. It makes the various archetype symbologies far easier to discern...particularly if your eyes are getting old like mine...:)

Visually appealing, easy to engage, and as deep as you're willing to go with them, this deck provides a wealth of reading inspiration, and has many great books available for deeper interpretation of the various influential correspondences referenced by it.

Definitely a great staple deck for personal or group reading.

This deck is the best one I've ever used! I have gotten excellent results and the most accurate readings I could possibly dream of. I reccomend this deck to anyone who is truly discovering their inner light (or dark).
After using this deck I have found myself being able to read any other set of cards with as much ease as I do with the Thoth tarot.

If you have at least three years of experience with reading one of the many Rider-Waite based decks and want something a bit more challenging, Crowley's Thoth deck is one of the best around. Crowley departs from the Waite-style decks in several areas. Certain cards are given different numbers and names. Strength, for instance, becomes Lust,Temperance is Art, and Justice is Adjustment. The concept of reversals is replaced by Elemental Dignities, which leads to more nuanced readings. The system of attributes is based on the Kabbalah, so experience or knowledge of this is helpful as well. Crowley uses a Golden Dawn derived system of correspondence, but departs from this by moving the Star, as per his communication with Awaiss. Lady Frieda Harriss' surrealistic artwork perfectly compliments Crowley's wild spiritual vision. Many of the cards contain not situations, but totally abscract representations. This makes the deck more useful for deep spiritual readings than for bread and butter divination. A perfect deck for esoteric contemplation or pre-ritual divination.

I didn't purchase this through Amazon, but from a small mystical shop in Fayetteville, Arkansas when I was eighteen, and it was not me that purchased it but my mom who purchased it for me as a Christmas gift. It was my first Tarot cards and I took it everywhere with me all over the country. Now 12 years later, I'm still using them (having purchased several different Tarot cards) because I get so much out of the reading as compared to others. I think it does not matter whether you are a novice or an expert at Tarot reading, but it is a great Tarot system that you could grow up with. It's my opinion that no Tarot reader should be without the Thoth cards in their collection.

As the other reviewers have said, the cards are indeed large, and it's not an exclusivity of people with small hands to have trouble shuffling them: I have very large hands and have trouble myself. But it's just a matter of getting used to the cards. There are proper ways to shuffle them, and you'll get along fine regardless of the size of your hands.

Regarding the colors, this deck (printed in Belgium by AGM) is not the older green tinted one, which came in a discreet white box with the OTO sigil on the cover. I haven't seen the smaller deck, the one in the lavender box (which Amazon does not carry), so colors might be fainter in this bigger version of the deck. But believe me, the cards look great. If they look better in the smaller deck, then I definitely need to order the lavender box.

I'm not going to review the deck itself, since there are plenty of good reviews around. I'll only note that as far as I'm concerned, the advice for not picking it up if you're new to tarot was pretty much off the target. This is my first deck, and I'm doing great with it, thank you very much. Buy it if you feel it's the right one for you.