Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot Book Review

Introduction

Starting with the real-life story of how the author’s interest in the occult met him with legends like Phyllis Seckler and Israel Regardie, Lon Milo Duquette’s Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot is often regarded as the only manual on the deck you’ll ever need. Going beyond the subject of the Tarot, the book discusses fundamental-to-Western magick devices, such as various of Crowley’s modifications. Mostly omitted in the Book of Thot, the deck’s official manual, a review you can watch on this channel, these are essential to be familiar with for grasping the dynamics of the Tarot. IMHO, they are one of the things making Duquette’s work shine and be preferred by many. Another couple is the excerpts from Crowley and Harris’s communication, such as Duquette’s comments and clarifications on meanings correspondences. 

A Magickal Book

Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot immediately opens the reader to the fact that Tarot isn’t an isolated system. Instead, it operates as an essential part of Western Mysteries. So making sense of its ordering and hierarchy requires awareness of the principles it expresses and relates to. 

Natural Progression

Following the Tarot and the numbers’ mathematical/natural progression (as Crowley defines it), Duquette’s work starts with chapter zero. The same shares that after having anxiety regarding anything associated with Crowley, the author eventually bought everything he could get his hands on. 

Organizations

Lodges and organizations are not for everyone. To actually learn the Tarot or any aspect of magick, you only need to ask the correct answers and avail of the information published today. Based on that, I’d say: Dedication and passion for research are required. Joining organizations isn’t.

 “Please don’t think (…) I am suggesting that everyone who wishes to understand more about the Thoth Tarot or the Book of Thoth needs to run right out and join the OTO or any other group, magical or otherwise. Occult societies are not for everybody, and no matter what any of them my suggest to new potential members, no organization has yet cornered the market on the wisdom of the ages. In fact, all the information one will ever need in order to master the subject has been published and is readily available(…). At the dawn of the new millenium, it si not a matter of whether or not the answers are out there, rather it is a matter of arriving at a place where one knows the right questions…”

p.7

The Holy Guardian Angel 

Including excerpts from Crowley, and his own Angels, Demons, and Gods of the New Millenium, Duquette ensures the novice there’s nothing to be afraid of regarding HGA. Moreover, uniting with it is part of your birthright.

“It is directly related to the spiritual evolution of each and every one of us, no matter what religion or philosophy. It also has everything to do with the structure and behavior of the Tarot…”
p.72

A Map of Your Soul

Using the sleeping princess fairytale as in his other books and lectures, he explains how achieving unity with the Angel translates into the Tarot and the four Qabalistic worlds. He clarifies that besides ‘cosmological abstractions,’ the cards and the Tree diagram apply most importantly to you, him, and any other human being. And аs we often hear, it is a map of the soul and the cosmos. 

Sex Magick 

Delving deeper into the concept of the HGA, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot teaches that all magick is sexual. As found in the author’s The Magick of Thelema, now renamed The Magick of Aleister Crowley: The Roman Catholic Mass is just as sexual as the Great Rite of the Wiccans. Ensuring that mainstream perception of sex magick is deeply flawed, Duquette employs DMK’s definition to bring clarity: 

“A variety of techniques which harness the energies raised during sexual activity and direct them to fulfill the desires of the people practicing sex magick…”

While more can be learned from Kraig’s Modern Sex Magick, such as in his best-selling Modern Magick, particularly lesson 10, K&C is described as exquisitely sexual. In the timeless moment of orgasmic ecstasy, the author explains, there’s no longer a difference or separation between you and everything else in the universe. And that includes the object of desire, your HGA.

” Human sexuality is only one very narrow expression of this sexual alchemy. The formula is truly universal and its mechanics are at work at all levels of existence. It is the magick that turns energy into matter, sunlight into gold, you and me into God…”

p.77

The Rose Cross 

The Rose Cross was why Duquette got fascinated with the Thoth Tarot. Once he saw them almost immediately, the author associated the Rose Cross’s colors with the four tarot suits. While discussing that with a fellow initiate at a lodge, he was heard by a senior member. The same person brought him to his car trunk, where he showed the young Duquette a stunning gold Rose Cross amulet. Apparently, this impacted the author (quite a bit), as he also fervently shared the story in his Lecture on the Thoth Tarot, which (almost) instantly got me into the deck. 

The Tree of Life

Operating together, The Tree of Life and the Rose Cross convey virtually all correspondences of magick. In the context of the Tarot, the book offers a concise explication and diagram of how the cards map to the sephiroth and the meanings behind the Qabalistic color scheme. And this embeds associations between cards, colors, and tree components in your mind.

“We can think of the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life as representing a descent of energy. In that case, we are actually contemplating the creation of the phenomenal universe. We can think of the sephiroth as representing the descent of consciousness. In that case, we are actually contemplating the true meaning of the concept of the fable of the “fall of man.” We can also think of the sephiroth as the descent of light— and when light descends, we have color…”
p.64

Visual Magick

Defining the Thoth Tarot as ‘visual magick,’ Duquette pays homage to Harris’s exceptional technique and use of color. He notes that the deck’s coloring is driven by more than aesthetics. It follows the invented-by-the-Golden-Dawn fourfold color scale, such as Qabalah itself. The color selection expresses light’s diffusion through a prism based on Qabalah and Physics. Also, the actual correspondences of the cards. For instance: ‘Pleasure’ and ‘Fortune’ are attributed to Jupiter, which color is purple or violet. Hence the predominant colors of these cards. The Thoth deck employs one hundred and thirty-six colors, which turn out to come from the products of Winsor & Newton company.

Art

Exceeding Crowley’s expectations, Harris incorporated the New Aeon symbology. Duquette calls this: ‘a supreme wedding of artistic technique and mysticism.’ Harris’s projective geometry, the author explains, makes us transcend our mind’s dimensional boundaries while placing ourselves in an environment where infinite depth can exist simultaneously with permanent projection. 

Comment

As a digital creator, I sometimes entertain the idea of what Harris would do if she had tools like the Adobe Suite and various tablets. But that’s just a thought when contemplating some of my favorite cards.

Final Words

Synthesizing the best of The Book of Thoth while ensuring you’ll grasp its ins and outs, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot is a masterpiece essential to any looking to get into the deck. It incorporates quality information with great storytelling about Crowley and Harris, such as the author’s development as a magician. It will serve excellent on its own or coupled with the official manual. Whatever the case, you’ll hardly regret getting it if you already have the deck. If not, and you want to, it may be best to get both. But that’s just my opinion. Let me know what yours is, such as how I did with the article and video.