The Book of Thoth: A Short
Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians
Being The Equinox Volume III No. V
By The Master
Therion (Aleister Crowley)
Artist Executant: Frieda Harris
Published by Samuel
Weiser, New York, 3-21-1944
If one reads only one
book about the Tarot, that book should be The Book of Thoth by Aleister
Crowley. After sixty years, it remains the most accurate source of
arcane information about the structure of the Tarot and its true purpose
and meaning. The cards are favored by many because of their beauty and
complexity, but perhaps more importantly the images are purported to be
the actual images that reside in the collective unconscious and are
therefore extremely powerful in evocation of emotion and intellect.
Aleister Crowley perceived the images through study and meditation. He
described the images to painter Frieda Harris, who was obliged to revise
her work many times.
That being said, the
Book of Thoth is inscrutable to any beginning student of Tarot not
already a skilled Cabalist or Hermetic Initiate. Crowley was a very
controversial figure, both for his intellectual ideas and his personal
life, a man who truly marched to the beat of a different drum. He
switched the positions of the major arcana cards Strength and Justice
which he calls Lust and Adjustment, and the Emperor and the Star. Mr.
Crowley makes convincing arguments for his choices; yet most scholars
prefer the original placements.
Contents and
Positive Attributes:
The first section of
the Book of Thoth deals with theory. It describes the origins of Tarot,
its relationship to the Qabalah, and it explains the basic structure of
the Tarot. Crowley relates his deck to numerology, which he clarifies
very well in his explanation of the "Naples Arrangement," a
mathematical system developed in the city of that name.
He explains also the
correspondence of the Major Arcana to the signs, elements, and planets
of the zodiac. Astrology is very important in Crowley's system, and he
does a very complete and clear job of explaining the rationale for his
attributions. He proceeds, not only to relate the cards to the Qabalah's
tree of life, but also to the naturalistic beliefs of ancient man, the
works of early philosophers such as Pythagorus, and to medieval
conceptions of alchemy and contemporary concepts of magical systems.
Much of this information was available for many years only in works of
Crowley, Paul Case or A. E. Waite. Recently, several excellent books
paraphrase Crowley and make his ideas more accessible, but there is
still much to be said for reading the original source.
The second and
largest section of The Book of Thoth describes the Major Arcana, which
Crowley calls the Atu, keys or trumps. His description of the Fool alone
is 16 pages. He describes the Fool in its Christian, Jewish, Egyptian,
Celtic, Greek and Roman mythological aspects, its scientific parallels,
and many layers of symbolism inherent in its imagery. There is more
important information in Crowley's explanation of this card than in most
entire books on the Tarot.
For the other atu,
Crowley's attributions of the elements in their ancient and astrological
senses are excellent, as are his explanations of the relationships of
signs and planets to the trumps. Crowley does a thorough job of relating
the trumps to their Hebrew names and positions on the Tree of Life, and
explains clearly the meanings of the images on the card. After a
straightforward and linear explanation of the trumps, he has an appendix
featuring trumps he considers particularly important. These are
described in mystical, poetic, and symbolic language. Sometimes
inaccessible, the descriptions foster a more intuitive understanding of
the cards by forcing the mind to assimilate contradictory information.
Part three of the
Tarot of the Egyptians describes the often-difficult court cards, the
knights, queens, princes, and pages. Crowley does a thorough job of
relating each court card to precisely the astrological element and
section of the zodiac to which it corresponds. The Queen of Swords, for
example, is the watery part of Air, and rules the 21st degree of Virgo
to the 20th degree of Libra. He then describes the imagery of the card,
its relationship to the I Ching, and the type of person it represents.
His explanations are more detailed and deep than most court card
descriptions.
The small cards are
described in part four of the Book of Thoth. He describes each of the
"small cards" commonly known as minor arcana, twice. First he
groups them according to number: the four aces, the four twos, etc. He
thoroughly explains the qabalistic and numerological underpinnings of
the cards, that are the real key to their meaning. Crowley then
describes each card and its meaning in terms of astrology and the
sephiroth of the Tree of Life, the I Ching, and the actual images on the
card. Crowley's descriptions of the Aces, in particular, contain
discreet information.
Crowley closes the
book with useful tools for the student: an invocation; memory aids; a
unique and lengthy way of cutting and laying out the cards for
divination; elaborate tables of correspondences with astrology, the
Qabalah, Chinese Cosmos, symbolism, colors; and meaningful combinations
of the cards. Crowley provides black and white pictures of all cards in
the Thoth Deck, as well as several beautiful full-color plates.
Drawbacks and
Limitations
Crowley's allusions
to Egyptian mythology and secret codes, as well as to the terms and
initials of the Golden Dawn are often confusing, although they are
admittedly thought-provoking and cause the reader to utilize both sides
of the brain. It is difficult to use the book as a reference unless one
has read the entire book in correct sequence because of his frequent use
of obscure terms defined only once in the text.
Crowley's view of the
court of water and air, as well as most small cards of the numbers 5, 7,
and 8 are very negative. This is due partly to his background in
Platonic and Gnostic thought, which values matter as inferior to spirit.
Crowley fuses astrology and Tarot, which is a strength of his work, but
the astrology of the early 20th century had a tendency to be
superstitious and negative about certain elements, signs, and zodiacal
positions.
Crowley's frequent
refusal to explain ideas too difficult for anyone lower than a
particular grade of initiation is irritating. However, he lived in a
time when people believed that mysteries of magic and philosophy should
be conveyed only by oral tradition and in great secrecy. As it was, he
was soundly criticized for revealing too much too soon.
His decision to
change the kings of the court to knights, the knights of the court to
princes, and the pages to princesses is confusing. It does not make the
qabalistic attributions clearer.
In summation,
the Book of Thoth is a must-read for the serious Tarot student, but it
is best read in conjunction with other Books on the Tree of Life or
astrology, due to the deliberate obscurity of Crowley's prose.
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