The Ultimate Guide to the Thoth Tarot

This book was written for me! I have always been a bit intimidated by the Thoth tarot cards. Not now! This book has broken down the meaning and symbology of each card. For each card it has a page breaking down the symbolism and another basic meanings and other uses in a tarot spread. Colorful, easy to understand, easy to navigate. I highly recommend this book to any beginner. It could possibly make a good quick reference for a bit more advanced student also. But as a beginner, I am thrilled with it!

The title of the original German edition of this book was “Tarot Basics: Crowley. Tarot interpretation made easy,” which is more fitting than what the English publishers have called it. The book does make the complex web of symbols in the Crowley Thoth Tarot more approachable. The book shows you how to read the Tarot by looking at the symbols and forming your own interpretations. Following C.G. Jung, the authors say that every symbol has multiple meanings. They ignore the keywords or subtitles — words like Ruin, Success, Power, Disappointment — that are printed on the number cards. Sometimes the meanings stray from more orthodox interpretations. The book gives a very friendly graphic format, which the authors use in their book on the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. It’s a format that works better with the Thoth than with the RWS. Each card has two facing pages. On the left we are shown the ten most important symbols on the card, and a brief explanation of each symbol’s meaning. On the right we see a full-color representation of the card and some suggestions for divinatory meanings. The format allows us to instantly locate each symbol, note some possible meanings, and come up with our own reading. Neither simplistic nor bewildering, the format gives us just enough so we can get a handle on each card. Those who are looking for an explication of Crowley’s writings should look elsewhere. The book doesn’t claim to have the “true” meanings of the Tarot. Nor does it go deeply into the theoretical underpinnings, the Qabala, the numerology, the rationale behind the assignment of the astrological signs and planets. There are books that do that, and the interested reader of this volume can turn to them later. What the book does do is give is an easy way to get started working with a deck of cards that many have found confusing.

This handy book is in many ways an absolutely excellent guide and the perfect resource to have on hand as you explore Crowley and Harris's tarot deck. Every single card is examined in great detail, with full color illustrations in which each element of the imagery is highlighted separately while its origins and meaning are explained—an extremely helpful approach, as some details are easy to overlook among the plethora of symbols and visual references contained in Harris's brilliant designs. In terms of the information the authors provide, and the way in which it is presented, there is no cause for complaints here. However, the book was translated from German, and this seems to be where someone decided to cut corners, for the job was poorly done. In places, the translator's lack of familiarity with German idioms and expressions results in downright confusing and even misleading errors. For example, in a list of the "Key Terms" for the major arcana, a phrase defining the Aeon is rendered as "The youngest day is today." As a native speaker of German, it is clear to me that this is a literal translation of the German expression "Der Jüngste Tag," for which the appropriate English equivalent, however, is "Judgment Day." Given that the "Aeon" is what Crowley chose to name the card traditionally called "Judgment" in conventional tarot decks, this would yield a perfectly meaningful phrase: "Judgment Day is today." But to the reader unfamiliar with German, the rendition offered in the book will make little sense or, worse, lead them down an unintended path of interpretation. There are many other examples of inadequate translations in the book. Most are merely awkward, but some give rise to ambiguities. "An interpretation is first concluded when it has practical consequences," to cite another case, mistakes German "erst" for "first," when actually it should read "An interpretation is only concluded when..." or "not concluded until." It is evident that the intended meaning is quite different from the English translation, such as it is. I was debating whether to take off two stars for these faults, as readers not proficient in German do not have the benefit of detecting such errors—nor should they be required to, having purchased an English translation of the book. But the aforementioned card-by-card breakdown of the symbolism of the deck is just too well done to merit fewer than four stars. By rights, it should have been five. Alas, one was lost in translation.

Good follow up to The Book of Thoth.

First, I took a bit to buckle down and crack this book. I had awaited it so long so that I could do a reading with my mini Thoth tarot deck. While the reading was mostly accurate, I was largely offended by the biased narrative in certain cards’ descriptions. The meanings included “alluding to the dove and twig ..of the bible,” and “alluding to the connection of Adam and Eve (serpent symbol).” I think this will put non-religious persons either at a disadvantage (especially we beginners!), and/or reluctance to do further readings with this particular book. While I understand there are religious-minded esoterics, I am not one of them, and so withheld a star for this reason. The second star is more specific than the descriptions in regards to star signs! I’ve only managed to do one reading with this deck and (meant-to-accompany) book, and had to tell Alexa, “remind me to review this book later.” Descriptions for Venus and Virgo (at least; these are just the two I’ve encountered thus far) are IDENTICAL from card to card AND suit to suit.. exactly the same? EVERYtime? C’mon! I’m so disappointed; this is THOTH tarot, you know? While he is a patron god of mine, he kind of contributed a bit, to the evolution of the written word..? I really don’t think this book gave this beautiful deck justice, but again only one reading. Since neither of these drawbacks (for me) will be changed in MY copy of the book, I have to give the book, “Ultimate Guide to the Thoth Tarot,” only three stars.

Perfecto para dar los primeros pasos con el tarot toth.

Contiene una descripción y explicación breves de los principales símbolos del tarot de Thoth. Muy bueno para comenzar el estudio de este mazo.

Some of the negative ratings mention the translation problem, others mention incomplete information. Personally, I found the slightly literal translation from German gave the descriptions a more intuition inciting quality, and there was enough information to aid the intuitive process. The precise readings for specific queries would be helpful for those beginning their journey, and the interpretation of the symbols were a good starting point for anyone wanting to dig a bit deeper into the broader interpretation. If you wanted to go really deep, the book gave enough information for the reader to do their own research.

The book is great, it explains the symbology rigorously. I really liked it, the illustrations are in color which helps a lot. Beautiful book.

I have been studying the occult all my life and Crowley’s Thoth tarot is the world’s most commonly used for a reason. I started with his work the book of Thoth but for beginners it’s much better to digest this as it’s simple and uses imagery to help you commit the meanings of each card to mind. I couldn’t read these before this book and now it makes complete sense. A must for any beginner in Thoth tarot.