Thoth tarot cards are a renowned deck, which really deserve its reputation. Aleister Crowley, a famous occultist designed them. He was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn.
The artwork on Thoth tarot cards is fascinating, challenging, dynamic and full of occult imagery. Lady Frieda Harris painted them in accordance with Aleister Crowley instructions. This deck portrays both happiness, and suffering, to the extremes, which is why some people are uncomfortable with Thoth tarot cards.
Some versions of Thoth tarot cards have eighty cards, including three adaptations of the Magus card, whereas others have the usual seventy-eight.
The illustrations are based on Crowley’s desire to integrate symbols from many contrasting disciplines, including philosophy and science. He also wished to draw on his broad knowledge of the occult.
Differences between Rider Waite Tarot and Thoth tarot cards
Crowley re-arranged the Hebrew, and astrological alphabet on some of the cards and also renamed a few of the trumps:
- Card one the Magician was named the Magus
- Card two the High Priestess was named the Priestess
- Card eight, Strength was renumber eleven, and named Lust
- Card eleven, Justice was renumber, eight, and named Adjustment
- Card ten, the Wheel of Fortune was named Fortune
- Card fourteen, Temperance, was named Art
- Card twenty, Judgment, was name Aeon
- Card twenty one, the World, was named the Universe
Numbers two to ten in each suit of the Minor Arcana was given a title.
The court cards
The traditional court card names were changed from Page to Princess, Knight to Prince, and King to Knight, but the Queen remained unchanged.
Whether you are a beginner, or even a master of Thoth tarot cards, I recommend that you buy a good book as reference. The most popularly used is Crowley’s, “Book of Thoth” but this is not suited to everyone’s taste, and there are many other excellent books available.
“The Tarot Mirror of the Soul”, by Gerd Zeigler is concise and address’s all the symbols, which are found on Thoth tarot cards. There is an illustration of each card followed by the meaning.It is possible to have a troth tarot cards online reading. Just perform an Internet search with these words, and you will soon find a website. I found several, but I have to say that on one, I did not hang around long enough to see whether this was a free reading, or if I had to pay. My reason, the black background, and orange text, which made the site impossible to read.
This is a problem that I have encountered with many websites, that might otherwise be extremely informative, and well worth a visit. It almost like they think you expect a website with the subject of tarot to be dark. This applies equally to people selling night vision binoculars. How can we buy anything if we can’t read the text?
Thank goodness this doesn’t apply to all websites. You may also be interested in the various online courses, which teach you how to read Thoth tarot cards.