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    Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: New Edition
    Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: New Edition
    Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: New Edition
    Ebook539 pages6 hours

    Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: New Edition

    By Lon Milo DuQuette

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    About this ebook

    Originally published in 2003, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot has proved to be the essential guide to accessing the unique symbolism and meaning of Aleister Crowley's remarkable tarot deck along with the deeply textured artwork of Lady Frieda Harris. Crowley authority Lon Milo DuQuette starts by providing an insightful historical background before delving into descriptions of each card in depth, from a tarot perspective and from an expanded, magickal point of view. He first describes the tarot meaning of each card in detail and then explains all the other attributions Crowley intended.

    This unique guide has been updated with a new introduction that provides information on the unicursal hexagram cards included with the deck but never explained.

    Replaces ISBN 9781578632763

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateSep 1, 2017
    ISBN9781633410657
    Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: New Edition
    Author

    Lon Milo DuQuette

    Lon Milo DuQuette is a preeminent esoteric scholar and the author of sixteen critically acclaimed books on magick and the occult, including Enochian Vision Magick and The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford. Visit him at www.LonDuQuette.com.

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    4/5

    84 ratings3 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Not available. Was looking forward to reading this book which I heard is a good resource book.
    • 4/5
      This is an ok intro to Crowley's deck, less obfuscation than in Weird Uncle Al's book, but not much elucidation. I was disappointed in its lack of clarification and revelatory info. Definitely not the authoritative examination its title claims to be. Nice to hear so much more about Frieda Harris, the artist.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Excellent work. Explains very friendly one of the most difficult Tarots. Includes Kaballah, Thelema, Hermetiscism, and other spiritual theories very well explained. Once readed you can feel ready enaugh to start your first readings with Thot Tarot

      2 people found this helpful

    Book preview

    Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot - Lon Milo DuQuette

    PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF

    UNDERSTANDING ALEISTER CROWLEY'S THOTH TAROT

    Lon Milo DuQuette

    Since 2003, when Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot was first published and released, global interest in tarot cards in general and the Thoth Tarot in particular has continued to escalate. Attention to the latter is due in large part to the increasing popularity of the writings and magical work of its creator, Aleister Crowley, and widening academic recognition of Thelema, his rational qabalistic philosophy of spiritual self-sufficiency. Among his bestselling and most popular titles is The Book of Thoth, a massive extended essay on tarot illustrated with cards of the Thoth Tarot.

    First published in 1944 in a limited edition of two hundred, The Book of Thoth did not attract popular attention until 1972 when (concurrent with the release of the Thoth Tarot cards) Samuel Weiser published a lovely hardbound edition of the text that included several stunningly beautiful color plates of the cards. In the summer of 1973 a secondhand copy of this edition found its way into the DuQuette family's tiny occult library. It would become a life-changing magical talisman and dramatically redirect the trajectory of my work and my family's lives for the next forty-five years.

    Looking back, I am amazed at how swiftly my newly ignited passion for the occult catapulted me directly into the heart of an elite (and historic) gaggle of aging superstars of magick—surviving personal students and colleagues of Aleister Crowley.

    Major Grady L. McMurtry, Hymenaeus Alpha 777 (1918–1985)

    IX° O.T.O. Agape Lodge veteran, Crowley student, head of Crowley's magical society, Ordo Templi Orientis; McMurtry was in large part responsible for the initial release of the Thoth Tarot. At the time he initiated me into O.T.O., he was married to Phyllis Seckler. He personally received his O.T.O. IX° from Crowley during World War II. I would receive my IX° from Grady in 1978.

    Phyllis Seckler, Soror Meral (1917–2004)

    IX° O.T.O. Agape Lodge veteran and A A student of film actress Jane Wolfe who, in the 1920s, was a resident member of Crowley's Abby of Thelema in Sicily. Phyllis assisted in my first two O.T.O. initiations and initiated me IX° O.T.O. in 1978 (on the same day I also received the IX° from McMurtry). I would become her A A Student, Probationer, and Neophyte.

    Helen Parsons-Smith, Soror Grimaud (1910–2003)

    IX° Agape Lodge O.T.O. veteran, widow of both O.T.O. Agape Lodge Masters John (Jack) Parsons and Wilfred T. Smith. Jack Parsons was a famed rocket scientist, founding member of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and inventor of jet powered take-off . . . there's a crater on the Moon named for him. Smith was an early student and supporter of Crowley and led Agape Lodge in Southern California—for years it was the only operating lodge of O.T.O. in the world. At the time I met her, Parsons-Smith was a publisher and book designer.

    Francis (Israel) Regardie (1907–1985)

    Golden Dawn legend and best-selling biographer, Regardie had been Crowley's private secretary in the 1920s.

    The friendship and guidance of these highly colorful magicians assuaged many of my superstitious fears surrounding Crowley's evil reputation as a black magician and the wickedest man on earth. Seckler and Regardie were particularly patient and helpful in my early struggles to make sense of what appeared to be an impossibly complex study. As any honest student of Crowley's work will admit, magick is a subject that one can study and practice for years and still remain frustrated and unsatisfied that he or she adequately grasps the art.

    When I was approached in 1999 with the proposition that I should write a book to serve as an introduction to and extended commentary upon Crowley's Thoth Tarot, I considered myself woefully ill equipped (even after twenty years of formal magical initiation, study, teaching, and practice) to tackle such a project. The Thoth Tarot is not a beginner's tarot deck and Crowley's The Book of Thoth, despite its disarmingly unthreatening subtitle (A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians), is anything but an entry-level primer. Indeed, in tandem, the two works should rightly be considered a postgraduate-level course in Hermetic Qabalah, tarot, and ceremonial magick. It was the most ambitious endeavor I had ever undertaken. In the two years it took me to finish the project, I learned infinitely more in the process of writing the book than I ever had learned as the result of the heroic efforts of my distinguished mentors.

    Crowley recognized in the images, symbols, and structure of tarot a unified field theory of Qabalah and Hermeticism—an illustrated guidebook of the soul that neatly synthesizes the essence of the Western Mysteries. Furthermore, he posited that the rewards of enlightenment and personal self-transformation can be attained by anyone who can internalize the essence of the tarot images, symbols, and models to such a degree they become permanently installed as living metaphors within our own psyche. Once synchronized with the dynamics of our unique personal life and initiatory career, these metaphors provide us a wordless symbolic language with which we can explain to ourselves the unexplainable process of our own spiritual unfoldment toward godhead.

    This progression seldom occurs overnight. Just as a garden grows in almost imperceptible steps, so too does this process take time to subtly take root, sprout, and eventually blossom in the soul.

    My first challenge in writing an introductory handbook to Crowley's masterwork was to briefly arm the reader with a basic background of the various spiritual movements and schools of thought that formed the foundation of Crowley's own unique system of Scientific Illuminism. It was clear to me that anyone who wished to even begin to understand the Thoth Tarot would first need a rudimentary understanding of ceremonial magick, alchemy, Hermeticism, Qabalah, astrology, ceremonial magick, mythology, Thelema, and the works of Aleister Crowley. That is precisely what I attempted to do in the opening chapters of the book, and by doing so, I inadvertently created, as it were, a compact generic primer to all these important subjects.

    In the last ten years, this primer has become very helpful to my work as a teacher. I spend a great portion of my year traveling and lecturing, and Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot has become for me a most convenient reference work for workshops and seminars covering subjects as diverse as Qabalah, magick, Freemasonry, divination, the Golden Dawn (GD), Aleister Crowley, Thelema, sex magick, tarot, and even Mozart's The Magic Flute. Now that the book has been translated and published in German and Chinese, my efforts to teach these subjects in Europe and China have been made easier. In the last two years, I have traveled seven times to China to teach magick, tarot, and Qabalah. For each of these diverse courses, our text has been the Chinese edition of Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot.

    THE SEXUAL ALCHEMY OF THE THOTH TAROT

    The Thoth Tarot not only introduced me to the works of Aleister Crowley, but also introduced me to Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), the magical order that has become my initiatory home for the past forty-two years. In 1975, after contacting the O.T.O. at the address printed on the promotional card of an early edition of Thoth Tarot, I received initiation into the O.T.O. Today the O.T.O. has grown from near extinction to become the largest overtly magical order in the world, with five National Grand Lodges and bodies in twenty-seven countries. It would not be an exaggeration to say the publication of the Thoth Tarot in the early 1970s was the single most significant catalyst triggering the explosion of interest in Aleister Crowley, Thelema, ceremonial magick, the Thoth Tarot, and the O.T.O.

    The magick of the O.T.O. revolves around the sacred mysteries of the Holy Grail and the spiritual art form commonly referred to as sex magick. This is not to suggest that the O.T.O. is a sex cult. (I'm sorry to disappoint you if you have fantasized otherwise.) The Grail mysteries that are concealed and revealed in the sexual alchemy of the O.T.O. comprise a most private and personal revelation: a secret of creation that can only be discovered—not taught. Crowley did a marvelous job enshrining within his Gnostic Mass (Liber XV) and the O.T.O. degree ceremonies a true initiatory experience that can provide dramatic opportunities for each O.T.O. initiate to make this profound discovery for him/herself. But Crowley and initiate/artist Frieda Harris also did their best to present, in the images of the Thoth Tarot and the pages of The Book of Thoth the keys that unlock the Grail mystery to everyone, initiate and noninitiate alike.

    In Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, I attempted (without violating my magical vows of secrecy) to gently nudge the reader toward his or her own discovery of this supreme secret of high magick. I urge the reader to pay special attention to my comments and cross-references to Crowley quotes that deal with the alchemical nature of many of the cards.

    THE UNICURSAL HEXAGRAM CARD

    In chapter 14, I address the confusion caused by the inclusion of three different Magus cards in several modern editions of the Thoth Tarot. I hope that my brief explanation at the beginning of that chapter has set the record straight and that no one in the tarot community continues to give serious credence to online urban myths that the Thoth Tarot was designed as an eighty-card tarot deck or that Crowley wanted to honor the Three Magi who followed the Star of Bethlehem to honor the Baby Jesus.

    Many modern Thoth decks also include an extra card that simply displays the occult symbol of the Unicursal Hexagram. Crowley only once mentions the Unicursal Hexagram in The Book of Thoth and then only as a brief comment in a caption to its unadorned image nestled among several others on a page.

    Unicursal Hexagram Card

    Let me begin by saying unequivocally that the Unicursal Hexagram card is not one of the seventy-eight cards of the Thoth Tarot; Crowley did not ask Harris to create the image to be included her series of seventy-eight tarot-themed paintings; it has no place in the traditional-qabalistic or Thelemic-magical sequence of tarot; and it certainly is not the Star of Bethlehem that the Three Magi followed to the Baby Jesus.

    As I explain in chapter fourteen, commercially published tarot cards are usually printed from plates that render as ten images per plate; there being seventy-eight cards in a tarot deck and in the space for eighty images, the publisher has the option to fill these spaces. Some publishers choose to print two promotional or instructional cards or, in the case of several editions of the Thoth Tarot, two Harris prototype designs for Magus cards that Crowley rejected.

    If your deck has a Unicursal Hexagram card it is because the publisher chose to give you a little gift of a classic magical image associated with Crowley's work, rather than print up an additional promotional card.

    That being said, many tarot readers and enthusiasts I've met have been very creative with this extra card. Some include it in the shuffle as a landmark to where the deck will be cut. Others use it as the Significator to represent themselves or the client for whom they are reading. Others, including myself, just keep it safe as a replacement card, in case, during the course of my travels, a card from my deck gets lost or damaged.

    The word unicursal is simply an adjective that describes a curve or surface that is closed and can be drawn with a single movement. The classic magick pentagram that can be drawn without lifting the pen or pencil point off the surface of the paper is a familiar example of a Unicursal Pentagram.

    In magick, the number six and the Hexagram is associated with the Macrocosm (the great world, the world of the divine, and one's own Holy Guardian Angel. The traditional hexagram symbol is simply a glyph of the sun in the center of two interlaced triangles, with the planets of the ancients orbiting around it as the six points.

    Traditional and Unicursal Hexagrams

    Crowley didn't invent the Unicursal Hexagram. One can find the design in occult manuscripts from the Golden Dawn period back. Crowley's design did, however, tinker with a few elements of the original idea: the compression and expansion of the width of the lines that optically suggest the entire device has projected from the depths of an infinite vanishing point in the center, and the presence of a flower of five petals suggesting the Macrocosmic Hexagram's wedding to Microcosmic Pentagram. The union of the five of Man to the six of God is the essence of the Great Work.

    The Wedding of the Macrocosmic and the Microcosmic Stars Symbol of the Great Work Accomplished

    READING TAROT WITH THE THOTH DECK

    Every author would like to think his or her works are universally accepted, loved, and appreciated. I, being the classic insecure Cancer and Queen of Cups, am no exception. I am humbled and gratified that Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot has in large part been universally well received by the esoteric communities, the public, and critics. I'll be the first to admit that nothing I do is or will ever be perfect. That being said, my editor did not feel the need for me to make any major changes to this new edition and I (being the laziest man on earth) am happy to see the work simply get a fresh coat of paint, a bit of a tune-up, and back out on the marketplace for another generation of magicians. I did, however, receive one common criticism that I wholeheartedly agree with, and because it is a matter I can quickly and painlessly remedy in these opening pages, I'm going to do it.

    Crowley focused primarily on tarot as a qabalistic tool, a psychic reprogramming device, a meditation aid, a magical weapon. Even though his magical diaries were peppered with entries concerning tarot divinations and readings he did for himself and others, his Book of Thoth says relatively little about tarot as a divinatory tool. Toward the end of the book he more or less outlines the tedious and complex Golden Dawn five-stage procedure that seemed patently designed to inflict a terminal inferiority complex upon any would-be tarot reader. I regret that for the first edition of Understanding. . . I chose to hide behind the façade of Crowley purist and simply reproduced the (not-so-practical) divination material Crowley included in The Book of Thoth.

    I confess I no longer use the Crowley/GD method for most practitioners. After only a few years of exasperating attempts, I threw up my hands and developed my own method. So, to answer fifteen years of email messages I am now going to share with you my own technique of reading tarot cards. It's not Crowley. It's not Golden Dawn. But it works for me (and I make a good percentage of my yearly income as a professional tarot consultant).

    DUQUETTE'S ROLL-WITH-THE-FLOW SPREAD

    I guess we could say this technique is intuitive and organic. It literally rolls with the flow of the questioner's unique and sometimes changing focus of inquiry.

    The first and most important thing that needs to be determined is:

    What is the real question?

    It is seldom what the questioner believes it to be at the beginning of the operation. Get to the heart of what the real question is and you will find the answer glaring at you from every observable phenomenon. Sometimes (using the method outlined below) you may have to do more than one preliminary ‘reading’ just to draw out what is really on the questioner's mind. This part of the reading is very important because when the questioner has come face-to-face with the real query, they already know in their heart what the real answer is.

    After the questioner shuffles the deck to his or her satisfaction, spread the cards face up on the table in a large horseshoe. Find the Significator (the Knight, Queen, or Prince representing the thirty-degree period of the year in which the questioner's birthday falls; see table 14).

    Cut the deck at the Significator and reassemble the deck.

    Lay the Significator (S) toward the top of the table to remind you both who the questioner is in the tarot.

    Next draw from the top of the deck the next three cards (1a, 2a, 3a) and lay them out thusly:

    Instead of these three a-level cards representing Past, Present, Future, or three other such defined field positions, simply use these three cards to announce or determine three aspects or factors of the question or issue. Comment on each card and discuss it in general terms. Explain how it harmonizes or conflicts with the other two cards. At this point in the session, we simply want the questioner to tentatively recognize major aspects of the issue possibly represented by these cards.

    Usually, after a brief discussion the questioner becomes comfortable with how each of the three cards represent these issues.

    Note: If you or the questioner absolutely cannot see aspects of the question in these cards reshuffle and begin again.

    The next step is to encourage the questioner to personally take control of the reading by selecting which of the three cards (aspects of the question) intrigues him or her the most. In our hypothetical example below the questioner pretty much understands the message cards 1a and 3a are telling. But the questioner is intrigued by card 2a and wants more information about what card 2a is trying to reveal.

    So now create a second (or b) level by drawing the next two cards from the top of the deck (4b and 5b) and lay the left to right below 2a. These two cards define or expand upon the meaning of 2a.

    Discuss the meanings and relationships of these cards. If you or the questioner are still unclear about the final answer, then create a third (c) level by drawing the next card from the top of the deck (6c) and placing it below 4b and 5b to synthesize and clarify the answer.

    Note: If the questioner absolutely does not understand the answer, it is better to reshuffle and begin again (perhaps asking a better-worded question).

    When done with great attention and self-honesty, this is almost always enough for a satisfactory reading. If, however, the questioner sincerely believes they need further insight on the other cards, then simply draw more cards and repeat the process by creating b and c levels for the other a level cards. Indeed, there is nothing to stop this reading from going down as many levels as you feel necessary. However, it has been my experience that the fewer the cards the clearer the answer. The more cards you use, the deeper you descend into micro-specifics that can be unhelpful and make the important aspects of the answer harder to discern.

    I have found this simple method of allowing the questioner to become the primary participant in his or her own reading to be surprisingly clear and accurate. With so few cards in the spread the type of card (Trump, Ace, Court Card, or Small Card) becomes especially significant. The classic rules of thumb are:

    An abundance of Trumps may indicate a destiny moment or period in the client's life; a grand, karmic moment over which they have little or no control.

    An abundance of Small Cards points to a moment or period of time in the client's life over which they have much control. Their behavior and decisions can change lots of things.

    An abundance of Courts might suggest other people involved are key factors. They might even be identified by the birth dates the card represents.

    An abundance of Wands might suggest the client's life purpose, will, career, or business is a key factor.

    An abundance of Cups might suggest issues such as love, art, creativity, or sex are key factors.

    An abundance of Swords might suggest conflict, anxiety or health is a key factor.

    An abundance of Disks might suggest money is a key factor.

    DATES AND ASTROLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

    Dates and specific timing of events are often very important factors of a tarot reading. Crowley points out that in addition to the obvious planetary and zodiacal attributes of the Major Arcana (Trump) Cards, twelve of the sixteen Court Cards (Knights, Queens, and Princes) each represent thirty degrees of the year (twenty degrees of one sign to twenty degrees of the next). Furthermore, each of the thirty-six Small Cards represent ten-degree periods and reside in groups of three inside these twelve Court Cards. These dates can be extremely helpful in pinpointing exact times pertinent to a reading. (This information is outlined in tables 9–12).

    Princesses and Aces of each suit represent geographic quadrants of the globe. In questions concerning travel or geopolitical matters, this information might become pertinent (outlined in table 15).

    And now I will bring this mercifully brief new preface to a close. I hope you will find my little book helpful and informative. It was certainly my intention to make it so.

    I will leave you with a blessing—the blessing I have delivered to my O.T.O. Brothers and Sisters for the past forty years; the blessing that closes the beautiful ceremony of the Mass of the Gnostic Catholic Church; a blessing that the Lord of your own heart, whatever or whomever that may be, will sanctify your studies and efforts toward your spiritual illumination and liberation.

    The LORD bless you.

    The LORD enlighten your minds and comfort your hearts and sustain your bodies.

    The LORD bring you to the accomplishment of your true Will, the Great Work, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom, and Perfect Happiness.

    Lon Milo DuQuette

    Costa Mesa California

    March 21, 2017 E.V.

    PART I

    _________________________________________

    Little Bits of Things You Should Know Before Beginning to Study Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

    CHAPTER ZERO

    THE BOOK OF THOTH—A MAGICK BOOK?

    The Tarot is a pack of seventy-eight cards. There are four suits, as in modern playing cards, which are derived from it. But the Court cards number four instead of three. In addition, there are twenty-two cards called Trumps, each of which is a symbolic picture with a title to itself.

    At first sight one would suppose this arrangement to be arbitrary, but it is not. It is necessitated, as will appear later, by the structure of the universe, and in particular the Solar System, as symbolized by the Holy Qabalah. This will be explained in due course.¹

    These are the brilliantly concise opening words of Aleister Crowley's The Book of Thoth. When I first read them, I was filled with great expectations. At last, I thought, the great mysteries of the Thoth Tarot are going to be explained to me—in due course.

    At the time, I considered myself a serious student of tarot, having spent three years studying the marvelous works of Paul Foster Case and his Builders of the Adytum² tarot and Qabalah courses. As dictated in the B.O.T.A. curriculum, I painted my own deck of trumps and dutifully followed the meditative exercises outlined for each of the twenty-two cards. Now, with Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot and The Book of Thoth in hand, I knew I was ready to take the next step toward tarot mastery and my own spiritual illumination.

    It took a bit of bravado on my part to arrive at this threshold. My first introduction to Crowley had not been particularly satisfying. In fact, I came very close to shunning the Thoth Tarot and The Book of Thoth as seductive works of the devil. I wrote about this embarrassing episode in my book, My Life with the Spirits:³

    Eventually, I came upon an early edition of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. The name Aleister Crowley sounded familiar and I vaguely recalled seeing his name footnoted in a Qabalah book that I had read by Frater Achad. I referred to my occult dictionary and discovered to my horror—Aleister Crowley—famous Scottish Satanist.

    I may have been a wild and crazy heretic, but I sure didn't want anything to do with Satanism. Knowing my brother owned a copy of The Book of Thoth (the companion text), I promptly gave the cards to him. Good riddance!

    I was soundly disabused of this notion a few days later by our dear friend Mad Bob (a name that only begins to describe his bizarre and wonderful character), who had returned briefly from a Central American adventure. Bob had read Crowley's autobiography⁴ and insisted I would love the man if I gave him a chance. When I showed him what the occult dictionary had to say, he brushed it off saying, It doesn't matter if Crowley was a Satanist, he was a good kind of Satanist. You'll just love him! Trust me.

    That was the strangest thing I had ever heard, but I respected Mad Bob's opinion and took the cards back from my brother and asked to borrow his Book of Thoth. Bob was right. Even though I didn't understand most of what I read, I could see that Aleister Crowley was brilliant, funny, and everything I was looking for. I bought everything I could by or concerning the man (precious little in those days) and eventually wrote to Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) at the address published on the Caliph card included in the Thoth Tarot to ask for initiation.

    And so began what (for good or ill) I must call my magical career. The Thoth Tarot being not only the catalyst that triggered my metamorphosis from dilettante to magician, but also the talisman that obligingly provided the mailing address of the Holy Order that would remain my spiritual home and university for the next quarter century.

    Please don't think that by relating the above story I am suggesting that everyone who wishes to understand more about the Thoth Tarot or The Book of Thoth need run right out and join the O.T.O. or any other group, magical or otherwise. Occult societies are not for everybody, and no matter what any of them may suggest to new or 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 already been published and is readily available—more available, in fact, than at any other time in history. At the dawn of the new millennium, it is 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 to ask.

    Naturally, because no two individuals are alike, we should not expect to find the answers in the same places. For me, the answers most often come, not from teachers or from mystery school lectures, but from books—books, curiously enough, that I have already read (or thought I read) many times before.

    Crowley's Book of Thoth is one such book. It seems to change miraculously as it rests on the shelf. I can say with certainty that, in the last thirty years, I have read it cover-to-cover at least a dozen times, and have referred to it hundreds of times. Yet every time I pick it up, I find something profound that I have never seen before. More often than not, this new intelligence is precisely that bit of information I have been combing my brain or library for, or else it satisfies some spiritual frustration currently gnawing at my soul.

    I used to blame this phenomenon on the fact that I am a slow learner and need to have something drummed into my head many times before I start to get it. Nevertheless, over the years, I have spoken to so many students who tell me that the same thing happens to them (especially with books by Aleister Crowley) that I believe it to be a universal experience.

    Of course, I don't believe that the words on the page actually metamorphose into different words between readings. Nor can I bring myself to think that I am careless enough to leave unread great chunks of a book I passionately want to understand. Rather, I have come to realize that it is me who changes between readings, and that the magical secret to learning more than I now know lies in my ability to become someone who is more than I now am.

    For this reason, I strongly recommend that, if you are truly serious about your study of the tarot, you not only read The Book of Thoth but reread it regularly. Leave it off the shelf and refer to it often. Keep rereading it until it falls apart in your hands, then go out and buy a new one. It will be a different book every time you pick it up. It is a magick book. Respect it. Treasure it. Let it work its magick on you—not so much for the reward of learning more than you now know, but for sake of your spiritual destiny to become someone greater than you now are.

    The idea that I should write an exegetic text on the Thoth Tarot and The Book of Thoth was first suggested by Miss Judith Hawkins-Tillirson⁵ at an informal meeting with me, Donald Weiser, and Betty Lundsted of Weiser Books. Judith's proposition came as a complete surprise to me, and I sat speechless throughout most of her pitch. She pointed out the fact that, other than The Book of Thoth itself, there was no book that examined the Thoth Tarot from the point of view of a Crowley expert.

    She went on for only two or three minutes. When she was finished, she sat back in her chair and grinned at me. Don and Betty agreed that the book was a good idea and that I should send them some preliminary material. That was that. I had hardly spoken a word. I went back to my hotel and stared out the window at a glorious Chicago thunderstorm and asked myself, What in the world have I gotten myself into?

    While the definition of the term expert is certainly open to debate, it is probably at least partially true that my credentials to comment on the subject are as presentable as anyone's. However, I must warn the reader that my understanding of Crowley, Thelema, and tarot is constantly changing. No matter how smugly secure I may appear in my theories and opinions, please keep in mind that I am perpetually reexamining my theories and changing my opinions. I counsel you to be prepared to do the same.

    CHAPTER ONE

    LITTLE BITS OF THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

    It seems important that you should understand my motive. To me this Work on the Tarot is an Encyclopaedia of all serious occult philosophy. It is a standard Book of Reference, which will determine the entire course of mystical and magical thought for the next 2000 years. My one anxiety is that it should be saved from danger of destruction, by being reproduced in permanent form, and distributed in as many distant places as may be. I am not anxious to profit financially; if I had the capital available in this country, I should send (say) 200 copies to State Libraries in all parts of the world, and as many more to my principal representatives.⁶

    —Aleister Crowley

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