\n authuruuiivc exiimiriiitiiin <»f ike uurld’b iiu»st fast, in a cm tl and in^£icul turnc card V. r.Tirfi Stele op Rp.veaung^ gbvbise a>ju ftcviftsc. PART I Little Bits ofThings You Should Know Before Beginning to Study Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot CHAPTER ZERO THE BOOK OFTHOTH— AMAGICKBOOK? 7^ Tarot is apoA^se^^enty-^ght cards. Tfnrt artfoter suits, as tn fnadcrrt fi/ayirtg sards, ^sjhkh art dtrs%ssdfFOm it. Btts rha Court cards nutnbarfour instead >^dsret. In addition, thare are tvsenty^turo cards called 'Truw^ " each c^vJiUh is e symkoik puJure%Atha title to itse^ Atfirst sight one suould stifrpese this arrangement to he arbitrary, but it is not. Je IS necessitated, as vilfappear later, by the structsere ofthe unwerse, stnd inparikular the Sctlar System, as symMized by the Holy Qabaloi. This xotll be explained In due course.' These a« the brilliantly concise opening words of Aldster Crowley's Tbe Book of Tbotb. When I first read them, 1 vm filled with great o^ectations. Atkst, —I thouj^^ the great mysierics 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, havij^ spent three years studying the marvelous works of Paul Foster Case and his Builders ofthe Adytumd tarot and Qabalah courses. As dictated in the B.O.T.A. currictilum, I painted my own deck oftrumps and dutifully followed the meditative exercises out- lined for each of the twenty two cards- Now, vdth Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and The Book cfThoth in hand, I knew I was ready to take the next step toward tarot mastery and my own spiritual illuminaiion. It took a bit of bravado on my part to arrive at this threshold. My first intro- duction to Crowley had not been particularly satisfying. In fact, 3 came very close TO shunning theTTioth Tarot ^dThe Bock ofTboth as seductive works ofthe devil. I wrote about this embarrassing episode in my book, My Lift sssicb the Spirits:^ 4 UndenUindirt^AleistfrCrvwieyi Thoth Tant Eventually, 1 came upon an early edinon of Aleisrcr Crowley’s Thoth Tarot deck. I had never seen anythir^ $o beautUul in my Hie, The name Alcisrer Crowley sounded ^miliar and I vaguely recalled seeing his name footnoted in a Q^alah book that 1 had read by Frater Achad. I referred to my occult dictionary and discovered to my horror—“Aleisrer Crowley-Famous Scottish Satanist." I mav have been a wild and crazy heredc, but 1 sure didn^ want aity- thing to do with Satamsm. Knowii^ my brother owned a copy of Tie Bock cfThoth (the companion t«t), 1 promptly gave the cards to him. Good rid- dance! I was soundly disabused of this nouon a finv days later by our dear friend Mad Bob (a name that only begins to describe his bizarre and won- derful character), who had returned briefly from a Central American adven- ture. Bob had read Crowley’s autobiography ‘ and insisted 1 would love the man if I gave him a chance. When 1 showed him what the occult dictionary had to say, he brushed it off saying, “It doesn’t matter if Crowley was a 5 atanist, he was a good kind of S aianist. You’ll just love himJ Trust me." That was the strangest thing I hod ever heard, but 1 respected Mad Bob’s opinion and took the cards back from my brother and asked to borrow his Book cfThoth. Bob was right. Even though I didn’t understand most of what I read, I could sec that Aleister Crowley was brilliant, funny, and every- thing I was looldng for, I bought everything 1 could by or concerning the man (precious little in those days) and eventually wrote to Crowley’s Ordo Templi Oriencis (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) ! 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 obHgingly provided the mailing address of the Holy Order that vrould remain my spiritual home and uiuversity for the next quarter ccntuiy. Please doift think that by relating the above story I am suggesting chat every- one who wishes to understand more about the Thoth Tarot OTTbeBcok ofThoth 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 aiw of them may sug- gest to new Of 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 avail- able, in fact, than at any other time in history. At the dawn of the new millcniiium, 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 rig^it questions to ask. —" The Book ofTbotb—a Ma^uk Book? S Naturally, because no rwo individuals are alike, we should not expect to find answers in the same places. For me, the answers most often come, not from teachers or from mystery sdiool lectures, but from bool®—boob, curiously enough, that I have ^jcady read (or thought I read) many times befbrc- Crowley’s BookofThoth 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, 1 have read it covw-to-cover at least a dozen times, and have rderred to it hundreds of times. Yet every time I pick it up, 1 find something profound that 1 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 spirirua! frustration currentiy gnerwing at my soul. I used to blame this phenomenon on the fret 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 ao many students who tell me that the same thing happens to them (especially with books by Aleister Crtmiey) that I believe it to be a universal experience. Of course, I don’t believe that the words on the page actually mcramorphosc into different words between readings. Nor can I bring myselfto think that I am care- less enough lo leave unread great chunks of a book I passionately want to understand Rafoer, I have come to realize that it is me who changes betweeri readings, and that the magical secret to learning more than 1 now Imow lies in my abili^ to become someone who is more than I now am, Fof this reason, I strongly recommend that, if you are truly serious about your study ofthe tarot, you not ot^ Book ofThoth but reread it regularly. Leave it off the shelf and refer to it often. Keep rereading it until it falls apart in youc hands, then go out and buy a new one. It will be a dJferent book every time you pick it up. It is a magick book. Respect it, Treasure it. Let ir work its magick on you not so much for the reward oflearning more than you now know^ but for sake ofyour spiritual destiny to become someone greater than you now are. The idea that I should write an exegedc text on theThoth Tarot andT<^ Book o/ Thotb was first suggested by Miss Judith Hawkins-TUllrson* at an infbnml meet- ing with me, Donald Weiser, and Betty Lundsted ofWeiser Books. Judith’s propo- sition came as a complete surprise to me, and 1 sat speechless throughout most ofher fntch. She pointed out the fret that, other x\\^The Book efTboth itself, there was no book tiiat examined the Thoth Tarot from the point ofview ofa 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 hotrf and stared out the window at a glorious Chicago thunderstorm and asked myself, “What in the world have I gotten myself into?” 6 IMdersiandingAftislfr OwUy's Tbrot WTijlc the defijiition ofthe terra “expert" is certainly open to debate, it is prob- ably at least partially true that my credentials to comment on the subject are as pre- sentable as anyone’s. However, 1 must warn the reader that my uaderstanding of Crovdey, Thelema, and tarot b constantly changing. No matter how smu^y secure I may appear in my theories and opinions, please keep in mind that I am perpetu- ally reexamining my theories and changing my opinions. 1 counsel you to be prt* pared to do the same. CHAPTER ONE LITTLE BITS OF THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW It seems important thatyou shcidd uriderstand my moeiije. To me this Work on the . isostcmdord Tkroi is anZncyehpeudia cfelheritus ‘"oscuU*philosophy It Book ^ Re^rente, ’oJskh will determine the entire course ofmysHcAland magical thoughtJot the next 2000years. My one anxiety is that it should he savedfrom danger of destruction) by being nproduted inpermanentfmert, and distributed In as many distantplates as may be.