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TarosophIST International ® The Magazine of Tarosophy & Tarot ISSN 2040-4328 Innovative & inspired tarot for all tarot readers and students THOTH DECK ANNUAL SPECIAL ISSUE Featuring THE WORLDS LEADING TAROT, CROWLEY & THOTH EXPERTS Rachel Pollack, mary k. greer, K. FRANK JENSEN, lon milo duquette, Marcus katz, R. LEO GILLIS, dr. Richard Kaczynski And MANY more PRESENTING: AN ALEISTER CROWLEY TIMELINE THE THOTH TAROT AND THE WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITION THOTH DECK PRINTING HISTORY TEACHING THE THOTH TAROT DECK HOW TO LEARN THE THOTH DECK DEATH THROUGH THE THOTH DECK RACHEL POLLACK TALKS THOTH THE EGYPTIAN DEITIES ON THE CARDS THE 10 of Disks is Screwed! FOUR THINGS ABOUT THE FOOL ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND READING THE QABALAH OF THE NINE CHAMBERS FOUR THINGS ABOUT THE FOOL THE HANDBOOKS OF THOTH AND A MAGICAL NEW WAY OF USING TAROT: GATED SPREADS! PLUS EXCLUSIVE IMAGES & PHOTOS OF COLLECTORS ITEMS ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS ISSUE: TAROSOPHY 2009 CONFERENCE ANNUAL SPECIAL EDITION REPORT FROM THE LAKES TAROSOPHIST OF THE YEAR AWARD! AUTUMN 2009 COVER ART BY Acrylick Alchemical Vol.1 Iss. 4 Marcus Katz Editor & Publisher TAROSOPHIST INTERNATIONAL Forge Press ISSN 2040-4328 The Magazine of Tarosophy® & Tarot. _______________________ Innovative & Inspired tarot for all tarot readers & students Tarosophist International is FOREWORD published by Forge Press, by Marcus Katz 2 1 Wood Cottages, Old Windebrowe, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 4NT (UK). THE COMMON READER Our regular column from www.tarotprofessionals.com Michael Orlando Yaccarino 6 www.forgepress.com ALEISTER CROWLEY TIMELINE [email protected] by Marcus Katz 10 Tarosophist International is TEACHING THE THOTH DECK the magazine of Tarot Profes- Emma Sunerton-Burl 12 sionals, an organisation for tarot readers and students who are interested in innovative and in- CARE & FEEDING OF YOUR DECK spired tarot for contemporary by Jonathan Kaneko-James 15 application. THE DECK & WESTERN ESOTERICISM Subscriptions are free to all by Dr. Richard Kaczynski 18 members of Tarot Profession- als, and a PDF copy of this THE BOOKS BEHIND THOTH magazine is available at cost to by Marcus Katz 30 non-members. THE PRINTING HISTORY OF THE DECK A screen-readable version of by R. Leo Gillis 39 Tarosophist International is available to members on the Members site, and a printed 50 YEARS OF CROWLEY/HARRIS B&W version is available at cost by K. Frank Jensen 63 to members and non-members through the print-on-demand PRINTING HISTORY AT 50 YEARS service, LULU. by K. Frank Jensen 66 The views and items in this LIFE IS NO BRIEF CANDLE TO ME magazine do not necessarily by Vivienne Rush 69 reflect those of Tarot Profes- sionals or the editor. All material TALKING THOTH remains copyright to the respec- tive author and is not to be re- by Marcus Katz 73 produced in any medium. POLLACK TALKS THOTH Please do not pass this magazine to others. with Rachel Pollack 78 Non-members are encouraged to subscribe to our regular free newsletter, Oracles & Auguries. cont... ...cont THE HIEROLOGY OF THE THOTH DECK by Marcus Katz 82 THE TEMPLE OF THOTH (Gated Spread) by Marcus Katz 94 THE QABALAH OF THE NINE CHAMBERS Commentary by Mary K. Greer 99 THE 10 OF DISKS IS SCREWED! by Lon Milo DuQuette 102 FOUR THINGS ABOUT THE FOOL by Douglas Gibb 109 THE ALCHEMICAL CARDS by Mary K. Greer 114 THE HANDBOOKS OF THOTH (Reviews) by Marcus Katz & K. Frank Jensen 124 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR With Mary K. Greer 136 TAROSOPHY CONFERENCE REPORT by Marcus Katz 139 TAROSOPHIST OF THE YEAR AWARD! Winners of the 2009 Award 143 TAROT PROFESSIONALS NEWS Updates and News 145 END-PIECE Aleister Gets his Cards 146 Cover by Marlena http://acrylickalchemical.com/ Tarosophist International This first of the special annual issues of Tarosophist International is dedicated to Anistita Argenteum Astrum The Priestess of the Silver Star She whose light leads the way to the Arcanum Arcanorum, the Secret of Secrets. Vos Vos Vos Vos V. V. V. V. … and to Tali Goodwin, who patiently typed out pages of transcript, scanned materials and much more - at the last minute - to ensure this magazine met deadline with every last piece of submitted material. Page 3 Tarosophist International ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editor would like to acknowledge Rachel Pollack, Mary K. Greer, Dr. Richard Kaczynski, Marlena Schafer (Acrylick Alchemical), and Lon Milo DuQuette in particular for working within their busy schedules to contribute to this special issue of Tarosophist International, the magazine of Tarot Professionals. To all other contributors who have engaged with the Thoth deck in so many ways, you are also acknowledged, thanked and applauded. To my wife who has wondered if she would ever see me sane and whole again, particularly after the day when I rushed downstairs three months ago to play her the sound of an Egyptian Ibis - and proceeded to imitate it. PERMISSIONS Illustrations from Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot are © copyright AGMüller/OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) and best endeavours have been made over 6 months to gain relevant permissions from both bodies. Further reproduction prohibited. Permissions have been gained from all contributors to use their work and Photographs. All copyright remains with respective authors. IMPORTANT STATEMENT The work in this magazine has taken many hundreds of hours over three months to produce - including the hundreds of e-mails, research, and administration tasks involved in such a project. It has tied up both myself, my assistant, and all the other contributors when we could have been doing other - paid - work. It is unfortunate that I have to state that whilst this magazine is FREE as a download to members of Tarot Professionals, and may be purchased by members and non-members as a hardcopy print version, the download is not to be transmitted to others, remaining for your use only. We are raising the bar on Tarot and can only do that with your support. Do not allow this work to be pirated or copied or we’ll all be back to Blogging “cut ‘n’ pasted” inaccuracies and fallacies as the sole representatives of our noble Art & Science! THANK YOU With a project of this order, working to a tight deadline to meet schedule, it has been impossible to proof-read in absolute detail. Any significant errors or amendments will be corrected in the download version and the print-ready version if felt necessary. The editor accepts all responsibility for any such issues! Page 4 Tarosophist International Editor’s FOREWORD With characteristic bravado, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) intended his new Tarot deck to take three to six months to produce, give or take holidays, and yet manage to serve as a “Magical Atlas of and guide to the Universe” for the next 2,000 years, that is to say, the whole of the new “Aeon of Horus”. In the event, he and Lady Frieda Harris (1877- 1962), an artist who became one his ardent followers, spent almost five years labouring on the creation of the deck, whilst suffering various misfortunes, mundane and magical. In 1942, the paintings for the Thoth deck of the “Egyptian Tarot” were exhibited in an Oxford gallery, but neither Crowley nor Harris lived to see them printed on any large scale as cards for divination or self-discovery. Since then, the deck has pursued its own course, as all living (creative) manifestations seem to do - with a veering printing his- tory and response from Tarot enthusiasts which are both covered in this special annual issue of Tarosophist International. Although we are approaching the Centenary celebration of the publication of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, it was thought for the first annual celebration of this Tarot magazine that it should be the Thoth deck that be revisited. It is an astonishing piece of creativity, and although Crowley himself suggested in 1939 that the greatest diffi- culty of this work was to make a “completely harmonious pack” it is my belief that he and Harris achieved this - and more - in a truly magical and luminous manner. As an artefact of a magical working and collaboration, as a deck of cards, as artwork and as an illustrated guide to the cosmology of arguably the world’s most accom- plished magician (and certainly the most notorious) it is hoped that the Thoth deck here will gain at least a little further re-discovery and prompt you to explore further into its many mysteries. Marcus Katz MBA, M.A., PhD Candidate Tarosophy, n. Conflation of Tarot (from It., tri- umph?) + Sophia (from G. Σoφíα, wisdom). Mean- ing lit. ‘the wisdom of tarot’. Referred specifically to the living (divine) wisdom of the art and sci- ence of Tarot as practised by Tarosophists. Page 5 Tarosophist International perfect Nehru jacket. In an ideal world of tangerine trees and marmalade skies, this indeed would be so. But alas, at least in the universe of my current habi- tation, I am fiscally bound to the land- lord, grocer, and taxman. The difference between the professional plumber and the do-it-yourself drain Practical, ethical, and mystical advice dabbler is that the former typically re- ceives payment—that is, cold, hard for the professional Tarot reader cash. A service has been provided. Re- muneration is in order. At least analogi- Lucre cally-speaking, the professional Tarot reader joins this noble tradesman in When wealth accumulates beyond a rooting out deeper realms. So then it is certain point, it must either become reasonable, too, that we should merit completely inert and cease to be wealth, financially for our efforts as service pro- or call in the aid of intelligence to use it rightly. viders. Still, the philosophical pros and cons of receiving payment for what —Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth many among our ranks consider work bordering on the sacred is a landmine- Among an excess of glorious moments sensitive subject.