I finished the first read-through of Aleister Crowley’s Book of Thoth, and was both impressed and annoyed. The book is an examination of the tarot, mostly with regard to the Sefirot and the Tree of Life, and an explanation of Crowley’s and Harris’ Thoth deck, which I hope to start using soon. The theories behind everywhere were, of course, fascinating – especially the relation of the Naples Arrangement and the development of – well, everything – to the Ten Sefirot of the Tree of Life to astrology to alchemy to numerology to the tarot. It was all very fascinating, but also slightly inaccessible – Crowley’s prose was often dense and hard to understand, and he repeatedly interspersed “the full meaning of [X] is only available [X]-degree members of the [XXX]. It became irritating rather quickly.

But looking at the tarot through the lens of the Sefirot and Naples arrangement has really helped me better understand the character of the cards, and now that I’ve started using the Thoth deck, I find that I much prefer it to the Rider-Waite deck. The Book of Thoth has piqued my interest in astrology, numerology, and alchemy, so possibly expect me to start dabbling in those as well!

Still, I now feel that I understand the Tarot a lot better now, and even made a poster of the Sefirot, placing all of the cards in their proper places and writing down their attributes. It was a very helpful experience. Now that I have finished with that book, I am moving on to Bujold’s Cryoburn.

My chart!

Thoth cards laid out according to the chart!

Lastly, The Loneliness of Stars is now available on the Amazon Kindle (see the Books page for the link)! Additionally, The Light of Civilization is available on all mediums now, including Nookbook, Amazon, and the Kindle. Go out and buy it!