Crowley Thoth Tarot

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A representation of a thelemic version of the rose cross of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn similar to this illustration is shown on the back of the cards of the Thoth Tarot.

The Crowley Thoth Tarot is a tarot deck designed by the English occultist Aleister Crowley and executed by the artist Frieda Harris . It is one of the most popular and best-selling tarot decks in the world.

history

Crowley studied the tarot practically his entire life , from his devotion to the occult and his inclusion in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898 to his death in 1947. The tarot was an integral part of it, largely due to the influence of Samuel Liddell Mathers of the teachings of the Golden Dawn and the members of the order were required to design and execute their own tarot cards. A corresponding deck from Crowley's hand is not known. Nevertheless, even after leaving the Golden Dawn , Crowley occupied himself intensively with the tarot, which can be seen in two writings that he published in his magazine The Equinox in 1912 .

The first, Liber Arcanorum ton Atu tou Tahuti , Liber 231 in Crowley's book narration, is a relatively, short, predominantly magical-cabalistic text consisting of several parts with some tabular compilations of correspondences and a Notes by H. Fra. P. [= Frater Perdurabo = Crowley] 4 ° = 7 □ on the ROTA [ie the tarot] titled text, which is dated to 1899, the first time of Crowley's membership in the Golden Dawn . The second text, A Description of the Cards of the Tarot with their Attributions , is much longer and already shows numerous similarities with Crowley's tarot book, published decades later. This is hardly surprising in that this text reproduces the tarot teachings of the Golden Dawn , which form the basis for Crowley's interpretation of the tarot. Finally, in 1937, together with Frieda Harris, he began work on a tarot deck and a corresponding text, the Book of Thoth , which appeared in London in 1944. One implication of this lifelong occupation is that the iconography and the interpretation of the maps are closely interwoven with the magical-esoteric system developed by Crowley, which is now mostly referred to by the term Thelema .

The Thoth Deck and the Book of Thoth are considered the sum of the esoteric teachings of Crowley and his major work. Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis may be more significant in terms of its influence on Crowley's development and its effect, but Crowley himself did not regard this work as his own writing, but rather as the result of divine inspiration. Likewise, Liber 777 , a compilation of esoteric equivalents that Crowley worked on again and again and that was further modified and supplemented after his death, is certainly one of Crowley's most important writings with strong influences on modern practical magic, but it has strong references itself to the Book of Thoth - and vice versa, so that these two writings of Crowley actually complement each other.

expenditure

The first printed image of the cards appeared in Crowley's Book of Thoth in 1944. In addition to black and white images of the complete set, this contained six color images of the cards, and a small test series was drawn from the existing printing plates, which Crowley sent to friends and possible financiers distributed for printing the complete series. As is well known, this did not happen until Crowley's death in 1947. A first edition of the complete set did not appear until 1968, albeit in one color, the so-called Sangreal One-color Tarot . It was based on monochrome reproduced photographers of the illustrations in the Book of Thoth . Already in this edition the cards had the unusually large format 140 × 95 mm for tarot cards, which was retained in subsequent editions (the paintings by Harris measure 16.5 "× 10.5" = 419 × 267 mm, so it became scaled down to 1: 3).

The first color edition appeared in 1969. Grady Louis McMurtry, the "Caliph" of the OTO with the religious name Hymenaeus Alpha , had acquired artwork and rights, allegedly by paying Crowley $ 250 and photographing the cards with a 35mm camera. The set of cards was then published by Llewellyn and Weiser at the same time, although the major arcane did not yet show any Hebrew letters and alchemical symbols, and the first versions were incorrect. By the end of Llewellyn's involvement in the issue, over 50,000 sets of cards had sold.

In 1978 a second edition was published by Stuart R. Kaplan's publisher US Games Systems . New photographs of the original paintings, which Gerald Joseph Yorke had meanwhile given to the Warburg Institute in London, were taken for this. In addition, the symbol designations for the Major Arcana have been added and the decorated card border that appeared in the book edition, which was missing in the 1968 edition, has now been reproduced. For the first time, this edition also contained an accompanying booklet with essays by James Wasserman and Frieda Harris, as well as a commentary by Stuart R. Kaplan. The edition is known as Green Deck , so named after a noticeable green tinge to the cards, especially in the early prints. In the case of these Greenies , for example, with the Prince of Cups (goblet knight), instead of the color blue corresponding to the element water, the body of the knight and the waves in the background appear in an almost frog-like green.

Card with Crowley's unicursal hexagram

In 1986 the first edition produced by the Swiss playing card factory AGM AGMüller Urania ( Swiss Thoth A ) was published. For this purpose, the original paintings have been photographed again and artwork has been created in rich, saturated colors that better match the originals, which is why this edition is considered the most faithful to the original. In addition, for the first time two versions of the card The Magician discarded by Crowley were added to the deck. This addition was omitted in later editions and, as in earlier editions, one card was printed with Crowley's unicursal hexagram and one with contact details from the OTO. At the same time, a smaller edition in the format 110 × 72 mm was produced for the first time.

In 1996 another edition was published by AGMüller ( Swiss Tarot B ), of which there were now three formats: the standard size 140 × 95 mm, the smaller edition 110 × 70 mm, and a pocket-size edition 89 × 58 mm, that is, with a format corresponding to the usual playing cards.

The last edition for the time being appeared at AGMüller in 2008 only in a German version. The original paintings were restored for the recordings and considerable effort was made in the reprography to ensure the greatest possible color fidelity . However, this meant that changes in the colors of the paintings due to age were faithfully reproduced, which means that the color saturation of the cards is significantly lower than in the 1986 edition. The companion book is 152 pages long and includes a foreword by Hymenaeus Beta, two previously unpublished essays by Frieda Harris and excerpts from Crowley's writings. The edge of the back of the card, the hexagram and the packaging are gold, which is why this edition is called the Gold Deck .

The editions Swiss Tarot A and B were distributed in the USA by US Games Systems, the 2008 edition was only published by AGMüller.

Overview of expenses:

  • Illustrations in Crowley: The Book of Thoth. 1944. 78 black and white and 6 color reproductions.
  • Sangreal Thoth Tarot . Simpson Printing Company, Dallas, Texas 1968 (monochrome; approx. 250 copies; also known as Simpson-Dallas Deck ).
  • [Shambhala Deck] . Shambhala, Berkeley, CA 1968 (monochrome; not established).
  • Thoth Tarot cards. Designed by Aleister Crowley. Artist executant: Frieda Harris. Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minn. [1969]. 78 + 2 cards (140 × 95 mm; known as White Box A and B ). Further edition: Ed. Of Ordo Templi Orientis . Weiser, New York 1969.
  • Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot. US Games Systems, Stamford 1978 (known as White Box C ). Additional edition: 1983, ISBN 0-913866-15-6 .
  • The Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot. AGM AGMüller, Neuhausen am Rheinfall 1986, ISBN 3-905021-27-7 (known as Swiss Thoth A or Blue Box A ).
  • Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot. AGM AGMüller, Neuhausen am Rheinfall 1996, ISBN 3-905021-60-9 (known as Swiss Thoth B or Blue Box B ).
  • Aleister Crowley Thoth Pocket Swiss Tarot Deck. US Games Systems, Stamford 2007, ISBN 978-1-57281-294-9 .
  • Original Aleister Crowley Toth tarot. AGM AGMüller Urania, Neuhausen am Rheinfall 2008, ISBN 978-3-86826-504-0 (standard size , pocket-size : ISBN 978-3-86826-503-3 ; known as Gold Deck ).

literature

Crowley's writings on tarot
  • Liber Arcanorum ton Atu tou Tahuti & c. [= Liber CCXXXI]. In: The Equinox Vol. I No. 7 (March 1912), pp. 69-74.
  • A Description of the Cards of the Tarot with their Attributions. Including a Method of Divination by their Use [= Liber LXXVIII] In: The Equinox Vol. I No. 8 (September 1912), pp. 143-210.
  • Aleister Crowley: The Book of Thoth. A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians. In: The Equinox Vol. III No. 5, OTO, London 1944.
Secondary literature
  • Lon Milo DuQuette : Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot. Weiser 2003, ISBN 1-57863-276-5 . English: Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: The fascinating and magical tarot explained clearly. Urania-Verlag, 2005.
  • R. Leo Gillis: The (Printer's) Devil is in the Details. A Printing History of the Book of Thoth Tarot Deck. In: Tarosophist International Vol. 1, No. 4 (2009), pp. 39-62.
  • Eckhard Graf: Lexicon of the tarot as well as the oracle and self-awareness games. Nagelschmid, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-927913-03-0 , p. 33 f.
  • Ralph Tegtmeier : Tarot - story of a game of fate. DuMont, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7701-1682-8 , pp. 127-133.
  • Tarosophist International. The Magazine of Tarosophy & Tarot. Special issue: Thoth Deck Annual Special Issue Vol. 1, No. 4 (Fall 2009), ISSN 2040-4328.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lon Milo DuQuette: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot. Weiser 2003, chap. 1, p. 7.
  2. ↑ Ralph Tegtmeier : Tarot - story of a game of fate. DuMont, Cologne 1986, p. 123 f.
  3. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Tarot According to the deck appeared in the early 1960s.
  4. ^ Gillis: The (Printer's) Devil is in the Details. In: Tarosophist International Vol. 1, No. 4 (2009), p. 49.
  5. ↑ This form of the hexagram consists of a single line. In the editions of the deck the hexagram appears red on a black background with a rose in the center, in later editions also in rainbow colors and finally in gold.