THE BOOK OF THOTH

THE BOOK OF THOTH.Espen Iden

The egyptian god Thoth.

THE MAJOR ARCANA & THE MINOR ARCANA

The Book of Thoth, or The 78 Tarot cards, are set together of two parts - the Major Arcana which includes the 22 trump cards representing the archetypes or the classic ‘trionfi’, and the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana, which consists of the four suits Cups, Disks, Swords and Wands, each suit containing four court cards and ten numbered cards (the Ace is counted as 1).

While the trump cards are representing the paths connecting the ten Sephirot of the Tree of Life (page 1), the suits are attached to the four elements Fire, Air, Water and Earth as follows:

Wands - the element of the fire, standing for the spiritual, for creativity, mysticism, imagination (world of Atziluth)Cups - the element of water, standing for emotion, feeling, relationship (world of Briah) Swords - the element of the air, standing for the intellectual, the logical and scientific (world of Yetzirah) Disks - the element of the earth, standing for the materials, the body, the ‘down-to-earth-matters’ (world of Assiah)

The court cards are the Knight, the Queen, the Prince and the Princess - in the Thoth deck. This can get a bit confusing when using other decks, where the court cards are called King, Queen, Knight and Page (or Child), especially when the Thoth deck calls ‘Knight’ what most others call ‘King’ and ‘Prince’ what most others call ‘Knight’.

Here it might be helpful to remember the ‘traditional’ view to sort it like ‘Father of the element’, ‘Mother of the element’, ‘Son of the element’ and ‘Daughter of the element’.

The ten numbered cards represent the ten Sephirot, i.e. the ten steps of the element from Kether (Ace) to Malkuth (Ten).

As for the meanings, always remember the one rule that someone might tell you a lot of the card, but only you yourself will really know what it means for you.

TEXT: Raven’s Tarot Site - www.corax.com/tarotAUTHOR OF THE THOTH TAROT DECK: Aleisteir CrowleyILLUSTRATOR: Lady Frieda HarrisPHOTOGRAPHY: Espen Iden

THE MAJOR ARCANAThe 22 Atu

Johann Heinrich Fussli Die Elfenkonigin Titania und Zettel, der Weber mit Eselskopf

THE MINOR ARCANAThe Court cards

THE SUITSWands, Cups, Swords, Disks

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