Thoth Deck
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It is a Tarot deck designed by Aleister Crowley, and painted by Frieda Harris. The name of course comes from the Egyptian god.
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General description
The imagery is dramatic but arguably less detailed than the Rider Waite Deck. The art is definitely better than that of the Rider Waite, but will not meet everybody's taste. The minor arcana are pips, but the colours and arrangement of suit symbols are highly suggestive of meaning.
Differences to other decks
The order of the major arcana is that of Marseilles style decks, with Justice 8 and ßtrength (called Lust) 11, but he maintains the Golden Dawn attributions to the Hebrew letters for them. He changes the attributions for The Emperor and The Star. See Tarot correspondences (Kabalah) for more on that. The pip style minor arcana are another reminiscence of the Marseilles deck.
The astrological attributions also differ from the Golden Dawn ones, as detailed in his other works.
Some of the major arcana have different names.
The Royalty Cards are Knight, Queen, Prince, Princess.
Availability
The deck is widely availiable in many languages and editions. In German, it is availiable from two different publishers, both offer it in several different sizes, alone or in set with some book.
Criticism
Some people consider that this deck is "negative" and will produce harmful results if used, but such people often judge without sufficent understanding. In most cases, this oppinion is based on these people's dislike for Aleister Crowley, Thelema (his magickal system) or both. In a way, it may be wise not to use the deck if one has such prejudices.
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