Thoth Tarot

Thoth Tarot is an esoteric tarot deck painted by Lady Frieda Harris for Aleister Crowley. Crowley referred to this deck as The Book of Thoth, and also wrote a 1944 book of that title intended for use with the deck.

Background

Crowley originally intended the Thoth deck to be a six-month project aimed at updating the traditional pictorial symbolism of the tarot. However, due to increased scope, the project eventually spanned five years, between 1938 and 1943.

Symbolism

The illustrations of the deck feature symbolism based upon Crowley's incorporation of imagery from many disparate disciplines, including science and philosophy and various occult systems.

Deck variants

As reported in the table below there are six known major versions of the Thoth Tarot with significant differences.

Version	Year	Publisher	Key Differences
Sangreal		Simpson Printing Company	First printed version with blue ink on the front and red ink on the back
A1	1967	Llewellyn	First colored version with printing errors on the Ace of Pentacles and the 8 of Cups
A2	1969	Llewellyn	Correct printing mistakes
B	1969	Weiser	Introduce the Ordo Templi Orientis white playing card
C	1978	U.S. Games Systems	Add the black Thelema Unicursal hexagram card, border around cards art and symbols on Major Arcana cards
D	1978	U.S. Games Systems	Have three variations of the Magus Playing cards

Differences from the Rider–Waite Tarot

Order and names of trumps

Crowley renamed several of the trumps compared to earlier arrangements, and also re-arranged the numerical, astrological and Hebrew alphabet correspondences of 4 trumps compared to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's inner order deck in accordance with the Tarot of Marseilles, his 1904 book The Book of the Law and its "New Commentary." In the "New Commentary" and The Book of Thoth, Crowley demonstrates that his trump arrangement forms a double loop in the zodiac-number and letter-number correspondences compared to the Golden Dawn deck, where there is no loop.

Number	Sign	Letter	Name
IV	Aquarius	Tzaddi	The Emperor
VIII	Libra	Lamed	Adjustment
XI	Leo	Tet	Lust
XVII	Aries	Heh	The Star

Rider–Waite card	Thoth equivalent
I: The Magician	I: The Magus
II: The High Priestess	II: The Priestess
VIII: Strength	XI: Lust
X: Wheel of Fortune	X: Fortune
XI: Justice	VIII: Adjustment
XIV: Temperance	XIV: Art
XX: Judgement	XX: The Æon
XXI: The World	XXI: The Universe

Names of court cards

Crowley accepted the Golden Dawn's changed names of all the court cards which can cause some confusion for people used to the more common decks. Specially since he changed the structure of the court cards, while each of the places retains much of the original meanings, there are subtle differences. The typical corresponding names are as follows:

Traditional Court Card Name	Thoth Deck Court Card Name
King	Knight
Queen	Queen
Knight	Prince
Page	Princess

Restoration of original artwork

Harris' renditions of the tarot are on watercolor paper affixed to a thick backing; the acidity of the backing, according to a report from 2006, resulted in discoloration of borders, and to some extent, the paintings themselves. The paintings also required cleaning and the repair of small tears. A conservation plan called for cleaning the surfaces, the removal of backing, reuse of the hand-painted window mats, and replacement of overlays with acid-free, museum-quality paper. The project was completed in 2011. The paintings are stored by the Warburg Institute; work was completed by the Institute's in-house specialist, Susan Campion.