The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley: The Tarot Decoded

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What Is The Book of Thoth?

The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians was published in 1944 as a limited edition of 200 copies. It is Aleister Crowley's final major work, written as the companion text to the Thoth Tarot deck painted by Lady Frieda Harris. The title references the Egyptian god Thoth, patron of writing, magic, and wisdom, whom the Greeks identified with Hermes and the Hermetic tradition identified with Hermes Trismegistus.

Despite its subtitle, "A Short Essay," the book is neither short nor simple. It runs to over 300 pages in most editions and assumes the reader is already fluent in Qabalah, astrology, alchemy, and Thelemic theology. Crowley himself acknowledged that the text was dense, but argued that the subject required density. Each of the 78 cards encodes multiple layers of symbolic meaning that cannot be reduced to simple keywords without losing their essential content.

The book was written during World War II while Crowley was living in a boarding house in Hastings, England, largely impoverished and in declining health. He died in 1947 without seeing the tarot deck published as printed cards. The deck was not commercially available until 1969, when Samuel Weiser published the first printed edition using Harris's original paintings, which she had bequeathed to the Warburg Institute at the University of London.

The Crowley-Harris Collaboration: Five Years of Obsessive Creation

Lady Frieda Harris (born Marguerite Frieda Bloxam, 1877-1962) was 60 years old when she met Crowley in 1937 through a mutual acquaintance. She was the wife of Sir Percy Harris, a Liberal Member of Parliament, and a practising artist with interests in Anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner's colour theories. Her background in Steiner's approach to colour and form would prove significant for the deck's visual language.

The original plan was modest: Harris would paint the cards in about six months, and Crowley would write the accompanying text. Instead, the project consumed five years. Harris produced over 1,200 preliminary paintings, reworking individual cards dozens of times. Some cards went through more than twenty versions before Crowley approved them.

Harris was initiated into Crowley's O.T.O. during the collaboration, but she maintained her own intellectual independence. Her interest in Steiner's colour theory, particularly his ideas about the spiritual qualities of colours as described in works like Colour (1921), influenced her palette choices throughout the deck. The Thoth Tarot's distinctive use of colour is partly a Steinerian contribution, a fact that is rarely acknowledged in tarot literature.

The paintings were exhibited twice during the war years: at the Berkeley Gallery in London and at the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, both in 1942. They attracted significant attention as works of art, independent of their esoteric content.

The Major Arcana: 22 Keys to the Western Mystery Tradition

The 22 Major Arcana (which Crowley called "Atu" or "Trumps") correspond to the 22 paths on the Qabalistic Tree of Life, the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and specific astrological assignments. Each card is a visual encyclopedia of correspondences, encoding planetary, zodiacal, elemental, alchemical, and mythological information in a single image.

The Three Mother Letters

Three Major Arcana correspond to the three Mother Letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the three primary elements:

• The Fool (Aleph, Air): Zero, the point before manifestation. The Fool stands outside the sequence, representing pure potential. In Harris's painting, the figure is surrounded by spiralling energy and mythological symbols from multiple traditions.
• The Hanged Man (Mem, Water): Represents the surrender of the ego, the willing sacrifice of the personal self for spiritual attainment. Crowley connected this card to the formula of the Dying God (Osiris, Christ, Adonis).
• The Aeon (Shin, Fire): Crowley's replacement for the traditional Judgement card. Instead of the Christian Last Judgement, the Thoth version depicts the Aeon of Horus, the new magical era proclaimed in Liber AL. The child Horus (Harpocrates and Ra-Hoor-Khuit) replaces the angel with the trumpet.

The Seven Planetary Trumps

Seven Major Arcana correspond to the seven classical planets:

The Twelve Zodiacal Trumps

The remaining twelve Major Arcana correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac, with Crowley's controversial reassignment of the Emperor and the Star (discussed below). Each card depicts the essential quality of its zodiacal sign through Thelemic imagery.

The Renamed Cards and Why Crowley Changed Them

Crowley renamed five Major Arcana cards from their traditional titles. These changes were not arbitrary. Each reflects a deliberate theological and philosophical choice:

• Strength (VIII) becomes Lust (XI): The traditional Strength card shows a woman gently closing a lion's jaws, suggesting the taming of passion by virtue. Crowley reversed the meaning entirely. His Lust card depicts the Scarlet Woman (Babalon) riding the seven-headed Beast, drawn from the Book of Revelation but reinterpreted through Thelemic theology. The card represents the full, ecstatic embrace of vital force, not its suppression. The number also shifts from VIII to XI, restoring the older Marseille sequence.
• Justice (XI) becomes Adjustment (VIII): Crowley chose "Adjustment" to emphasize the dynamic, ongoing nature of cosmic balance rather than the static, legalistic connotation of "Justice." The card represents the continuous self-correction of the universe, the way forces naturally seek equilibrium.
• Temperance (XIV) becomes Art (XIV): The traditional Temperance card shows an angel pouring liquid between two vessels. Crowley renamed it Art to emphasize its alchemical meaning: the union of opposites (solve et coagula), the Great Work of transmutation. Harris's painting depicts a figure combining fire and water in an alchemical vessel.
• Judgement (XX) becomes The Aeon (XX): Crowley replaced the Christian Last Judgement with the dawning of the Aeon of Horus, the new magical era he believed was inaugurated by the reception of Liber AL in 1904. The card depicts Nuit, Hadit, and their child Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
• The World (XXI) becomes The Universe (XXI): A broader term reflecting Crowley's cosmic scope. Harris's painting shows a dancing figure surrounded by the serpent of eternity, incorporating imagery from Hindu, Egyptian, and Greek mythology.

The Emperor-Star Switch: "Tzaddi Is Not the Star"

The most technically complex change Crowley made to the traditional tarot involves the Hebrew letter attributions of the Emperor and the Star. This switch has generated more debate in tarot scholarship than any other single issue in the Thoth system.

The basis is a verse from Liber AL vel Legis (I:57): "All these old letters of my Book are aright; but Tzaddi is not the Star." In the Golden Dawn system, the Hebrew letter Tzaddi was assigned to the Star card (XVII), and the letter Heh was assigned to the Emperor (IV). Crowley interpreted this verse as an instruction to swap these attributions.

The result is that in the Thoth system, the Emperor corresponds to Tzaddi and the zodiacal sign of Aries, while the Star corresponds to Heh and Aquarius. This creates what Crowley called a "double loop" on the Tree of Life, mirroring the existing double loop formed by the Fool and the Universe.

Not all Thelemic practitioners accept this switch. Some argue that Crowley's interpretation of the verse is not the only possible reading. Others point out that the switch creates asymmetries in the astrological system that Crowley does not fully resolve. The debate continues in Thelemic circles and academic tarot scholarship.

The Minor Arcana: Decanates, Elements, and the Tree of Life

The 40 numbered Minor Arcana (Ace through 10 in each of the four suits) map onto the Tree of Life and the 36 decanates of the zodiac. This system, inherited from the Golden Dawn, gives each card a precise astrological identity.

The Four Suits

• Wands (Fire, Atziluth): The suit of will, energy, creativity, and spiritual drive. Corresponds to the Qabalistic world of Archetypes.
• Cups (Water, Briah): The suit of emotion, love, intuition, and receptivity. Corresponds to the Creative world.
• Swords (Air, Yetzirah): The suit of intellect, communication, conflict, and analysis. Corresponds to the Formative world.
• Disks (Earth, Assiah): Crowley renamed Pentacles to Disks. The suit of material reality, money, health, and practical achievement. Corresponds to the Material world.

The Decanate System

Cards 2 through 10 in each suit correspond to specific 10-degree segments of the zodiac. For example, the Two of Wands is "Dominion" (Mars in Aries, the first decanate of Aries), while the Three of Wands is "Virtue" (Sun in Aries, the second decanate). Each card's title, planetary ruler, and zodiacal sign together define its precise meaning.

The Aces stand apart from the decanate system. They represent the root power of each element in its purest form, before it differentiates into specific zodiacal expressions. The Ace of Wands is the undifferentiated seed of Fire. The Ace of Cups is the primal essence of Water.

The Court Cards: Knight, Queen, Prince, Princess

Crowley restructured the traditional court card hierarchy. Instead of King, Queen, Knight, and Page, the Thoth system uses Knight, Queen, Prince, and Princess. This is not merely a renaming. It reflects a different understanding of how the court card energies relate to each other and to the Tetragrammaton (YHVH).

• Knight (Yod, Fire of the suit): The active, initiating force. The Knight is not a wise ruler sitting on a throne but a mounted warrior in motion. He represents the first impulse, the spark that sets events in motion.
• Queen (Heh, Water of the suit): The receptive, gestating force. She receives the Knight's energy and gives it form. She represents the stage where an impulse becomes a definite idea or feeling.
• Prince (Vav, Air of the suit): The intellectual, organizing force. The Prince takes the formed energy of the Queen and gives it direction and structure. He represents the plan, the strategy, the articulation of purpose.
• Princess (Heh final, Earth of the suit): The manifesting force. The Princess brings the energy into material reality. She represents the completed action, the tangible result.

Each court card also governs a specific portion of the zodiac. The Knights rule the mutable signs (transition between seasons). The Queens rule the cardinal signs (initiation of seasons). The Princes rule the fixed signs (stabilization of seasons). The Princesses rule the four quadrants of the sky around the North Pole and are not assigned zodiacal rulership in the conventional sense.

The Qabalistic Structure of the Thoth Tarot

The entire Thoth Tarot is a map of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. Understanding this structure is not optional for serious work with the deck. It is the skeleton on which every card hangs.

The Tree of Life consists of ten Sephiroth (spheres of emanation) connected by twenty-two paths. The ten Sephiroth correspond to the numbers Ace through 10 in each suit. The twenty-two paths correspond to the twenty-two Major Arcana. The four suits correspond to the four Qabalistic Worlds.

Notice the pattern: the odd-numbered Sephiroth from Chokmah (2) through Chesed (4) represent increasing stability and structure. Geburah (5) introduces necessary disruption. Tiphareth (6) restores harmony at a higher level. The lower Sephiroth (7-10) represent the descent into increasingly material expression, which in the suit of Wands (pure fire) becomes progressively more constrained, hence the 10 of Wands is "Oppression," fire trapped in matter.

Thoth vs. Rider-Waite-Smith: A Structural Comparison

The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck, created by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith in 1909, and the Thoth deck represent two different philosophies of what a tarot deck should be.

Waite designed the RWS for accessible divination. He included scenic illustrations on every card, including the Minor Arcana, so that readers could interpret cards intuitively through their imagery without needing esoteric knowledge. The images tell stories. The Ten of Swords shows a figure pierced by ten blades. The Three of Cups shows three women celebrating. The visual narrative is immediate.

Crowley designed the Thoth for esoteric study. The Minor Arcana are not scenic. They show geometric arrangements of the suit symbols, modified by the planetary and zodiacal energies of the decanate. The Two of Disks ("Change") shows two interlocking pentagrams in a yin-yang configuration, reflecting Jupiter in Capricorn. You cannot read this card intuitively from its image alone. You need the correspondences.

Neither deck is superior. They serve different purposes. The RWS excels for intuitive reading and client-facing divination. The Thoth excels for personal meditation, esoteric study, and magical practice. Many serious tarot practitioners work with both.

Lady Frieda Harris and Projective Synthetic Geometry

Harris's artistic technique deserves attention independent of its esoteric content. She employed projective synthetic geometry, a mathematical approach to perspective developed in the 19th century that allows for the depiction of multi-dimensional spaces on a flat surface. The result is the distinctive warped, intersecting, and overlapping spatial planes visible throughout the Thoth deck.

Harris studied this technique through her interest in Anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner and his associates had explored projective geometry as a way of understanding the relationship between physical and etheric space. George Adams (born George Adams Kaufmann), a student of Steiner, developed applications of projective geometry that directly influenced Harris's approach.

The practical effect is that Thoth cards appear to show objects and figures existing simultaneously in multiple spatial dimensions. The Priestess card, for example, depicts the figure surrounded by a web of crystalline geometric forms that suggest depths and angles impossible in ordinary three-dimensional space. This is not mere artistic decoration. It is a visual representation of the card's meaning: hidden knowledge existing in dimensions beyond ordinary perception.

How to Read the Thoth Tarot

The Thoth Tarot can be used with any standard spread (Celtic Cross, three-card draw, etc.), but Crowley recommended a specific method called the Opening of the Key. This complex five-part spread uses the entire deck and incorporates elemental, astrological, and Qabalistic correspondences to build a multi-layered reading.

The Opening of the Key proceeds through five operations, each associated with one of the five elements (Spirit, Fire, Water, Air, Earth). In each operation, the deck is divided and redistributed according to specific rules, and the cards are read not only for their individual meanings but for their elemental dignities, how neighbouring cards interact based on their elemental assignments.

Elemental Dignities

Elemental dignity is the Thoth system's distinctive contribution to tarot reading technique. When two cards appear next to each other in a spread, their elemental natures interact:

• Friendly elements strengthen each other: Fire and Air are friendly. Water and Earth are friendly. Cards of friendly elements next to each other intensify their meanings.
• Hostile elements weaken each other: Fire and Water are hostile. Air and Earth are hostile. Cards of hostile elements next to each other moderate or cancel their meanings.
• Neutral combinations: Fire and Earth, Air and Water are neutral. They neither strengthen nor weaken each other significantly.

This system adds a dimension of interpretation that the RWS tradition does not use. A powerful card like the Ten of Swords ("Ruin") might be significantly weakened if flanked by cards of friendly elements that counteract its energy.

Scholarly Reception and Influence

The Thoth Tarot has attracted increasing scholarly attention since the establishment of Western esotericism as an academic discipline. Wouter Hanegraaff, professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, has situated the Thoth within the broader history of Western esoteric approaches to symbolism and correspondence.

Art historians have given Harris's paintings attention as works of art independent of their tarot function. The Warburg Institute, which holds the original paintings, has facilitated scholarly access to the collection. Susan Brennan's research on Harris's artistic technique has documented the influence of projective geometry and Anthroposophical colour theory on the deck's visual language.

The Thoth Tarot's influence on subsequent deck design has been enormous. Virtually every "esoteric" tarot deck published since 1969 shows its influence, whether in the integration of Qabalistic symbolism, the use of decanate-based Minor Arcana, or the general principle that a tarot deck can function as a complete esoteric teaching system rather than merely a divination tool.

Who Should Read The Book of Thoth

The Book of Thoth is essential reading for anyone who works seriously with the Thoth Tarot deck. Without it, you are reading the images without understanding the system they encode.

However, Crowley's text is not the best starting point. The recommended approach:

1. Begin with DuQuette: Lon Milo DuQuette's Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot explains each card in clear, contemporary language while preserving the depth of Crowley's system.
2. Study 777: Crowley's 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings provides the tables of correspondences that underpin every card in the deck.
3. Then read Crowley: With DuQuette and 777 as reference tools, The Book of Thoth becomes accessible rather than impenetrable.
4. Practice daily: Draw a single card each morning and study its correspondences. After six months of daily practice, the system becomes internalized.

Frequently Asked Questions