“The Book of Thoth”: Aleister Crowley; book and analysis

“The Book of Thoth”: Aleister Crowley; book and analysis.

The book of Thoth (The Book of Thoth) is an esoteric book by the English occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), published in 1944. The original name of the work is: The book of Thoth: short essay on the tarot of the Egyptians (The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians). The book’s illustrations, as well as the design of the Tarot cards, were done by Frieda Harris.

Originally released with just two hundred printed copies, The book of Thoth It soon became a cult work for Tarot scholars. There, in addition to explaining the use of the Tarot created by Aleister Crowley, an extremely curious methodology is described, called Tarot of Thoth, which we will analyze later.

The book of Thoth It is divided into four parts:

tarot theory (The Theory Of The Tarot)
The Atu: keys or triumphs (The Atu: Keys or Trumps)
The figures (The Court Cards)
The low cards (The Small Cards)

Frieda Harris’s transition:

So far, The book of Thoth It appears to be a relatively practical book, explaining how to draw Egyptian Tarot cards; However, it also has other, perhaps more mysterious, features. Apparently, the book’s illustrator, Lady Frieda Harris, experienced some horrifying sensations when designing the cards. Below we will briefly review these fears.

Frieda Harris, wife of Percy Harris, a respectable member of the English parliament, took five years to paint Crowley’s tarot cards in watercolor using an abstract style, obsessively immersing herself in the study of Egyptian lore, the Kabbalah, and perhaps astrology. more than advisable.

According to her notes, Frieda Harris, who was not an expert in Tarot, began to feel an ominous presence that guided her hand when designing the cards. In an epistle she tells Aleister Crowley about her fears. The greatest of these was the belief that, when he finished the design of the Arcana, his soul would be transferred to the cards until someone, it is not clear who, unravels the deep esoteric symbolism of his paintings, a reflection of Aleister’s own scandalous ideas. Crowley.

Almost as if it were a lackluster version of the dynamic proposed by Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray, although without the benefits of that, Frieda Harris never saw her work outside the canvas. She spent her final years believing that the essence of her soul was intimately linked to those inscrutable arcana.

Curiously, The book of Thoth It was published in 1944, but only in 1969 did it appear in the form of Tarot decks. Both Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley were dead.

The book of Thoth.
The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)

Copy and paste the link into your browser to read online or download in PDF: The book of Thoth of Aleister Crowley:

http://libroesoterico.com/biblioteca/HERMETISMO/Aleister%20Crowley%20El%20Libro%20de%20Thoth.pdf

Banned books. I Books by Aleister Crowley.

More gothic literature:

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