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De Stok Van Thot * Dick Schoof (isbn 9021543559)

The writer is “a professional tarotist” and connected to the Jungean Academy of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and this is first book about the tarot. He says it is an apprehensive book on the subject and even though it is based on the Thoth Tarot of Aleister Crowley and Freide Harris, you will be able to work with any deck when you have understood this book. Still, when it is meant for beginners I find it strange that he starts with lenghty descriptions of the cards and only after over 200 pages he starts to explain some basic things. Not even the way of playing the game, but first some background information about alchemy, astrology, Egyptian mythology, numerology, Jungeon terminology, Kabbalah and the history of the tarot. These chapters are short and the Kabbalah chapter is full of mistakes (in history and interpretation), but helpfull for the rough scetches. For some reason the writer wants to originate both the Kabbalah and the Tarot in the Cathar community, a point that I much oppose to.

Schoof explains the cards nicely and he says he deals with all 1200 symbols of the complete deck. Also he made aphorisms for all cards and easy reference to the astrological connections. All this is put in an “easy finder” in the back.

There are many books bout the Crowley deck and I don’t know any of them, so unfortunately I can’t compare this one to the rest. A nice book, but I think the writer thinks a little too highly about it. It is good for reference-work.

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