A Bit of Thoth

Well, I finally bit the bullet and faced Crowley's Thoth monster head on this week. That is, after owning a Thoth deck for years and watching it gather dust on my shelf, I've finally decided to stare into its many faces and try to understand what it's saying. Yes, I've got the books and read through them too, but they never connected me to the deck; part of the reason is that it's a Marseille-style deck, which means the pip cards aren't illustrated. In other words, they don't give me anything to open my doors of perception; in fact, they leave me flat. Now, my tarot taste usually runs to the colorful and demonstrative and to RWS (Rider-Waite-Smith) based decks. The Thoth tarot, while somewhat colorful, is illustrated in abstract designs which are full of obvious, esoteric, and hidden symbols. You've got to know them to get the deck, and they're not easy to know, or sometimes to even visually decipher. The deck used to leave me in the cold with no connection, so the deck stayed on the shelf.
I started a Thoth Tarot video class about a week ago based on a very positive review by a previous class participant, and urged on by the assurance that most of what I'd learn can be applied to RWS or any tarot. My friend Eloise reads with almost no other deck and has hardly said hello to RWS for years, so I felt it might be time to take up the challenge and brave the learning curve of the Thoth.
I've gone through all of the Majors so far and have to report my appreciation for the art and depth of meaning in this deck has increased quite a bit. Will I be able to read with Thoth as I do with RWS at the end of this course? Unknown at present time, but I'll keep you posted. Thoth may just appear in my deck choices gallery yet!