The Hierology of the Thoth Deck

Ancient Egypt had a plethora of deities. The culture had gods for childbirth and gods for death, goddesses for scorpions and goddesses for bandages, they had gods of the sky and of the land, and gods and goddesses for every individual at every stage of their present life and the lives before and afterwards. At every wall you would meet the gods, around each and every pillar there was a goddess, until there was only the sky and the desert and the deeps of the Nile which were not so adorned, and even these teemed with the unseen presence of the gods.

The world was magical and mystical, and religion was no different to life and breath. It is therefore perhaps no wonder that esotericists hark back to this period for inspiration in response to our gradually disenchanted world. [141]

In this section we will look at a selection of the Egyptian gods and goddesses that permeate Aleister Crowley & Frieda Harris’s Thoth deck, explore a few of Crowley’s appropriations of these deities within this own world-view. We will return to a specific usage of the deities and the ancient Egyptian religious system in book three of this present series when we present a unique and novel Tarosophy method of working with Tarot, a gated spread . This particular gated spread, the Entering the Temple of Thoth is themed on the ancient Egyptian temple structure and is for use specifically with the Thoth deck. [142]