Duquette is usually worth five stars and this is a fantastic book. I knocked off half a star, because by his own admission, he covers some of the same territory as Crowley did in my all time favorite THE BOOK OF THOTH. But "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot" ISBN 1578632765 is a "best place to start" if you're new to the Thoth deck, which in truth, is the best deck for any magickal work.

You get a sense Duquette is enamoured of 666, in fact he goes to great lengths to explain Crowley's sense of humor and deliberate sensationalism. Anyone who's been around magick for long knows/understands Crowley was anything but the sensational persona he put on. Duquette shares Crowley's sense of humor, here, but without the "purple prose" of the early to mid last century. Mind you, Crowley is a magnificent poet and prose artist, it's just that Duquette is imminently accessible on this vast topic. The Thoth Tarot is no Rider Waite picture book, and Duquette makes Thoth clear and simple (well, as simple as Thoth can be). You get the sense, at the end of the read, that everyone else got it wrong, that only Crowley really understood that the four courts should have been Knight (in place of King), Queen, Prince, Princess and that R/W either deliberately misled everyone, or just mixed up the trumps. Duquette also makes the all-important corresondences meaningful and useful. Highly recommended, followed by an immediate read of the actual THE BOOK OF THOTH.