I bought my Thoth deck (above) secondhand from eBay. I know the old superstition about not buying your own deck but am I supposed to just wait around until someone gives me one? I don’t think so. 

I was drawn to study the Thoth system after feeling stagnated with the Waite Smith system. I’m also a museum member on the Newkirks' Patreon. Greg and Dana Newkirk, if you aren’t familiar, made the documentary show “Hellier” and the documentary film “The Unbinding.” On the Patreon they run all kinds of experiments. The last few experiments have involved using the “Secret Cipher of the Ufonauts” in which names and phrases correlate to the cipher’s numbers which then correlate with passages and words from Aleister Crowley’s “Book of the Law” (You can explore it at NAEQuery here). After using the cipher tool for the museum experiments and for some of my own writing experiments I felt it was time to dive into Thoth tarot. 

I got the deck in the mail on May 2, 2025. After unwrapping the packaging, I took the cards out and put them in order to make sure they were all there, and thankfully, they were. Then I went through and looked closely at the art on each card before putting them away for the night. I kept them in order for about a week while I tried to figure out how I wanted to learn them, but then on May 8th I decided to just go for it. I shuffled the deck and did a basic three card pull which initiated a series of synchronicities like I’ve never experienced before. 

I hadn’t started keeping a tarot journal yet, and for whatever reason didn’t think to snap a photo of the spread. I remember the first and third card, the second remains lost in the vast chasm where my memory should be. The first card was the Six of Wands. I looked this card up online and the interpretations that resonated with me the most were the ideas of balance and victory. Finding a better balance in life is definitely something I could use. The third card was the Ten of Disks which signified wealth.  

In the past with the three card pulls I did with my Waite Smith deck there were never really any tactile outcomes, only ideas to contemplate. This Thoth deck, though, it’s “got the juice.” The very next morning I missed my light-rail train to work so, because it was nice out, I decided to walk a few blocks to catch the next one instead of sitting at the stop to wait. 

I should preface this next part by telling you that I find rogue dice fairly frequently since I live right next to a college and the kids play some new version of beer pong where they throw dice high up into the air... I don’t know how it works but those dice end up in the bushes. The ones they use tend to be newer with the rounded edges and corners, they’re also usually red with white pips. 

On my walk out of the corner of my eye I spotted a single die in the soil in front of a house next to a bush. This house isn’t usually where I see dice as it’s a few blocks down from where the parties tend to happen, but because I find them often, I walked past it. Before I crossed the street, though, I went back for another look. The side facing up was six. I thought about the Six of Wands card and thought of this as a reminder of balance. This particular die is odd too, the edges are sharper, and it’s covered in chips and dings, it’s white with black pips. It seemed older. You can check it out in the image above (sizes not relative). I suppose chips could happed from tossing the dice but the other party game dice I find still look new. Synchronicity number one. 

Later that day at work I finished up a huge, and deeply annoying, project (Six of Wands victory!) and for doing so I was handed a $50 bill as a bonus from my boss (Ten of Disks wealth!) ... Synchronicity number two. 

Since I’ve been carrying my Thoth deck with me everywhere I decided to order a nice velvet bag to keep it in to protect the box and cards. On May 12th, a package that was supposed to be the bag was delivered, but when I got the mail, that package was suspiciously deck-shaped. I opened it to find a beautiful tarot deck by Robin Wood, a pagan take on the traditional RWS deck. A few days after that I was in contact with the seller since there was obviously a mix-up. I offered to send the deck back, but she told me to keep it, that maybe I was supposed to have it. She also then sent me the bag. Someone gave me a tarot deck, the first one that fits that old superstition. I count this as synchronicity number three. 

The fourth synchronicity happened on May 13th, my birthday. As I left work on my way home to join a Zoom book club meeting with one of my favorite authors, Stephen Graham Jones, about a block from work I found a birthday candle on the ground. The wick was burnt, and it looked like it might have been stepped on a little, but it was a birthday candle ... on my birthday. I, of course, stuck it in my pocket and took it home to put next to my chipped-up dice. This candle is in the photo above, photoshopped in to fit so it's much smaller that the actual size in relation to the deck and dice. But I think we all know the size of a birthday candle.

As of now, that’s the most recent synchronicity I’ve experienced since getting this Thoth deck; I will definitely post with any new ones that arise. I’m going to be posting my Thoth learning journey, I hope you’ll follow along.