For a main-line infusion of foresight and wisdom, I find Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot second to none. As for its reputation as dark and blunt, Thoth is neither. Yes, the keywords at the bottom of the pips or small cards (2s - 10s in each suite) - such as “Futility” and “Sorrow” shown above - do seem direct and harsh. But I find them honest. I suppose it depends on if you want your magic mirror to be flattering or truth-telling.
With the keywords, Crowley isn’t referring directly to the dictionary definitions. Rather, each word is a compression of its pip card’s kabbalistic, hermetic, astrological, and therefore magickal state and application. Not only do the keywords encode much nuance, but Thoth pips are more than nouns or adjectives. For example, “Sorrow” pictured above does carry divinational meanings of separation, heartache, and regret (compare with Waite-Smith 3 of Swords, the giant heart pierced by 3 blades – a bit on the nose, no?). But this card is also Saturn in Libra, which is exalted; therefore, a state of heightened, sober insight into the state of the world as understood by the human intellect. Crowley says of this card:
The idea of division, of mutability, the idea of the airy quality of things, manifests itself in the Three of Swords, the Lord of Sorrow. Here one is reminded of the darkness of Binah, of the mourning of Isis; but this is not any vulgar sorrow dependent upon any individual disappointment or discontent. It is Weltschmerz, the universal sorrow; it is the quality of melancholy. (Book of Thoth)
Because each card is so dense, Thoth Tarot also has a reputation for being difficult for beginners; yet for all of the embedded occultese, the keywords are naturally connected to the divinational meaning of the small cards so that a beginner can do well enough reading them at face value1. For example, let’s say you asked the dreaded yes / no question - and don’t most mundane readings come down to that anyway? - but, for the sake of example, wouldn’t a yes / no be answered by “Futility” or “Sorrow”?
Now, the above reading was not for a yes / no question. It was a “What’s happening and what can be done about it?” question, answered very directly. I shuffled thoroughly, cut the cards, and dealt in the order shown from left to right - three Sword / Air cards in an apparent order, followed by a Water card… THE Water trump, Hanged Man2. A startling punctuation of punishment and sacrifice after a sequence that indicates increasing understanding and clarity.
Yeah, clarity can be painful or sorrowful. But just imagine not being clear in the world of mutability and division, of monstrous inventions and treacherous exploitations, compromising your way through diminishing prospects and mounting hostile forces. As if there's some worthwhile redemption after all the suffering? Nah. Better to be clear and cut through those tangles of the mind. Best to be free now.
Pretty amazing answer from a pack of cards.
Crowley’s Book of Thoth has divination meanings for court cards as well as trumps, summarized in the little book that comes with the deck.
In Golden Dawn Tarots, Hanged Man is attributed to the Hebrew mother or root letter, ‘Mem’, representing the primordial Water element as described in the Sefer Yetzirah of Jewish mysticism.