Whitechapel - Tarot books and nattering Sun, 19 May 2013 14:13:14 -0700 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.1.4 & Feed Publisher Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4474#Comment_4474 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4474#Comment_4474 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:13:09 -0800 elizabeth here.

Someone asked for Tarot book recommendations. Here are mine.

Don't feel like reading a dozen books on the subject? Want to go straight to the top .0001%? Begin and end with SEVENTY EIGHT DEGREES OF WISDOM, by Rachel Pollack. I am not exaggerating when I say that this book might be the biggest consensus-builder amongst Tarot experts. It is universally read and loved. In my entire 12 years at this game, I have never once heard anyone say a single negative word about it. (That's a jussayin', not a gauntlet thrown, by the by.)

Nearly equally important, IMHO (but for different reasons), is the newest on my list: Robert M. Place's THE TAROT: HISTORY, SYMBOLISM AND DIVINATION. Sick and tired of occultists seeing things, Place goes back to the Tarot's true origins: the Renaissance. The guy does not tow the party line and does not mince words... and has the chops on all fronts (scholarly, Tarot-ly, artistically) to back it up. One of my all-time favorite Tarot speakers -- if you ever get a chance to see one of his infamous slideshows, run, do not walk. I've got a framed print of Key X, The Wheel Of Fortune, from his upcoming vampire Tarot (yes, really) hanging above my head right this second, in fact.

I am not a Thoth deck fan. In fact, I can barely look at it. It makes my head explode. But like the good little occultist I am, I do not ignore that which makes my head explode. I do, however, thank my lucky charms that Lon Milo finally wrote a book on it that I can understand... because, heck, nobody else did before he did. While you're at it, if you're going to get serious about this, you're going to need some Qabalah, too. Thankfully, Lon has your ass covered on that score, too.

Dang!, but that Lon is a dude!

Ah, but maybe you haven't got the sickness... and you couldn't care less about these crazy esoteric shenanigans anyway... at least not yet. You're not looking for a lifelong commitment, you just want to learn the damn cards. I feel you. Joan Bunning's LEARNING THE TAROT is a fine place to start... and it's free. (It's also the very first resource I used, but that's neither here nor there.)

Then again, if you want to roll up your sleeves... hitch your wagon to The Tarot School. Over the past 10 years, they've taught me just about everything I know. The correspondence course will change you. Nobody but nobody knows the Rider Waite deck like Wald & Ruth Ann do: the stories, the symbols, the play-by-play, everything.

For historical chicanery, Tom Tadfor Little's history site is a great place to start. A WICKED PACK OF CARDS is historically accurate (so I'm told) but a slog to get through (I can vouch for this). The authors of that book tackled the occultists in particular in A HISTORY OF THE OCCULT TAROT. Also a slog, unless you're a nerd like me. For a very readable history, try THE TAROT: HISTORY, MYSTERY AND LORE by Cynthia Giles. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4517#Comment_4517 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4517#Comment_4517 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:33:38 -0800 nietoperz Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4562#Comment_4562 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4562#Comment_4562 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:04:43 -0800 Oddcult Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4570#Comment_4570 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4570#Comment_4570 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:45:52 -0800 adrian r
I'd also second Elizabeth's recommendation of Place's book on Tarot history. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4717#Comment_4717 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4717#Comment_4717 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:47:42 -0800 hank
err never mind.

Thank you Ill shut up now and go back to my QBL and Chickening. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4749#Comment_4749 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4749#Comment_4749 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:35:04 -0800 Alan Tyson
I use the Tarot as a kind of creative abstraction and problem-solving tool, rather than for any divination purpose, if that makes a difference. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4778#Comment_4778 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4778#Comment_4778 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:15:52 -0800 adrian r Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4780#Comment_4780 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4780#Comment_4780 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:19:52 -0800 Alan Tyson Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4783#Comment_4783 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4783#Comment_4783 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:23:10 -0800 hank Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4784#Comment_4784 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4784#Comment_4784 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:23:35 -0800 munin218 Robin Wood tarot to be easiest to work with, and her book is written fairly well (and easy to learn from it). Her art, both by hand and digital, is pretty spiffy too. Sadly, her declining health has limited her to digital work only, and not much of that either. Very nice lady (her husband is a personable guy, too). ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4793#Comment_4793 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4793#Comment_4793 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:46:10 -0800 adrian r
S - Substitute - components, materials, people

C - Combine - mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate

A - Adapt - alter, change function, use part of another element

M - Modify - increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes (e.g. colour)

P - Put to another use

E - Eliminate - remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality

R - Reverse - turn inside out or upside down

Run a concept/problem through at least one of those processes, and see how it changes. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4809#Comment_4809 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4809#Comment_4809 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:19:37 -0800 Kinesys Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4853#Comment_4853 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4853#Comment_4853 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:47:25 -0800 jcfiala Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4858#Comment_4858 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4858#Comment_4858 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:53:26 -0800 arplight Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4869#Comment_4869 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4869#Comment_4869 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:06:36 -0800 Badman7
The weirdest deck I’ve found, I purchased in Germany a number of years ago, The Philosopher’s Stone fortune telling deck by DE ES. The strange images grabbed my attention. Never used it for a reading, the images tend to freak out folks. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4882#Comment_4882 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4882#Comment_4882 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:44:13 -0800 elizabeth I use the Thoth deck myself, so can wholeheartedly recommend The Book of Thoth by Crowley. As with all Crowley you kind of have to cut through the verbosity and self-importance, but there are pearls to be found in there nontheless.
Oh, absolutely. Reading Crowley is a must if you're really inclined to dig under the hood of that deck.

What I love about Lon's stuff (and this goes for his Qabalah material too) is that it gives you some context and some ground to stand on. Qabalah, for example, is so dense and abstract that it makes me feel like I'm floating around out in space somewhere... trying to absorb a guy like, say, Robert Wang (whose book on Tarot and Qabalah is very good) without having something to at least wrap your head around is... well, almost a waste of time. As in, not a waste, but not an efficient use of time. I'd rather dig in after I have some semblance of what the fudge is going on. Lon is really excellent at helping out with that.

Rachel Pollack is a comics person too

Rachel is indeed a comics person. She wrote the book for the Vertigo Tarot (the original of which I somehow hornswoggled out of a nice guy at the sci-fi/fantasy used bookstore that once lived on Chambers street here in NY, back when I was about four years old). She has some wonderful stories about Grant and Neil.

She is also very active in the Tarot scene here in New York, both upstate and in the city proper. ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4885#Comment_4885 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4885#Comment_4885 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:49:58 -0800 elizabeth I'm fond of tarot decks for collecting and as art objects, but I've been considering learning how the darn things are supposed to work.

It can be off-putting because of the big learning curve, to be sure. When I was in high school, I remember deliberately avoiding it for that very reason. I'm going, "78 cards, rightsideup and upsidedown? You've got to be fucking kidding me." And I'd go back to reading ghost stories.

But it gets addictive and the payoff can be really great over time. I'd encourage you to give it a try and see if it grabs you!

Just remember to have patience, grasshopper. :) ]]> Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4964#Comment_4964 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4964#Comment_4964 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:50:14 -0800 Alan Tyson Tarot books and nattering http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4995#Comment_4995 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=157&Focus=4995#Comment_4995 Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:26:21 -0800 elizabeth
I ask because my crack at the latter is actually in print. Judy Harrow, the HPs (high priestess) of Proteus Coven here in New York City asked me to write a bit about it for one of her books back when I was training with her. She was looking for a psychological development cycle that Pagans could identify with and relate to. (The book is called SPIRITUAL MENTORING: A PAGAN GUIDE and it's still in print. I wrote it so long ago... I can hardly remember what I said!)

Story narrative is a bit harder, given that Tarot communicates in symbol and metaphor and it could be argued that there are many beginnings and ends in the Majors. The progression isn't so nice and neat and logical (although it is, too). Then again, my storytelling skills are still in their infancy. :)

Also, you mentioned making your own cards. Making your own cards is one of the most intense and rewarding experiences, especially if you want to get to know yourself. I think making your own deck would be just fine for the creative and problem-solving you're looking for, but whether it's "better or worse," per se, depends entirely on how much you put into it. There is so much content in existing decks... you'd get a lot out of spending a little time learning about basic symbolism and trying the cards then. Or you could just use the language you already have (and we all have some symbolic language already) and give it a shot -- it would be an interesting experiment. ]]>