'academic' Tarot books

[BrightEye]

I'm looking for tarot books that I could cite in an academic context. At the moment I can only think of Robert Place's book, but it would be handy to have more than one. Any ideas?

PS: I'm not studying Yeats or Eliot, I'm looking for something more general to go in a bibliography.

*edited to add: Tarot Symbolism by Robert O'Neill also seems quite decent. Am I right in assuming that?

[coyoteblack]

Can you be a little more specific?

I know for my self I use spiritual tarot .. can think of the author
78 degrees of wisdom Rachael pollack
Tarot symbology ... Robert place
for general technical reference

[Tesseljoan]

If you're thinking about citing Robert Place, I would also take a look at Paul Huson's Mystical Origins of the Tarot. I'm reading it right now, and he's pretty good at dissecting where cartomantic meanings have come from.

The tarot cards painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza family : an iconographic and historical study by Moakley is also pretty good, but as the title says, geared towards the Visconti tarot

And I haven't beheld it myself but... Kaplan's encyclopedia?

[BrightEye]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have Rachel Pollck's bok and love it, but I'm not sure whether it would be a good one to cite in a scholarly paper. And of course, Stuart Kaplan - why didn't I think of him before?

[The crowned one]

Jung, Paul Foster Case, and Alfred Douglas came to mind right off for me.

[gregory]

As well as the others listed (Huson in particular) Eden Gray is "official" enough to cite, I'd say; also Dummett: The Game of Tarot and the one he wrote with others, "A wicked pack of cards".

[coyoteblack]

Robert Wang is a good choice
The Qabalistic Tarot is looking to be a great but tough book.

[The crowned one]

Robert Wang is a good choice
The Qabalistic Tarot is looking to be a great but tough book.

Yes Robert Wang, and Gray.

Do not overlook Mary K. Greer, very much an "expert".

[gregory]

Duquette on the Thoth.

[Mariana]

It depends on which aspects you want to talk about, but books written by academic people are 'Tarot and Psychology' (Rosengarten, PhD) and 'Tarot and Other Meditation Decks' (Auger, PhD and university professor). The second book is more focussed on art history, the subtitle is 'History, Theory, Aesthetics, Typology' and it deals with tarot as visual art.

[Scion]

Hey BE,

If I knew more about your topic, I could get more specific, but here are a few things that come to mind:

The Occult Mind by Christopher Lehrich (FABULOUS followup to his book on Agrippa)
History of the Occult Tarot by Decker & Dummett
"Memories of the Past, Memories of the Future: Semiotics and the Tarot" by Inna Semetsky (as well as her other academic articles)
"The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making" by Juliette Wood
Tarot and Individuation: Correspondences with Cabala and Alchemy by Irene Gad
Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions by Antoine Faivre
New Age and Neopagan Religions in America by Sarah M. Pike
Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction by Erich Goode
New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought by Wouter J. Hanegraaff
"Who Buys New Age Materials? Exploring Sociodemographic, Religious, Network, and Contextual Correlates of New Age Consumption" by Daniel P. Mears & Christopher G. Ellison
And the Auger book mentioned by Mariana.

Research is totally my thing so if you'll name your subject I can really go to town.

Scion

[gregory]

And if Scion says it, it is so. :D You could also cite his own guide to the Decans....:D

[Scion]

Well, I don't know about that, G, but I appreciate the vote of confidence. :thumbsup:

[The crowned one]

Hey BE,

If I knew more about your topic, I could get more specific, but here are a few things that come to mind:

The Occult Mind by Christopher Lehrich (FABULOUS followup to his book on Agrippa)
History of the Occult Tarot by Decker & Dummett
"Memories of the Past, Memories of the Future: Semiotics and the Tarot" by Inna Semetsky (as well as her other academic articles)
"The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making" by Juliette Wood
Tarot and Individuation: Correspondences with Cabala and Alchemy by Irene Gad
Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions by Antoine Faivre
New Age and Neopagan Religions in America by Sarah M. Pike
Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction by Erich Goode
New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought by Wouter J. Hanegraaff
"Who Buys New Age Materials? Exploring Sociodemographic, Religious, Network, and Contextual Correlates of New Age Consumption" by Daniel P. Mears & Christopher G. Ellison
And the Auger book mentioned by Mariana.

Research is totally my thing so if you'll name your subject I can really go to town.

Scion

I am writing these down!

[Scion]

n.b. I don't know if I'd wholeheartedly recommend all of these to everyone, but the request was for hard academic citation posibilities.

As for real recs I'd make out of that list, definitely the Lehrich, Decker & Dummett, and the Faivre... On the others, mileage may vary based on your interests and purpose. :)

X

S

[BrightEye]

Thanks for all the further suggestions, and thanks, Scion, for your enthusiasm. It's not going to be a paper on Tarot. It's going to be an essay on a piece of literature with some Tarot elements, but Tarot is by no means the only reference. I shall sift throught the list and see what might be useful.

That article on Tarot and Semiotics sounds interesting. Where was it published?

[rachelcat]

"Who Buys New Age Materials? Exploring Sociodemographic, Religious, Network, and Contextual Correlates of New Age Consumption" by Daniel P. Mears & Christopher G. Ellison

I trust these academics have been keeping track of the AT "What are you awaiting in the mail" thread and wish lists!

AT members, read this article and know thyself!

[blackroseivy]

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards by Michael Dummett

The Key to the Tarot by A. E. Waite

The Tarot by Alfred Douglas

Those are the 3 that sprang to my mind! (I own them. ;) )

[Scion]

That article on Tarot and Semiotics sounds interesting. Where was it published?

The article I referenced above is here:
Memories of the Past, Memories of the Future: Semiotics and the Tarot (http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/french/as-sa/ASSA-No13/Article6en.html)

But you might also look at some of the following:
Signs in Action: Tarot as a Self-Organized System (http://www.imprint.co.uk/C&HK/vol8/semetsky.pdf)

2002 "Deleuze and Guattari's A-signifying Semiotics and Cartographies of the Unconscious: Tarot Reconceptualized", Synthesis Philosophica, 34 (2-2002), Zagreb, pp. 297-316 (abstracts in German, and French)

2001 "Self-Organization in Tarot Semiotics", in Schmitz, W. (ed.): Sign Processes in Complex systems. Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of the IASS-AIS. Dresden: Thelem. (ISBN:3-933592- 21- 6).

1999 "Tarot Semiotics as Cartography of Events", in SEMIOTICS 1998, Peter Lang Publishing, NY, pp. 38-51.

[BrightEye]

Thanks, blackroseivy and Scion. Hey, Deleuze and Guattari! They used to be right up my street (what I understood of their stuff).

[MeeWah]

Art and Arcana: Commentary on The Medieval Scapini Tarot - Ronald Decker

The Tarot: History, Mystery and Lore - Cynthia Giles

Association for Tarot Studies, Newsletter #42 "Tarot History in Brief" (article referenced from ATS' Tarotpedia, Online Encyclopedia of Tarot

http://association.tarotstudies.org/newsletters/news42.html

[gregory]

Jensen's book on A E Waite's deck (I forget the title just now...)

Huson: The Devil's Picturebook

[SixDegrees]

Deleuze and Guattari? If you can read them, reading Tarot should be a cinch!

; )

[Umbrae]

A Wicked Pack of Cards - The Origins of the Occult Tarot (Decker, Therry, DePaulis, Dummett)

A History of The Occult Tarot (Decker, Dummett)