Jungian Tarot is Maddening!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 06 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

rachelcat	06 Jan 2005
O.k., friends, I just have to vent, so bear with me. I saw the Jungian Tarot deck as a deck of the week here on aeclectic, and I liked the look of them. I got the cards and the book with a gift card. I just finished the book over the holiday, and it is totally maddening! I like the cards, including the fact that they don't have any words, not even titles or numbers. (I'm a keyword hater . . .) I also like the art, very quiet but intense, appropriate for Jungian interpretations/uses. I have quibbles with the attributions of Jungian ideas and meanings, but they are respectable and usable. But weirdness abounds. The card box says that the book, "Jungian Tarot and Its Archetypal Imagery," is the second in a set of three books on the deck. Being a little obsessive about books, I immediately went the the publishing site, marcusaureliuspress.com, and the other two books mentioned aren't there. What is there is the unfortunately titled, "The Rape of Jewish Mysticism by Christian Theologians." Does this seem creepy to you? The book is full of typos throughout, including a paragraph that is both a paragraph and a footnote, and other stuff like that. (This grates on obessive me, but it's not SO bad . . .) But, there were weird factual errors. He asserts that Honor is one of the theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Love to the rest of us). And, if you're going to write a chapter in a book about the correspondence between Christian and solar mythology, don't you think you might know there's difference between Christmas and Epiphany? He even cites a source about the date of Epiphany, but obviously (hopefully!) he didn't understand what he read! This is a just a sampling of factual errors. After all that, I was skeptical of everything in the book. I had no intention of believing that it is archangel Michael that judges souls after death and at the end of the world until I read it in another book! AND throughout the book, he is repeatedly condescending and dismissive of "early 20th century" tarot writers, but then he uses the exact color scale that is in Crowley's "777" for his pip cards. (I quite like that actually!) (I have the chart in DuQuette's "Understanding Crowley's Thoth Tarot.") SO, I still like the deck, especially the pips, but I feel like I need to shake the weirdness off of them once in a while! Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Maybe now I can attempt to read with the cards without saying arrgghh!

Fulgour	06 Jan 2005
The mysterious journey of Robert Wang, from devoted amanuensis, to independent Jungian psychological philosopher has been magical. Nowadays there seems to be a cottage industry packaging his full kit, and it may be that the erstwhile Devotee has retired to calmer climes.

Dark Inquisitor	06 Jan 2005
I agree with you rachelcat. This deck was gifted to me , and when I read the rearranging Wang had done to "fix" the tarot to his liking , I became disgusted. A friend wanted me to do the study thing with him , but I said no because I felt it would screw up my whole understanding and I would no longer be studying tarot at all.

Rusty Neon	06 Jan 2005
rachelcat wrote: But weirdness abounds. The card box says that the book, "Jungian Tarot and Its Archetypal Imagery," is the second in a set of three books on the deck. Being a little obsessive about books, I immediately went the the publishing site, marcusaureliuspress.com, and the other two books mentioned aren't there. What is there is the unfortunately titled, "The Rape of Jewish Mysticism by Christian Theologians." Does this seem creepy to you? Wang's first book on the Jungian Tarot deck is an out-of-print book called _Tarot Psychology: Handbook for the Jungian Tarot_, published by US Games in 1992. It covers both the major and minor arcana. It was available separately. As well, it was available as part of the now-OOP deck/book set published by US Games in 1992. (The deck reissued in the past year or so is one published by Marcus Aurelius. To my knowledge, _Tarot Psychology_ hasn't been reissued.)

HOLMES	07 Jan 2005
speaking of that friend i like that tarot very much, i found the handbook very helpful especially for the minor cards meanings and code words if you choose to use them. i did start a jungian study group but no one was interested,, i got as far as four cards,, and if you want, we can restart it up again. if i do it by myself i might as well be doing it in wordpad :O(

rachelcat	07 Jan 2005
Hi Holmes. Since I can't seem to find a copy of Tarot Psychology, I would be happy to join in on a study of the minors. The do appeal to me and I would like to hear about those keywords! Let me know. Thanks for coming in out of the Jungian cold!

Dark Inquisitor	07 Jan 2005
Oh this is heartwarming !!! At last the Jungian tarot will be studied properly by somebody.Two seeking ships have found one another in the dark tarot night!! Best of luck with your Wang wrangling . :D

The Jungian Tarot is Maddening! thread was originally posted on 06 Jan 2005 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.