Decks and books essential to the study of tarot...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 27 Nov 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Logiatrix	27 Nov 2003
I'd like to have at least some exposure to those works determined to be "important for the tarotist to know." I figure that the decks would be those that significantly influenced the design of tarot through history. The books would be those that have proven to be essential references on the history, structure and/or use of tarot. So you ask, "who determines such a thing?" Well, Aeclectic Tarot Forum does, of course! :D So far, I've come up with these tarot decks: >Visconti-Sforza >Marseille >Rider-Waite >Golden Dawn >Oswald Wirth >Thoth >BOTA ...and these books: >78 Degrees of Wisdom (Pollack) >Tarot For Yourself (Greer) >Pictorial Keys To The Tarot (Waite) >Meditations On the Tarot (Anonymous) I know there's more... What other decks and books are a "must know" for the esteemed tarot scholar? :)

Rusty Neon	27 Nov 2003
Books: Any list of books is bound to be highly subjective. Some of the books that people list will be seen by others as non-essential. Here's my subjective list, premised on the use of the RWS, GD decks, Thoth, Tarot de Marseille and Etteilla as study decks: - Waite's _Pictorial Key to the Tarot_ - Golden Dawn manuscripts including _Book T_ and _Tarot Divination_ - Wang's _The Qabalistic Tarot_ - Marteau's _Tarot de Marseille_ - Carole Sédillot's _Ombres et lumières du tarot_ - Crowley's _Book of Thoth_ - Duquette's _Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot_ - TarotL History Information Sheet http://www.villarevak.org/misc/tarotl_1.html - James Revak's paper on comparative divinatory meanings http://www.villarevak.org/td/td_1.htm - Uri Raz's _Tarot and the Decans_ re: Pip Cards http://www.tarot.org.il/English/decans.html - Oswald Wirth's _Le Tarot des imagiers du moyen âge_ - Papus' _The Tarot of the Bohemians_ - Alain Bocher's _Les Cahiers du tarot_, Volume 1 - Hulse's _Western Mysteries_ - Kaplan's tarot encyclopedias *

Mystic Zyl	28 Nov 2003
I also recommend Tarot Made Easy by Nancy Greer.

The Decks and books essential to the study of tarot... thread was originally posted on 27 Nov 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.