Ophiel
First off, I apologize to Maan for creating a new thread from one that she started about new titles from Llewellyn Books, one of them the new book by ceremonial magician Donald Kraig titled, "Tarot and Magic." I am so because I posted a number of messages in that thread and need to update those messages and thought if I started a thread specifically about this book, I could get the attention of those who may have read my first comments but perhaps might not go back to that thread.
When I found out about Donald Kraig's newest book, "Tarot and Magic," I was excited, very excited. I literally dropped everything I was doing and made a bee line to a local bookstore after I called and learned they had it on the shelf. I really liked Kraig's book "Modern Magick" (MM) and had no reason to believe he wouldn't deliver on this one, too. I relish Tarot books with a twist, going into new areas. The shelves are quite heavy with titles about the divinational side of the cards.
The first few chapters of the book were great, just fantastic, IMHO. In fact, I think I made my impressions very clear in Maan's thread.
And then I hit a chapter that I thought was a dude, a real bomb. It reminded me of that tale of the Emperor's new clothes, where someone had convinced the Emperor he had new clothes but in fact, he had none and was parading down the streets showing both his crown jewels and his family jewels. And everyone praised his new threads. I am the Emperor and I brought this book into my realm, and I felt that Kraig tried to convince me of some valid "new" techniques with the Tarot that just didn't work for me one bit. It is a chapter called "Dancing the Tarot," which blends some Gestault therapy techniques with some modelling exercises I did at a Tony Robbins Firewalk/NLP seminar over a decade ago. The gist of this technique is that if you can model/imitate exactly how a person is sitting/gesturing, you will gain access to their mind set. Far fetched, but it did seem to work at the seminar. But Kraig's method involves the comparing and modelling the gestures from two or more Tarot cards and creating a change in physiology, and outcome.
But don't take my word for it. Buy this book and hopefully you will get as much as I did out of the chapters that worked for me (1-3 and 5) and those that didn't. Maybe these chapters really work for you. I am not finished with the book yet and perhaps I can add more chapters that worked.
Another chapter on ceremonial magic that didn't work for me, either. I'm getting a real fire n' ice feeling from this book, a few steaming chapters and then... IMHO, there's too much magick, and not enough Tarot in this book.
I have a few more chapters to go, and frankly, I had to read this book. Maybe you do, too.
When I found out about Donald Kraig's newest book, "Tarot and Magic," I was excited, very excited. I literally dropped everything I was doing and made a bee line to a local bookstore after I called and learned they had it on the shelf. I really liked Kraig's book "Modern Magick" (MM) and had no reason to believe he wouldn't deliver on this one, too. I relish Tarot books with a twist, going into new areas. The shelves are quite heavy with titles about the divinational side of the cards.
The first few chapters of the book were great, just fantastic, IMHO. In fact, I think I made my impressions very clear in Maan's thread.
And then I hit a chapter that I thought was a dude, a real bomb. It reminded me of that tale of the Emperor's new clothes, where someone had convinced the Emperor he had new clothes but in fact, he had none and was parading down the streets showing both his crown jewels and his family jewels. And everyone praised his new threads. I am the Emperor and I brought this book into my realm, and I felt that Kraig tried to convince me of some valid "new" techniques with the Tarot that just didn't work for me one bit. It is a chapter called "Dancing the Tarot," which blends some Gestault therapy techniques with some modelling exercises I did at a Tony Robbins Firewalk/NLP seminar over a decade ago. The gist of this technique is that if you can model/imitate exactly how a person is sitting/gesturing, you will gain access to their mind set. Far fetched, but it did seem to work at the seminar. But Kraig's method involves the comparing and modelling the gestures from two or more Tarot cards and creating a change in physiology, and outcome.
But don't take my word for it. Buy this book and hopefully you will get as much as I did out of the chapters that worked for me (1-3 and 5) and those that didn't. Maybe these chapters really work for you. I am not finished with the book yet and perhaps I can add more chapters that worked.
Another chapter on ceremonial magic that didn't work for me, either. I'm getting a real fire n' ice feeling from this book, a few steaming chapters and then... IMHO, there's too much magick, and not enough Tarot in this book.
I have a few more chapters to go, and frankly, I had to read this book. Maybe you do, too.
and I'd love to hear general impressions from you, if you've also read it. Except for a few chapters, I did get a lot from the book.