Good book on the RWS

starlightexp

Other then PKT by Waite what other books would you recomend to understand the symbols and imagery on the RWS?
 

Alan Ross

cardlady22 said:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=109788
Place's book, for one!
I second that recommendation. Also, Rachel Pollock's "Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom" is a generally well-regarded classic, although I believe that Place stays closer to the symbolism actually intended by A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith.

Alan
 

Teheuti

Place makes numerous errors regarding the RWS deck and it's symbology. This is not a deck he works with as he prefers the Marseille-style decks, but the publisher felt it was necessary to ensure sales. Place's explanation about the printing process of the deck is completely wrong. This is really a shame because the first part of his book is excellent and so we expect that the RWS material will be based on the same level of scholarship and insight, and it's not. Much of the card information comes from David Allen Hulse's The Key of It All, Book Two: The Western Mysteries - which is quite good on the RWS deck, although there are several errors that Place perpetuates.

To understand the Major Arcana, the best source IMHO is Paul Foster Case's Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages.

The best book on background about the deck is The Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot by K. Frank Jensen from the Association for Tarot Studies.
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/books/story-waite-smith/
 

cardlady22

Alan Oken?

I ran across his Pocket Guide To Tarot (Crossings Press) at my library. How does his take on the symbols measure up? I recall reading in a much older thread that his section on the history & methods for use were not good. Of course, this book was published in 1996.
ISBN: 0895948222
 

teomat

Teheuti said:
To understand the Major Arcana, the best source IMHO is Paul Foster Case's Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages.
Thanks for this suggestion. Is there an equivalent book for the Minors?

Apart from Waite's PKT, I can't seem to find a book that actually explains the symbolism in this deck as Waite/Smith intended. All the one's I've come across seem to focus on what the author's opinion is on what the symbols mean, rather than perhaps what Waite/Smith really intended.

Is there a book that does explain the 'real' intent and symbology? Say something along the lines of Duquette's Thoth guide, but for the RWS?
 

fyreflye

teomat said:
Thanks for this suggestion. Is there an equivalent book for the Minors?

Isabel Kliegman, "Tarot and The Tree of Life."
Though perhaps Mary will disagree ;)

For an overall view of the symbolism of the RWS you might find some value in "The Secret Language of Tarot," by Wald Amberstone and Ruth Ann Amberstone

As for the question of what Waite actually meant to convey by the symbols, it's my understanding that Waite, like PF Case and other kabbalists, was interested primarily in the Major Arcana and left it up to Pixie to design the minors. His own contributions to the description of the minors in his book sometimes seem to be describing a card other than the one we see illustrated.

BTW, why do you assume that Waite understood anything about the tarot? He was a hack journalist.
 

thorhammer

I second the 78 Degrees suggestion. That book taught me a great deal about the RW deck, and seems to take quite a moderate middle line between dry scholarly and airy-fairy-New-Agey intuitive.

PKT is really great for firelighters. })

\m/ Kat
 

teomat

fyreflye said:
As for the question of what Waite actually meant to convey by the symbols, it's my understanding that Waite, like PF Case and other kabbalists, was interested primarily in the Major Arcana and left it up to Pixie to design the minors. His own contributions to the description of the minors in his book sometimes seem to be describing a card other than the one we see illustrated.

BTW, why do you assume that Waite understood anything about the tarot? He was a hack journalist.
Thanks for the book suggestions - I'll have a look.

As to Waite, well...if he did dictate to Pixie what the Majors should look like (and given that such a huge number of decks have followed this model), wouldn't you say he DID know something about tarot? :)

thorhammer said:
I second the 78 Degrees suggestion. That book taught me a great deal about the RW deck, and seems to take quite a moderate middle line between dry scholarly and airy-fairy-New-Agey intuitive.

PKT is really great for firelighters.

\m/ Kat
I have 78DW and I did enjoy the first few chapters.

But then something about it started to bother me. I can't really put my finger on it really, just the sense that it was becoming a bit unbalanced - perhaps a bit too personal to what the author thought and not very objective. The somewhat negative/anti-male take on the Emperor kind of rattled me I think. But maybe I should give it another go...