The worst tarot books you have come across

Mystic_Blue_Jay

I wasn't too crazy about "A Complete Guide to the Tarot" by Eden Gray. It seemed like a lot of blah, blah, blah about the description of the cards and not enough discussion about their meanings.

I also didn't like a Tarot Reversals book that I bought by Mary Greer. Wouldn't say it wasthe worst, but the "traditional" meanings sounded a lot like the modern meanings she was giving. And then she gives all this excess info about shamanic and health meanings. It seemed like she was going off tangent.
 

Mesara

"Mastering the Tarot" by Juliet Sharman-Burke. I just bought this yesterday and I am most displeased. Supposedly it is an "advanced" personal teaching guide but it doesn't tell you anything that any advanced tarot reader wouldn't already know. Pretty much the same info you could get from reading the little insert that comes with every RW deck.

Im so dissappointed. There were other books I wanted that I know would have been worth my money but for some reason I chose this piece of crap instead. Tonight as I was browsing through amazon I noticed that this book only got a 1 star rating. I wish I had seen that before I went to the bookstore yesterday.
 

Moongold

darwinia said:
Shhh Jema, I looked at this book in a store and never considered buying another book of Mary Greer's. I feel like a heretic dodging lightning bolts, I have scorned the sacred movers and shakers of Tarot.

Well, at least their books, they themselves are charming and talented to be sure.

I think it is fine to dislike books by certain authors. I have "Tarot Constellations" and "Tarot Mirrors" by Mary Greer and learned a lot from them. Still use them quite a bit but I don't think they are in print any more.

These ones are particularly interesting for some people who are learning.

We all have different tastes and learning needs so some things are not going to suit all of us.
 

Diana

Shalott said:
So far the worst in my collection is "The Tarot" by Joseph Maxwell, and some ppl think he's pretty good but I've skimmed it and put it away thinking: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:
I was just desparate for something in English on Marseille at the time...

Shalott: This is an old post of yours I'm quoting, but I don't think I ever saw this thread before.

I think the English translation of this book is terrible. I actually don't have the French version (out of print), but it is obvious that the book is badly translated. And it is amazing what a bad translation can do to a book - it can destroy its very essence.

I remember offering "Atlas Shrugged" in its French version to a friend once. He tried to read it and then gave it back to me and said "this book is rubbish." I was so surprised so I tried to read it. Indeed.... the translation made the book into something cheap and boring.
 

Semiramis

COMPLETELY agree about Nancy Garen's "Tarot Made Easy". "Tarot Made Confusing" would be more on the mark. There are too many overly specific meanings to each card, none of which may fit the particular reading, and not enough background info on the card itself. I can just picture beginning readers tearing out their hair with frustration at having to learn so many confusing meanings.
 

noby

I agree with others who mentioned Hollander's Tarot For Beginners. I picked it up and sat down and read through some of it in a used bookstore, and didn't even find it worth the cheap used price. The meanings given were so fixed and rigid, and I felt they really limited and dumbed down the cards. I don't mind books that propose specific divinitory meanings in general, I even have one that was my first tarot book to which I still refer for ideas (Sylvia Abraham's Read the Tarot). I find that while Abraham's given meanings are often specific, they are nestled among various ideas which all stem from a unified source, and can inspire me to think of other ideas, fitting with the general symbolism of the card. Hollander's book just seemed way off to me, like it was suggesting learning to interpret the cards by imposing another person's strict and limited interpretations onto them, instead of getting a feel for their symbolism and possible meanings stemming from that. Blah.
 

rexenne2003

Worst book I have purcased

Thankfully it was a used book from half.com. It was Tarot Spells by Janina Renee. AWEFULL!
Two paragraphs on spell ethics (it's a bit more complicated than that and should be more fully talked about IMHO). Not only did that paturb me, but there is a rigid spell 'pattern' that she instructs you to go by. Candles in the corners book between them laid open to the spell, cards laid EXACTLY as she has them in the book...come on...spell casting is not that rigid and varies from person to person, depending on style and ethics. Yuck. She has a newer verison of the older one that I have, but I cannot get myself to purchase it. It's just the same old thing with a makeover and a spiffy new design on the cover.
 

Peredur

Rachael Pollak's Forrest Of Souls

Although rather new to the tarot, I found this book to be interesting and thought provoking. The only part I disliked was the way she pushed her own deck and yes, I too got tired of seeing her lovers card all over the place. Still, she seems like a fascinating person, one I'd love to meet.
Bob
 

Ceit

The Complete Idiot's guide to Tarot

There are two different Idiot's guides


The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tarot and Fortune-Telling
by Arlene Tognetti, Lisa Lenard
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Alpha Books; 1 edition (December 18, 1998)
ISBN: 0028627377
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds.


And

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tarot (Complete Idiot's Guide to...)
by Arlene Tognetti, Lisa Lenard, Lisa Lenard-Cook
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Alpha Books; 2nd edition (June 1, 2003)
ISBN: 1592570666
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.0 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds. (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 stars based on 17 reviews. (Write a review)
Amazon.com Sales Rank in Books: #44,395


I like the Idiot's guide to Tarot a great deal. It's easy to follow and makes it easy to learn. I haven't read the Tarot and Fortune-telling, but it sounds like I should read it at the books store, but then again, I haven't seen that version.
 

jmd

The second is simply a second edition of the first, which was a first edition of the second... if that makes any sense :D