Best Tarot Books

daphne

gregory said:
I don't think he could answer that. He has so many !

I certainly don't think I could. As he says - it depends on what you are looking for in a tarot book; that was why he asked before posting. I have over a hundred, but I couldn't say any were my favourites; it would depend on what I needed at the time. Some are good to help with reading; some on history, a set of four is perfect for deck lust....-

I think that you always have some ultimate favorites. And he is so picky when it comes to these books out there, I would really like to know what are his favorites.
 

gregory

PICKY ? I don't think so. Scion knows what he likes, sure - but there are an awful lot of books he likes a lot.... He just also knows an awful lot that aren't worth the paper they are written on, and isn't afraid to say so ! I call that useful, not picky :D
 

daphne

gregory said:
PICKY ? I don't think so. Scion knows what he likes, sure - but there are an awful lot of books he likes a lot.... He just also knows an awful lot that aren't worth the paper they are written on, and isn't afraid to say so ! I call that useful, not picky :D

I agree, this time I mean by "picky" as "interesting". That is why I was curious ti find out his preferences.
 

Scion

Yeah... Gregory had it in one. (Thanks G).

Picking favorites is a tricky proposition for me with any books. It's totally contextual... depends on mood and topic and focus of the moment. The right book on the right subject at the right moment when you're in the right frame of mind. That stuff makes it impossible for me to spit out "top ten" lists (as I mentioned in the longer rant above). Ton ten lists are a byproduct of lazy consumer culture: people wanting other people to do "coverage" so they can skip through the oceans of twaddle to find somehting with content.

Let me put it another way: I have a library of about 17K books. Of those probably about a thousand are related to general divination or topics in some way tangential to Tarot. Of those, maybe four or five hundred are specifically Tarot related. Out of those 400-500, I'd say 2/3s were one-off reads that Iread to grok and will likely only use as a reference if somoene asks a question or if I'm trying to answer something specific to that book. Of the remainign 100+ I recommend books based on people's specific needs as I understand them. I don't believe in "ONE" book any more than I believe in "ONE" meal or ONE movie or "ONE" truth. And of course every time a new book is published and I absorb it, the whole list shifts again. :D

It's one of the reasons I don't like to make blind recommendations because they tend to be subjective and kind of meaningless. Mainly that''s cause I'm a freak about book recommendations, and tend to treat them like dangerous prescriptions. And there are books I remember finding widly useful way back when which I think are mushy and pointless now. But that's me and that's now, so it all depends on where you are in the journey. I can think of 2 that were great, seemed stupid, and then were revelatory again at a later date when I got my head out of my ass. })

So Daphne, I'm sorry to say I don't really have "ultimate favorites." On certain topics there are go to books I recommend but that's a sliding scale. For people nervous about the hardcore Thoth Tarot I send them to DuQuette's primer. But not everyone... some folks gets pissed that he's chatty and jokey about somehting they find deadly serious. For people dipping their toes into tarditional astrology I often suggest Frawley's Real Astrology, but a lot of working astrologers find his (justified) venom grating and want to skip to later books of his that are more practical. Some people want hardcore Golden Dawn theory, and Wang's Qabalistic Tarot takes a firm line, but it also leaves a lot of gaps and it's a little myopic UNLESS you're only doing the full-on GD QBLH thing.

Again, if there's somehting you're looking for specifically, I love recommending titles, but to be truly picky I have to know what I'm picking for. :)
 

daphne

Scion said:
Again, if there's somehting you're looking for specifically, I love recommending titles, but to be truly picky I have to know what I'm picking for. :)

I was not looking for recomandations from you. I wanted specifically to know what kind of books you prefer yourself when it comes to tarot. But after reading that you have like hundreds books on this topic, I understood that you are just a living tarot ocean knowledge with just another wave on its pick at every single moment.

Did you, yourself, wrote any?
 

starshine81

i'm looking for some time after a book of tarot with more mundane meanings. there are too many that emphasize the spiritual part of life, it's important i know but i would love to see FACTS in my life, i'm more on the predictive side of tarot. so any suggestions?
 

gregory

If there were such a book, there would be no need for readers - you could just turn to page 24 and there is your answer....

But for telling you what you must do, Bunning - whom I loathe - fits the bill. Lays down exactly what each card has to mean. Takes all the joy out of it all, somehow.... The point of being a reader is to find your own meanings.
 

gregory

daphne said:
.... after reading that you have like hundreds books on this topic, I understood that you are just a living tarot ocean knowledge with just another wave on its pick at every single moment.

Did you, yourself, wrote any?
If you are into Liber T - Scion wrote an excellent guide to the decans which he will email to anyone who asks.....
 

Herzog

why no mention of Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom. Rachel Pollack is a brilliant writer. I turn back to this book again and again as it is dense and full of amazing wisdom
 

Scion

I dunno... There are good things in 78 Degrees, and it's a classic, but it really is an expression of a moment in Tarot writing that has passed: a museum piece if that isn't too harsh. For manymanymanymany years the New Age focus was on psychology lite and therapeutic Tarot: divination as self help. This was one of the early me-generation expeditions into the territory. Rachel says exactly that in her intro to the new edition. As she puts it, "in the 1980s a group of writers, primarily women, began to take Tarot in a new direction... 78 Degrees was one of the first books in this movement." I remember loving this book and its personal meditative take when I read it first in 1985 or so. And now though I love sections, it mostly drives me up a wall. Tomayto-tomahto.

Rachel is very smart and loves to sort of nudge the conceptual envelope, but for my money it's a bit precious and a bit cautious. Rachel's work and life have come a long way (in several directions) since this book. It's adamantly, unapologetically Waite-Smith focused... and though intelligent it's fiercely unscholastic and "whatever feels right" in its tone. Subjunctives uber alles. The word "shaman" pops up with embarassing frequency (but that's a bit of a pebble in my shoe with lots of books). I think it's a good book for people who have been strictly reading the WS for years but never dug deeper.

Again for the right person, at the right moment, with the right habits, and the right deck focus, a great book. Wrong moment or reader or focus or point on the curve, it's self-empowering fingernails on the blackboard.