The worst tarot books you have come across

witchpatcher

Babylon_Jasmine said:
I don't know if this is the easy tarot book that I looked at, but I read one with a title like that Tarot made easy, or simple or something similar, and after that decided to advise anyone considerign getting into the tarot to run away from any books with the word easy or simple in the title. Only exception would be Tarot for Dummies, which I haven't read, but every for dummies book I have read has been accurate and concise.

I realize this was posted back in May, but just wanted to comment how much I appreciate getting your different perspectives on these topics--I have recommended this book to students because I didn't consider how overwhelming (Tarot Made Easy) could be for learners--that's a lot of different interpretations for each card and the author doesn't really explain how she arrived at those conclusions.

Thank you for showing me another side to this.

And I agree the for dummies books are generally quite good.

Psychebleu

Worst books

My nomination - Mastering the Tarot: A Guide to Advanced Tarot Reading and Practice by Paul Fenton-Smith

So you've read the title, and here's a little something from inside the book:

Court Cards-Elements Chart

SUIT PAGE KNIGHT QUEEN KING
Wands Air of Fire Fire of Fire Water of Fire Earth of Fire

Cups Air of Water Fire of Water Water of Water Earth of Water

Swords Air of Air Fire of Air Water of Air Earth of Air

Pentacle Air of Earth Fire of Earth Water of Earth Earth of Earth

The four pure types are:

Knight of Wands - Fiery part of Fire
Queen of Cups - Watery part of Water
Page of Swords - Airy part of Air
King of Pentacles - Earthy part of Earth

He doesn't explain how he comes to these correspondences, but states it as if it's widely excepted tradition. Hmmm...

He also fills the book with anecdotes that do little to illustrate the points he's trying to make.

witchpatcher

SUIT PAGE KNIGHT QUEEN KING
Wands Air of Fire Fire of Fire Water of Fire Earth of Fire

Cups Air of Water Fire of Water Water of Water Earth of Water

Swords Air of Air Fire of Air Water of Air Earth of Air

Pentacle Air of Earth Fire of Earth Water of Earth Earth of Earth

The four pure types are:

Knight of Wands - Fiery part of Fire
Queen of Cups - Watery part of Water
Page of Swords - Airy part of Air
King of Pentacles - Earthy part of Earth

HUH? LOLOLOL ::blink blink::

Psychebleu

Worse Books

witchpatcher said:
HUH? LOLOLOL ::blink blink::

Yep, and it seems to be written for those who are thinking of going professional. Uh yeah, professional cold reader...

MareSaturni

witchpatcher said:
SUIT PAGE KNIGHT QUEEN KING
Wands Air of Fire Fire of Fire Water of Fire Earth of Fire

Cups Air of Water Fire of Water Water of Water Earth of Water

Swords Air of Air Fire of Air Water of Air Earth of Air

Pentacle Air of Earth Fire of Earth Water of Earth Earth of Earth

The four pure types are:

Knight of Wands - Fiery part of Fire
Queen of Cups - Watery part of Water
Page of Swords - Airy part of Air
King of Pentacles - Earthy part of Earth

I think these correspondances came from thoth...but i say the author hasn't explained very well.

Yuko

Psychebleu

miss_yuko said:
I think these correspondances came from thoth...but i say the author hasn't explained very well.

Yuko

Nope, Crowley uses Golden Dawn's correspondances.

Psychebleu

Worst books

Kiama said:
Luckily, I never owned this book - just picked it up whilst browsing in Blackwells.

I don't know the title, but it was a book by Hali Morag, in which the author gives you card combinations that, for instance, definitely predict pregnancy. (Such as the 3 of Cups + Empress.)

Bleurgh...

Kiama

This would be All About Tarot by Hali Morag, and yes, it sucks.

jackdaw*

My suggestions for worst books (you may guess by now I'm a bit of a bibliophile):

- Another book by Hali Morag, that I think is just called "Tarot" - some of the oddest divinatory interpretations I've ever seen. I can't recall any now, I loaned it to a coworker and never lamented that she didn't return it when she quit
- Tarot by A.T. Mann, terrible, just terrible!
- PKT, although I can only say that in terms of its readability and interpretations. Some of it was so bad it was good, and is good to read for a hoot, especially when he snipes at some of his predecessors.

QofP

Phantom Goddess

Psychebleu said:
My nomination - Mastering the Tarot: A Guide to Advanced Tarot Reading and Practice by Paul Fenton-Smith

So you've read the title, and here's a little something from inside the book:

Court Cards-Elements Chart

SUIT PAGE KNIGHT QUEEN KING
Wands Air of Fire Fire of Fire Water of Fire Earth of Fire

Cups Air of Water Fire of Water Water of Water Earth of Water

Swords Air of Air Fire of Air Water of Air Earth of Air

Pentacle Air of Earth Fire of Earth Water of Earth Earth of Earth

The four pure types are:

Knight of Wands - Fiery part of Fire
Queen of Cups - Watery part of Water
Page of Swords - Airy part of Air
King of Pentacles - Earthy part of Earth

He doesn't explain how he comes to these correspondences, but states it as if it's widely excepted tradition. Hmmm...

He also fills the book with anecdotes that do little to illustrate the points he's trying to make.

How does this crap even get published??

celeste

I personally found The Complete New Tarot by Onno and Rob Docters Van Leeuwen to be confusing.
They added two new trumps that I'd never even heard of before: Intuition (which they assigned a negative charge rather than a number) and Truth (which had a positive charge rather than a number).

Also the order of the trumps were skewed.

There is alot of information in the book, but I don't trust the validity of it since they seemed to make up thier own Major Arcana.

The worst tarot books you have come across

witchpatcher

Psychebleu

witchpatcher

Psychebleu

MareSaturni

Psychebleu

Psychebleu

jackdaw*

Phantom Goddess

celeste