New Book on Marseille Tarot by Camelia Elias

surpeti

I got mine a couple of weeks ago on amazon (I am in the US). I'm really enjoying it--the photos of the Zoya deck are luscious. I am a fan of Camelia and I find her insights very refreshing. If you like eye-rhymes and cartomancy with a wry sense of humor, this is for you. Recommended! :thumbsup:
 

Patrick Booker

Just arrived. Looks very readable and nicely produced - looking forward to it.

Patrick
 

Patrick Booker

I have read it now. This is an excellent guide that gives the feeling one is looking over the author's shoulder as she reads a spread. She explains the sources of her methodology clearly, including parallels of the Tarot pip cards and the use of playing cards for divination. A very nicely produced book.

Patrick
 

Le Fanu

This book is wonderful. I received it from amazon today and have been reading it. I like everything about it so far. This is a seriously useful and readable and inspiring stroll through reading with the Marseilles. A real gem.

This might just be the mental reorientation I feel like I need to take me back to the Marseilles after a break.
 

garmonbozia

This looks like a good one. I've just added it to the top of my wishlist.
 

Barleywine

I wanted to like this one. The "story-telling" approach to interpreting the Tarot de Marseille as opposed to the "deconstuctionist" approach holds a lot of appeal for me. Mostly I do like it, and I'm about half-way through it now. It's not as engrossing a read as I had hoped for. Her writing style is quite conversational, which is a plus. It's obvious English isn't her first language; her narrative is a bit "quirky" and she really could have used a competent English-speaking editor. I think her depiction of the Emperor is one of the better ones I've seen so far. On the downside, the brief example readings she gives after each Trump read like they were generated by a computerized tarot report-writer. There often isn't a unifying thread of logic running through the individual observations, so they don't hang together that well. This is a bit jarring and devalues them for me. I'm still waiting to see the "cunning-folk-tale" method of reading fully explained. I hope it produces a better result than what I see in the example readings.
 

jema

Just had to order it despite the fact I now need to live on air a week. Well, books and air.

Since my 2015 is devoted to the Marseille it is a great time to complete my tarot library and it is not often we see books like this so I simply must have them all :-D
 

Barleywine

I think I've crossed the line into "enabling" on this one. About two-thirds through and getting a lot of value out of the Courts and pips material. Worth adding to your library.
 

Lee

I don't have the book and thus am probably being unfair, but based on reviews I've read and on what I've read on her blog, I dislike the use of the term "cunning folk method." To me it seems like a buzzword, a somewhat pretentious way to bestow a mantle of paganism on a system that really doesn't have anything to do with paganism.

The use of the term also suggests or implies that her method was actually historically used by witches or pagans, which is obviously not the case - it's basically Dawn Jackson's Hedgewitchery playing-card system. I'm glad she credits Jackson (thanks to Astraea for mentioning that), but while Jackson herself is obviously pagan, I don't think she (Jackson) claims or suggests such a thing.

It also bothers me that several of the reviews I've read refer to the "cunning folk method" of cartomancy as if it's an actual thing.

If one wants to present an approach that's relatively simple, common-sense, and down-to-earth, then why not just say that? Creating a buzz-worthy catchphrase seems to me to be the very opposite of the qualities she's claiming for her system.
 

Barleywine

I don't have the book and thus am probably being unfair, but based on reviews I've read and on what I've read on her blog, I dislike the use of the term "cunning folk method." To me it seems like a buzzword, a somewhat pretentious way to bestow a mantle of paganism on a system that really doesn't have anything to do with paganism.

The use of the term also suggests or implies that her method was actually historically used by witches or pagans, which is obviously not the case - it's basically Dawn Jackson's Hedgewitchery playing-card system. I'm glad she credits Jackson (thanks to Astraea for mentioning that), but while Jackson herself is obviously pagan, I don't think she (Jackson) claims or suggests such a thing.

It also bothers me that several of the reviews I've read refer to the "cunning folk method" of cartomancy as if it's an actual thing.

If one wants to present an approach that's relatively simple, common-sense, and down-to-earth, then why not just say that? Creating a buzz-worthy catchphrase seems to me to be the very opposite of the qualities she's claiming for her system.

Hmmm, I guess I was taking it in a "folkloric" sense, kind of like "oral tradition" stuff, not paganism or witchcraft. I'm nearly done with the book and finding a useful working definition of the term is still elusive. From the example readings, it doesn't look that much different from simple story-telling using both free association and the visual cues she gives (primarily the "gesture/gaze" ideas - which aren't unique to the method - and the repetition of pictorial elements - which probably isn't either). While it might have elements of "cunning," I can't really see what makes it "folk."