New Tarot book in the works.

Hi all-
I’m working on a new Tarot book, still a few months from completion. It’s called Tarot as a Counseling Language: Core Meanings of the Cards. I’ve decided to keep the ongoing rough draft posted online for the curious, and for any feedback it might lead to. The first chapter is up now, about 40 pages, reviewing the suits, court and numbers that are used as components of the Minor Arcana.
Like all of my work, the finished book will be free to download, so I have no need to adapt it to making money, or sell out to make it sell better. As such, it does not need to be easy to read: only informative. It’s not a beginners book.
It's also got links to a large, slightly annotated bibliography and a decent links page.
http://www.hermetica.info/Tarot.htm

I dipped into the section on swords--an interesting read! Bookmarked for further study. Thank you for sharing!

The draft of the 14 Wands is posted now.
http://www.hermetica.info/Tarot.htm
the 14 Cups should be ready by Oct 24.

The draft of the 14 Cups is posted now.
http://www.hermetica.info/Tarot.htm
the 14 Swords should be ready by Nov. 18.

Thanks for this--I'll take a look in more detail soon.

Very interesting reading, thank you very much! I'll come back for more

The draft of the 14 Swords is posted now.
The most misunderstood of the suits.
http://www.hermetica.info/Tarot.htm
the 14 Pentacles should be ready by Dec 9.

you occasionally say "most books say". I'd get rid of that phrase.

You refer to the Smith deck. What deck is that? Will there be images?
Even seasoned readers would like to look over at that particular branch or bee you refer to.
And many readers might like to have the actual deck beside them...so each time you mention a deck it should be with full particulars.
I'm guessing few would read it page one to page last, but rather dip in and out when they had a question about a card, this is more of a reference type book so assuming they will know because you've already said something might not be helpful.

There is a ton of work here, well done. People think writing is easy It isn't.

Hi AJ-
Thanks for the feedback.
I'll have to study some of your concerns on the final pass when the whole thing is assembled, mid-next year. After I get a little distance and rest.
The Smith deck is the Rider-Waite. I'm trying to break tradition and give overdue credit to the artist, where it belongs. I think she understood the Tarot a lot better than Waite. That's for the Introduction.
I didn't say most books unless it literally was, and included the Golden Dawn & Crowley streams. I'll look at that more carefully though. I don't know if you've seen the referenced Bibliography for this effort (link at the top), but there were about 150 books in the study, plus online resources.
You are right about this being a reference work and not being read cover to cover. I'll try to turn these statements into references instead of assumptions.
I'm still wondering what to do on illustrations. The book will never be a book - it's expected to remain a free online resource and labor of love. I may go no further than providing links to online decks. Or show a few alternative cards where they deviate radically. This is not intended to go with one particular deck. For that reason I pass over descriptions of the images fairly quickly.
I appreciate the feedback - I'm doing this in a cultural vacuum in the middle of nowhere.

I had no trouble getting the Smith reference as it and the Thoth are the two most well known decks.

I quite like not having the images there as it doesn't interrupt my reading. It focuses on the associations of the symbols referred to rather than having my brain hijacked by the actual (Waite-) Smith image. Bernard's associations feel rich and intellectually and historically coherent. So description forces me to use my mind to recall the image and that is actually surprisingly helpful for learning how to use Tarot as a language. I also love the references to different philosophical approaches to Western thought and the correspondences with the Yijing.