What are your Must Have Tarot Books

Is Brian Williams' book the only book published on the Minchiate?

Tarot for Writers

Not only is it useful to making stories, but it helps get more than just keywords out of a spread. A completely different viewpoint on the cards and I really, really like it.

DeToX said:

Is Brian Williams' book the only book published on the Minchiate?

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It's the only one I know of in English, but I'd be happy to be corrected.

For me, my must-have books are:

Mystical Origins of the Tarot - Paul Huson
Renaissance Tarot - Brian Williams
Tarot: History Symbolism and Divination - Robert Place
Fortuna's Wheel - Nigel Jackson

For someone completely new I'd recommend one or more of these too:
Tarot for Yourself - Mary Greer
21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card - Mary Greer
Tarot Plain and Simple - Antony Louis

Mel's Methods

I've downloaded the text from one of the links, and it looks interesting. Does anyone know where it comes from? Is it a published book or an unpublished course manual or what is it, basically?

majowy said:

I've downloaded the text from one of the links, and it looks interesting. Does anyone know where it comes from? Is it a published book or an unpublished course manual or what is it, basically?

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That was written here on AT by our member Melanchollic. Here's the link to the original thread: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=112327

Laura Borealis said:

That was written here on AT by our member Melanchollic.

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Thanks a lot! Great to know it's been created here on this forum

The Book of Thoth - Aleister Crowley
78 Degrees of Wisdom - Rachel Pollack
A Magical Course in Tarot - Michele Morgan

My two go-to books are:
Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack and
Tarot: Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis

I really enjoyed reading Robert Place's book, The Tarot: History, Symbolism and Divination, for an historical perspective but I haven't found it essential.

Mary Greer's 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card helped improve my reading significantly, but I no longer reference the book regularly.

One book that I'm surprised hasn't made it on this list yet is The Tarot Playbook by Lynda Cowles. The book is a little silly, but it helps remind me to have fun with the tarot. Something I badly need at the end of a long day. The more I use this book, the more I find I learn about using my cards--and painlessly.

Phoenix said:

So, I'm getting back into Tarot, and am slowly rebuilding my book collection.
What are your must have or go to tarot books? I'm really loking to expand my collection.
Thanks!

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I've been watching this thread with great interest as I am acquiring a Pollack library by default; last few months I just keep coming across Rachel's books at excellent prices in the oddest places.

If one puts "tarot books" into a comprehensive search effort, you can come up with literally hundreds of English tarot books that have been published over the last fifty years. It's been interesting, maybe even a bit sad, so few of the classics have turned up in this thread.

A go-to book is probably focused on a particular deck system that is of great interest to the owner. A must-have book is probably more inclusive, historical, theoretical, philosophical or a survey of styles or deck themes.

A tarot library is aeclectic by its nature and is assembled to suit the collector's needs or peculiarities. Or, as in my case, a library grows in one direction because of curious coincidence.

Mary k.Greer "Tarot Reversals"...excellent and complete. "Tarot for Lovers" (not just about love) by E.W.Neville. I love it.