Must-read non-Tarot books

I was told that Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces is an excellent classic on monomyth and archetype, and though wasn't written with the sole intention of helping the Tarot reader, is nonetheless an excellent resource in understanding the Major Arcana. I have purchased the book and am waiting for it to arrive.

Another non-Tarot-related book that helped me immensely as a reader is Brene Brown's Rising Strong, because of its depth of insight on vulnerability and empathy.

What are some books that have helped you as a professional Tarot reader that were probably not written with the Tarot reader in mind?

I would recomend "Man and his symbols" from C.G. Jung. It was the last book he wrote with the intent of breaking down his concepts and theory really simple so that everyone could read it and undestand what he had worked on during his life. For peoples not familiar with the work of Jung, it talks about symbolism, archetypes, animus/anima, etc. There are a lot of shared themes with Joseph Campbell regarding myth and symbols.

Nosgo said:

I would recomend "Man and his symbols" from C.G. Jung. It was the last book he wrote with the intent of breaking down his concepts and theory really simple so that everyone could read it and undestand what he had worked on during his life. For peoples not familiar with the work of Jung, it talks about symbolism, archetypes, animus/anima, etc. There are a lot of shared themes with Joseph Campbell regarding myth and symbols.

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Thank you for your recommendation. I'll go to Amazon and check it out now.

Edit: I am typing this on my workdesk which has some shelf space on top. I look up and sitting right on top of a pile of books is... Man and His Symbols.

Well. Talk about synchronicity. I recall purchasing this at a street bargain store a year ago out of a whim.

The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis. An introduction to medieval science, useful for such things as the traditional four elements of Aristotelian physics and a general picture of how the world worked.

Straw Dogs by John Gray. An unflinching look at the human race and its place in the world.

The Pope: Considered in His Relations with the Church, Temporal Sovereignties, Separated Churches and the Cause of Civilization, by Joseph de Maistre. An intriguing work by a first rate mind whose assumptions about the world are categorically alien to our own.

The Muqadimmah by Ibn Khaldun. An intriguing work by a first rate mind whose assumptions about the world are categorically alien to our own.

Although the OP’s question is aimed at professional readers, of which I am not, here’s a list of what I can think of off-hand:

Willard Farnham, “The Medieval Heritage of Elizabethan Tragedy”,

Jean Seznec, “The Survival of the Pagan Gods”,

Howard Patch “The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature”,

Denis de Rougemont, “Love in the Western World” (US), “Passion and Society” (UK),

Vincent Foster Hopper, "Medieval Number Symbolism",

Iamblichus, “The Theology of Arithmetic”,

"The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols" by Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant,

"A Dictionary of Symbols" by J.E. Cirlot.

Many of these works are now out of copyright, and available on sites such as the Internet Archive. Perhaps these will provide food for thought.

earthshine said:

Thank you for your recommendation. I'll go to Amazon and check it out now.

Edit: I am typing this on my workdesk which has some shelf space on top. I look up and sitting right on top of a pile of books is... Man and His Symbols.

Well. Talk about synchronicity. I recall purchasing this at a street bargain store a year ago out of a whim.

Click to expand...

Funny! It's always like this when you are on the right path eheh...

_R_ and ihcoyc,

Wow! Those are some titles I haven't heard of before. Thanks for your recs. I'll check them out over the weekend. And hopefully manifest some $$ to purchase them.

I found Sapiens by Noah Harari very interesting. I'm looking forward to his new book, Homo Deus, which I didn't read yet.

The Immortal Bard

One other candidate for this list which I would like to mention is the work of Martin Lings on Shakespeare, revised and republished under different titles over the years. This list is in chronological order although I do not know what new material, if any, the latest edition contains.

Shakespeare in the Light of Sacred Art;
The Secret of Shakespeare;
The Sacred Art of Shakespeare;
Shakespeare's Window into the Soul;
To Take Upon Us the Mystery of Things.

A number of excerpts and recordings of the lectures on which they were based are available courtesy of one of the publishers, the Matheson Trust.

https://themathesontrust.org/authors/martin-lings

Those fond of the “immortal Bard”, symbolism, and the study of the sacred in general, will undoubtedly derive much benefit and pleasure from reading or listening to this remarkable work.

I love the recommendations of C.S. Lewis, Joseph Campbell, and the dictionaries of symbols for help in interpretations.

I recommend the book Passages for help in wisdom and life application.