'Esoteric Symbols' by June Leavitt

Strange what you find when you are looking for something else. I have ordered this, thoroughly intrigued:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Esoteric-Sy...8&qid=1407338490&sr=1-1&keywords=june+leavitt

http://www.amazon.com/Esoteric-Symb...673X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322773970&sr=8-1

http://www.juneleavitt.com/index.php/books-by-june

Her Kafka book looks interesting too, but I am not going to spend that much until I have read the Tarot book. Maybe a new perspective?

Patrick

Thank you for the links! Yeats, Eliot, and Kafka are three of my all-time favorite authors. I may need to get that book, but I'll wait until there are a few reviews of it.

Very interesting looking! I am surprised there are no reviews at all, considering it was published in 2007.
A bit pricey considering but intriguing. I wish they had the "look inside" feature to get a taste.

Yes, I would have liked a chance to look inside the book and read some reviews too. Probably won't get it for a few more days, but I will post my impressions.

Patrick

To get the best out of this book, you really need detailed knowledge of the lives and work of Yeats, Elliot and Kafka - more knowledge than I possess. The author sees the images of the Tarot as archetypes intruding upon reality, and describes this process with reference to a number of cards. She focuses primarily upon the Waite/Coleman Smith deck. For someone with an interest in Tarot and at least some of these writers, this book might well have something to say. Perhaps a rather indirect way to experience the Tarot.

Patrick

Patrick Booker said:

To get the best out of this book, you really need detailed knowledge of the lives and work of Yeats, Elliot and Kafka - more knowledge than I possess. The author sees the images of the Tarot as archetypes intruding upon reality, and describes this process with reference to a number of cards. She focuses primarily upon the Waite/Coleman Smith deck. For someone with an interest in Tarot and at least some of these writers, this book might well have something to say. Perhaps a rather indirect way to experience the Tarot.

Patrick

Click to expand...

i am intrigued by the phrase "intruding upon reality" - can you say more?

Babalon Jones said:

i am intrigued by the phrase "intruding upon reality" - can you say more?

Click to expand...

Leavitt accepts Jungian archetypes as a strong influence upon our lives, and regards the images of the Tarot as archetypal. People involved with the Tarot do indeed find these images cropping up in the form of dreams and synchronicities, and perhaps in their work if they are writers. I suppose that this may be unconscious in part. Leavitt argues a case for all three writers being acquainted with the images of the Tarot, although a symbolic system such as the Tarot might 'intrude' in such a way as to announce it's presence before any acquaintance in linear time. One might, for instance, see an image of the Hanged Man, and be led by curiosity to discover the Tarot.

Patrick

Interesting, thank you for this Patrick.