'OH! Not THAT book!"

There is a similar thread concerning tarot decks, which is very interesting to read, so I decided to try this variation on it. What tarot book to you recommend or NOT recommend, no matter what anyone else says?

I keep seeing people recommend 'Tarot Plain & Simple' to beginners -BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mr. Louis gets an award for creating a book that is recommended for insomniacs. Too many words and encyclopedic in style. A good reference for an experienced reader who is 'looking for the right word', but nothing I would recommend you give to a novice. This book will not help you learn to read tarot.

There is nothing "Easy" about Nancy Garen's 'Tarot Made Easy' (don't worry, Nancy and I have discussed this before). It is deceptively simple- with 38 separate definitions for EACH card (that's 2964 possible card meanings). All you do is flip a card, and look up what the book says. No thought process needed. This is the book that Miss Cleo is charged in a lawsuit as using to provide people their answers online. Once again- it is a GREAT book for a reference text - but nothing I would recommend for a beginner.

For beginners, I would recommend "The Idiot's Guide to Tarot and Fortune Telling" although the fortune telling part of the book is lacking and looks like an afterthought.

I would also recommend "The Everything Tarot Book" although it is Tarot with an astrological connection. Yours truely personally found four typos in this book, and a few ommissions ( yes, I do really read an entire book), so hopefully any new editions of the book will have a few corrections.

Although you may not learn to read Tarot from it, I always recommend 'Tarot In Ten Minutes' written by R T Kaser. It has been in print for 10 years. It is a lot of exercises finding which Tarot cards apply to you , and a great deal of fun! Mr. Kaser is supplying exercises for my second book, currently in the writing stages.

I love going negative. . . .

Books I have read, that I would not recommend, are:

The Devil's Picturebook by Paul Huson. I hate to talk trash about a book dedicated to a Marseilles style, but this is mostly myth-mongering rubbish.

The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Psychic Sciences by Walter and Litzka Gibson contains a rather cursory and dismissive chapter on tarot. You can also learn to tell fortunes with dominoes here. I can't actually imagine anyone learning to read with these arbitrary fortunes.

Has anyone ever mustered the patience to actually use the method of tarot divination suggested in Israel Regardie's reprint of the Golden Dawn materials?

Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling by Stuart Kaplan was supposed to be the definitive guide to the first deck I ever owned. I found nothing but frustration within its pages, and eventually gave it up and learned to actually read them through Eden Gray.

Hi all,

As a person who had a heck of a hard time learning the basics, I figured I'd add my 2 cents here....

I learned the majors, then the suites, then the numbers and court meanings..then added them all together with the help of: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Tarot by Rachel Pollack.

I even used her system to make a cheet sheet..if anyone is interested it is a "word" document and I can email it.

Now the problem, I stared using the Sacred Circle and read by what I see and will probably have to learn the basics AGAIN..YIKES..

Blessings

Cj

I second 'Tarot Made Easy' by Nancy Garen.... I bouht this book for some weird reason, but got it home and thught 'AGH!' As Tarotbear says, 38 different sections for each card, with stupid ones like 'Mail'... And SPECIFIC meanings for each of those 38 sections for every single card... Now, trying to interpret the cards is hard enough as it is, without having to memorise 38 different prts fr each card! Plus, I go for the intuitive reading approach, which makes me even more against this book...

I also find really annoying the various books I have seen which are basically just filled with lined pages for you to write your own views on each card... I can do the exact same thing with a 50p pad of paper, instead of spending nearly £12 for it!

Kiama

i find robert wang's "the jungian tarot and its archetypal imagery" very annoying. someone has serious mother issues in this book to the point it makes the book a huge turn-off. i don't know if it was wang or jung but i'd love to know for sure. but i must say i've never read in jung's writings anything like what's in this book. even if it was jung, it seems to me that wang would suspect what a turn-off this would be to female users. then again maybe he wouldn't!

Tarot Made Easy - Nancy Garen

I refer to this book, "Tarot Made Easy" by Nancy Garen very frequently, but you are so right there is nothing EASY about this book. In her introduction, Ms. Garen suggests reading several different categories for an interpretation, she says, and I quote: "If your question concerns love, you might read: Romance, Unions, Others, Emotional State, and Outcome." OK, but if you follow this suggestion and turn to the card's page you are going to get very confused. For example, lets take the TOWER, her interpretation for Romance is "an unexpected event, like a lie, infidelity, or abandonement, will destroy your trust in the one you love or your love for that person", now lets look what it says for the Outcome: "In some way, something will be given or done that will make up for any loss or injury". HUH??????

On the plus side I do believe there is a lot of value to her interpretations. And she gives some good information regarding numerology and astrology. My foremost problem with this book is that is clearly gets off the true path of tarot as I see it, which is the art and symobolism. And no it is not a book for a beginner.

tarot for dummies

Originally posted by tarotbear For beginners, I would recommend "The Idiot's Guide to Tarot and Fortune Telling" although the fortune telling part of the book is lacking and looks like an afterthought.[/B]

Click to expand...

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10150&highlight=minor+magicians

i remember (fondly! i've mentioned before that i want to "dig thru my 'archives' [viz, BOXES!] in my parent's attic" in hopes of finding it!) eden gray's, _mastering the tarot_, "way back when" there were No Computers, me "typing-up" cheat sheets, then, "cutting & pasting" (i.e., I would type a gray interpretation, GLUE it into a notebook/journal, then add to them--all typed-up!--my OWN "version," et cetera.

i've a lot of books; a lot of "magick" books! my "tarot" books are basically books regarding the decks (i've only 5 decks, and that's only for corresponding w/robin wood--and "reserching" her deck, and others, of course. i've longed for the william blake deck and
talked to ed buryn--i'm just a "collecter" of books, coins, etc, so? if i can get them inscribed/signed, so much the better--no biggie. osho zen and faerie oracle are the only other's, currently, "on my list." Oh, yeah!!! my thoth deck/book was "borrowed" [i.e., stolen] many yr's ago! "instant karma's gonna get you," if me and "rosa mundi" don't, first--robin wood's deck was the FIRST i've purchased in over Five Yr's).

w/the advent of the internet, i advise beginner's/"interested parties/inquiring minds" to sites like: barnes & nobel univ, joan bunning's on-line course (both free!), et al.

http://www.learntarot.com/

i was introduced to a magickal system long ago and went w/that, because i loved everything about it (actually, a woman; my girlfriend at the time was a member--isn't that always The Way?), aswellas the tarot decks, rituals, systems, history & traditions, everything.

for me: first came magic ("rabbit's out of hats"), then tarot, then "religions" (catholicism, soto-zen buddhism), THEN magick!

i also think that--asfaras tarot--i've learned the "most and the quickest" ("quick" being apx Seven Years!) via paul foster case and the lessons of the builders of the adytum.

that's my story. sorry to go off topic, a bit.

~Z~770

I have "Tarot, Plain and Simple" and find it a useful reference book for tarot - especially for reversed card meanings. I would recommend it for tarot beginners. I also have "Learning the Tarot" by Joan Bunning and "78 Degrees of Wisdom" by Joan Bunning, all excellent books.

Oceanpoetry, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom is by Rachel Pollack, not Joan Bunning.

Just thought I should point that out.

you're right, Phoenix! definitely want to give credit where credit is due, and Rachel Pollack is the author of "78 Degrees".