The worst tarot books you have come across

NightWing

Limited Appeal

Celeste: from a former Manitoban to a current one, you are absolutely right about the variant Majors you mention above. The authors published a "corrected" version of the tarot which they believe to be closer to what once was, or at least what was once intended. So yes, there are some different titles, as well as symbology, etc. in their version of the tarot, and the book they wrote about it. Presumably, the book makes somewhat more sense if you have and are using their tarot. It would have somewhat limited use otherwise. It probably should have been sold as a set, or not at all.

Go Goldeyes!
 

darwinia

Pollack Again

Psychebleu said:
You're right not to bother - I have 78 Degrees, which I bought in a local metaphysical bookstore when she made an appearance - gave a talk, signed some books. Not impressed with the book (as a tool for learning to read tarot, anyway) or her. Sorry, but she just strikes me as a trained reader, in the sense that some differentiate between a 'tarot reader' and an 'intuitive/empath/psychic' - she knows the cards, but I don't see her as a developed intuitive.

I have tried to trade the 78 Degrees book a couple of times, but it's still here. I had it out last night and I find her associations gobbledygook. She's a wonderfully inventive writer, but the way this book is taken as dogma has never appealed to me.

I have never cared to relate the first half of the Majors to the second half, or the Magician to the High Priestess, or card number 12 to card number 3 because 1 + 2 = 3, and so on as Rachel Pollack does.

I feel stultified by her supposedly "free" association and clarification. It reeks of one person's personal credo and imagination and not freedom to me. She's clever, she knows her mythology and numerology etc. but she might as well write it in stone since her views are a monument to restriction and dogma in my opinion.

I understand she has a great personality and runs fabulous workshops, but you have to buy into the dogma, the system as Rachel sees it, which simply doesn't interest me.
 

obsidian_queen

Auroramyst said:
I'm sure some will disagree, but for me, Tarot Made Easy, by Nancy Garen, just didn't work. It's one of those books that made me think, "OMG, I'll NEVER learn this in a zillion years!"

I've read, on another forum, that there are mistakes in the astrological connections in this book, too. I haven't confirmed that myself.


Oh no no no I'm telling you I wholeheartedly agree with you. I asked this tarot reader for some recommendations on books that might help me learn to read the cards and she directed me to this one. Now mind you I went to HER because she was so astoundingly accurate with me in reading for me. HAH! Now I wonder if she felt that I didn't have any serious intentions about learning, and didn't want to share her sources. This book made Tarot Reading seem like a game for giggly girls in their early teens. I found the whole experience a little like opening a newspaper to those soulless horoscopes that have absolutely NO bearing on you as an individual (does anyone find those accurate? EVER?). Garen's book does not help you learn to read tarot AT ALL. Well...it sure didn't help ME. Steaming pile of dog crap IMO.
 

brenmck

If I had not had a very intuitive first reading by a real adept and thereby known better, I would have abandoned my Tarot quest within the first three pages of Peach's "Understanding & Using the Tarot." ("Hi there, Beautiful - what's your sign?") Most relieved to see it struck some others the same way.
"78 Degrees" has been very helpful to me, but here and there she does paint a strangely negative profile of certain cards.
Louis' "Tarot Plain and Simple" isn't all that bad, but he gets on my nerves with his totally opposite slant for reversed cards - what's this? Exact science?
BTW, I think Eden Gray's book is great for last thoughts before lights out - trying it for somnambular learning, but can't tell if it's working.
 

catlin

The Worst book I ever came across was the German translation "Tarotkonstellationen" (Tarot constellations) by Mary Greer but not because it was written by Mary Greer but because it was sluggishly edited and full of wrong translations and mistakes.

It was so badly done that I asked Hajo Banzhaf (who claimed to have done the translation and who was the publisher some years ago) how this could happen. He mubled something about lacking time and interest but that sounded like the tale of the fox and the grapes to me.