The Well-Read Tarot Reader

[BobTheViking]

So far, I think I've been getting by pretty well without really using any books. If I have a question about the meaning of a card, I can just go look it up. Getting my readings to seem more like coherent stories, rather than just a random assignment of academic meanings assigned to certain places in the spread, is coming to me with practice. I've read all about reversals and elemental dignities on the internet, and I think I know them well enough to use them intuitively on a basic level.

So far, I've only bought two books on Tarot--one is a book of exercises to help gain an intuitive understanding of the cards, and the other is the book that came with my Gilded Tarot deck. Instead of using books, I've used the internet. If I am baffled as the the significance of a card, I can just do a Google search to find three or four people's take on it. At this point, I feel I could go for some time before I needed a book to help me out.

Has anyone else taken this cyber-Tarot approach? I'll probably want some really good books when I reach a more advanced stage, but it seems to be working for me for now.

Those of you who have plenty of books: is there anything importantyou have gained from starting out with books that I might be missing? What do you think about my approach?

EDIT: Ah, fudgeknuckles. I put the thread in the wrong area. Mods, could I trouble you to move it over to the Books area?

[Fairawen]

Ah well, I'l post til they move it.

I started out in tarot soley because of the internet. If I didn't have the internet, I never would have started tarot! I'm sure I'm not the only one who can say that though.

Anyway, I used to look online all the time. I still do. If I'm having some problems figuring out different dimensions of a card, I look here on AT in their Learn section. Great stuff for alternate views. I have one tarot book, which is the book from the site that I learned on. It' got all the same info, so that if I'm not able to go online I look in their. I see alot to learning from the internet since it's so vast and so many people's views are here. The internet is more precise when you're only looking for one thing, while a book is more complete knowledge that is used for learning a variety of things. *shrug*

~Fairawen~

[Cerulean]

...and yes, lots of good things to learn.

Although the depth of history is gently touched upon in discussion forums and online googling, they seem to me only a place to start.

The Encyclopedia of the Tarot from Stuart Kaplan and some older references aren't really available in online form. Just for me, there's work and reading and research using certain books. But I am quite interested in googling tarot history and trying to improve my Italian by looking at Italian language sites. Sometimes also do the same with French sites.

Who knows, there may be even better and older tarot references finally online--the tarocchi or old tarot study forums have be instrumental in keeping my interests in such topics alive. I can spend hours studying about tarot or for instance, googling references about Dante Algheri's Divine Comedy, etc.... but I actually also like to read and practise using different decks, reading the Italian texts in hand and examining Dante Algheri's works in old fashioned text format. I also write in longhand when I study.

Cheers,

Cerulean

[BobTheViking]

I think there's a copy of the Encyclopedia of the Tarot at my local library, so I'll have to check it out and see if there's anything useful to me in there.

I'm sure there's a lot of history available in books only. It's the same with every subject, actually; if you want to learn the details really, really deeply, you have to get the books. For me, though, as an aspiring reader working with a contemporary deck, I think it might be more information than I need. At least until I gain a more solid understanding of these cards.

[Sophie]

I started Tarot before I was online, so your route was not available to me, but I have no doubt that if I were starting out now (or since I've been online) I'd have done the same as you, at least at first. The ressources online are tremendous. I started with Rachel Pollack's 78 Degrees of Wisdom, which is a good on tarot imagery & symbolism, but doesn't teach one to read, so I more or less taught myself by reading for myself & others. However, I read & reread 78 Degrees, because it's such a great book about the cards themselves, how one can look at them, and sufficiently personal to encourage personal exploration. I later got Mary Greer's Tarot For yourself, some of which I found very useful to exercise and develop my skills, though I never followed it from A-Z. I also acquired a good Dictionary of Symbols pretty early on, which became a well-used constant companion.

About a year into learning tarot, I went off to work as a humanitarian and lived in quite a few countries, most of them at war or in trouble, and of necessity left many books at home - including my tarot books (I sacrificed them for poetry & novels )- and took only a couple of packs with me. So from then on, and for years, it was just me & my cards. I developed my own exercises and methods, reading for others & myself. I also have a dear friend, a professional tarot reader, with whom I kept in touch regularly by email (email was avaialable in several of the places where I lived, but generally not browsing the internet) - she has been writing to me since my very first mission! Contact with her, and reading for her (and readings by her) enhanced my tarot reading hugely. When I had a question, I just asked her!

When I decided to settle again, about a year ago, I acquired more books, started online exploration, and joined this forum in October, making up for lost time & years offline . I must say, for the most part, it has been enriching to go back into book study. Internet & contact with so many tarot readers has been wonderful - making sure I don't get too stuck in my ways, opening my mind & my world. And I discovered the Tarot de Marseille, which was a revolution for me.

[tmgrl2]

You will find your way through your own process of learning the Tarot.

I have learned so much here at AT through online Reading Exchanges and through Circles of Readers and Discussions of Cards...the Threads on how cards may be read under the Marseille Forum are wonderful.

Also, I highly recommend reading the articles offered through links on AT's Home Page: Scroll down to "Learn the Basics of Tarot."

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/

Umbrae's Process articles are invaluable.



Our own Thirteen has his interpretations here for us.

I also am a lifelong learner. So, I when I get interested in something, I read ...a lot. I have about 60 books on Tarot in my library. Some I read quickly and gave away. Some I used for reference...more so when I first began reading. Some I read to learn about the history and myths surrounding the Tarot. I have the four Encyclopedias by Kaplan.

I bought Greer and Pollack early on....Some books in French when I got into the Tarot de Marseille.

However you do it, as you study, work with the cards, make notes, journal, you will begin to connect the dots within and broaden your concepts of the cards.

No matter what I have read about the cards, they still amaze me when I do live readings.

Welcome to AT! So much to learn and a loving community of others who love the Tarot.

terri

[tarobones]

++++++
I started with Rachel Pollack's 78 Degrees of Wisdom, which is a good on tarot imagery & symbolism, but doesn't teach one to read, so I more or less taught myself by reading for myself & others. However, I read & reread 78 Degrees, because it's such a great book about the cards themselves, how one can look at them, and sufficiently personal to encourage personal exploration.
++++++
I love Rachel's book too, but actually, it DID teach me to read. The wonderful richness of the Tarot World is how diverse it all is. I agree also with the comments that in the end, after all the books, notes, false starts, etc., we teach ourselves to read. BB, Michael

[mnemosyne7]

Fudgeknuckles? Bob, I like you already!

Anyway, I love the fact that we have access to EVERYTHING now. I can't tell you what one book to read. I'll just repeat what I tell my students.

Read books about Tarot. Read books about astrology and numerology. Read books about other divinatory systems. Read books about religion and sociology. Read books about math and physics and astronomy. Read the funnies and the sports pages. Read the Wall Street Journal and Home & Gardening. Surf the internet. Read EVERYTHING. Then step out of your home and let the world touch you. Listen, touch back, taste, see, feel, walk barefoot ... take it all in.

The best way to understand Tarot and communicate the stories you find there is to understand the world and the people around you, and learn their languages. I think intuition is a great part of being a good reader. Knowledge, understanding and the ability to communicate enhance your intuition. And that does not come from a single book.

Oops. Gotta go build another bookcase.

Mnem

[mythos]

I first dipped into tarot way back when there was little else besides one or two book and those appalling LWB. I dipped out of tarot and returned to study ... psychology, philosophy, social work ... and worked with people ... little kids, bog kids, adults, adults who were kids, one-on-one, groups, whole conference halls of people, teaching ... you name it. I also began re-exploring tarot and other systems and began intergrating them with my work.

Then I discovered the glories of the internet ... the first time I googled 'tarot articles' it was like the sun breaking through after a nuclear winter. Oh, by that time I had read Rachel Pollack and re-read it ... and a couple of other books as well. Then I became an internet junkie ... groups, articles, side trips into all kinds of wonderful areas related to tarot ... which is indeed ... anything and everything that you could possibly think of and more .... and then, because I am also a book junkie ... can't afford printing consumables, and find on-screen reading increasingly more difficult (beginning stages of cataracts) ... and because I love to snuggle up with books, and scribble on them, and re-visit them ... I started book buying. I have about 100 books that are specific to tarot ... and heaps of related stuff besides. I even read heaps of them ... and the Encyclopedia's are a wonder. But then so too is the historical stuff, and reading books by taroists long past, and new stuff ... it is a journey that takes many a turning. Each form of learning .... the cards themselves, classes, books, internet articles, tarot forums and groups, conferences, deck creation, journalling and so on, all have their places and times and seasons, and like the good old wheel, it turns ... or should I say spirals? as we re-visit and learn more as the journey progresses.

I find myself dipping into my old psych texts, and re-reading philosophy, and using my hard-won social working skills, and reading more ... and .... and ... and .....

mythos

[Fulgour]

Authors copy from other authors in the world of Tarot,
not plagerism but dull repetition of obsolete attributions.

The Golden Dawn is the great pitfall of most attempts
to assign correspondences, and they're totally wrong.

Ask yourself why any card has a correspondence and
you are on your way to discovering the simple truth.

Then you can read most books to have a good laugh!