Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Katz & Goodwin?

Thoughtful

Jeffrih l also noticed quite a few mistakes whilst reading the book which was irritating. Obviously has not been proof read before publication.
 

3ill.yazi

I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. I had precisely the same thought about their "Learning Lenormand" book a few years ago.

That was my thought upon reading some of the critiques. Having read that book, I think I'm going to give this one a pass.
 

swedishfish612

I'm reading it now, and I'm really enjoying it. I do see the typos/mistakes that a few other posters mentioned. And some of what the authors put forth are suggestions, or inferences they're making based on things that they know happened/were true. Even so, it's been fun to take that ride with them, and wonder if their speculations are correct.

I love seeing the photos, and much of Waite and Colman Smith's history is new to me, because I really haven't read much about either of them.

For me, this book is worth it because it did what I wanted it to do- it got me excited about the RWS and learning about it again! I've been playing with other decks for quite a while, and had kind of forgotten what riches were still waiting for me to discover in the good old RWS!
 

MissChiff

For me, this book is worth it because it did what I wanted it to do- it got me excited about the RWS and learning about it again! I've been playing with other decks for quite a while, and had kind of forgotten what riches were still waiting for me to discover in the good old RWS!

This is how I feel exactly about this book. I'm sure it's not the be all book to the Rider deck, but it sure has made it fun to study the deck again.
 

minotaur

I do feel a little compelled to post also. I think this book is taking a bit of a beating it doesn't deserve. As a result a book many would like to read would be missed.

While these authors do have some detail problems in some of their projects, to me in this case it doesn't matter. I have read with this deck for decades but knew little about the actual background. It is clearly written by authors who care very much about the subject.

I am enjoying this book and am happy I bought it.
 

DesertDream

I need to fall back in love with the RWD again, for my mental tarot health. Ill probley get this book when I can!
 

Desecrated

They write something along the line that pixie mentioned that she had been there for days, "but she probably only glanced at them" ???

What evidence did they have for writing that? Both she and Aurthur Waite wrote that they spent at least 3 days in the museum sketching from the sola busca.

They say that she only had a fragmented part of the Book T from Waite, but she also had the complete book T from Yates and an unillustrated version from Matters. (According to Stuart Kaplan).
And unlike the image that Marcus Katz and tali Goodwin wants to paint, She was far more knowledgeable about the occult and had far more professional experience that they let on sometimes.

I think they disregarded some evidence to make pixie fit into a image that goes along with their own believes on tarot.
 

rwcarter

Now I'm seriously annoyed. Just finished reading about the Wheel in the "The Major Arcana Unpacked" section of the book.

First thing that bothered me was a pronoun with unclear antecedent on page 157:
The design is here based on Levi, which Waite terms a "hypothetical reconstruction." He gives the creatures as the sphinx, Typhon (as a snake), and while not referring to it directly in the card description, the Hermanubis.
High School English was many decades ago, but my memory is that "He" should refer to the last male name that precedes the word. That would be Waite. It refers to Levi though, which I only found out by breaking my flow of reading and looking at the End Notes. I was willing to chalk that up to either bad memory on my part or the difference between American and the Queen's English. It still would've been quite easy to start that sentence with "Levi gives the creatures...." and avoid all confusion....

They call out the major symbols on each of the cards in this section. One of the symbols they call out is Hermanubis, and the description they give is:
Waite does not mention this in Pictorial Key to the Tarot. For more detailed analysis, please visit our website....
So here's where I get really annoyed. I go to the website. None of the 20 circles shows the Wheel. After looking on both pages for a search feature and not finding one, I finally click the + near the bottom of the page. Buried in the middle of the text that appears is a Search box. I type in first Wheel and then Hermanubis and get no search results. As I'm typing this I think to do a search on Levi. No results. So if the info is there, it doesn't come up in a search. And if it's not there, the book shouldn't have told people to go to the website "for more detailed analysis" when there is no analysis at all on the website! And if there's no info on Hermanubis in the Key Symbols section then it shouldn't have been included in that section....

There is an erratum section though - http://www.waitesmithtarot.com/erratum/. There's not much there though.

Rodney
 

Zephyros

Not to mention that you're buying the book exactly for that detailed analysis. Allowing that into a book just smacks of haste.
 

Desecrated

Another thing that bothered me is that they are referring to this secret Waite deck that he did after his work with pixie. But they don't include any real information about it.
The book and deck that they are referring to is something that they themselves has publish in a limited edition of only 250 copies and it's insanely expensive on ebay.

That is a bit of a dick move if you ask me.