I have been following this thread for a few days now. Joan Bunning's on-line course was my introduction to the study of the Tarot. So the question I have been asking myself is "Why did this book work so well for me?" I am not sure that anyone can know why something does not work for another....
First and foremost Joan has created an introduction to the Tarot based on her own journey. A beginners course. In 1999 I was a beginner. The match between what I was looking for and what she provided was perfect.
Helvetica said:
But she is a generous teacher and for people who do learn better that way, for people who are left-brain dominant, then she can be a way into tarot.
I probably do have a rather strong "left brain", analysis being the basis for my approach to most pursuits. However, I find that I learn by pattern recognition rather than memorization , so that "right brain" must be getting in on the action as well. For me Joan Bunning provided a well organized presentation of the structure, the "system" of the Tarot if you will. Based upon this framework I was then able to broaden my study of the Tarot, which continues to this day.
The Tarot for me, is primarily a visual medium. It consists of evocative images on cards, which taken as a whole cover the depth and breadth of the experience of living. Each individual card is like a piece in a puzzel. In order to "learn" the meaning of a card, I needed to learn how each one related to the whole. Joan provided this sense of pattern and organizational integrity in her approach to the Tarot. Based on the number of people who continue to ask "...but what does this card actually mean?" I think that many could benefit from learning the overall structure of the Tarot deck in order to have an organizational foundation on which to confidently build their own body of knowledge about the Tarot.
"Reading" the Tarot by its very nature involves the translation of the visual, intuitive, or cultural response to the images into language. Most things loose a bit in the translation. Still, if we are going to talk about the Tarot and what it means we are stuck with words as our medium. I find Joan Bunning's method of organization and her clean clear writing style worked for me. I am not sure I would have been as comfortable and confident as I set forth on my own exploration of the Tarot had I not had Joan's course as an introduction.
I guess that is what it boils down to. Joan's book is not about adding depth to ones Tarot study, it is about beginning the journey.
Deb