Best books for scholars?

What books would you recommend to for someone interested in deepening their knowledge of tarot? I reading 'Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot' by Lon Milo DuQuette right now and really enjoying it.

Thank you.

Judy Z.

Some of my favorite scholarly Tarot books:

- History of the Occult Tarot, by Michael Dummett
- Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage, by Paul Huson
- Renaissance Tarot Book: A Guide to the Renaissance Tarot, by Brian Williams
- Tarot and Individuation: Correspondences With Cabala and Alchemy, by Irene Gad
- Tarot Symbolism, by Robert O'Neill
- The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians (Equinox III:5), by Aleister Crowley
- The Encyclopedia of Tarot (vols 1 - 4), Stuart R. Kaplan
- The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy, by Robert Wang
- The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, by Robert Place

Thank you. Those sound very interesting! An excuse to shop!

Sincerely,
Judy Z

I like History of the Occult Tarot, by Ron Decker, as well. It's kind of 'Part II' of A Wicked Pack of Cards, and apparently has just been re-printed (History, that is, not Wicked Pack).

Or are Strange and I talking about the same book?

Gavriela said:

I like History of the Occult Tarot, by Ron Decker, as well. It's kind of 'Part II' of A Wicked Pack of Cards, and apparently has just been re-printed (History, that is, not Wicked Pack).

Or are Strange and I talking about the same book?

Click to expand...

Yep, same book. History of the Occult Tarot, by Michael Dummett and Ronald Decker (ISBN 0715631225).

Underground Stream- Payne-Towler
Tarot Symbolism - O'Neill
Jung and the Tarot - Nichols

also tarot books that have companion tarot decks:

? - Oswald Wirth
Book of Thoth - Crowley
Qabalistic Tarot - Wang
Art and Arcana - Decker
Pythagorean Tarot - Opsopaus
The Tarot - Douglas
Renaissance Tarot - Williams
The Secrets of the Tarot - Walker
Mythic Tarot - Sharman-Burke
Tarot Mania - Woudhuysen
Wheel of Change - Genetti
Motherpeace - Noble

I am not sure just how deep you would want to go, but I have found 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, a pretty deep book.
I realize I have alot to learn about Tarot, and am sure there are 'deeper' books out there, but this one is perfect for what I was looking for.

Maybe also:

K. Frank Jensen: The Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot
Mark Patrick Hederman: Tarot - Talisman or Taboo?
Rachel Pollack: Tarot: The Open Labyrinth (my personal No.1 of all there is)
Isabel Radow Kliegman: Tarot and the Tree of Life
Arthur Rosengarten: Tarot and Psychology - Spectrums of Possibility
J. Karlin: Rhapsodies of the Bizarre (the tarot essays of de Gébelin & de Mellet)
Kathleen Raine: Yeats, the Tarot and the Golden Dawn (not that easy to find but well worth it IMO, and also well worth the price, ouch..)

By "scholar" do you mean you are looking for more academically inclined books, or those that go more in depth on the mystical aspects than the basic guidebooks (or both)?

Dummett also did a broader history of the tarot, here's the title as from te university catalog:
The game of Tarot : from Ferrara to Salt Lake City

I don't think it is in print. It focuses more on the gaming aspect, but has a section on the occult.

Dummett is decent as a scholar, very thorough as a researcher, however he's one of those people who takes a very conservative view (I tend to agree with him on the Renaissance aspects of tarot history, I think it serves him well then, but I think for more recent history he sometimes misses the point of the cultural significance of tarot--does better than a lot of scholars, but tends to speak somewhat patronizingly). You can get a lot of good info from him, but you do kind of have to make an effort to ignore the patronizing tone.

Yote

Hmm...You know I'm still looking for the companion book for “The Tarot in the Original Klingon”.

The Decker/Dummett books are must reads, but will take you in the direction of hardcore history, and may not ‘deepen’ your knowledge as Duquette will. There are some famous ones, such as Mouni Sadhu’s The Tarot, and of course ‘Meditations on the Tarot’ which demands a place in YOUR library…

But deepen YOUR understanding was the question. Dinner and drinks in September may be the real answer…determining the direction of your deepening understanding is key IMO.

When we’re sitting there looking at the same audience, getting the same “hit” from the same people – that ain’t Tarot understanding, but understanding something deeper – that then we can bring TO Tarot.

It may be that the best book you can read, to deepen your understanding of Tarot is “Jackson & Perkins Beautiful Roses Made Easy: Midwestern Edition” by Teri Dunn and Melinda