Anyone read Tarot Symbolism by Robert O'Neill

If anyone here has read Tarot Sybolism by Robert O`Niell - how idi you like it?

Could someone give me a brief review of what they thought about the book.

Cosmoline

There are two discussion of his book going on right now:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=64453
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=73692

Robert Place has his own website, the Alchemical Egg:
http://thealchemicalegg.com/

Hey all,

Just to be clear. This thread was asking about TAROT SYMBOLISM by Robert O'Neill, recently republished by the ATS. A terrific read, though framed as more of a theoretical catchall with regard to esoteric symbolism and its relationship to historical Tarot. Each chapter of the book sort of tackles a single esoteric stream and examines the ways it might be reflected in Tarot, without coming down in favoir of any one position/interpretation.

The above links are about Robert Place's new-ish book: TAROT: HISTORY, SYMBOLISM, DIVINATION which presents the accepted historical overview of the development of Tarot from gaming prop to occult object, presents a single coherent theory about the Neoplatonic and Gnostic roots of the Trump symbolism, and then traces the Waite-Smith deck card by card before a brief section on Place's reading style.

Both are well worth anyone's time.

Scion

Apology! Where's My Head???

Oh ack. So sorry! I got confused and am right now giving myself a dope slap (whap). Thanks, Scion, for untangling this.

It's a brilliant must read book.

O'Neill on Esoteric Tarot:

"If you mean gobbledegook = semi-hidden Hebrew Letters
or references to a supposed hidden ancient wisdom.
Yes, that can be done – thereby rejecting antibiotics
in favor of bleeding victims to drain the evil humors."

Click to expand...

Meet "Bunny Bob" for yourself...
http://www.comparativetarot.com/bobtarot/entry.htm

*

He not only thinks it was a game...
he thinks people actually played it.

"The mixed symbolism on the early Tarot cards suggest
a range of interpretations that might have occurred to
the 15th century card-player."

Click to expand...

"Welcome to the Dr. Robert V. O'Neill Tarot Library.
Included here are research excerpts focusing on
Tarot symbolism, iconology and influences..."

http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/index

card-players and Tarot sets a dubious downhill stage.

thank you everyone for your input - threads etc.

i may see if the library has any of his books in thier system.

I took a look at o`niell tarot deck - they were interesting - although i hadn`t looked at them all - i will go back and look at the rest of them.

Can anyone tell me if his books are an easy read?
I am a beginner, so was wondering if i will be able to comprehend what points he is putting forth through out the book - perhaps I`ll just go pick it up and check it out -

thanx again

Cosmoline

Fulgour: Sometimes you leave me speechless... and not in the good way.

Cosmoline: I wish I could help you, but I still have to read the book myself. I don't think it's a particularly easy read though!

Spoon

I wrote a brief review about the book in 2002 - at the time, Tarot Symbolism was nearly impossible to get hold off, and thought that it would be picked up by some major publisher for reprint (the original was printed in 1986). Through a series of fortuitious steps, Robert O'Neill generously 'donated' reprint rights to the Association for Tarot Studies - and so we re-printed it with short run print-on-demand technology (which works out far more expensive than standard printing, for which the ATS is not set up).

As far as I am concerned, it remains one of the masterpieces of writing on tarot, though of course Robert O'Neill would undoubtedly include various alternatives, or have written it in different ways, were he to have penned it last year instead of twenty years earlier.

A classic with still many avenues opened by the book worthy of further investigation... and a delight to read.

Can a 'beginner' read it? Absolutely. As long as one is interested in history, symbolism, and tarot... and can easily read introductory tertiary humanities oriented books, then it will be, in my view, a delight to read.

For the two Aeclectic reviews (including my own), see:

Fulgour said:

He not only thinks it was a game...
he thinks people actually played it.

Click to expand...

Uh...I have played Tarocchi. And if you've played any relative of the Whist family of games - you've played a derivative. All those hours spent playing Bridge or Spades was practice for Tarocchi.