tarot books for the raw beginner - info please!

JeNNi

Okay this is a great thread! I need a good beginners book. Now....only to decide out of all of the ones listed lol If I only had the money I would swipe up all of these books, but unfortunately as of now, I am on a limited budget, and I think that I will probably go with Rachael Pollock's The Complete Illustrated Guide to Tarot to start out with. I see it for a good price on ebay so me happy :p

Hopefully this will help me out. Anymore book suggestions?
 

CreativeFire

hi JeNNi

Rachel Pollack's "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Tarot" is definitely a good choice as it covers a number of different decks and their symbology etc, as well as spreads, readings in general.

Also if you are on a budget at the moment, as tmgrl suggested the online resources of Thirteen's Basics here on AT are excellent as is Joan Bunning's online "Learn the Tarot".

My personal favourite (and excellent value for money), is the one that 78thFool mentioned - "The Beginner's Guide to Tarot" by Juliet Sharman-Burke as you get a very good beginners book AND a lovely deck for the price that you would normally pay for a deck or book. I actually bought this set many years after I started with Tarot as I really connected with the deck itself - and it remains one of my few favourite reading decks. Also whenever any of my friends express an interest in getting into tarot this is what I suggest that they buy. ;)

Good luck

CreativeFire
 

JeNNi

Id love all of the books! I love books period. Now its the decks that are getting me!

Okay...decisions decisions hehe I might drop by the bookstore today and see if I find them, and then go from there on what I pick out first.

Thanks again! :)
 

Yemanja

Joan Bunnings "Learning Tarot" was a Godsend for me. It lays everything out with great clarity and speaks stright to the heart about using, learning and understanding the tarot. Also, the card meanings listed are wonderful for the beginner.

Also, this book is available on-line, which helped me a great deal in learning to use the cards since I just downloaded the course.

I havent read that many other books, but I would love to, especially the ones I keep hearing about e.g. 78 degrees, Mary K Greer etc.
 

Semiramis

I completely agree with the book choices already posted, they are great. In addition I also liked the "Easy Tarot Guide" by Marcia Masino. Gives very detailed explanations of the cards and has good info for beginners.
 

etal

One more hand shoots up for Sharman-Burke!

I'd like to add my vote to those that 78thFool and CreativeFire have already cast for Juliet Sharman-Burke's Beginner's Guide to Tarot, whose back cover reaches out and wraps around a deck of cards illustrated by Giovanni Caselli—there's a thread somewhere devoted to the curiousness of the packaging, which requires that you cut off a kind of "hanging chad" from the back of the book after you've liberated the deck, but be reassured: A few snips of the scissors and all ends well (unlike some other incidents with hanging chads).

What I like most about the book is S-B's approach to teaching the Tarot: She starts off with the Minors, and when you've finished studying a bit about each card in one suit, let's say, Cups, she has you practice a 5-card Horseshoe with all the Cups alone (much to my amazement, I got a remarkably accurate reading when I tried this!). Then, when you've done the same thing with each of the four suits separately, she has you use all the Minors (and only the Minors) in a reading (dealing with "everyday matters") with the Celtic Cross spread. Similarly, when you're finished learning something about all the Majors, you do a 7-card, Majors-only Star spread, and finally you try out the first spread you learned, the 5-card Horseshoe, but this time you're using all the cards in the deck.

The cards are freely adapted from the RWS standard and read like a dream. I thought at first that they might be a bit too comic-booky for my own taste (the set was a gift), and perhaps I was right, but I'm just ignoring the frantically blinking signals my aesthetic judgment is sending forth and instead responding to the cards' clarity, their honesty—and sometimes their humor: Take a look at the Knight of Swords!

And on the plus side for newbies like me, Caselli relates all the cards of the same suit to one another with his use of color and symbol. So, for example, all the Pentacles feature the colors of the earth, while Cups are a watery blue and lush mauve, Wands all dry yellow and fiery red, Swords a steel grey. And depending on what suit you're in, you're bound to find a mouse, rabbit, salamander, butterfly or fish poking about and sending signals about the card's meaning.

This is the most accessible Tarot book+card set I know of (and how I wish I had known of it long ago!). For those newbies who might look at other beginner books and feel overwhelmed at the prospect of (apparently) having to swallow a cookbook-sized volume of meanings for 78 (apparently) inscrutable cards all in one mental gulp, S-B nicely breaks down the process into very manageable—even delectable—portions in one small book, and throws in a beautiful, honest deck to sweeten the deal.

A beginner really can't go wrong with this one.

etal
 

Rusty Neon

Some useful on-line Resources for card meanings for a beginner to tarot decks based on the Rider-Waite deck:
 

lunakasha

CreativeFire said:
My personal favourite (and excellent value for money), is the one that 78thFool mentioned - "The Beginner's Guide to Tarot" by Juliet Sharman-Burke as you get a very good beginners book AND a lovely deck for the price that you would normally pay for a deck or book. I actually bought this set many years after I started with Tarot as I really connected with the deck itself - and it remains one of my few favourite reading decks. Also whenever any of my friends express an interest in getting into tarot this is what I suggest that they buy. ;)

I have quite a few books (and decks :eek: ) already, but I recently discovered this deck/set online, and fell right in love with it...a very lovely RW style deck....still on my wishlist!!!

Best of luck to you JeNNi....it is overwhelming, there are so many books out there...I think Pollack's Illustrated Guide is excellent to start out with.

:) Luna
 

SongDeva

JeNNi said:
Hopefully this will help me out. Anymore book suggestions?

Only that I got this book for about $2 on half.com. Hold out for a good price! It's a nice one.
 

Cocobird55

Barnes and Noble University is online and frequently offers a free tarot course based on Bunning's book. I have taken it a few times. I think it is a good way to work through the book, comparing notes with other people, participating in discussions, etc.

The Sharman-Burke is another favorite of mine for learning.

Sue