Lee
Hi LB (I like those initials!) --LittleBuddha said:I don't know if you are allowed to speak about it before it's release, but was wondering what kind of style it was written in. Will it work with element and numerology? Or something else?
In the book I discuss the pros and cons of using RWS-style meanings for non-scenic pips, and then I go on to explore the number+suit method. Specific RWS-derived meanings will not be used (although a set of meanings for the numbers 1-10 is used which correlates to some degree with Golden-Dawn-based numerology). Individual meanings for each of the Minors are not listed. Instead, there is an in-depth discussion of the number+suit method, and I give three successively more sophisticated levels of implementing this method, including discussion of using visual elements on the cards (symbol placement and flora). Readers are encouraged to develop their own particular meanings for the cards. I also include in-depth sample readings so readers can see how the method can be implemented, but without my dictating specific card meanings for the Minors.
My book is not a large book (LS specified a particular length because of publishing considerations), and so I had the choice of including a list of specific meanings for each Minor card, or else showing the reader how to create their own meanings, and using the extra space in other ways. I chose to do the latter, because I feel very strongly that the best meanings one can use for the cards are the ones one creates for oneself.
For the Majors, I decided to forego the method used in most French books on the TdM, which is for the author to give their own esoteric/spiritual take on each detail of the cards. I asked myself, what would I have found to be the most helpful information when I began studying the TdM? The answer was, I would have wanted information on what the imagery on the cards would have meant to their designers, or at least what it would have meant to the general population at the places and times of their creation and use. When I began to study the TdM there was no such information available (or if there was, I didn't know where to find it).
So, in my book I explore each card from an historical and iconographic perspective. I then derive divinatory meanings based on this perspective. This leads to some cards bearing meanings which are rather different than how they are usually interpreted nowadays. It's my hope that the reader will find these differences interesting and that they will broaden one's perspective on the cards. Of course, since I am writing in my own day and time, modern psychological perspectives are reflected as well. Intuitive interpretations of specific pictorial elements on the cards are encouraged, but I do not list my own interpretations of these elements as carved in stone, since I feel these kinds of interpretations are best used in an impromptu and improvisational manner during the time of the reading, and not by memorizing specific spiritual meanings for every blade of grass or curve of stem.
As many of you know, I take a very non-dogmatic approach to the cards. Included in the book are discussions of the inherent difficulties of assigning meaning to the cards and why a non-dogmatic approach is (in my opinion) the most useful. Rather than presenting my interpretations as "the" interpretations, my ultimate goal for the book is that it serve as a useful field guide for readers as they create their own personal meanings for the cards.
Also included are sections on the history of tarot, the history of the TdM designs in particular, and discussion and comparison of various TdM decks available today.
I agree wholeheartedly!jmd said:Lee's book does not preclude others to also write one (or two or three!)...
Looking forward to MANY on the Marseille
I would encourage you to go ahead and write, and, if you wish, submit your writings for publication. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose!LittleBuddha said:I often thought about sitting down with the cards and just writing. Researching numerology and symbols that are found. Working with the floral arrangements and trying to identify the plant life in them. But I always imagining that someone would do it better so I left well enough alone, lol.
-- Lee