Cult of Tarot Forum

.... Dusty White's Advanced Tarot Secrets. I didn't read his first book (it's not available as Kindle book, what a pity, and I confess that the title is not exactly my cup of soy milk latte) and he relates back quite a lot to exercises etc from the first book. Nevertheless, I understand what he's writing about. His exercises are good, his example interpretations funny and very interesting. I covered them while I came up with my own, and sometimes it was literally the same. At other times, he surprised me but I never thought: he goes too far. No, the cards up to now always supported his interpretations.

There's a lot to learn from him, and I can recommend this book (didn't finish it yet but will today). I appreciate very much that this book is available on Kindle Unlimited - for people like me, always on the brink of bankruptcy that's a very good offer. I also signed in for his free lessons.

Links:
Amazon
Goodreads

So just now I'm reading The Underground Stream, Esoteric Tarot Revealed by Christine Payne-Tower.


I'm not too far into it yet but so far I am fascinated. It's a massive task she undertakes to to explain the lineage, historical context, and symbolic development of the early esoteric Tarot decks.

She has a 3-part criteria for a deck to be considered "Esoteric". Briefly,..

1. It must have 78-cards. This is the perfect number to complete the "full spectrum of correspondences."
2. It is literate. Meaning its creator was working from a place of historical knowledge or at least exposure to the archetypes of Tarot.
3. It attempts to "universalise" rather than "Particularise". The deck should be impartial, non-judgmental, unemotional.

The book goes on to include all sort of historical figures and situations associated with the creation and spread of these tarots. She covers the influences and interpretations, so many aspects and always it comes across as a tale of interest and intrigue and is never pedantic or tedious despite the incredible detail and drilling down.

This book impresses with just the sheer richness of details so clearly presented and woven together. It also sends me googling for even more information about the details constantly. And considering that, it may be a while before I'm through this one.

I'm reading Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea right now. I am really enjoying her perspectives and examples but also her writing style which is both down-to-earth and compassionate.

I am often dipping in to several books at once. At this time, these seem to be the two I am most often contemplating. Flornoy, in addition to having reproduced some amazing decks also wrote, in my opinion, a remarkable book. His time spent creating decks shows in his thoughts about the decks...laying out each major like a signpost in the physical/psychological/spiritual journey of the individual. The book lives in the land of the day today and still manages to be imminently spiritual. The work feels so Zen.

The J-M David book has an incredible compilation of art, history, symbolism and the like. There is so much here that I feel I wouldn’t do it justice until I’ve read more or perhaps even a couple of times through.

Neither book is every “dry.” I have never picked one up and thought, “my God this is dull.” This is important to me because I do have an unfortunate tendency to get bored quickly. It is possible that I am outgrowing that tendency but I would like to assume these are just great books that hold my attention.

Victoria

Reading the Marseille Tarot by J M David

Re-reading the new edition of Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Duquette and The Crowley Tarot by Akron and Banzhaf.

Reading the Art and Arcana book by Ronald Decker while I have some free time. Also perusing Tarot Wisdom by Rachel Pollack and Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen.

Sacred texts , about TAROT:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/

I am reading ultimate guide to tarot meanings by brigit esselmont.

The Goddess is in the Details, Deborah Blake.

A really enjoyable book. Nothing you don't know already, realistically, but it's kind of friendly and encouraging about learning your craft and going your own way, with good suggestions for everyday practice.

Aside from the Osho Zen companion book, Tarot in the Spirit of Zen by Osho and Osho Zen Tarot Card Book by Alyce Howell.

Who Are You in the Tarot? by Mary K. Greer.

We have an annual mixer at work called the Who Are You Party for people to meet and hang out with co-workers they don't usually see every day. I volunteered to read cards at the party, and I thought doing birth card readings would fit in well with the Who Are You theme!

So I'm reviewing and adapting a short and simple spread to go along with calculating birth cards.

(Or I might just read with my usual four-card three-card spread . . . )

So, for the first time in over ten years, I explored the Tarot section at the bookshop up in town. They don't have much and it's all sort of boring, and rehashed stuff and also errors and some new age nonsense disguised as spirituality. (They didn't stock any English tarot books, only French.) But then I nearly shouted with delight. A brand new and beautiful and very respectful 2019 edition of "LE TAROT, Histoire, Iconographie, Esoterisme" by Gérard Van Rijnberk. I think it's only just been republished after being out of print for decades - but our fellow CoT member -_R_ would surely be able to enlighten us more on this if he sees this thread. I think I'll write him an email and ask if he can contribute something. He seems to know everything about everyone and even more. Maybe he's a cyborg or something. I would like to ask him to tell us more about Van Rijnberk if he has any sources he can share.

Anyway, let's get back to the book.

I used to have one of the very first editions - it was first published in 1947 and it may even have been a first edition, it was hugely old and numbered - but sold it once when I was broke and needed cash. I regretted it somewhat, but now it doesn't matter and hopefully my old book found a good home. This edition is much more beautiful anyway and I can't wait to get my teeth into it again, because I've forgotten everything I read at the time. It's sort of considered one of the first really "serious" and erudite books on the Tarot of Marseilles. But nonetheless should be read with some discernment I think. Somewhere I read that he relies on some of his esoteric interprations too much on Papus, but that his exoteric stuff is just fine and dandy. I'll have to separate the chaff from the wheat. But it's absolutely fantastic to see this book re-edited.

Van Rijnberk wrote a number of books on esoterism, and I believe he was a very important figure in Martinism... but there are so many types of Martinism that I don't know which one this would be referring to. I must write to _R_.

Thierry Depaulis... The Tarot de Marseille – Facts and Fallacies

Carlos Escobel wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 18:32 Thierry Depaulis... The Tarot de Marseille – Facts and Fallacies

Oh, please share some of the fallacies if you have time. The sort of juicy bits.

And welcome to the forum !

Marigold wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 19:07

Carlos Escobel wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 18:32 Thierry Depaulis... The Tarot de Marseille – Facts and Fallacies

Oh, please share some of the fallacies if you have time. The sort of juicy bits.

And welcome to the forum !

Thanks! According to an automatic alert I just got, TdM books should be discussed in a different forum... this is an academic paper and not a book... anyway, maybe I’ll make a post in there about this paper once I finish it. Don’t want to get into trouble right off the bat.

Carlos Escobel wrote: ↑13 Oct 2019, 02:33
Thanks! According to an automatic alert I just got, TdM books should be discussed in a different forum... this is an academic paper and not a book... anyway, maybe I’ll make a post in there about this paper once I finish it. Don’t want to get into trouble right off the bat.

Hi Carlos- we don't have alerts like that and even if we did you're post was perfectly fine here

You probably just received a notification when Marigold replied to you using quoted text from your last post.

Your doing fine ! And we'd love to hear more.

Marigold wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 19:07

Carlos Escobel wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 18:32 Thierry Depaulis... The Tarot de Marseille – Facts and Fallacies

Oh, please share some of the fallacies if you have time. The sort of juicy bits.

https://www.academia.edu/8119804/Thierr ... ies_Part_I
https://www.academia.edu/8119803/Thierr ... es_Part_II

_R_ wrote: ↑14 Oct 2019, 08:34

Marigold wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 19:07

Carlos Escobel wrote: ↑12 Oct 2019, 18:32 Thierry Depaulis... The Tarot de Marseille – Facts and Fallacies

Oh, please share some of the fallacies if you have time. The sort of juicy bits.

https://www.academia.edu/8119804/Thierr ... ies_Part_I
https://www.academia.edu/8119803/Thierr ... es_Part_II

Gotcha (both posts)! The thing that really stands out to me is what always does to a certain extent about Tarot. That is how little we really know about it in the early centuries. We do have some great details that researchers like this have uncovered over the years but the meanings of the changes are completely obscure to us, whether pure gaming instrument (early on) or otherwise. I encountered this in my own book... Tarot history is essentially a forensics exercise. We are pulling together as many clues as we can but then really just inferring what we can with little in the way of certainty. I mean especially in terms of the makers' intentionality.