Seven tarot books I DON'T recommend.
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- Today I'm taking advantage of the nodisclaimers tarot tag to tell you about seven tarot books that didn't work for me.
#nodisclaimers #booktube
My seven books cover a lot of ground - from much-loved classics to bad-tempered academic tomes to strange, apparently self-published oddities. Who knows - you might find your future favourite book in my list of bêtes noirs!
Here they are:
00:00 Introduction
01:14 The Complete Guide to Intuiti Creative Cards by Matteo di Pascale & Alessandra Mazzucchelli
02:58 Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack
05:44 Understanding the Tarot Court by Mary K.Greer & Tom Little
09:41 The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley
11:00 Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin
14:12 A History of the Occult Tarot by Ronald Dekker and Michael Dummett
20:24 Pamela Colman Smith - Tarot Artist - The Pious Pixie by Dawn G. Robinson
If you enjoyed this grouchy video, here is one about my least favourite decks: • Why I DON'T use these ...
I have also made a video in which I talk about Rachel Pollack's 78 Degrees of Wisdom in more depth: • Why "78 Degrees of Wis...
... and here's a video about some tarot books that I DO recommend: • 6-and-a-Half Best Taro...
... and a round-up of 10 best and worst tarot history books: • 10 Tarot History Books...
Here's my Book Reviews playlist: • Book Reviews
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My name’s Robert Farrah (aka Robert Farrar) and I’m a writer, musician and performer living in Berlin. I’ve also been a tarot reader since I was nineteen. Being an artist, I see life in terms of accessing and developing one’s natural creativity. And I see tarot as a playful, surrealistic ritual that increases one’s intuition and brain-power.
www.farrahtarot.com
/ farrah_tarot
If you would like a 1-2-1 reading, contact me on Instagram or let me know in the comments. 
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I absolutely LOVED this video. As a Tarot beginner, you see many or most of these books in "lovely videos" absolutely RAVING about how wonderful these books are, and how we MUST have them in our library. So glad to have another and more refreshing take on some of the "classics" from the "masters" of Tarot. Thank you!
You're welcome! x
Brilliant! I couldn't agree more. You had me when you mentioned Paul Huson as your favorite author. I bought his Mastering Witchcraft in 1970 when it was first published. I was 13! Looking forward to more of your great videos.
So happy I found you! Thank you so much for your honesty!
I hear you!
I completely agree with all of your opinions on each of the books. And I love your opinion about how tarot should be S-I-M-P-L-E! Thanks for making this video.
A pleasure🙂
Thank you! I so glad I found this channel. I'm kind of sick of whats out here about tarot.
That was an interesting take on the Tarot Books. I appreciate you taking the time to review them for us.
"I don't care if they're fraudulent." As a skeptical, reality-based person, I don't care if they're fraudulent, either. I spent years trying to explain away the amazingly accurate and helpful readings I got from others or the times people were stunned at the accuracy and helpfulness of my readings for them. But why bother? I don't care how or why it works. I don't understand gravity but I don't go flying off into space, either, so I figure gravity works just fine. Thanks for a fantastic video. (Do you have a recommendation for what I SHOULD read on Pamela Colman Smith?)
Thanks Julie. I entirely agree with you! I'm afraid I haven't found a good Pamela book yet but I'll let you know if I do!
No I do believe they’re talking about actual tarot reader frauds, you know cold readers. I detested that book, just enraged me. 🙄
@@6Haunted-Days Me too!
Agree. "Yet it moves."
Your questioning of the meanings of the majors is interesting. I don't agree that the impact of a major can be reduced to the level of a mundane, day-to-day event - although certainly it can be influenced by the cards around it. I read 78° some time ago, too early really, and found that I couldn't sustain interest in it. I'm rereading now, and getting a lot from it in terms of understanding individual cards. Not necessarily from that card's description, but from connections between them.
wow! First time subscriber here. You are so insightful. Thanks for sharing
I loved reading "A Hisory of the Occult Tarot", so much historical information, but then again I don't do readings, just study the symbolism.
I very much enjoyed your video. :) I think you had some interesting and honest things to say. I was an English teacher for many years and I'm a rather new tarotist so this video was helpful! The editing and accessibility/readability of books about tarot are important, especially to newer readers. Thank you!
Thank you. I hope you find some good tarot books to read!
I really like your input on tarot, the tarot community, and tarot related concepts. I hope that you do make more videos. ❤
Thank you! I''m going to have a break over the summer but I have a whole bunch of videos planned for the autumn🙂
I loved this video. I agree re: 78 degrees. I enjoy it but don’t think it’s a must have as many people do.
I also find it interesting when you say you prefer a more simplified application of tarot. A few months ago I’d have disagreed, but somehow now I prefer to get clear guidance in my readings, rather than the abstract-y, overly metaphysical approach I used to favor. I still love abstract philosophizing, but only when I’m studying tarot resources with the intent to broaden my perspective. Actual readings, IMO, are best when they’re more to the point.
I enjoy your way of expressing your thoughts. Not seen your channel before, but I subscribed cause this is the type of tarot content I like.
Thank you! Yes I'm working on ways of making tarot clearer and simpler. 78 Degrees is so over-blown. If I were a casual reader, new to tarot, I think I would be very put off by it. 🙂
I absolutely adore you ❤ new subscriber and glad I found you 😊
Thank you Jalisa. I'm happy you like my videos🙂
A note about Rachel Pollack’s 78 degrees of wisdom: she has issued an updated book called Tarot Wisdom in 2011, where she criticized herself the flaws in her 78 degrees book.
That's extremely interesting. I was just going to publish a moe detailed critique of 78 Degrees - which I really don't like. Perhaps I should read the later book first.
@@teatarot4557 correction, her book was issued in 2008
Thanks! I was going to get 78 degrees, but now I won't. I've not read any of the other books to discussed, either. I am interested in the Marcus Katz book and the Paul Huson book. Thanks for the intelligent reviews and recommendations. Yeah, it was nice to have more than 60 seconds!
Great to hear your thoughts. I really like ‘simplicity rather than over-complicated’.
Thanks. I think I'm on a crusade. Simplicity!!
@@teatarot4557 I think that overcomplicating things is often unnecessarily. I want to extract sharp and practical information from the cards when reading, not overlay them with so much stuff that I cannot see the wood for the trees. I think this clouds the water rather than providing clarity. I have read a lot over the years but as I get older, the simple reading wins. None of the other stuff is useful to my clients.
@@stevenbright4304 100% agree!
This was incredibly refreshing. Thank you.
A pleasure! 🙂
Absolutely love your interpretations and analyses of these books! I have read and studied tarot for over 40 years now, and always felt guilty for just not really connecting with 78 Degrees of Wisdom. (I felt similarly about Eden Gray's book.) Also, Crowley has always turned me off, and nor even Gary Lachman's impeccable biography can soften my view.
I do want to recommend a sweet recent graphic novel about Pixie's life that I love. It's called The Queen of Wands by Cat Willet.
Glad I found your channel. I'm a new subscriber. 🙏❤
Thanks! I will certainly look at the Cat Willet book:-)
I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I appreciate 78 Degrees of Wisdom because it helped me get to grips with the RWS after years of reading with a non classic RWS deck but I can certainly see how moving away from or adapting that way of reading can be beneficial, it has been for me at least. Ultimately we want the tarot to work for us but we all think/read in different ways and what we require from tarot will vary from person to person. Sometimes that means trying something different or tearing up the rulebook completely. I really resonate with wanting to simplify tarot, so much has been overlaid onto the cards over time and it is, quite frankly, overwhelming and in my practice, often unnecessary. Learning to read Marseille style decks really helped me strip back a lot of those layers. I have come to read the systems differently and will employ one or the other depending on my needs/requirments. I find I utilise a more psycho-spiritual approach when it comes to narrative/RWS based decks and a more practical and exoteric approach when reading with Marseille/pip decks.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on each of these books.
Sounds like you have a very interesting practice going! Thanks for the feedback.🙂
wonderful thank you
A fabulous video ! 🌻
Thank you🙂
Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom did seem overly complicated to me when I thumbed through it.
It's really not such a great book!
I got it from the library twice then decided not to buy it.
@@teatarot4557
I don't like many of her books. I had a reading many years ago and came away feeling totally disappointed.
You've saved me so time so I can skip some of these books in my Tarot studies. Some, I'll keep. But, many you've given me enough info about some books that I surely don't want to waste my time on.
I appreciate hearing your perspective because I’m an enthusiast as well. I certainly relate to Rachel Pollack’s writing insights way more than Alister Crowley but I certainly read both. Your voice is a breath of fresh air.
Thank you Pamela. Well I think it's very important to read widely. Most books have something to offer!
@@teatarot4557 absolutely, even when it lets us know why we agree or not. Growth always
Out of all of these, the only one I can disagree with is the 78 degrees book - but possibly because of the way I was using the book. It wasn't a sit down and read it all experience for me, but reading card-by-card alongside lots of other books as an overview study of the 3 main systems and comparing ideas about them. I do totally agree with the 'needle in a haystack' comment about the Book of Thoth though! Oh wow was that a book of ego, but then again, what else would you expect from Crowley. I would actually add Pictoral Key to this list as well. It came across as both arrogant and dismissive - as though if you needed to read the book to understand the cards then they weren't meant for you, because the chosen ones would recognise all of it regardless.
Yes I agree. A E Waite is unbearable! I have never managed to read one of his books.
I highly regret buying Medicine Cards. The items that dangle from the shield are void from the book and when I wrote the author- completely unhelpful.
Thank you for taking one for the team and saving us some time.
I am of the opinion that the older the writer, the more we should question their authority and ideas. They are after all product of their era, too.
I think that's absolutely true, yes. 🙂
This bloody book😅 I don’t want anything to do with Crowley so that one made me laugh.
Ohhh I so wanted the History of the Occult tarot. I do like “stubborn” books that oppose my own opinions. Still on my wishlist haha
Your channel is amazing. Glad I found you. Hugs from the Netherlands! 🌷
Thanks! Hugs from Berlin!
Refreshing! I agree with everything you said about the books you mentioned. 🥂toast to you for speaking the truth of these books when a lot of people just go with what's popular because they don't want to offend and want to be part of the it group. I just found your channel and loved your video.❤️❤️❤️ I hope you continue to make more long form videos sharing your thoughts and experience. I would love to know what books you recommend that usually people never bring up? Maybe gate keeping them for themselves? 😊 Thank you ❤️
Hi Carolyn! Thanks for your supportive feedback. I've got a lot of good response (mainly!) from that video, and so I will be reviewing more books after the summer hols. Actually I do have another longish video with some book recommendations. There is a link in the description here. "6-and-a-half best tarot books."
Best wishes
Robert
@@teatarot4557 Thanks Robert you're awesome! 🦄❤
YES, absolutely agree! I read a tones of books, and my tarot readings started to be very spiritual, deep in meanings and yes therefore also overwhelming. At that point i started to study Tarot de Marseille and even if people think its difficult to read because of the minor Arcana beeing without illustrations, i feel so much more freedom with this system and my readings got clearer and everything turns to be more simple, lighter and this doesn't mean without depth but just simpler to read...
That's extremely interesting. I'm currently preparing a full review of 78 Degrees, and I find it such a downer. It turns tarot into a massive problem. So complicated, so complex, and, according to Pollack, we can never really get our readings right because we suffer from "Ignorance". I completely disagree with this view of tarot as part of a big magical structure. We should use it as a tool to expand our thinking and (if you like) pick up messages from higher intelligences. I think the Marseille is tarot as it was before the Golden Dawn got to it!
I’ve tried to read Marcus Katz book a few times and always end up putting it down after a chapter or so, so it was good to see I’m not the only one to find it a slog. I do quite like Pollack’s book, it was written when there wasn’t a lot of books around about tarot available as you are probably aware. I have her later book Tarot Wisdom in my ‘to read’ pile so I’ll be interested to see what it’s like. Would you be able to do a video on what tarot books you do recommend?
Yes I do appreciate that Pollack's book is of its time. In fact I remember the times! The book I bought at the time was Alfred Douglas' The Tarot, from 1979. It's similar to 78 Degrees in its outlook but is much lighter I think.
I did do a video about books I like. It's here: ruclips.net/video/WFbKLqEz_Qs/видео.html
Rx
Thank you for the link, I must have missed that video when I looked.
New to your channel and even though i do not use the Tarot myself , i do have some Oracle cards which i enjoy using. I am however, a great book lover, so emjoyed the bookish content of this video too!
I'm glad you liked it!
@@teatarot4557 I did thank you, i shall be back!
Not sure how I missed this video of yours, but I loved every second of it, as per usual, ❤ thanks for these awesome non-recommendations.
Thanks Gitta. I want to do more book reviews... but it takes time. One has to read the books! By the way I loved your video of the storm on the island. It reminded me of the wonderful storms in Key West when I used to visit there. x
@@teatarot4557 key west… very nice! Yes I understand. I’ve been planning a book review for ages, the problem is I finished the book months ago and now I need to go back and reread parts of it to make sense of my notes. I appreciate that you have read these books so now I don’t have to 😂. But I will take your advice I think and get the Paul Huston one next I think. Xx
@@empresssong The Paul Huson book is very good for reference. x
I also think you have a point with the Court Cards book. It does contain a lot of information. My approach with tarot books, however, is to take what resonates. If I read a whole book and from it I gain 4 revelations about card meanings - so that I have an understanding that works for me about the meaning of a 'tricky' card - I consider that worthwhile. Disagreeeing with, or evaluating, someone else's view of something, is a valuable exercise imo, as it can help to clarify one's own position.
Yes, I think that's right. One can "bounce off" the other person and become clearer about one's own thoughts.
Pollack's book opened the gates for others and is still relevant. Tarot reading has taken many forms since 1980. Many don't use tarot for everyday mundane things today, so book like Pollacks is still very relevant. Others may not like it for the reasons you gave however.
Absolutely. There is room for all kinds of approaches to tarot.
Hi I agree with you about not reading Rachell Pollacks book. For me simplification means to combien cards without using reversals for example. Even though she covers reversed meanings in her book she actually did not apply reversals very much. I personally dont use reversals for the sake of simplification. But sometimes I do for the sake of complication. Loved your. video.
Thank you 🙂
Interesting videos. Interesting perspectives. Watched several. I subscribed bc anyone who has "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" poster deserves my attention. Much blessings and success!
Thank you! Glad you noticed my favourite poster...
"Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves," great title for my next book. Thanks for this tarot book review... What do you think about Barbara Moore's tarot cards and books?
I have read one Barbara Moore book and I found it quite helpful. It was her one about spreads. Haven’t looked at her decks yet…
Loved your video! What books do you like?
In addition to Paul Huson
Thank you! I have a video where I recommend some books: ruclips.net/video/WFbKLqEz_Qs/видео.html
I liked that you gave me permission to include my spirit guides. I cant help doing that and i thought i was doing it wrong because no one speaks about it except benebell well.
It's hard to come out and talk about spirit guides, but as I get older I stop worrying about what other people think! 🙂
Huh? It’s all marbled through any group or anything to do with tarot I’ve found in the last 38yrs…..and A LOT more talk about spirit guide and ALL that goes with it then one author who is actually fairly new to the scene tarot wise. Maybe you haven’t been studying or reading long yet, but if you look and ask…..not sure how you could miss all spiritual, talking to the dead, spirit guides all that stuff.
@@6Haunted-Days Well I was thinking more about the non-tarot world. When one talks to friends and colleagues who aren't involved with tarot.
@Frau Hulda thank you for you response. It wasn't off puttin in any way. After I wrote it I did think, hang on, they do it and their practice is based around it.. then I realised I'd had an apithany moment, but I didn't want to bore the maker of the video with my menopausal brain frog moment so I just left it alone. You clearly love trawling the comments sections. Ty for stopping by to try and put me in your man/woman/non binary splain correction section. 😉
Oh, darling Robert, how pristine your books are! I have a terrible habit of highlighting, underlining, and writing pencil notes in my Tarot and Astrology books. If you add numerous coffee and tea stains, the picture is clear! Other than that, I would like to add Mary K. Greer's book on reversals to the list. Once I 'bit' into the book, I was genuinely surprised by all the glowing reviews for it! I wish someone had said to Mary when writing this piece that less is more, given the complexity of the subject. In addition to common ways to reverse cards, Mary offers traditional, psychological, health, shamanic, and magic perspectives on each, turning it into a jambalaya of possibilities. Somewhere around page 100, my highlighter syncronistically ran out of ink, and the book quietly travelled into the storage room🙂
Mary K Greer is obviously a delightful person... but yes, I do find these books unhelpful!
I have started annotating my books... if you don't you regret it later when you can't find the important bits!
It is so terribly important that critical intelligence is brought to these fine arts. Great account!
THank you. I appreciate that.
I was like wow he’s gonna go thru all the classics lol. Although I disagree with some points I can really appreciate your take and meaning in their relevance
Thanks! I shouldn't have included the Crowley - that was the one book I hadn't properly digested...
whats the book you wrote then?
I'm writing a book with Michael Atavar. We will hopefully pop it out on Kickstarter next year.
i bought 78 degrees only because it was selling for £3 +, not read it yet.
I think it's the most pushed, advertised tarot book in the English-speaking world. Enjoy it if you can:-)
My first book was Mastering The Tarot,by Eden Gray.
The Secrets of the Occult Tarot sounds really smelly.
Why two academics opposing Tarot write a book on it? Someone needed a line on the CV for tenure.
Interesting list. Thanks for sharing. Paz y amor.
Apparently Michael Dummett is an important philosopher. But I still hate his book! Thanks for the appreciation.🙂
Ps, It's also incredible how boringly academics write. It's like the book isn't really intended for reading, it's more some sort of research document, like a file in a museum...
@@teatarot4557 Most of those books are not intended for the general public. They are basically, one for someone to put on their CV for tenure, and two, for a very specialized seriously niche academic audience. I know because as academic librarian I have to buy some of our library (and have slogged through a few). In fact, I just finished a book on reading fiction during COVID-19, based on an academic study, and yea, it's not for the general public.
@@angeltheitinerantlibrarian That's a good point. And yet these books do established so-called "facts". Actually this particular book is quite prejudiced and dismissive and the facts that it establishes are questionable - like, for example, the "fact" that tarot cards were not used for divination until the 18th century. This is something that they choose to believe, and they don't look very far for any evidence to contradict it. x
@@teatarot4557 Yea, once in a while you get one of those that is just awful-- prejudiced or misinformation in addition to the bad "academese."
I'm not a divination fan and mostly read academic history books on religion so I might not mind Dekker and Dummet but it does feel very weird to claim that Kabbalistic corrospondences are 'fake' when no matter how shallow the Golden Dawn's understanding of Kabala was it was still core to their thinking. If you're trying to understand a Rider-Waite-Smith or a Crowley deck which were designed by Kabalists some understanding of the Golden Dawn version of Kabala is kind of necessary. Maybe Tarot de Marseilles has nothing to do with Kaballa but Golden Dawn related decks definitely do and its not like anyone is pretending the RWS wasn't published in 1909 so there's nothing 'fake' about it representing an Edwardian view of Kabala.
I also don't understand how divination could be more respectable post-Jung than it was in the time of Newton or Keppler when some of the greatest scientific minds in history were all astrologers.
Thanks for your comment. For me the Decker and Dummett book is a bit of a mystery. I don't really know why they wrote it or what their agenda was. I would be interested to hear your take on it.
Perhaps "respectable" was the wrong word for me to use. But it seems that post-Jung tarot was for some reason more difficult for Decker and Dummett to attack.
ps, In a subsequent book, The Esoteric Tarot, which I think came out after Michael Dummett died, Ronald Decker did an about-turn and argued that tarot did in fact have authentic roots in Caballah.(I reviewed this book last week).
I mostly study the bronze age so divination comes up a lot but the idea that you can do it without slaughtering several animals feels weird and exotic. Kabala is 11th century onwards Jewish mysticism and my readings on Judaism stop around the 3rd century.
Since divination is actually a very important part of understanding ancient societies claiming an ancient origins for cartomancy is a serious question in Egyptology that needed answering so its not 'trivial' in the field even if its relatively easy to answer with a NO but only after you look at the extensive evidence for the kinds of divination ancient people did use.
Ronald Decker was an Art Historian and Symbolism is one of the most mainsteam topics in Art History so its not that weird for an Art Historian to take an interest from that perspective
Dummet seems like a moderately interesting guy (philosopher and immigration rights/anti racist activist from his wikipedia article) but was definitely roped into the book because he had a hobby interest in playing cards not divination or 'the occult'.
The official synopsis for The Esoteric Tarot only claims a post 1700s numeric connection with Kabala but there were plenty of exchanges between Christian and Jewish thinkers long before then. My understanding of Kabala is limited to a few online lecture courses but my understanding is that it has a lot of branches and varients and that numerology varies in importance between them.
Academic Western Esoteric studies is a new and oddly fast moving field so its not impossible that a few genuinely ancient Egyptian influences will turn up it will be very minor and distant compared to the more general late medieval symbolism ('occult' knowledge not really being a category until the 1700s, symbolic language was just the mainstream before then).
@@teatarot4557
@@AC-dk4fp Thanks for that - extremely interesting. Ronald Decker, inThe Esoteric Tarot", says that the tarot was designed by Renaissance people who were in the throes of an Egyptology craze.
Great video " I have a feeling you would like this book: The Spiritual Roots of Tarot. By Rusell Sturgess, give it a go. You won't be disappointed.
Ooh - thank you! I will look it up :-)
Lol, always here to be encouraged NOT to buy stuff. I have 78 degrees on audio books. It was a good one for listening. Book of Thoth feels like it was written while he was under the influence of more than one mind altering substance. 😅 I enjoy your input, thanks.
Thanks for the feedback. I think Crowley was on a crazy provocateur trip. And probably stoned too! I am now reading the whole of 78 Degrees because I want to do a full review of it. I disagree with 98% of it! :-)
I love your videos and am working my way through all of them so that is where I am coming from. Can I just say again that Jung is not "more respectable" for any reason except that we have made him so. He was basically a person who suffered from what might be called mental illness (or was a visionary if you want to be more charitable) who made his "visions" into a "system." He was also a Nazi sympathizer (putting his archetypes into a very sinister context) and sexually abused his "patients." There is absolutely no way that this guy is "respectable" except that he uses a kind of psuedo-scientific language to make mysticism and spirituality "scientific" and thus "acceptable." And my question is why do we want the myth system of science to validate other previous myth systems except that we are entrenched in the scientific world view such that we see it as "real" and true. It, like other systems before it, has found some truth. But it isn't Truth. It is a descriptive methodology, the myth of which is there is no myth. Put succinctly, I can's stand Jung. And he's sexist. Forgot that.
Thanks for your support, and your very good message. I think I agree with you about respectability. As a member of the punk rock generation I have always been suspicious of it, but it does seem that, right or wrong, it has quite a strong influence over the way society is conducted.
Do you know the Native American concept of heyoka? A heyoka person is also called a "backwards person." That is, someone who does everything the opposite to what is usual and "accepted best practice." (A sub category of this is "two-spirit people" who are all the persons we might now call "queer.," so gay, transgendered, nonbinary etc. etc.) True to the humane approach of many parts of Native culture(s), heyoka and two spirit persons are considered sacred and are allowed to be as they are- until Christianity got ahold of Native people. Men were allowed not only to dress as women (and vice versa) if they so desired, but they were allowed to engage in activities that were closed to men (and vice versa) Hence, the many warrior women etc. Anyway, we are probably both heyoka and, as you, I am a two spirit person as well. Social acceptance is not big in our books. But , as you say, most people are not heyoka.@@teatarot4557
@@marykayryan7891 I love that! Yes, and I think that if you are "heyoka" it is sometimes quite difficult to even have a sense of what is conventional, because you just don't compute in that way.
There must be a lot of shonky Tarot books.
Hundreds!
Personally think the Book of Thoth is the best book ever written on the Tarot. I know a lot of people don’t like Crowley because of his salacious reputation. That said dismissing a book because you can’t be bothered to study it as it’s too complex is ridiculous. If you are going to be a professional reader then you should strive to be an expert at your art. If you read it, understand it and then dislike it that’s one thing, discarding something because you can’t be bothered is just laziness. You need to up your game.