Here are 100 books that Holistic Tarot fans have personally recommended if you like
Holistic Tarot.
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I started studying the tarot ten years ago with no thought that I would ever write about it. I took an introductory class in the back of a local metaphysical shop and went down a rabbit hole of books and teachings. I also enjoy readings myself - from quick fifteen minute reads at sidewalk fairs, to hour long readings in person with renowned readers, from an hour on Zoom with a famous reader, to a reading in a shop in Salem, Massachusetts during the chaos that is October in that town - Iâve benefited from them all. It has been a delight to include this interest in my latest novel.
Rachel Pollackâs classic guide to the tarot is a well-loved reference for me and for many.
While itâs a great next step to add depth of insight into the cards for the less experienced, it also continually serves up new insights to someone with more familiarity with the cards as well. She wrote it in the early eighties while living in Amsterdam and teaching tarot at the Kosmos Meditation Center.
The bestselling tarot classic in a new edition with a new preface by the author.
âWhenever I have a question about tarot, I reach for 78 Degrees of Wisdom. It is the most in-depth exploration of tarot and my most trusted resource. If you want to learn tarot, youâll want 78 Degrees on your bookshelf too. Itâs the gold standard in tarot.â âTheresa Reed, author of Tarot No Questions Asked
"What is your favorite tarot book? The answer is always 78 Degrees of Wisdom."âMelissa Cynova, author of Kitchen Table Tarot
âEssential reading for the beginner and a classic that tarotâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
I began reading Tarot in high school â or at least, trying to. Like most people, I was pretty intimidated starting out. It took several teachers, a stack of books, and a lot of years before I understood that Tarot cards are simply repositories for symbols of the human experience. Thatâs how they continue to be so popular: they speak to something deep within us all. It was only natural that my art endeavors and my passion for the ancient Minoans would eventually dovetail with my love of Tarot. The end result was The Minoan Tarot, which Iâm delighted to share with you along with these excellent Tarot books.
Guided Tarot is a how-to book for Tarot readings: how to lay out the cards and get some sense out of them. Thereâs more to Tarot than just memorizing the card meanings, and this book walks you through the process of developing your own card reading style. If you canât figure out which spreads to use, or if youâre having trouble trusting your intuition and letting the reading flow, this book will take you through exercises to figure out the answers to those questions so you become a more powerful Tarot reader and can take the training wheels off, so to speak.
Your essential guide to reading tarot cards seamlessly--with confidence and ease
Each of us holds gifts deep within and, with tarot, we have the power to unlock those gifts and make transformative discoveries. For beginner tarot readers, learning the cards--all 78 of them--and understanding how to use spreads may seem daunting. Tarot expert Stefanie Caponi explains that interpreting the cards is a blend of knowing the card meanings, listening to your heart, and trusting your intuition. In her fully-illustrated book, Guided Tarot, she offers easy exercises to nurture and grow your intuition, not only to understand the cards' universal meanings,âŚ
Iâve been studying and reading tarot for more than 50 yearsâstarting when I was a teenager. I feel called to do this workâI think of it as holy work, because every reading is an inner journey for my client, I merely serve as a guide for them to discover the insights and wisdom that already exists hidden within them. Over the years Iâve studied with some of todayâs top tarot teachers, Iâve studied Kabbalah with respected rabbis. Iâve studied psychological principles with leading therapists. And Iâve studied storytelling with world-famous performers. Tarot brings all these disciplines together in a way that makes every reading an encounter with the Divine that lives within each of us.
This was the first book that ever taught people not only how to read for themselves, but also how to use the cards to attain personal insight. It will teach you how to develop a deep relationship with the cards, and it shows you how to use the cards for greater self-knowledge. Every book on this subject since has Mary K. Greer to thank. When I first came across it, it changed the way I read forever. And it gave me new tools to use the cards for my own.
The tarot classic that first promoted the practice of reading the cards not just for others but for one's own personal insight and self-transformation
âTarot for Your Self was ground-breaking when this book was first published and is still radically significant today.â âBenebell Wen, author of Holistic Tarot
âDeciding to work with the Tarot is like embarking on a long, inward journey.ââMary K. Greer
This tarot classic by Mary K. Greer was the first book to promote reading the cards for your own insight, revolutionizing tarot through a combined emphasis on self-teaching techniques and personal growth. Tarot for Your SelfâŚ
The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More
by
Meredith Marple,
The coastal tourist town of Great Wharf, Maine, boasts a crime rate so low you might suspect someoneâs lying.
Nevertheless, jobless empty nester Mallory Cooper has become increasingly reclusive and fearful. Careful to keep the red wine handy and loath to leave the house, Mallory misses her happier selfâand soâŚ
I began reading Tarot in high school â or at least, trying to. Like most people, I was pretty intimidated starting out. It took several teachers, a stack of books, and a lot of years before I understood that Tarot cards are simply repositories for symbols of the human experience. Thatâs how they continue to be so popular: they speak to something deep within us all. It was only natural that my art endeavors and my passion for the ancient Minoans would eventually dovetail with my love of Tarot. The end result was The Minoan Tarot, which Iâm delighted to share with you along with these excellent Tarot books.
This is a Tarot how-to book with a difference: It organizes the cards by theme, making it way easier to understand and remember their meanings compared to the usual memorize-them-one-at-a-time approach. The book is really a Tarot course in 22 lessons (itâs no coincidence that there are 22 Major Arcana cards in a Tarot deck!). Tarot 101 is an excellent resource for demystifying the Tarot and breaking it down into manageable chunks that make sense and that you can remember and use for the long term.
Are you eager to learn the Tarot in a way that's both effective and fun? This complete course in Tarot demystifies the art of card reading by drawing on your intuition and imagination. "Tarot 101" will turn anyone into a professional card reader in just twenty-two practical lessons. Each lesson introduces an essential concept broken down into four topics, with exercises, tips, and key terms, plus optional tasks designed to enhance your learning experience. Unlike other Tarot guides, "Tarot 101" groups the cards according to theme - a simpler, more intuitive way to learn - and is compatible with anyâŚ
As a queer first-generation Cuban-American woman, reclaiming my magic from oppressive religious dogma and societal bigotry has been the foundation of my art practice since the mid-90s, when I started writing my fanzine, the Greenâzine. Although my trajectory comes from punk rock, reactionary feminist art, and coming-of-age graphic memoirs about sex, drugs, and rockânârollâhealing the soul is interwoven into all of my published works. When I eventually began work on the Next World Tarot, I knew I had to enrich my gritty soul with divine compassion; as well as forgiveness towards the versions of myself that did not accept ancestral magic and spirituality as part of my own healing.
Michelle Tea is an inspiration to witches and punk rockers alike, allowing us to delve into our magic without fear, shame, or submission to dogmatic religions. I would not have written a tarot deck without her inspiration and guidance, as it was originally a collaboration between us.
As Next World Tarot became more and more of a platform for my ancestral magic, Michelle Tea delved into this masterful text on Tarot itself. I love this book because it is a beacon for anyone who wants to access their intuition through tarot but does not find comfort or connection towards the gatekeeping culture behind it.
Tarot is complex and historical and feminist and revolutionaryâand we do not learn that in most historical contexts. Luckily, Michelle Tea has both documented and exercised this truth for us. This book exposes Michelleâs unique experience and wisdom, merging humor, truth, grit, and tradition with ourâŚ
The beloved literary iconoclast delivers a fresh twenty-first century primer on tarot that can be used with any deck. While tarot has gone mainstream with a diverse range of tarot decks widely available, there has been no equally mainstream guide to the tarot-one that can be applied to any deck-until now. Infused with beloved iconoclastic author Michelle Tea's unique insight, inviting pop sensibility, and wicked humor, Modern Tarot is a fascinating journey through the cards that teaches how to use this tradition to connect with our higher selves. Whether you're a committed seeker or a digital-age skeptic-or perhaps a littleâŚ
I've always been interested in fortune telling, and how the mysteries of life are revealed. I was especially interested in ancient Greece and the oracle of Delphi. When I was 17, a neighbor in Chicago read my tarot cards. Everything the cards indicated came true! So I got a tarot deck and started playing around with the cards. When I moved to California 10 years later, people asked me to read their cards. I obliged, it was fun, and my tarot business was born. When asked to teach tarot, I started classes. The class notes became my book Introduction to Tarot.
Over the years, when I taught tarot classes, there were always a few students who were interested in the divination aspect of tarot, but tarot was just not the right oracle for them. For animal lovers, I recommended the simpler and more direct Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sam's and David Carson because animal totems resonated with them.Â
I recall a student who was of Norwegian ancestry who found tarot overwhelming, but the right oracle for him was The Book of Runes by Ralph H. Bloom. Even if tarot is your path, it's interesting to know of the many forms of divination that can be available to everyone.
Anyone can practice divination. You don't need to be psychic, or believe that a higher power controls the cards. Anyone can learn to predict the future using the methods described in this book. Learn how to choose the methods that works best for you, and ask the right questions so you get accurate answers. Discover the secrets of a wide variety of methods, from Tarot cards and the I Ching to crystal gazing, palmistry, and even reading signs and omens in the world around you.
The real value of divination is in planning and prevention. If you like the answersâŚ
Donât mess with the hotheadâor he might just mess with you. Slater IbĂĄĂąez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side ofâŚ
I often tell people that I did not choose to become involved in the Tarot; actually, it chose me. In the summer of 1982, I had a dream that was not like any other that I had before. In the middle of that dream, a dream phone rang, interrupting the storyline. When I answered the phone, I was connected to a dream law firm. I was told that I had an inheritance coming from an ancestor in England, and it is called âthe Key,â The inheritance turned out to be the Tarot. Since then, I have designed over 20 Tarot and oracle decks and authored several books on the Tarot.
I not only wanted to understand the symbolism and philosophy of the Tarot, but I have also always been curious about how people in the past before occultists discovered the Tarot, made use of the cards for divination.
Matthews has researched this more than any other author. She points out that rather than creating lists of meanings for the cards that needed to be memorized, they tended to relate directly to the imagery. This approach has influenced my use of the cards for divination.
Enhance your Tarot reading skills in a traditional centuries-old way.
Discover forgotten divinatory skills, and learn to read the Tarot with confidence. Not just another Tarot book, Untold Tarot presents historic styles of reading little known in the modern era. It teaches traditional ways of reading used for pre-twentieth-century decks, drawing upon older cartomantic arts such as blending and pairing cards, reading lines, and following "line of sight" to piece together untold stories according to the direction in which the characters are facing.
The time to rediscover these lost skills is ripe, and the practical and personal approach presented hereâŚ
As an author, educator, weaver, and sacred storyteller deeply rooted in Ancestral reclamation, I create work that celebrates Blackness, spirituality, and liberation. My passion for intuitive tools and Ancestral healing is woven into every book and deck I create or recommend. Iâm committed to honoring the wisdom of those who came before us while empowering present and future generations to connect with that lineage through spirit-led practices. These decks are a part of my personal ritual toolkit and Iâm excited to share them with others on their journey back to self and source.
The Hoodoo Tarot feels like a spiritual history lesson woven into divination. It doesnât just guide, it educates, honors, and channels the spirit of rootwork and Ancestral practices of the African American South.
This deck helped me deepen my understanding of ancestral ingenuity and ritual. Each card feels like a portal, not only to the message but to the spirits and stories that shaped our survival and power. Itâs a must-have if you're drawn to Ancestral reverence and tradition-based tarot.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, many Indigenous Americans and people of African descent intermarried and socialized more often than is acknowledged by mainstream history books and scholars. These interactions produced not only a multicultural people but also a body of knowledge that is known today as Hoodoo or Rootwork.
Celebrating the complex American Rootwork tradition, The Hoodoo Tarot integrates esoteric and botanical knowledge from Hoodoo with the divination system of the Tarot. Structured like a traditional Tarot deck, each of the 78 cards features full-color paintings by magical-realist artist Katelan Foisy and elegantly interprets the classical Tarot imagery throughâŚ
We are Witches. Real Witches, doing real magic, casting spells, and weaving webs. We are Amy Torok and Risa Dickensâthe co-creators of the Missing Witches project, researching what it means to be a Witch. Together, we have put out almost 300 podcast episodes and published two books and an oracle deck of cards: Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories Of Feminist Magic, New Moon Magic: 13 Anti-capitalist Tools for Resistance and Re-enchantment, and The Missing Witches Deck of Oracles: Feminist Ancestor Magic for Meditations, Divination and Spellwork. Our first book appeared on VICE Magazineâs list: The Best Books for Starting an Occult Library.
In this book, Christopher Marmalejo entranced us with a singular take on investigating tarot cards through a queer and Indigenous lens. Exploring cartomancy as a mirror to understand lived experience, Christopher brings to light a practice that is unafraid to confront, listen, critique, and unveil.
We love how Christopherâs personality shines through this thoroughly academic yet approachable description of tarot cards and their uses. Reading it filled us with hope for a future of liberation and ideas of how we can make that happen.
Designed to be used with any deck, Red Tarot is a radical praxis and decolonized oracle that moves beyond self-help and divination to reclaim tarot for liberation, self-determination, and collective healing.
For readers of Postcolonial Astrology and Tarot for Change
Red Tarot speaks to anyone othered for their identity or ways of being or thinkingâLGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks in particularâpresenting the tarot as a radical epistemology that shifts the authority of knowing into the hands of the people themselves.
Author Christopher Marmolejo frames literacy as key to liberation, and explores an understanding of tarot as critical literacy. They show howâŚ
I have been a tarot devotee since my early teens and have offered both training and divinatory sessions using the tarot. My book on the fifteenth-century tarot deck known as the Sola-Busca, The Game of Saturn, was nominated The Best Esoteric Book of the Year and was reviewed in two of the worldâs leading academic journals. My non-fiction is published by Inner Traditions and Scarlet Imprint; literary prose and poetry by Corbel Stone Press and Paralibrum. My essays on energy healing appear in the peer-reviewed Paranthropology Journal and the Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology as well as on my academia.edu page.
The famed filmmaker and esotericist, Alejandro Jodorowsky, has poured decades of profound spiritual and divinatory understanding into this text to create one of the most significant systems for using the cards as a divinatory tool. Based on the Tarot dâMarseilles - arguably the stylistic form that constitutes the tarotâs most fundamental iconography - the text includes a comprehensive training system that can be used to provide a foundation for professional divinatory work.
Alejandro Jodorowsky's profound study of the Tarot, which began in the early 1950s, reveals it to be far more than a simple divination device. The Tarot is first and foremost a powerful instrument of self-knowledge and a representation of the structure of the soul. The Way of Tarotshows that the entire deck is structured like a temple, or a mandala, which is both an image of the world and a representation of the divine. The authors use the sacred art of the original Marseille Tarot--created during a time of religious tolerance in the 11th century--to reconnect with the roots ofâŚ
