Here are 100 books that Meditations on the Tarot fans have personally recommended if you like
Meditations on the 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
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn theâŚ
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
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.
Ronald Decker coauthored with Michael Dummett and Thuerry Depaulis A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot.
Although A Wicked Pack of Cards is an important factual history, I feel that Dummett dominated the other authors of this book with his preconception that the Tarot is only a card game that the occultists seized on as a vehicle for their fantasies. He showed little interest in its symbolism. In The Esoteric Tarot, Decker was on his own, and this allowed him to focus on the symbolism and meanings of the cards, rooted in Western mysticism. Â
That the Tarot originated in ancient Egypt as a divinatory tool is a romantic misconception. Ron Decker's meticulous scholarship will surprise practitioners and academics alike, revealing the Tarot's true evolution and meanings as its inventor(s) understood it.
The Tarot consists of the Minor Arcana, four suits of cards similar to our modern deck, and the Major Arcana, twenty-two allegorical or "trump" cards. Decker says the four-suit deck was invented in Asia Minor before AD 1000; Italian courtiers added the trumps in the 1400s. But Tarot was first used as a game. Tarot divination was only created in the 1700s byâŚ
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa storiesâall reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argueâŚ
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.
This was the first tarot book that I read at age 17 from the Occult Bookstore in Chicago. I remember reading it cover to cover that first night. I understood it because of my childhood interest in fairy tales, mythology, Egyptian archeology, and my hobby (bordering an obsession) with foreign languages.
I attended Hebrew school as a child and studied Latin in high school. I was reading Ezra Pound's translations of the Confucian Analects at the time, but Crowley resonated more than Pound, for he used symbols in a practical manner. Aleister Crowley (1875- 1947) was a British occultist who was far ahead of his Victorian times. By any standards, this book is unique and perhaps a bit crazy. Still, I recommend it.
The occult classic study of the tarot and as a key to all Western mystery traditions.
Used for many years by students of the occult for study of the tarot and as a key to all Western mystery traditions, The Book of Thoth is on the short list of must-have textbooks for modern students of the tarot and esoteric studies.
âThe Tarot is a pictorial representation of the Forces of Nature as conceived by the Ancients according to a conventional symbolism. At first sight one would suppose this arrangement to be arbitrary, but it is not. It is necessitatedâŚ
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.
This truly great, visionary re-conceptualisation of tarot imagery combines profound mystical insight with inspired artistry to render familiar tarot imagery through the transformative lens of alchemy. The Alchemical Tarot deck is one of the most outstandingly beautiful and inspiring decks in existence. Based on my own initiatory experience I can confirm that The Alchemical Tarot is an inspired, true, and faithful transmission of the esoteric current underpinning the notion of an esoteric tarot.
Robert Place's Tarot deck, beautifully illustrated in the style of original Renaissance alchemical art, takes you deep into the alchemical mysteries--and unlocks their secrets.
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.
Coming from a psychological view of the cards, Dore incorporates ideas from different psychological schools of thought such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as well as Greek myth, Arthurian legend, folklore, fairy tales, and more.
Dore offers a unique, modern, and very personal approach to the cards and their meanings. A fascinating example for anyone building their own tarot practice and figuring out what tarot means to them on a personal and individual level.
Unlock the transformative power of tarot with this unique investigation into the psychology of its secrets, symbols and stories.
Symbols have been used in modern psychology for generations, from the interpretation of fairy tales to inkblot tests. Although tarot is often thought of as a spiritual tool for divination and fortune-telling, it too contains a set of symbols that can help us better understand our selves and align with our values. In this book, Jessica Dore reveals years of secrets and insights about how to work with tarot to activate your potential.
You'll discover: * the importance of choosing theâŚ
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother hadâŚ
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.
Carringtonâs surrealist masterpiece is a bit lighter than her other well-known novel, Down Below.
She tells the tale of someone not often seen, much less celebrated, in literature - the crone. At age 92, Marion Leatherby is given the gift of a hearing trumpet by her dear friend Carmella. It is only then she can hear that her family is planning on sending her to an institution.
Carringtonâs fondness for the tarot (she even painted her own deck) can be found in the archetypal characters Leatherby encounters at the institution including the Abbess, the Snow Queen, and the Queen Bee among others.
An old woman enters into a fantastical world of dreams and nightmares in this surrealist classic admired by BjĂśrk and Luis BuĂąuel.
Leonora Carrington, painter, playwright, and novelist, was a surrealist trickster par excellence, and The Hearing Trumpet is the witty, celebratory key to her anarchic and allusive body of work. The novel begins in the bourgeois comfort of a residential corner of a Mexican city and ends with a man-made apocalypse that promises to usher in the earthâs rebirth. In between we are swept off to a most curious old-age home run by a self-improvement cult and drawn severalâŚ
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.
My copy of this foremost biography of Remedios Varo is in tatters.
It covers Varoâs life from her childhood in Spain, her time in Paris with the surrealists, her flight from Paris and life in a safe house in Marseilles, and her escape from Vichy France to the haven of Mexico, her home for the remainder of her life.
Kaplan includes insights into Varoâs spiritual beliefs and practices, including the tarot. Filled with gorgeous reproductions of her paintings.Â
A so-called ârecovering lawyer,â after 20 dreary years shuffling papers, I decided to pursue the Life of the Mind with a degree in Historical Studies at the Graduate Faculty of the New School. For an assignment regarding a significant historian, I chose Frances Yates, whose bookGiordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition spoke to me. Culling her papers at the Warburg Institute in London led to her first biography, Frances Yates and the Hermetic Tradition. Since then, I've transformed Dame Frances into a sleuth, who explores other unorthodox faith traditions, accompanied by another ârecovering lawyer,â whose story mirrors my own, thus enabling me via bio-fiction to further enhance my spirituality.
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Traditionwas published by the University of Chicago Press in 1964, which led me to compile the first biography of the renowned British historian, Frances Yates. In her pivotal study of the 16th-century itinerant Catholic priest, who was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600. Yates revealed a strain of an ancient universal creedless spirituality, which was anathema to the established Church. Yet, five centuries later, spoke to this seeking feminist pilgrim, dissatisfied with traditional patriarchal traditions.
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
We are Egyptologists with over six decades of combined experience translating hieroglyphic and hieratic texts and exploring the deserts of Egypt. We are passionate about bringing ancient Egypt and its incredible religious beliefs to life, from translating the funerary compositions in the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings to writing a new biography of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, often branded the "hereticsâ of their time. One of our most exciting recent discoveries was the earliest monumental hieroglyphic inscription, a five thousand two hundred and fifty-year-old billboard! We share our adventures on our Instagram @vintage_egyptologistâenjoy the vintage fashion and be enlightened by the Egyptological captions.
Even after the priests and temples of ancient Egypt ceased to function, Egyptian religion lived on through the mysterious figure of Hermes Trismegistus (literally, Hermes âthrice greatâ). Originally a form of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, late Egyptian religious texts, Greek philosophy, Roman theology, and later Christian and Islamic authors would make of Hermes Trismegistus a magically potent entity. At first a god, by the late Middle Ages he had become an ancient sage, pagan counterpart to Moses as dispenser of wisdom and guide to the transcendental world. Ebeling unravels the mysteries and history of this fascinating literary figure, and how writings attributed to him continued to exert influence on authors during the Renaissance, the birth of Freemasonry, and German Romanticism. Â
"Perhaps Hermeticism has fascinated so many people precisely because it has made it possible to produce many analogies and relationships to various traditions: to Platonism in its many varieties, to Stoicism, to Gnostic ideas, and even to certain Aristotelian doctrines. The Gnostic, the esoteric, the Platonist, or the deist has each been able to find something familiar in the writings. One just had to have a penchant for remote antiquity, for the idea of a Golden Age, in order for Hermeticism, with its aura of an ancient Egyptian revelation, to have enjoyed such outstanding success."-from the Introduction
