just got a old book

6 Haunted Days

Yea my book says a 50's print date, I noticed it because you don't see many books on Tarot at that time.
 

baba-prague

6 Haunted Days said:
Nope, beside the sexist stuff it was devoted to fortune-telling. Like...the 3 of Cups means a dark business man is coming into your life.

Gasp! You mean it doesn't mean that? :joke:

I have real difficulties when I write up the Court cards in particular because I keep putting in "he or she" and the editor keeps taking it out on the grounds that it gets ridiculously repetitious. But I just feel I have to be careful to really explicitly avoid the kind of sexism that you do get in these old books.
 

newstar13

since im new to tarot i guess ill mark this as a loss good thing i only paid $1.25 for the book
 

satinangel

newstar13 said:
since im new to tarot i guess ill mark this as a loss good thing i only paid $1.25 for the book

I wouldn't consider this a loss...I would look at this as an opportunity to see evolution in progress.

Remember all books...no matter when written, are in fact one person's opinion.
 

Grizabella

I wouldn't consider it a loss, either. I'd keep it and consider it an interesting example in a continuing study of the evolution of tarot books. You could get the RWS book that was written back in the early days of the deck----can't remember the name of it or the author right now. (blush) That one is pretty out of sync with what's being written now, too. But anyway, you could get the earliest book you can find and then search for and add books to your shelf that get progressively newers. It could lead to an interesting collection, don't you think? Who knows---you might eventually even write a history book on the history of tarot books. :D

I've been mentioning this in other threads lately, but I'll say it again---I like to collect information from as many sources as possible and then, out of it all, form my own opinions. I take what's useful to me and leave the rest. There may be parts of the book that will be useful to your studies and others not, so just keep the good parts in mind and forget the parts you don't find useful.

Many, many of our members like to study tarot history and I'm sure they've gone back into the early books written, including the one you're referring to. It's like digging in Grandma's attic. You're going to encounter spiders, but if you keep digging, you also find treasures. :)
 

6 Haunted Days

newstar13 said:
since im new to tarot i guess ill mark this as a loss good thing i only paid $1.25 for the book

Naw never a loss! You got an interesting old book on Tarot, those aren't very common. It's a good thing! I still have mine somewhere. Obviously it's not going to broaden your horizons with tarot but keep it in your collection.
 

DreamGhost

AJ said:
http://www.solsticepoint.com/astrologersmemorial/earlyauthors.html
has a little write up on what may be him, I wonder if you have a second edition if he died in the 1950's.

Here is a link to a lot of information
http://www.google.com/search?q=sidn...t:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1
that came up when I added tarot to the search
I'm such a incorrigible info-junkie

aj: The poor guy doesn't even seem to have a picture of himself like many of the other authors on the first link you gave. Also: "A letter from Dal Lee to the authors dated October 4, 1958, says that he had recently heard of Bennett's death but that it had not been confirmed."

Now I feel kind of sorry for him! It's like he's nameless, faceless, unknown....

I have never heard of him until this thread. I'm not so sure I even remember Waite being as apparently sexist in his Key to the Tarot
 

6 Haunted Days

DreamGhost said:
I have never heard of him until this thread. I'm not so sure I even remember Waite being as apparently sexist in his Key to the Tarot

Yes, that was my point. I know it was standard views and all "back then", but I haven't run across old tarot books that are so full of in your face sexism as this one is before.
 

Teheuti

The author was not the Sidney Bennett (aka Wynn) but, rather, a “Miss Bennett," an American journalist. In her introduction she says the book is the result of 18 years of study and thanks A.E. Waite, Wenzell Brown (How to Tell Fortunes with Cards), and all the “wonderful gypsies” who taught her so much. In her 2nd book, Miss Bennett reveals “a new modern Gypsy interpretation of the Tarot.” She says “Tarot comes from Atlantis and the gypsies are responsible for bringing the Tarot across Europe and into America.” This book focuses on new spreads and meditations on the cards.

Thanks for the discussion. I vaguely remembered something about a "Miss Bennett" (see back cover of book) and was glad for the opportunity to delve a little deeper into this. Especially I found Wenzell Brown to be very interesting and worth learning about (check out his books on any used book site.)

While, in my opinion, the books are not terribly good they are full of cute ancedotes - a real period piece.

Mary
 

Grizabella

I may look for it myself now. I think it might be interesting just to have in my collection of books on Tarot.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention, newstar. :)

And thanks so much for your interesting input about it, Terheutl.