"Personality, Divination and the Tarot" by Carl Sargent

dminoz

I've had this book for a while now, and it has slowly and steadily become the only tarot book I consult for meanings and general background.

The author uses the Marseille deck, in fact he expresses a dislike of the RWS. The book has no reference to what I would consider "add-ons" to the tarot, such as astrological symbolism, or kabbalah, or hebrew letters, or any other such occult-fluff. Thankfully, there are also no fairies, dragons or dolphins, either.

The first half of the book contains good summaries of the ideas of Freud, Jung, Maslow and Kelly. The second half makes a solid attempt to relate the tarot to these ideas.

I find the card meanings (for the pips, they are based on suit and number symbolism) to be excellent, and far removed from your average RWS-clone meanings. I do not know whether his meanings differ at all from traditional Marseille meanings (I suspect that they're pretty close, from what I've read on this forum), but I would be interested to find out.

Does anyone else know this book? Any opinions as to its usefulness, especially from a Marseille point of view?
 

jmd

This is one book I have seen, but never read...

It seems that the book is very psychologically oriented, focussing on both personality and development from the point of view of major theories in the field of psychology.
 

Cerulean

dminoz

Cerulean said:
Does anyone know which Marseilles illustrations might be used?
Click to expand...

In my copy of the book, the illustrations are only small and b/w, but they seem very close to my Hadar deck -- so whatever the Hadar deck is based on would be a fair bet.
 

jmd

Given the publication date of the book, I would suggest that the deck is very likely the line-artwork taken from the Grimaud (hence Paul Marteau) version of the Marseille, itself based heavily on the Conver.
 

arachnophobia

dminoz said:
I've had this book for a while now, and it has slowly and steadily become the only tarot book I consult for meanings and general background.

The author uses the Marseille deck, in fact he expresses a dislike of the RWS. The book has no reference to what I would consider "add-ons" to the tarot, such as astrological symbolism, or kabbalah, or hebrew letters, or any other such occult-fluff. Thankfully, there are also no fairies, dragons or dolphins, either.

The first half of the book contains good summaries of the ideas of Freud, Jung, Maslow and Kelly. The second half makes a solid attempt to relate the tarot to these ideas.

I find the card meanings (for the pips, they are based on suit and number symbolism) to be excellent, and far removed from your average RWS-clone meanings. I do not know whether his meanings differ at all from traditional Marseille meanings (I suspect that they're pretty close, from what I've read on this forum), but I would be interested to find out.

Does anyone else know this book? Any opinions as to its usefulness, especially from a Marseille point of view?
Click to expand...


I don't know the book, but I already want it, for its absence of fluff!!! (Hate the RWS Tarot, and not particularly interested in the Marseilles either, but never mind) ;-))
 

northsea

Sargent's PDT would likely be helpful to anyone interested in taking a psychological approach to the Marseilles tarot. The minors are based on numerology though I do see some overlap of meaning with the RWS deck (for example, 5 of Wands is opposition). I also like the psychological explanation of the Court (personality) cards. For example, a description of the King of Swords:

"A fairly beneficent monarch looks out from this card, sword held in his right hand (the power of thinking is conscious), wearing some intriguing looking robes. The robes on his shoulders almost seem to have the face of the Moon designed upon them! Surely this must be to remind us that to place all our faith in the power of reason is an illusion for us... he is the power of pure reason. " (... then divinatory meanings are listed)

Carl Sargent was a teacher of abnormal psychology and the psychology of the personality at the University of Cambridge.
 

dminoz

The more I use Carl Sargent's book, and meanings, the better I like them. Unfortunately, we can't expect anything more from the author; he died a few years ago. I'd like to republish the book (I'm a small publisher), but I can't track down who is in control of the copyright now.
 

northsea

Sorry to hear that. Best wishes in your efforts as this book deserves a reprint for sure.
 

spax

Oh! He is dead now... I'm waiting for republishing of his works.

Blessings
 
Is there a site that shows the upright position of every pip for TdM Hadar? What are the best photo-reproduction decks currently available?