Shade
Hey all just wanted to say I really enjoyed listening to an unabridged audio version of the Pictorial Key to the Tarot that's available on audible.com (and for only $5.59).
I have tried a few times to read the Pictorial Key. I'd make a little bit of progress and then I would just drift off. If you're an auditory learner (like me!) then a more difficult text that feels impossible to wade through audio could be the key. All of those portions of Waite's theological rumination will just keep whizzing by and I either stay focused or don't and move on.
My takeaways from finally reading what I had long considered to be a foundational book on modern tarot:
I laughed a little when he intimated that the deck was secondary in importance to his book. That certainly hasn't quite panned out.
I had always assumed that people were exaggerating when they talked about how arrogant Waite is. He really comes down hard on Eteilla, Levi, and so many others dismissing their work as well-meaning failures.
I have always heard that Waite thumbed his nose at divination, and while it does seem that way, I felt the larger issue for him was that so many would miss out on a greater mystery of the universe because they wanted to focus on finding wealth and love.
I always assumed the book took a "This is exactly what the cards mean" approach to divination but Waite says over and over again that the reader's intuition will always trump rote meaning. I was a bit floored, I thought that reading intuitively was something no one talked about until the 1960's.
The book is WAY Catholic. About half of what is written about the majors was frankly lost on me as I do not have the level of Theological training Waite would have wanted in a reader.
The actual recording itself was interesting. In the first section the narrator speaks at a very strange clip where it sounds like he is pausing at the end of every written line that he is reading rather than where punctuation would dictate and puts a lot of emphasis on the last word of that line. It nearly drove me crazy. If he were reading Little Red Riding Hood it would sound a bit like:
There once was a little GIRL
who lived in a large FOREST
with her GRANDMOTHER.
It was hard to get through but in the following sections he is able to speak more naturally. I assumed he was just new to the narration business.
If you've ever wanted to read The Pictorial Key but just never could get through it the Audio version is a great way.
I have tried a few times to read the Pictorial Key. I'd make a little bit of progress and then I would just drift off. If you're an auditory learner (like me!) then a more difficult text that feels impossible to wade through audio could be the key. All of those portions of Waite's theological rumination will just keep whizzing by and I either stay focused or don't and move on.
My takeaways from finally reading what I had long considered to be a foundational book on modern tarot:
I laughed a little when he intimated that the deck was secondary in importance to his book. That certainly hasn't quite panned out.
I had always assumed that people were exaggerating when they talked about how arrogant Waite is. He really comes down hard on Eteilla, Levi, and so many others dismissing their work as well-meaning failures.
I have always heard that Waite thumbed his nose at divination, and while it does seem that way, I felt the larger issue for him was that so many would miss out on a greater mystery of the universe because they wanted to focus on finding wealth and love.
I always assumed the book took a "This is exactly what the cards mean" approach to divination but Waite says over and over again that the reader's intuition will always trump rote meaning. I was a bit floored, I thought that reading intuitively was something no one talked about until the 1960's.
The book is WAY Catholic. About half of what is written about the majors was frankly lost on me as I do not have the level of Theological training Waite would have wanted in a reader.
The actual recording itself was interesting. In the first section the narrator speaks at a very strange clip where it sounds like he is pausing at the end of every written line that he is reading rather than where punctuation would dictate and puts a lot of emphasis on the last word of that line. It nearly drove me crazy. If he were reading Little Red Riding Hood it would sound a bit like:
There once was a little GIRL
who lived in a large FOREST
with her GRANDMOTHER.
It was hard to get through but in the following sections he is able to speak more naturally. I assumed he was just new to the narration business.
If you've ever wanted to read The Pictorial Key but just never could get through it the Audio version is a great way.
