Best books to study tarot?

EmpyreanKnight

No need, but thanks! Tarot Masterclass was published in 2008 and seems to be an evolution of his thinking rather than an updated reissue of the earlier book. Mastering the Tarot is no longer available new from Amazon, so I'll just buy the newer work.

Thanks for alerting me to his newer book though! Since I really liked his two books I'd be buying it in my next splurge too! Shipping of books and decks to this country gets so much cheaper when we combine items and use forwarders, so gotta fill my wishlist first. :)
 

gregory

Barbara Moore is another good place to start, IMHO. Your Tarot Your Way is short and very solid. So is Tarot for Beginners. And all the guidebooks she has written for various decks can be used more generally.

I also second Greer's 21 Ways and Huggens' Tarot 101.
 

LunaRosa

I have several tarot books and currently I'm really enjoying The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean. It's very colorful with an interactive feel. Seems to be a fairly popular book as well. :)
 

EmpyreanKnight

I have several tarot books and currently I'm really enjoying The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean. It's very colorful with an interactive feel. Seems to be a fairly popular book as well. :)

I really liked that book too, LunaRosa. It did a good job in discussing the more esoteric aspects of the cards. The astrological explanations were interesting and her handling of the Qabalistic correspondences were not heavy-handed. I feel like she could have discoursed more about them though. Definitely recommended for beginners.
 

ihcoyc

For the Anglophone tradition, I'd second the recommendation of Anthony Louis's Tarot Plain and Simple. It's a thesaurus of keywords for each card, which I find quite helpful. Not so much to memorize them all, but by going over the list you get a fairly good picture of what each card means in the RWS tradition.

For the Francophone tradition, I've yet to come across anything as generally informative and encyclopedic as Carole Sédillot's Ombres et lumières du Tarot. If you read French I would recommend it highly as a well organized introduction to Paul Marteau's thinking.
 

Carojulie

Hi Manfeex,

I have several books and they more or less fall into one of two categories :

- the books that describe the meanings traditionaly attributed to each card - You might not want to read them from page one to the last in one go, IMO this kind of book is better as a "reference book" that you can consult from time to time to deepen your understanding of a certain card. I rarely use these books, actually.


- the workbooks that gives you journaling prompts, exercises etc, and that you can use along with a pen and paper, from chapter one to the end of the book. These are my favourite kind of books (I love to be suggested activities to do with my cards)

Of course, some books also are a cross of the two categories.

The three work books I have are :

Tarot 101 by Kim Huggens (great for beginners but also I think many intermediate or even advanced readers will enjoy some of the exercises). It can bee used with any sort of tarot deck. to an extand, it also gives information on the traditional meanings of the cards, so it is a "complete" beginner's book.

Tarot for Yourself Mary K Greer. I have only started on this one so I cant say much, but I like it a lot so far.

The Motherpeace tarot Playbook. I have not started on this one. It is made to work with the Motherpeace deck, but obviously can also be used with other decks as well. I like the fact that is looks like a true exercice book and you can write directly inside it.

The "reference books" I have are :

78 degrees of wisdom by rachel Pollack : a classic. I regret that some cards are not given a very deep reflexion nor a very long paragraph. Some cards are explored in depth, but not all (the majors are given much more thoughts and space than some of the minors)

La Bible du Tarot de Rachel Pollack (In english : Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom) Same kind of book than the 78 degrees, and actually I am glad to have them both, because they seem complementary. This one gives images of each card from several different decks taken from different traditions.

The Ultimate guide to the RWS by J Fiebig and E Burger. It points to many symbols found on each card, which is good. But, I wish these symbols were explored in more depth. I dont use this book a lot.

One book that I have and love, and that does not fall into any category is the Tarot Playbook by Lynda Cowles. This one is not meant to learn the tarot, more to have fun with the deck ! It is sometimes a little silly, and I love it. I have not done many activities from it, but just reading it is fun. It does not take itself seriously.

My wish list :
- 21 ways to read a tarot card (MK Greer)
- Your Tarot your way by Barbara Moore

I think I will have to work through the ones I have first, before I give in and get some from my wishlist !

I hope that helps you.
I think you will not be able to learn from only one book - you need to gather knowledge from different sources, and not everything is in the books (internet is a great source too, as is this forum !)
But, if I should recommand only one book to start with, I would recommand Tarot 101. It is a great start.

Have a good sunday !
 

Carojulie

I have several tarot books and currently I'm really enjoying The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean. It's very colorful with an interactive feel. Seems to be a fairly popular book as well. :)

For the Anglophone tradition, I'd second the recommendation of Anthony Louis's Tarot Plain and Simple. It's a thesaurus of keywords for each card, which I find quite helpful. Not so much to memorize them all, but by going over the list you get a fairly good picture of what each card means in the RWS tradition.

For the Francophone tradition, I've yet to come across anything as generally informative and encyclopedic as Carole Sédillot's Ombres et lumières du Tarot. If you read French I would recommend it highly as a well organized introduction to Paul Marteau's thinking.

Thank you for these recommandations, I will add them to my book wishlist ! I was not aware of Carole Sédillot work, I am going to look into that !
 

Ballerina

Everyone has given you great suggestions.

I'd only like to add that I feel a great beginner book is The Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray. It's less than $10. on Amazon.com and can often be found in used bookstores.

I think it's gone a little out of favour but you can't beat it's straightforward info at such a good price.
 

Nosgo

The book of Joan Bunning is a great starter too : Learning the tarot.

You can check all of the content online on her website (learningthetarot.com) but I personally prefer to have a hardcopy (and support the author for her work).
 

_R_

For the Francophone tradition, I've yet to come across anything as generally informative and encyclopedic as Carole Sédillot's Ombres et lumières du Tarot. If you read French I would recommend it highly as a well organized introduction to Paul Marteau's thinking.

Unfortunately that book by Sédillot is out of print and commands, shall we say, rather excessive prices online second-hand (due, I have no doubt, to algorithmic pricing by the various online retailers).

The good news is that Sédillot has another (shorter) book, "B.A.-BA du Tarot", which covers much of the same ground, and is easily and cheaply available.

I do enjoy some of her insights, but I find that the psychological focus can be quite distracting at times. (Sédillot is a jungian analyst after all.) That merely remains this particular reader's opinion however.

Another take on the Marteau theme is the book by the noted astrologer, Marie-Thérèse Des Longchamps, "Les 78 lames du tarot de Marseille", also still in print and cheaply available. This is much sparser than Sédillot's rich symbolic interpretation since it concentrates solely on the basics: number symbolism, colour symbolism and visual cues. Yet I found it immensely rewarding to work through.

Naturally, there is no substitute for "the real thing" and copies of Paul Marteau's classic are available at very reasonable prices with a little hunting around online.