The little white book

I always keep them. Despite the fact that I don't think they're necessary to use and enjoy the cards, I'm a bookworm and lap up every word available to me to learn as much as I can about the them.
If a deck has a published companion book, I'll always buy it, but the LWB doesn't get thrown out. I hold onto them especially tenaciously if there is no other book, like the Sun and Moon, and until recently, the Deviant Moon (I put off buying that companion book for a very long time simply because of its size, but eventually succumbed).
Of all the LWBs, the one that came with my Thoth cards was very nice, I thought. The Universal Marseille from LoScarabeo was also well done, although, of course, disappointingly brief because of the multiple languages (although the language learner in me kind of enjoys that). I liked the CBD Marseille one, as well.
Then again, that is the main problem with any LWB (some more so than others, of course): they're too short, leaving many gaps that I wish could be filled. I just wish that every Tarot deck also had a book, although I know that's impossible.

I don't tend to refer to LWBs that much, but I keep them in the boxes with their respective decks - although some decks can be a bit of a tight squeeze, so it'd be easier to put the cards back in the box without that extra LWB thickness....

The LWB for the Heron Marseille 1760 Conver reproduction is rather off the wall, with strangely specific card meanings like "death threat by excesses after an orgy", and "You will lose a book that you liked very much" etc.! It's fun to read some of the meanings, but I don't use them when reading with the deck, in an attempt to cling on to my sanity..!!

The LWB for the Archeon Tarot is good, in a different way - Timothy Lantz writes quite a bit about 19th century symbolism and how it relates to his artwork, and along with the descriptions/meanings for each card, he includes quotes from people such as Oscar Wilde, Tolstoy, DaVinci etc. that he thinks are relevant to the specific card in some way.

Spectre Made Flesh said:

I don't tend to refer to LWBs that much, but I keep them in the boxes with their respective decks - although some decks can be a bit of a tight squeeze, so it'd be easier to put the cards back in the box without that extra LWB thickness....



The LWB for the Heron Marseille 1760 Conver reproduction is rather off the wall, with strangely specific card meanings like "death threat by excesses after an orgy", and "You will lose a book that you liked very much" etc.! It's fun to read some of the meanings, but I don't use them when reading with the deck, in an attempt to cling on to my sanity..!!



The LWB for the Archeon Tarot is good, in a different way - Timothy Lantz writes quite a bit about 19th century symbolism and how it relates to his artwork, and along with the descriptions/meanings for each card, he includes quotes from people such as Oscar Wilde, Tolstoy, DaVinci etc. that he thinks are relevant to the specific card in some way.

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YES! That Heron book is absolutely bonkers!


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Of my three decks, one has a LWB, and two have high-production books that help tell the story told within the Major Arcanas, and the minor Arcanas. The decks that do this tend to stray from traditional RWS designs, but not in a way that the meanings of the cards will contradict themselves. For me, this gives the cards some added definition that combined with RWS allows me to glean some additional information/advice.

I keep all my LWB's but I've ended up taking them out of the boxes since it can be hard to close them, and I keep them in a box of their own now. Some of them are interesting, such as the ones for my Roots of Asia Tarot, Sun and Moon Tarot, Dreaming Way... lots of others I forget, but I really dislike those that are very shallow and don't go into details. Some of them seem to just include the same RWS standard meanings even when the artwork is very different and that makes it hard for me to understand even if it stays close to the RWS tradition, so then I just use a larger, more in-depth tarot book to see if I can't get why it still fits, or if it zooms in on a specific aspect of a card.

Like some others in this thread I prefer to get the book for a deck if it has one and I'm happy with most of those I have. Except for the Wildwood book... I don't know what is up with that book, but for some reason I'm unable to process what it says and I don't understand much most of the time. It's a pity since I love that deck though, so I might have to check out that ebook they released recently. Kinda wish it had a LWB. I got the set with the book and the deck so I wouldn't know.

There are so few good LWBs in my collection (which is 80+ decks right now). I usually put them aside. I always spring for a guidebook if one is available.

The Sun and Moon LWB is good, even though I wish she made a larger guidebook for it. The Deviant Moon was also good, but Patrick Valenza's giant guidebook crushes the LWB.

The small glossy book packaged with the Quantum 2.0 is phenomenal. It's written by the deck creators and includes a "Basic Course" which gives small interpretations and the "Advanced Course" that really discusses what's happening on the cards. A+

I think it is always worth reading the LWB at least once to get a feel for what the creator of that deck meant to do. What message does each of their cards say? But (like Raymond Buckland says) after you read it, you should put it away and free associate off the cards. Get your OWN meanings going. Those will come through the third eye and they are most important.


barb

MissChiff said:

I really don't pay attention to most of the little white books but this morning I've been reading the book that comes with the Maddonni Tarot... and its really great! Does anybody else read them? And can you suggest any good ones?....

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For the part I don't read the LWBs, or even the bigger books. I tend to just open up a deck and go.

UNLESS it is a very unique deck that doesn't fit into the way I currently read easily.

I just did today look at the LWB for a new deck. My new Chrysalis deck. The suits are Stones, Scrolls, Spirals and Mirrors. Since I had no idea what that corresponded to in a regular deck I had to look it up. And even teh Majors have been reworked in the deck. so I had to check some of those 2.

I like the deck a lot but it made me read up on it.

If it;s some kind of RWS clone, or even a Thoth clone, don't touch the LWBs, but if it's an original...then I need to look.

Babs

This is a subject that interests me, as you might guess, since I'm an author of two tarot decks (and one in the works!) as well as a writer of LWBs for other people's decks. Whichever hat I'm wearing, though, I believe that the card should tell the story without the need to read the accompanying text. Tarot is a visual tool, after all.

BUT ....

That said, I would like to encourage you to at least skim through the books and LWBs that are written by the creators of the decks. You'll still bring your own interpretations to the cards, I hope, but knowing the intention behind the deck can really add richness to your readings. With my own two decks, Victorian Fairy Tarot and Mystical Cats Tarot, there is quite a bit of lore in the books that come with them, beyond just an interpretation of the cards' meanings -- for example, the Victorian language of flowers and why they are shown on certain cards, and the different Cat Clans with their clan characteristics. There are so many decks whose books have deepened my understanding not only of that deck but of tarot in general. There are also decks whose text did NOT align with how I saw the cards, and that's okay too. Use what is useful and set the rest aside. But do take a look -- we work hard on those books!

Lunaea said:

I would like to encourage you to at least skim through the books and LWBs that are written by the creators of the decks. You'll still bring your own interpretations to the cards, I hope, but knowing the intention behind the deck can really add richness to your readings. Use what is useful and set the rest aside.

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Exactly correct! (well said)

barb