Tarot Experience kickstarter is live

rwcarter

Kickstarter update received this morning. Looks like they stuck with stock photography in the book. :( Other than that, it looks really nice. Shipments to Australia should begin in less than 2 months.
 

Spiffo

Right, I've had the book for a little over a week now (in Australia so we got ours first this time - hurrah). It's not what I was expecting.

It's beautifully produced, just as Tarot Fundamentals was. It looks nice on the shelf next to the other one. But, it is full (and I mean full) of stock art. Sure there are some lovely images of cards, but there is so much stock art that it detracts from the actual text. Did I mention the stock art?

It's really all about the reading process. How to do a reading, what types of readings, time management (!), approaches to readings, spreads, spreads and more spreads, ... I'm sorry I just found this stuff to be either obvious, unoriginal, or worse; so condescending that to call this the 'intermediate' book in the series was perhaps an overstatement. Hidden in some 500 odd pages, are some interesting ideas but they are surrounded by some really trite stuff. Now, please remember I was thinking this was an intermediate book and therefore would be more advanced than Tarot Fundamentals. For me it felt like a remedial text book, with lots of colourful pictures to make it 'pretty'.

The one section I did enjoy was the Advanced Thematic Card Meaning section pages 497-576. I felt it built on the previous book, but could have been so much more comprehensive. Where the first book hinted at correspondences, astrology, Kabbalah, etc., this book almost completely ignores them.

Ok, so I may have been too harsh. I may not be the kind of reader this book is aimed at. For absolute beginners this series may well be a fine investment. Will I pledge for the final volume, yes for two reasons: 1. I'm a completionist so want all 3 volumes and 2. Lo Scarabeo and their team deserve support for their efforts.

I'll be very curious to read others' impressions of the book once it starts getting out into the wider world. Again I reiterate my disappointment is mine alone. I fully expect other people's reaction to differ from mine. In fact I'm hoping some of those reactions will make me reasses my own negativity towards the title.

X
 

garmonbozia

Where the first book hinted at correspondences, astrology, Kabbalah, etc., this book almost completely ignores them.

This is really disappointing news. Lo Scarabeo, if you are reading, please make the last book useful and actually deal with advanced topics.
 

rwcarter

Yes, the stock art was a huge bone of contention with the first book and that they went back there with the second book is disappointing. Now they almost have to go back there again with the third book or else it won't fit in with the series.

I have the highest expectations for the third book. For me at this point in my tarot journey (some 25 years into it) and with just under 700 tarot books in my library, anything beginner or intermediate would need to be stellar to make me take notice of it. There were some interesting things in the first book, and I'm sure I'll find an interesting thing or two in the second book. The first book didn't knock my socks off, and I'm not expecting the second book to either. But if the third book doesn't, I will be sorely disappointed.

Rodney
 

AnjouTwo

My copy arrived this morning. Unfortunately, Llewellyn is handling the shipping if you're in North America. In my case this meant that the book was shipped in a box without any protective packing material. Thankfully, the book is plastic-wrapped or it would have been sitting in snow.

It's identical in size to Tarot Fundamentals, follows much of the same format as the first book, and again includes quite a lot of stock imagery (as noted previously). I might agree with @Spiffo that the content is a bit of a disappointment at first glance.
 

SarahJoy

Mine arrived today. It's beautifully bound, just like the first volume, and it looks great on the bookshelf.

I agree with others that the quantity of stock photos is annoying. However, after the first one, this isn't a surprise.

The content is also not a surprise. Based on the table of contents released in the Kickstarter, I knew it would be a little basic for me.

It feels very much like a high school textbook. There's nothing wrong with that, and in that context, it's beautifully done. The problem is, folks like us who would back the books on Kickstarter are people who are looking more for an upper-level undergrad or graduate-level textbook.

I'm looking forward to the final installment and hope it's a bit more . . . suited to our level. I'm going to buy it anyway. They're well done and a nice addition to my library.
 

rwcarter

My book arrived today. It came in a Llewellyn box and initially I was confused cause I haven't ordered anything from Llewellyn lately. Then I realized what it was.

I've skimmed through the whole book and may go back and more carefully read a passage or two. (I doubt I'll read any of the sections in full.) I thought the use of stock photos in the first book was an unfortunate choice. I'm actually annoyed by them in this book and expect I'll be angry with them in the third book.

I did enjoy the pictures of readers and their cards. I wish they had identified the readers and their decks though.

The editors were inconsistent in identifying the decks used in spreads or to highlight a point. Even if I read the book from cover to cover in a single sitting, if I saw a deck identified in the beginning of the book, I wouldn't necessarily remember what it was by the time it was used again much later in the book. LoS missed an easy sales opportunity by not identifying each deck each time it was shown.

After the Sweet Twiligth debacle (for those who don't know, the box was originally printed with Twilight misspelled and LoS had to reprint the boxes), I can't believe that the caption on the stock photo on page 124 reads:
Different decks weigth differently on different scales.
:bugeyed:

The choice of three decks to compare/contrast the Thematic Advanced Meanings is odd, to say the least - The Tarot of Wirth, The Tarot of the Angels and the Tarot of Klimt?

The above may sound overly negative. I knew from the outset though that Volume III would be where my interest would be, and to find my handsome prince I'd need to kiss a couple of ugly toads. If I were at an earlier point in my tarot journey, I'd probably feel differently about Vols I and II.

The thing I'm most excited about is my Kickstarter perk of three "Wonderful" decks - Tarot Art Nouveau, Dante Tarot and Tarot of the Master. Each was printed on linen (?) cardstock in limited editions of 250 copies. The decks more than make up for the book.

Rodney
 

Padma

I'm afraid to say, I was so disappointed with the first book that I didn't back the second. It would have been an awesome book if I was a grade kindergarten reader, but - I'm not. I guess I was expecting more than book 1 of any series could deliver. So I already decided that book 2 would not be much of an advance.
 

Linfang

Can anyone remember if the goal for bookmarks was reached? I'm not sure anymore... Thanks!
 

gregory

I had thought they reached all their stretch goals. but looking at the KS page, it seems not. I know I got a bag and the extra prints of Dunne's, and no bookmarks.

Also not funded was the video (I don't care; I HATE tarot videos...) and the extra pages by Corinne Kenner.

I don't like the stock photos at all, but they do match the first book. AS to the typos - I had communication with them about typos and translation errors in general a while ago, and then I was in a major museum in Ferrara. TRUST me, the translations in there, in a world class museum, were FAR worse than anything LoS has ever turned out. And in that I include the wonderful Lee Buster thing.

I have several of the delightful Sweet Twiligth boxes. I love them... I am warped. For a large consideration I will sell them to collectors })

I don't claim to be in any way advanced, and I have picked up a few things I didn't know just by dipping in. That even applies to vol 1.