Considering Tarot the open reading book

hi!
i looked up the book "Tarot-the open reading" by Yoav Ben-Dov and it seems to give quite some info on the minor arcanas. the description on amazon says that it gives:

"suggested meanings for colors, numbers, types of figures..."

what i'd like to know is if the author actually gives the meaning of the leaves, flowers, and other symbols like the 2 fish on the 2 of cups...

thx 4 your help

Katniss said:

.....what i'd like to know is if the author actually gives the meaning of the leaves, flowers, and other symbols like the 2 fish on the 2 of cups...

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Quote from the book:

I can recommend it; I'm about to read it for a second time. It comes down a little more on what I call the "deconstructionist" side of TdM interpretation (e.g. three lines here, two dots over there, four folds in the fabric) than I'm looking for in a reading method, but that seems to be what you're after. My only minor quibble is that the author goes into some detail about what the flowers, leaves and branches are doing and where they happen to be doing it, but not as much about why he thinks they're doing what they're doing from an interpretation perspective. Maybe I'll change my mind after I've finished it again.

thank you both!
i'm gonna think some more about it as after reading the quote from the book i'm not sure about it. the author seems to "talk" about what he sees and gives his interpretation but like you said Barleywine we're missing the "why" and the "how to go about the leaves, and flowers as we encounter them"
he doesn't really tell you, like a flower bud symbolizes this that, a leaf like this and like that means... like the "general" meaning of the symbol. like we have for the colors.
the detail he gives is really about the color and what it means...
so i might not get more than what i found on the net, or in the few books i have.
on amazon someone reviewed a TM deck and said that the leaves, flowers, etc... will mean something different with each reading, like you observe them and at the time they might trigger a certain vision and then in another reading that will be different...
all that gives me some food for thought, i might just wait that my deck arrives and see what i can get by looking at each card, and maybe write down my own impressions.

Maybe the floral embellishments are nothing more than decorations to beautify the cards.

LRichard said:

Maybe the floral embellishments are nothing more than decorations to beautify the cards.

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yeah, possible too... i've not read the TM just yet so i don't know that much about it. still i'm going on a google adventure on this subject today! lol!

LRichard said:

Maybe the floral embellishments are nothing more than decorations to beautify the cards.

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Does Ben-Dov suggest in his book that the design is intended to convey the meanings he gives or is he using them as a convenient mnemonic?

LRichard said:

Maybe the floral embellishments are nothing more than decorations to beautify the cards.

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I agree, but that leaves the pip cards pretty much barren of interpretive potential other than numerical and elemental significance coupled with memorized and entirely intuitive/imaginitive meanings. I might have been happier with this approach if different suits had different decorative motifs that might be read in subtly different ways. As discussed in another thread, I'm still looking for a more seamlessly integrated way to approach them without falling back on additional esoteric correspondences.

Personally, I'd suggest you get it. There aren't many TdM books in English available, and of the stable of ones I've accumulated, this is one I've returned to a lot.

personally, i'd prefer to use an intuitive approach; looking at the minors of the TM + "seeing" the message, rather than applying a learned meaning. that's why i'll probably meditate on each card as soon as i get my deck + write what i "see", what the "flowers, leaves, animals, etc..." convey to me. but at the same time, i'm interested in reading what is the general meaning of a flower, a leaf, etc... in the TM.
ive been googling about the subject, a lot, lol! + found some interesting sites/blogs that i'm gonna share. one is actually giving tips on how to look at the cards + let the symbols speak to u (which is what i'm aiming for) another one (this one is in French) go into more details + tell u what the symbol means in each card (which is what i was looking for as background knowledge)

3ill.yazi said:

Personally, I'd suggest you get it. There aren't many TdM books in English available, and of the stable of ones I've accumulated, this is one I've returned to a lot.

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i might indeed as visibly it has quite some info, the ebooks i have are really not much so it'd be a good ref. book to have.

is the kindle edition practical to study with this book or would the hard copy better? (i've a small screen very basic kindle)

thx all 4 your comments.