Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Katz & Goodwin?

uic_uic

I honestly think this will be a good book...in an entertaining and illuminative way for the reader (of cards also). What I got to see from the ''teasers'' is interesting and good stuff, in my opinion...it comes to me somehow as a good novel about the cards.
If you were interested in Pamela and Waite...which I am...this will be very cool.
 

MissNine

I bought their book for Lenormand last year and it was lacking clarity in instruction so much, that I got turned off to Lenormand. I recently got back into it and bought Rana George's book. Waiting on it now.

I don't know how their book on tarot will be, but I can tell you the Lenormand read like I was supposed to just know how cards flowed together. No step by step stuff and way too much superfluous stuff that maybe an advanced reader would find interesting or useful to ADD to their repertoire.

However, the thing that was most irritating to their Lenormand book is they had these reading practice exercises, yet had NO ANSWERS for half of them. Like I was to draw on intuition. You can't make a student confident if at the base, they can't validate their skills to the teacher's answers. It was like taking a test and being told you were supposed to know the teacher's preferred answers.
 

Alpha-Omega

Rana's book is amazing. As for the Secrets of the Waite-Smith I am currently reading an advance copy for review and it is very good! Look out for my review soon.


I bought their book for Lenormand last year and it was lacking clarity in instruction so much, that I got turned off to Lenormand. I recently got back into it and bought Rana George's book. Waiting on it now.

I don't know how their book on tarot will be, but I can tell you the Lenormand read like I was supposed to just know how cards flowed together. No step by step stuff and way too much superfluous stuff that maybe an advanced reader would find interesting or useful to ADD to their repertoire.

However, the thing that was most irritating to their Lenormand book is they had these reading practice exercises, yet had NO ANSWERS for half of them. Like I was to draw on intuition. You can't make a student confident if at the base, they can't validate their skills to the teacher's answers. It was like taking a test and being told you were supposed to know the teacher's preferred answers.
 

rwcarter

Moderator Note

Please discuss Lenormand books over in the Lenormand forum.
 

MissNine

Please discuss Lenormand books over in the Lenormand forum.

Hi Rodney!

I'm sorry I talked about the lennie book. I mentioned the authors' other book to describe the authors' method of writing style. I was thinking their style might spill over to their new one. Hope that's ok :)
 

uic_uic

Rana's book is amazing. As for the Secrets of the Waite-Smith I am currently reading an advance copy for review and it is very good! Look out for my review soon.

Lucky one. Let us know :)
 

FLizarraga

It is a different situation, since Waite was not as explicit as Crowley. A researcher would have to wade through all of Waite's voluminous (seemingly turgid) prose in order to ferret out his tarot philosophy. According to Waite, PKT is basically just an introductory handbook, and the divinatory sections most people read do not necessarily reflect his own opinions of card meanings. He is particularly vituperative about the divinatory use of the trumps; yet he includes material relating thereto.

There are a few so called blinds in Waite that Crowley did not need to bother about. (I love black cats, but I despise the use of a black cat in the Queen of Wands. It should be a leopard, but even a couger or black panther would have been almost acceptable.)

I would be tempted to read this book in order to see if it clears up some of these issues, but past experience with Rider-Waite books prompts me to be cautious.

All this stuff about "blinds" and the "occult" used to make me want to read and study more, but now it sort of turns me off. The only true "occult" things are usually hidden in plain sight, and not so much hidden as implicit, waiting to catch an alert eye.

No reflection on your post, LRichard, this is just me venting.
 

nicky

I hate when words like secret, lost, hidden, etc., are used in nonfiction book (or tarot) titles. It stimulates my sales resistance big time. I know it is not necessarily the fault of the author(s), but still......

I have a snake oil visual when I read crap like that
 

starlightexp

Hopefully this will be better then their Abiding the Sanctuary book. You could drive a truck between the line spacing they used to make the book the 100 pages it was. All the text would have fitted on about 10 pages in a regular 10-11pt font
 

Babalon Jones

Yikes Starlightexp, glad I avoided it then as I found it mildly intriguing though not enough to buy. But a counterpoint is I also dislike the opposite way of filling pages, that of restating the obvious just to fill pages. I would rather have a slender book of content than a fatter one of filler. But that one sounds too thin - or at least, not quite forthcoming about it.

I am cautiously optimistic about the upcoming book, but I admit to being a tough customer, often disappointed in books. I realize some background needs to be given ( or does it? Really depends on your audience I guess) but most tarot books are either complete fluff or a sandwich - some meat in between two slices of wonder bread as in, filler, restating yadda yadda what most tarot scholars or even engaged readers already know. Some "filler" may need to be there just as an introduction or context, but it often seems to be there to increase the number of pages, and it just is so boring to read the same ideas each time. Having written books, I know there is need for including stuff to explain concepts for different readers, but hopefully there is a balance. Like speech, some talk (Imo) more than they need to get the point across.

All that to say, I do find the RWS history, Waite and Smith an interesting topic and am looking forward to seeing what the book is like, one way or another, either through experience or reading the reviews here or whatever may be available for preview.