Books We Actually Use

Barleywine

Sacred Tarot - Zain has lived on my dinner table for months now, slightly covered in crumbs and other foodstuffs because I read while I eat.
Regardie - GD brick with about 5 bookmarks on the tarot sections! Spine is getting a bit fragile in that area :rolleyes:
78 Degrees of Wisdom- still enjoy dipping into it :)
Snuffin and The BOT if I'm feeling Thothy.

I haven't looked at Zain before, will take a look. The GD brick is the one I have, hardcover by Falcon Press. I have 78 Degrees of Wisdom too; I recall really liking the minor arcana descriptions and should probably keep it handy just for those.
 

Richard

Liber Theta by The College of Thelema (James A. Eshelman)
Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages by P. F. Case
The Book of Thoth by A. Ccowley
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A. E. Waite
 

Barleywine

Liber Theta by The College of Thelema (James A. Eshelman)
Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages by P. F. Case
The Book of Thoth by A. Ccowley
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A. E. Waite

Thank you! I have and use all of these on a regular basis: BoT the most, Case second, then Eshelman and Waite in that order. I tend to refer to Gray's The Tarot Revealed before I hit the PKT, though, because unvarnished Waite for the Minor Arcana sometimes makes me scratch my head.
 

Richard

Thank you! I have and use all of these on a regular basis: BoT the most, Case second, then Eshelman and Waite in that order. I tend to refer to Gray's The Tarot Revealed before I hit the PKT, though, because unvarnished Waite for the Minor Arcana sometimes makes me scratch my head.

I don't bother with part III of the Waite book. I mostly use only part II for the inner symbolism of the Major Arcana.
 

Zephyros

A book that may be overlooked because it is a newcomer but has definitely become a staple of my library in a short time is "Book M - Liber Mundi," the companion book to the Tabula Mundi. It follows in the tradition of the Book of Thoth itself in that it manages to go far beyond being a simple "expanded LWB," and is surprisingly deep and informative. Not for beginners, perhaps, but a real gem.
 

Barleywine

A book that may be overlooked because it is a newcomer but has definitely become a staple of my library in a short time is "Book M - Liber Mundi," the companion book to the Tabula Mundi. It follows in the tradition of the Book of Thoth itself in that it manages to go far beyond being a simple "expanded LWB," and is surprisingly deep and informative. Not for beginners, perhaps, but a real gem.

Thanks! Is the book useful without the deck? I see the full-color 78-card deck won't be published until next year.
 

Zephyros

Thanks! Is the book useful without the deck? I see the full-color 78-card deck won't be published until next tear.

Well, yes and no. A large part of the book deals with theory, and that is fascinating. The section about the cards is also eye-opening and since the deck is decidedly Thelemic it serves to illuminate my Thoth studies from a different angle. The deck is amazing but it doesn't replace my Thoth, of course, so the book works well in that capacity. It has detailed illustrations of the deck, so the Thelemic ideas expounded upon are amply demonstrated.

Full disclosure, I was sent a copy for the purposes of of writing a review of both book and deck. My opinions are my own, though.

As for whether the deck itself is worth getting, my answer would be an unqualified yes, but that's a different question entirely.
 

Annabelle

This thread really got me thinking . . . I haven't "used" a tarot book for reading purposes in a very long time.

After I first began collecting tarot decks and was getting into the groove of reading, I used Marcia Masino's Easy Tarot Guide quite a bit, then moved onto using the companion book to the Tarot of Prague, which is hands-down the best companion book I've encountered thus far. I also used Robert Place's The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination for a while.
 

Barleywine

This thread really got me thinking . . . I haven't "used" a tarot book for reading purposes in a very long time.

After I first began collecting tarot decks and was getting into the groove of reading, I used Marcia Masino's Easy Tarot Guide quite a bit, then moved onto using the companion book to the Tarot of Prague, which is hands-down the best companion book I've encountered thus far. I also used Robert Place's The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination for a while.

Probably "use" as in looking up meanings isn't exactly what I meant, I was thinking more about inspiration, as in "jump-starting" one's imagination or intuition. It might not even be a "keyword" source, it could be an inspiring written passage (the Book of Thoth is great for that). Thanks for your input!
 

Richard

This thread really got me thinking . . . I haven't "used" a tarot book for reading purposes in a very long time.
.......

Same here. My Tarot books are not used for divinatory meanings. They are for studying the deeper symbolism of esoteric decks in the Golden Dawn tradition, such as the Thoth, BOTA, and Rider-Waite. I'm not actually a fortune teller anyhow, nor do I play one on TV. :D