The worst tarot books you have come across

darwinia

Phantom Goddess said:
darwinia, what did you dislike about the book Forest of Souls exactly? I am thinking of buying it and I want to hear both sides of the reviews :)

Sorry, I missed this, have been offline mostly for a few days.

I like and respect Rachel's talent. I think she is a great writer and a highly imaginative storyteller--storyteller in the old-fashioned sense, someone that people enjoy and respect and flock to for answers and insight.

I enjoyed it when she was talking about the Haindl Tarot in her two books on that deck, because some of those cards have minimal imagery, and she wove such delight into the study and story.

I also feel she takes that too far and goes on associative riffs that are.......silly. There I've said it. She gets carried away and sounds silly. Her mythological associations with tarot seem silly to me also, and I usually love mythology.

I don't care for her adherence to numbers: The Fool's Journey type of story is stultifying to me, as is the adherence to numerological associations and the assertion that such and such a card it related to another because of their proximity or numerology. I don't like to pin it down like that, I find such constraints mind-bogglingly boring, like following a chart or rigid dogma.

At other times she is spontaneous and says go with this or do your own thing, try this, here's a story, what do you think etc., which I liked.

She is a thoughtful, experienced writer, and by others' accounts a wonderful speaker and tarot workshop leader--but her love of story becomes overly fanciful for my taste in this book. I think she's a magical prose stylist, but I thought the book was silly.

A very interesting person and writer though.
 

Pagan X

lark said:
With out a doubt.
Hands down the winner would be,
Ta Da!
Understanding and Using Tarot by Emily Peach...


O Sister of my Soul!

No kidding. What a pompous book. A definite One True Way Volume. A large part of the problem is that it is not about reading the Tarot, it's about doing Golden Dawn pathworking through the Golden Dawn's version of the Kabbalah. Actually using the cards for divination is too vulger to really be taken seriously children.

The cover text, therefor, is somewhat misleading. It also has a lot of white space on the pages, which annoys me. I don't need a card-shaped space left on the page to put the card that I am currently viewing, give me a break.
 

Silverlotus

lark said:
With out a doubt.
Hands down the winner would be,
Ta Da!
Understanding and Using Tarot by Emily Peach

This book is also known as The Tarot Workbook and it is actually one of the two books I started out with. At the time I didn't think it was so bad, but now I realize just how odd it was. Believe it or not, I actually did memorize all the dates for the Zodiac signs, etc. just because the book said I needed too. *sigh*

I also agree that Nancy Garen's Tarot According to You isn't very good. I though it would be more insightful, but instead it is just a book full of leading questions.

And I wasn't very impressed with Rachel Pollack's Forest of Souls. Some of her ideas at the beginning of the book were very good, but overall I was disappointed. The book seemed to me to be a record of some of her musings with the cards, most of which were quite personal in meaning. It is something better left to her own Tarot journal, instead of in a published book. But that being said, I do know a little bit more about how to experiment with Tarot, and I also know that I don't like her Shining Tribe deck at all.
 

darwinia

Silverlotus said:
And I wasn't very impressed with Rachel Pollack's Forest of Souls. Some of her ideas at the beginning of the book were very good, but overall I was disappointed.
The stuff she had about time at the beginning was fantastic. One great chapter.
The book seemed to me to be a record of some of her musings with the cards, most of which were quite personal in meaning. It is something better left to her own Tarot journal, instead of in a published book.
Ah, you've said it much better than I did. This is exactly it. For some that have a rigid view of tarot, she might loosen them up, but I already have a wildly quixotic approach to tarot and found her views and exercises constraining.
I also know that I don't like her Shining Tribe deck at all.
How many times did that Lovers card image get repeated in the book? Those blobby fellows rising up in the air kissing each other--I don't have a copy anymore, but I figure at least 5 times.

It seemed to me a random placement of images from that deck. I really find general books that stick to one deck or another limiting as well.
 

northsea

Tarot Made Easy - Garen
Tarot Combinations - ?
Tarot - Donaldson
Tarot for Beginners - Hollander
Complete Illustrated Guide - Pollack
Illustrated Guide - Oczniak
Tarot Exploring - Japiske
 

blackroseivy

I started another thread on this subject, but really, the worst book I've had yet so far is the book to the Sacred Circle. Harsh to the max, like I was saying! Love the deck, hate the book.
 

jema

I am starting to dislike "Tarot: Mirror of the Soul" by Gerd Ziegler more and more.
Perhaps calling it the worst book is a bit too much though.
The most boring one is by far Mary Greers Tarot for your self.
I really tried to like it. Everyone thinks it is such a great book but I just think it is so dry and it reminds me too much of school.
 

darwinia

jema said:
The most boring one is by far Mary Greers Tarot for your self.
I really tried to like it. Everyone thinks it is such a great book but I just think it is so dry and it reminds me too much of school. [/B]

Shhh Jema, I looked at this book in a store and never considered buying another book of Mary Greer's. I feel like a heretic dodging lightning bolts, I have scorned the sacred movers and shakers of Tarot.

Well, at least their books, they themselves are charming and talented to be sure.
 

ambermoon

What's really offputting to me about Greer's Tarot for Yourself is the really bad visual design of the workbook pages. Generally, workbooks appeal to me, but the successful ones have a more spacious layout and leave more room for notes, and use type much better than this book does.

I never realized what a book snob I was until I started looking at the tarot books. So many of them lack visual interest. Compared to the beauty of the cards, they are just so pathetic.
 

DeLani

Coming to the defense of Mary Greer's Tarot for Yourself, the original printing was bigger in size, and laid out more for a workbook, with lots of space for notes & such.
While I *love* this book, I respect your opinions! I just wanted to point that out...I also dislike the new format.
So far, I haven't run across any horribly bad books...but reading this thread is great! At least I know what *not* to buy!