Chrysalis tarot companion book!

Sibylline

I'm reading it right now, and it was definitely not what I expected. But, I think that's a good thing for me. It's a different deck which means this is a different kind of guidebook.

The book is split into 2 parts.

Part 1 consists of 5 chapters that deal with Toney Brooks' philosophy behind the Chrysalis. He's has a Ph.D. in metaphysics, so he discusses large abstract concepts such as 2 models of the universe, collective consciousness, Jungian archetype theory, etc. He moves at a pretty fast clip and these chapters are actually quite deep. Expect to sit around and contemplate for awhile.

Part 2 takes up most of the book. That's where we find the expanded meanings of the cards. You get a b&w sketch of the card (sometimes they're radically different than the final product), a blurb by Holly Sierra that explains her inspiration and process of creating the card, and a one-page expanded interpretation by Toney.

With a few exceptions, I found guidebooks to pretty much be reference guides to look up things like keywords and set interpretations. This one is different. The interpretations deal more with the way each card addresses an aspect of consciousness and/or spiritual transformation in an abstract way.

The most important thing I got out of the book is that the Chrysalis depends upon using your own intuition and your personal understanding of symbols and archetypes. You don't need to study various forms of esoterica, and you need to throw out ingrained interpretations that you may have relied upon within established tarot systems. What you "get" from each card is the "right" interpretation for you.

Hope that helps!
 

Featherflight

I'm reading it right now, and it was definitely not what I expected. But, I think that's a good thing for me. It's a different deck which means this is a different kind of guidebook.

The book is split into 2 parts.

Part 1 consists of 5 chapters that deal with Toney Brooks' philosophy behind the Chrysalis. He's has a Ph.D. in metaphysics, so he discusses large abstract concepts such as 2 models of the universe, collective consciousness, Jungian archetype theory, etc. He moves at a pretty fast clip and these chapters are actually quite deep. Expect to sit around and contemplate for awhile.

Part 2 takes up most of the book. That's where we find the expanded meanings of the cards. You get a b&w sketch of the card (sometimes they're radically different than the final product), a blurb by Holly Sierra that explains her inspiration and process of creating the card, and a one-page expanded interpretation by Toney.

With a few exceptions, I found guidebooks to pretty much be reference guides to look up things like keywords and set interpretations. This one is different. The interpretations deal more with the way each card addresses an aspect of consciousness and/or spiritual transformation in an abstract way.

The most important thing I got out of the book is that the Chrysalis depends upon using your own intuition and your personal understanding of symbols and archetypes. You don't need to study various forms of esoterica, and you need to throw out ingrained interpretations that you may have relied upon within established tarot systems. What you "get" from each card is the "right" interpretation for you.

Hope that helps!

That was helpful. Thanks!