Beginners Books On Alchemy and Tarot !

Hello All

I have the Alchemical Tarot By Robert M Place. This is a beautiful deck with many symbols I really need to understand. I would like to do my homework on the relation of alchemy and tarot but I am afraid I know little of the Alchemy side.

Can any of you kind people please recommend a beginners book or 2 to get me started in the correct direction?

what do think about the online course Adam Mclean offers?

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/study_course.html

I've been thinking about it but haven't made a commitment

The symbols course looks good. I dont have a pc I can use at home for it until I move into my house but the price seems fair. Thanks !

I will do this material when I move in . Is there any books or some thing I can read for now untill I move in though?

Hey man!

Adam's course is WELL worth it. He is passionate and knowledgeable and genuinely loves to spread the wisdom; you'll learn a crazy amount.

There are several books you could take a look at. But for your purposes with the deck, there are a couple books that won't be overwhelming that will "crack the crust" so to speak. Knowing the way you parse a deck , and off the top of my head, I'd say you want a good solid intro like Cotnoir's Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy which will be manageable and won't drown your enthusiasm in minutiae... and also Abraham's Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery which would be a great place to pick through Place's artwork.

And if you want more, you KNOW I love to recommend books. Say the word, just say the word.

Scion

As much s tou love to recomend book I love to read them. Although I hurt my head last night trying to read that wang book and finshe up my alchemical book by place so I know I need to find some moderation

I will try and find those 2 books and go from there.

As always thanks Scion

As for Alchemy and Tarot, Irene Gad's book has a Jungian slant which may be a much bigger bite than you'd want to takle before you've dug around in the alchemy a bit. Crowley has some terrific stuff, but you have to dig it out of the Book of Thoth.

You might check out the list I put up at Tarotpedia... The Sandbach book is NOT something I'd recommend, but John Opsopaus' Guide to the Pythagorean Tarot has some great stuff, even though it's a companion book to his own Pythagorean Tarot. A lot of his material can be found online at his site by googling his name. O'Neill's book has a section of 30ish pages on Alchemy and Tarot which is great... and as packed with intriguing detail as the rest of his book.

Frankly, I'd start with the books in my last post: Cotnoir and then once you've got a feel, the Abraham...

It also might be worth digging on Adam's site for printable articles because his site is an embarassment of Alchemical riches. Hopefully he'll be popping into this thread himself to make proper recs for you. He knows this material better than anyone.

Scion

Scion said:

And if you want more, you KNOW I love to recommend books. Say the word, just say the word.

Click to expand...

Scion,
Please do NOT recommend any more books - my shopping cart at Amazon is overflowing! (Just kidding of course; I love your recommendations. )

Bodhran

well bodhran you know 1 is to many and 1,000 is never enough!! books got to love em

I am trying to put together a sort of syllabus for me .

Would Adams course on symbols be a good beginner or the Cotnoir book? or am I missing some thing?

I remember in another post by Scion he mentioned pick one thing and take it through the deck and start with another. Numbers / Element was my beginner and I think I can really love Alchemy along with Qabalah! Assuming my brain does not fry in the process.