Recommendations for a beginner

thorhammer

I confess, I haven't checked its availability for Kindle, but...

I'm amazed no one has mentioned 78 Degrees of Wisdom! Like any book about Tarot, it has its idiosyncrasies, but the way it encourages someone to actually think deeply about a card, rather than simply rote learn, means it's got a perpetual place on my shelves.
 

Citrin

I confess, I haven't checked its availability for Kindle, but...

I'm amazed no one has mentioned 78 Degrees of Wisdom! Like any book about Tarot, it has its idiosyncrasies, but the way it encourages someone to actually think deeply about a card, rather than simply rote learn, means it's got a perpetual place on my shelves.

I'm also surprised because there's always someone mentioning 78 Degrees of Wisdom. :p I sometimes look up card meanings in it, for study purpose, but to be honest it was never a favorite of mine... I find it "dry" and it's almost too informative at times. I still Think it's almost a must-have in every tarot lovers shelf, but I don't often recommend it to beginners.
 

Freyja of V

I am also new to Tarot. Only started 2 years ago.
Unfortunately, 78 Degrees is not on Kindle.

I agree with all the books suggested thus far and here is 1 more:

A new book called The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean is great! I would recommend it to any beginner. It's not listed on this site so here a description:

It's full color and the layout is perfect for a beginner. She includes all the associations/correspondences for each card and great descriptions; upright and reversed. With the upright, she gives a brief meaning for home, relationships and career/money. She gives a brief explanation of the card's Tree of Life Pathway and she lists the symbols and their meanings for each card. Before the Majors and the Minors, she includes a cheatsheet with 1-3 keywords; In each Major she includes historical references to the card and she ends each Major with a spread based on that particular card.

It really is a great book and is perfect to refer to when practicing readings. It's a shame it has to be on Kindle because it's a nice 'book'. :thumbsup:
 

avalonian

A Guide To Tarot Card Meanings by Mark McElroy is very good and also available on Kindle at a very reasonable price. I like it so much I bought a paper copy as well as the Kindle version.

He includes questions to ask yourself for every card which really helps you to understand the cards - it's like a guidebook and a workbook combined.

Also, his writing style is very friendly and approachable, he talks to you, not at you, and manages to give you a lot of information in a way that doesn't overwhelm you.

It's the book I wish I could have had when I started out.

:) :) :)
 

CornissMagorniss

I like Joan Bunning's book; it doesn't overwhelm you with information, and everything is laid out in an organized, easy-to-digest fashion. 78 Keys to Wisdom is also a good read, though it doesn't get you working with the cards right away like Bunning does. I also got a lot out of Tarot For Yourself, although the workbook approach sometimes seems like a bit of a chore to me. Also, many of the preliminary exercises seem more appropriate for a reader who is already familiar with the cards. But her guide to the individual cards is one of the best and most open-ended I've found; I photocopied those pages, laminated them, and made myself some flash cards to play with and to lay out next to the same card of various decks. Most enlightening!
 

Cesar

I would say that the recommended book must suit the deck which is under study. For the RWS, I would point to the books written by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin. All of them are just great, insightful and well documented. I'm reading "Tarot Face to Face" and it is just a brilliant book. I have other books by these two author, and they all provide a valuable knowledge.

For the Marseille, the book to read is the one written by Yoav Ben-Dov, "Tarot: The Open Reading". Very detailed and practical. This is specially good to learn skills for reading and to develop a method of interpretation of cards.
 

moonbear

I'm reading 'Beginner's guide to Tarot' by Juliet Sharman-Burke at the moment. I'd recommend this for any beginner and even for someone who's been reading a while. It's not a big book but it's straightforward and to the point. I don't have the deck to go with it but might drop hints for Christmas :)

moonbearXXX

ps can't find it on Kindle but it's really cheap second hand!
 

Iaconagraphy

"The Beginner's Guide to the Tarot" by Juliet Sharman-Burke was my very first Tarot book, twenty-seven years ago, and I still highly recommend it!

I slightly disagree with the warning against Nancy Garen's "Tarot Made Easy", however. I've been using that book with Tarot students for almost twenty years as well, and while there are some things in it with which I definitely tend to disagree--I favor the use of reversals, too, and find that for me, they very much matter--I find that it can be a great tool for the beginner. Seventy-eight cards is a LOT to take in, at face value. And the concept of trying to memorize meanings for all 78 cards (and twice that, if you're doing reversals) can be pretty scary when one first starts out. I've found that Garen's book presents the Tarot in "bite-sized chunks", and that's how most people receive information best nowadays. We live in a "soundbyte based world", and this book presents information in precisely that manner, which might be particularly appealing to those of the "younger generation" (egads, I'm only 43, but I sound like a little old lady!). I do feel, however, that it needs to be used in combination with other books (like Sharman-Burke's) for maximum learning potential.

Ultimately, the deck itself is your best "beginner book". Find a deck that actually resonates deeply with you--where you feel as though you can "step inside" the images and "explore"--and the meanings WILL make themselves apparent. I've only recently realized this myself, after twenty-seven years of Tarot, but thanks to a class with a very wise teacher (Laurie Cabot) and the gift of the Steampunk Tarot by Caitlin and John Matthews from someone I love dearly, I now have a whole new lease on learning!
 

EmpyreanKnight

To answer this, what Tarot deck does she currently want to study? If she has a deck and book set, then it's a no-brainer that she has to read the companion book first, although some of them are really not good.

I'm also a beginner. I have more than twenty decks now, but I chose to first study the two prototypes first: the Rider Waite Smith and the Thoth. Once I've got a solid background on these two, I figure that I'd have an easier time studying their clones. We can't be too sure of this though, seeing as some clone decks' interpretations depart rather far from their source as to veritably seem like a new system.

In any case, I'm currently studying the RWS, so for this I use the following books:

1. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack
2. The New Complete Book of Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke
3. Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite
4. The Tarot Revealed by Paul Fenton-Smith
5. Tarot Made Easy by Nancy Garen
6. The Tarot Bible by Kathleen McCormack

Once I focus on the Thoth, I plan to read the folowing books:

1. Tarot Mirror of the Soul by Gerd Ziegler
2. Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo DuQuette
3. The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley

I'm currently looking for Banzhaf's books, so I hope I can get a copy.
 

yannie

I recommend against beginners and made-easy books,
unless you just want to dabble and stay there.
Start with the best you can find and challenge yourself.
Rewards are proportionate to the work you do.

I agree with this. The Internet is good enough for beginners.

A few have mentioned 78 Degrees of Wisdom - jasmine, your friend can borrow it from the National Library @ Bugis. If she hasn't bought a tarot book already... It's not kindle but at least it's free!