A girl at a counter in Biloxi, Mississipi, 1974. Photo by William Eggleston.
when susan sontag said: “the aura around each thing. respect it. pause a moment before you grasp something.”
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25 Tarot Books You MUST Read If You Want To Grow Your Tarot Skills! By THERESA REED.
- Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot by Rachel Pollack – deep and rich with information, no list is complete without this book. If I did have to pick a favorite, this may be it.
- Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners by Joan Bunning – based on her online course, this book will get any tarot newbie reading the tarot proficiently in no time.
- Mary K. Greer’s 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary Greer – novel ideas to expand your tarot skills.
- The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals (Special Topics in Tarot Series) by Mary Greer – I’m a fan of reversals (they are not mandatory by the way) and this is THE book for those of us who choose to read upside down. (Honorable mention: Joan Bunning also has a good book on reversals, Learning Tarot Reversals )
- The Complete Tarot Reader: Everything You Need to Know from Start to Finish by Teresa Michaelson – this book has a massive amount of information – it’s like a little encyclopedia
- Tarot Masterclass by Paul Fenton-Smith – this book is rarely mentioned but I think it is pure genius. Not just a tarot primer but also a great section on being a professional tarot reader. (Honorable mention: Fenton-Smith also has a great beginner’s book, The Tarot Revealed: A Beginner’s Guide )
- The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols by Angeles Arrien – featuring the Thoth deck, this book will help you to understand tarot clearly – even if you do not read with the Thoth deck
- The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Marianne Costa – This profound book gets super deep with the Marseille deck. How I wish I would have had this book when I first started out!
- Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis – loads of interpretations and a slant towards beginners, this is the book I recommend to all my students
- Understanding the Tarot Court (Special Topics in Tarot Series) by Mary Greer – face it, the Court cards are one of the hardest suits for any tarotist to master. Greer spells it all out with clarity. LOVE this one.
- Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice, Classic Ed (Connolly Tarot) by Eileen Connolly – this is the first tarot book I ever got my hands on. It’s still a treasured favorite. Some might be put off by her Christian undertones but I find the interpretations to be pure gold. I love all of her works.
- SuperTarot: New Techniques for Improving Your Tarot Reading by Sasha Fenton – although this is out of print, it is worth searching for a copy. The techniques contained within will help you expand your tarot skills.
- The Secret Language of Tarot by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone – a fantastic book detailing the symbols in the tarot cards.
- Tarot for Life: Reading the Cards for Everyday Guidance and Growth by Paul Quinn – A modern book with real life examples of tarot readings, this one will help you bring your readings to life.
- Best Tarot Practices: Everything You Need to Know to Learn the Tarot by Marcia Masino – another great book that tends to be overlooked, this one has novel exercises and good advice on reading tarot professionally.
- Tarot: Your Everyday Guide by Janina Renee – this book focuses on using tarot for dispensing advice.
- Beyond the Celtic Cross: Secret Techniques for Taking Tarot to an Exciting New Level by Paul Hughes Barlow and Catherine Chapman – a very different approach to tarot – card counting and elemental dignities explained in a conversational format.
- Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings by Rachel Pollack – once again, Pollack delivers an impeccable and thought provoking book with new insights for the modern tarot reader.
- Classic Tarot Spreads by Sandor Konraad – I’ve had this book for years and learned many a good spread from it. (Honorable mentions: Learning Tarot Spreads by Joan Bunning and Tarot Spreads and Layouts A User’s Manual For Beginning and Intermediate Readers by Jeanne Fiorini)
- The Spoken Cabala: Tarot Explorations of the One Self by Jason Lotterhand – based on the Thursday night talks from Lotterhand, this book will give you some insight into the Kabbalah and how it relates to tarot. (Honorable mentions: Tarot and the Tree of Life: Finding Everyday Wisdom in the Minor Arcana by Isabel Radow Kliegman for a glimpse on how Kabbalah weaves through the Minor Arcana plus The Tarot Workbook: Understanding and Using Tarot Symbolism by Emily Peach which is a great Kabbalah/tarot primer for beginners)
- Tarot Decoded: Understanding and Using Dignities and Correspondences by Elizabeth Hazel – every single dignity and correspondence you can imagine is featured here.
- Who Are You in the Tarot?: Discover Your Birth and Year Cards and Uncover Your Destiny by Mary Greer – this is a fantastic book that gives deep insights on your personality, life and journey based on your “birth card”.
- Tarot for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Reading the Cards by Barbara Moore – the easiest beginner book out there, this one will appeal to absolute newbies and those who are really sure they can’t “get it”. Moore shows you that you CAN.
- Tarot 101: Mastering the Art of Reading the Cards by Kim Huggens – excellent exercises, good reading list suggestions and a unique format make this book one you cannot miss. Good for all levels.
- Tarosophy : Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape it by Marcus Katz – Hip and modern, full of useful information and exercises – plus it has stuff for all levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). It’s a very intellectual book – this is no “tarot for dummies”.
☉ Sun: Magnetic Solar heartbeat, the mythology you perform for the world
☽ Moon: The cosmic bay of dreams, where we go when we fall to sleep
☿ Mercury: The throne between the two temples in the mind, illuminated by the light of its neighbouring Sun
♀ Venus: Inclusiveness, finding similarities with other people, support, meaningful connections
♂ Mars: Parathyroid glands, the inner Sword made from iron, clairaudience
♃ Jupiter: The ability to acknowledge, hear, and understand every teaching and ancient language of the Gods
♄ Saturn: Sacred pools of Temples, transmutation of collected wisdom into a higher material reality
♅ Uranus: Cerebrospinal fluid poured from the Aquarius jug helixes up the spine toward saturating the pineal gland
♆ Neptune: The Kingdom of Souls, where the body becomes a cosmic flute eternally playing the seven vowels of nature
🐇 Pluto: The wise counsel emanating through images, desires, and feelings that rise from an unknown place deep inside
Major Arcana Astrological Correspondences
0: The Fool - Uranus ♅
1: The Magician - Mercury ☿
2: The High Priestess - Moon ☽
3: The Empress - Venus ♀
4: The Emperor - Aries ♈️
5: The Hierophant - Taurus ♉️
6: The Lovers - Gemini ♊️
7: The Chariot - Cancer ♋️
8: Strength - Leo ♌️
9: The Hermit - Virgo ♍️
10: Wheel of Fortune - Jupiter ♃
11: Justice - Libra ♎️
12: The Hanged Man - Neptune ♆
13: Death - Scorpio ♏️
14: Temperance: Sagittarius ♐️
15: The Devil - Capricorn ♑️
16: The Tower - Mars ♂
17: The Star - Aquarius ♒️
18: The Moon - Pisces ♓️
19: The Sun - Sun ⊙
20: Judgement - Pluto ♇
21: The World - Saturn ♄
From 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, Learning the Tarot by Joan Bunning, and my own experience with the cards*
“I would like to be with you without your knowing it.”
—
Marcel Proust, from a letter to Antoine Bibesco written c. November 1902
