Book Reviews

The curious can learn more about my rating system.

Strenuously recommended

The Golden Dawn, Israel Regardie

strengths:Sell your TV and buy this book. One-stop shopping for Ceremonial Magicians and those interested in the Golden Dawn.
nitpicks:none
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Light In Extension: Greek magic from Homer to modern times, David Godwin
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strengths: Excellent cultural history of Greek theurgy and thaumaturgy.
nitpicks: Glib tone may grate on some readers. Doesn't bother me a bit.
The Tarot: History, Mystery and Lore, Cynthia Giles
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strengths: Another book which rocked my paradigm boat. I read this out of order, btw. I read the 2d volume first.
nitpicks:
The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order, Paul Foster Case.
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strengths: Excellent primary source for the Fama and Confessio. Interesting info on GD-style ritual philosophy.
nitpicks: More hardcore Gematria than I usually like.
Thursday Night Tarot,
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strengths: This book got me to LIVE the tarot...
nitpicks: None.
The Tarot: Methods, Mastery and More, Cynthia Giles
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strengths: Broad-minded and thought-provoking musings on the way people actually use tarot.
nitpicks: The internet-related content was a bit hokey; the volume could benefit from a webpage of its own.
Jung and Tarot, Sallie Nichols
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An insightful analysis of the Majors from a Jungian PoV. This book has proven to be the most intellectually influential tarot-related book I've read.
The Tarot: a Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Paul F. Case.
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I picked up this book because Wang recommended it. A well-written intro to BOTA-style Hermeticism.
Qabalistic Tarot, Robert Wang
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Excellent content on Golden Dawn style qabalistic practice. Includes a section on practical work.
The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley

Absolutely brilliant, if somewhat eccentric, holding forth on GD-style tarot. For those who may shy away from the Great Beast's reputation, give him a chance with this manuscript. Good stuff, Maynard, and much wittier than I expected.
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78 Degrees of Wisdom Vol 1 & 2, Rachel Pollack

likes:Excellent and thoughtful card descriptions. Consistent philosophy.
nitpicks:I wish I had the new release which has (IIRC) minor corrections and is in one larger volume.
Comments:The best, most well-balanced books on tarot I've read. If I didn't have an academic bias this might be my favorite.
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Tarot Symbolism, Robert V. O'Neill
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likes: The best scholarly treatment of tarot I've seen. Excellent bibliography. Unusually solid annotation. Excellent grasp of cultural histories. Fearless investigation.
nitpicks: I'd like the annotation to be even better, but then again I'm anal-retentive about that. Occasional logical shortcuts that may confuse the passerby; particularly when sentences start out "obviously", "thus", "logically" or similar structures. Sometimes the text is implying a logical relationship that isn't demonstrated by the information given (ie, the statement is true, but not proven by the presented argument). The text in general may be dense reading for the non-philosophical layman.
Comments: If I had to own one tarot book this would be it. Finally, a well-documented, scholarly treatment of the symbol-system in the tarot. ISBN 0-89536-936-2. Fairway Press, Drawer L, Lima, Ohio 45802. Buy it today.

Highly recommended
Tarot Looking Glass, Ellen Z. Ueker

strengths: Thoughtful and practical exercises and correspondences for therapists. Though I am not a therapist, I enjoyed working the exercises on myself. Those of you with Jungian sympathies will find this work engaging. The cover art, showing Jung and Freud on tarot cards, is delightful.
nitpicks: My version was a first printing (a second was available but would have taken weeks to ship), and I assume that some of the anomalies present in the first are corrected in the second. The layout suffers from crowding; no whitespace between paragraphs or even headers. Smaller type and more spacing (even room for notes) would be welcome. The book's title in light yellow is illegible against the light gray cover.
Rarely did I take issue with the content itself. For example, the Appendix gives the "bad" majors (Devil, Tower, Death) as inappropriate choices to represent the self or others. The pathology of the impropriety is not discussed, in sharp contrast to the wealth of information and straightforwardness elsewhere in this work.
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This work is also available direct from the author.
Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic texts of ritual power, Meyer & Smith
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strengths: What fun! I had a blast reading all the Christian spells; as a young Fundamentalist I was taught all magic was Satanic...
nitpicks: Academic: a bit dry for the lay reader.
Transformational Tarot, Arnell Ando
likes: Lots of space for notetaking (why doesn't anyone else think of that?). Excellent awareness of the subjective nature of her work (tells the sources from some of the art in the pack). Bibliography. Thoughtful and pithy card interpretations. Beautiful cover. My copy is autographed! :)
nitpicks: I don't like to see people's degrees (M.A. in this case) on things. Maybe the publisher pushed for this? Tarot history and celtic cross layouts were a bit odd; not a big deal to me but might corn-fuse beginners. I would like a more complete description of the Thoth layout mentioned in the book. Copyright issue perhaps?
Comments: This is the companion book to the Transformational Tarot pack, itself a thing of beauty.

Recommended.

The Book of Tokens: Tarot Meditations, Paul F. Case
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A little on the foofoo side, still this book has some occasionally-good meditations on the keys. Color plates of the BOTA majors, and (my favorite) a guide to Hebrew letter pronunciation.
Tarot Revelations, Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts

Worth reading for Jungian content, but to the Campbell content is rare and underdeveloped. Looks opportunistic on Roberts' part, with some of his own bizarre ideas thrown in for good measure. More alchemical content than most tarot books.
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Shining Woman tarot guide, Rachel Pollack
likes: Excellent feel (feels great in the hand, right density, size, shape). Full of Rachel's normal fine level of commentary. No surprise, there.
nitpicks: I'm not a big fan of the SW Tarot which this book accompanies.
Comments: I got this for Mary rather than for me, so perhaps it's unfair for me to rate it here.
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Tarot Dictionary and Compendium, Jana Riley
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likes: Excellent overview of most important authors
nitpicks: Would've liked to see a reference section on numerology, astrology, etc.
Comments: There was plenty of room for original content here, but little was there. I know, I know, it's a compendium. But, still.

No recommendation one way or another.

The Greater Trumps (fiction), Charles Williams
See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes: The book is truly Tarot-centric
nitpicks: Florid, tedious style. and this guy hung out with CS Lewis?
Comments: Worth a read if you get it used or free.

Tarot (fiction), Piers Anthony
Faith of Tarot: See info on this book at Amazon.com
God of Tarot: See info on this book at Amazon.com
Vision of Tarot: See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes: Decent tarot content. Or maybe I was just hungry for any tarot content at all.
nitpicks: Pulpy fiction. Worse than I expected.
Comments: The Tarot series can be found in three parts in paperback.

Psychic Tarot, Craig Junjulas
See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes: Chakra and meditation primer. Good descriptions of the Aquarian pack.
nitpicks: I'm biased against things "psychic"
Comments: Came with the Aquarian pack.

Tarot Prediction, Emily Peach
likes: Kabalah content
nitpicks: Again, my biases against the predictive use of the tarot work against it.
Comments: I really haven't spent much time with this book. Perhaps my review will change when I've read the whole thing.

The Tarot of the Bohemians, Papus
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likes: Kabalah and numerological content. A seminal work.
nitpicks: obscure style
Comments: I just don't know enough about Kabalah to follow the dense style

Tarot: a new handbook for the Apprentice, Eileen Connolly
See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes: Excellent practical NLP-style exercises.
nitpicks: High woo-woo factor and occasional obnoxious tone
Comments: a great idea. I'd like to see what Rachel Pollack would do with this format. Could be triumphant, no pun intended.

Tarot in 10 minutes, R.T. Kaser
See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes:
nitpicks:
Comments: Would've been 1-mouse rating but the numerological info was borderline interesting, and the exercises get the student involved, at least.

Tarot Classic, Stuart Kaplan
See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes:
nitpicks:
Comments: Companion book for Tarot Classic pack, I suppose.

Recommend against it.

Tarot: the handbook for the journeyman, Vol II, Eileen Connolly
See info on this book at Amazon.com
likes:
nitpicks: Veers out into high-grade freakiness
Comments: A real shock, as I liked parts of Vol I. a real dog. Thoroughly irritating tone.

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