Reddit mentions of The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards

Hey hey! If I just change one person's mind my life is worth living.

You'll be surprised what you find. There is an unlimited number of possibilities in the randomness that shuffling cards creates. I highly recommend this book

The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594772630/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PjMKDbYEZDMP9

And

A Dictionary of Symbols (Dover Occult)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486425231/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AkMKDbDKKQRMF

This book.

The most important thing to understand is the nature of the tarot. It is not for "fortune telling," but rather, is an incredibly useful tool for psychological reflection. The cards act as a mirror for the subject's state of mind in the present moment.

I highly recommend the Marseille Tarot, which is the original 15th century deck that was recently restored by director/author/guru Alejandro Jodorowsky. The corresponding book is incredibly illuminating! Feel free to message me if you would like a reading!

Check out Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Way of the Tarot”. I recommend really any of his books or any books by Tracy Twyman. Her “Baphomet: The Temple Mystery Unveiled” will give you quite a bit of information to immerse yourself into. Also maybe check out “Jung and the Tarot.” Enjoy!

Edit: I’ll add that I don’t always agree with Jodorowsky, sometimes his opinions are even mildly distressing to me. But his writing is worthwhile anyway, and there is much to learn even while observing his conclusions that I don’t share. :)

I suggest picking up a Marseille deck. It has a much older history than any other deck. The Arcana are a lot more subtle than a deck like the Rider-Waite. Any other deck seems like a bastard deck to me. The Camion Marseille deck restored by Alejandro Jodorowsky is incredibly beautiful.

http://en.camoin.com/tarot/Tarot-Marseille-Camoin-Jodorowsky-en.html

You can find a lot of great books written about the Marseille deck.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Tarot-Spiritual-Teacher/dp/1594772630

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Tarot/dp/1585421618/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373642673&sr=1-1&keywords=meditations+on+the+tarot

Greetings,

Here is a list of no-fluff books on the Marseilles Tarot. I recommend reading them all but I am very partial to the work of Enrique Enriquez in particular. You may also be interested in watching his documentary Tarology which is available for streaming online for free.

The Way of Tarot by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Reading the Marseilles Tarot by J.M. David

Tarot: The Open Reading by Yoav Ben-Dov

Marseilles Tarot: Toward the Art of Reading by Camelia Elias

Untold Tarot by Caitlin Matthews

Looking at the Marseilles Tarot by Enrique Enriquez

Tarology by Enrique Enriquez

Take Care!

I have to admit that I'm somewhat mystified by the debate around this post. I imagine that many of us come to the tarot out of dissatisfaction with more established spiritual paths, especially Christianity (though I'm not meaning to offend anyone in the Christian Hermetic traditions, either), so it is really, really upsetting to see people here cling to their own peculiar brand of dogmatic fundamentalism and openly deride any dissent to their favored approach.

One of the things that attracts me to the Tarot is its inherent mystery. The fact is, hardly anything can be claimed about it that isn't open to debate. Any book you read will somewhere make claims that are somewhere contradicted by someone else. The word, Tarot, itself has no agreed upon origin or meaning. And whatever meaning you do read, understand it is likely an overlay applied to the cards, not received from the cards. This includes alchemy, astrology, kabbalah, and numerology. Be aware that if you are reading any book based on RWS you are likely reading from the perspective of one or more of those overlays, and certainly with roots in the Golden Dawn.

If you wish to find an alternative to that, I can strongly recommend The Way of Tarot by Alejandro Jodorowsky. You might also find Reading the Marseille Tarot by Jean-Michel David interesting.

None of this is to discount the other links people have posted here. If you are interested in the Tarot, by all means, read everything to which you feel drawn. But above all, start using and learning the cards directly, by experience. If you wait until you feel like you know "everything" in a practice like tarot, well, you could be waiting a very long time.

The 3 most popular Tarot decks are the Marseille Tarot, Waite-Smith Tarot, and Crowley-Harris "Thoth" Tarot. Almost every other deck on the market is some variant of these 'types' of Tarot, just with a different artistic interpretation of the imagery.

This is an awesome Tarot tool and guide

The Marseille Tarot is the classic European deck, it has roots in the early formation of the Tarot in Italy and France during the Renaissance. The symbolism and structure of the 22 Major Arcana, the 16 Court Cards, and the 40 Minor Arcana or Numbered Suits (totaling 78 cards) evolved to an eventual 'standard' form that is best represented in this deck. Most Italian and French decks use the same structure today. My favorite book on interpreting these symbols is The Marseille Tarot Revealed and the matching deck CBD Tarot is amazing. Jodorowsky (yes, the surreal filmmaker) also has a very interesting perspective if you want to go deeper in The Way of Tarot.

The Waite-Smith Tarot is probably the most popular type of deck. The original images were a collaboration between the English magician A.E. Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith. Both were members of the Golden Dawn and incorporated the G∴D∴ symbolic system of Qabalistic correspondences to the Tarot. So things like the Paths of the Tree of Life and Astrology symbols are used in the imagery and structure of the deck. G∴D∴ changed the order of the Major Arcana 8 Justice and 11 Force (Strength), in order to 'fit' the astrological signs for Leo (the Lion in Force) and Libra (the Scales in Justice) with the Qabala correspondence. So now 8 becomes 11.

The other big change made in the Waite-Smith Tarot is the illustration of the numbered suits (Minor Arcana), by using a pictoral scene of human drama, as opposed to just 10 Disks or 5 Swords. This makes the deck a little more user friendly to the oracle, it's less abstract and easier to see the story. This is probably the main reason for its popularity - most modern decks are just redesigns of the art and structure of this deck - but many are highly imaginative and artistic!

Lastly, the Crowley-Harris "Thoth" Tarot brings a new vision and structure from the Magickal system of A∴A∴ and Thelema, and updates the names, symbols, and structure of the deck "for a new aeon". A new collaboration with another English (ex)-Golden Dawn (now A∴A∴/OTO) magician, Aleister Crowley, and artist Lady Freida Harris (also an initiate of A∴A∴) resulted in another magickally powerful and inspirational deck. The biggest change is the restoration of the 8 Justice and 11 Force cards (renamed to 8 Adjustment and 11 Lust), renaming 20 Judgement to 20 The Aeon / 21 The World to 21 The Universe and the reversal of 4 The Emperor and 18 The Star. This is to align with the received wisdom of the Book of the Law:

>All these old letters of my Book are aright; but צ [Tzaddi] is not the Star. This also is secret: my prophet shall reveal it to the wise.--Liber AL vel Legis, I:57

Crowley interpreted this to mean that the order of 18 The Star in the Tarot was mis-aligned. The whole reasoning for the reversal is beyond an ELI5.

So there can be confusion between the 3 systems - but you don't have to use all 3. Find the 1 that appeals to your magical senses.