Tarot & Oracle
The Tarot is at its tabletop practical basis a deck of decorated cards. Its order and appearance began to be somewhat uniform in the Renaissance, roughly the 15th Century. More complex meanings and purposes of this tool of gamesmanship seem to have begun early in the 18th Century, eventually growing and roaming into the wide spectrum of entertainment, interrogation, divination, and cartomancy that we know today.
A friend introduced me to the I Ching in college, and I quickly understood it to be an effective and enjoyable method of psychological investigation. After years of being put off by some of the more arcane and ambitious claims of tarot enthusiasts, I finally saw the analogy to the I Ching. After many years of resisting carrying the tarot in the store, I now stock it in the simple and inquiring spirit of my understanding. I am attracted to eye-catching art, of course, and I like the idea of cats being involved, of course, although I suspect cats may be more interested in pushing the cards off the table than in being supportive familiars. I respect the tarot’s history, and I will seek out books that place in the context of its origin and survival.
I am aware that the supply and diversity of decks is enormous, but I begin simply and humbly, alert to what my customers like.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Long used in telling fortunes and popular today among New Agers, Tarot cards are regarded by many as "the training wheels" on the bicycle of psychic development. Centuries of scientific progress have not diminished the irresistible attraction of gazing at picture cards to see the future and determine one's fate.
This book by Arthur Edward Waite, the designer of the most widely known Tarot deck and distinguished scholar of the Kabbalah, is the essential Tarot reference. The pictorial key contains a detailed description of each card in the celebrated 78-card Rider-Waite Tarot deck, along with regular and reversed meanings. Contents describe symbols and secret tradition; the four suits of Tarot, including wands, cups, swords, and pentacles; the recurrence of cards in dealing; an ancient Celtic method of divination; as well as wonderful illustrations of Tarot cards.
While the perfect complement to old-style fortune telling, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot also serves to make the Tarot entirely accessible to modern-day readers. It is also the classic guide to the Rider-Waite deck and to Tarot symbolism in general.
Reprint of the William Rider & Son Limited, London, 1911 edition.