© Zhuravlev S., 2016
© AST Publishing House LLC, 2016
* * *
Introduction
Divination is a ritual aimed at establishing contact with otherworldly forces in order to gain knowledge about the past, present and future, to understand situations in general, and also to explain a person's life path at certain stages of ups and downs. Fortune telling on Tarot cards is a kind of magic that includes occult techniques that exist in the cultures of many peoples.
In this book, we will consider the divinatory aspects of Rider Waite's TARO cards, as well as analyze the main schemes of layouts for all occasions.
Before picking up Tarot cards and making the first alignment, you must understand that a person does not have a strictly defined future that cannot be changed or corrected. Actually, fortune-telling exists for this, so that you can learn about some future events not as an inevitable fact, but to see all possible options and choose the path that will lead to the desired present.
Based on what is happening to a person at the moment, it is possible to predict the most probable future, which the cards tell about. It looks like an answer to the question: “What will happen if I continue to live as I live?” And your task is to learn to guess in such a way as to receive a detailed, detailed answer to the question: “What should I do to make the future the way I want?”
Fortune telling on Tarot cards is the key to the development of your abilities, because the ability to see in advance not only the consequences of some actions or events, but also their true causes, opens up truly limitless possibilities for a person to influence the future, its correction and control.
A person comes to understand the mechanisms of working with the present, past and future in all areas of life: health, relationships, work, family. It is enough to choose the right fortune-telling and learn how to correctly use the information that the cards will tell.
The fact is that when you guess, an understanding comes: how the situation develops, what energies and how they influence it, and what it leads to.
Therefore, having decided that they do not need fortune-telling at all, and they will engage in other magical practices, people inevitably fall into a trap: they miss simple ways to influence the situation, obtain the desired results or develop events in the right direction. In such cases, it turns out either an overexpenditure of energy, or a person cannot understand in any way why the situation “broke down” and some problems began. And all this happens only because a person has not understood the principle of how the situation develops, has not been able to see the options and calculate the consequences. This understanding is developed directly through divination.
With it, you must understand how one or another action will affect the result.
Fortune-telling is necessary to understand the situation before doing anything, because often the understanding of what the impact can lead to comes too late, when nothing can be changed.
Tarot cards are one of the tools that help to figure everything out.
Working with them opens up the possibility for a person to control his consciousness, so that his own fantasy does not turn a small problem into a mixture of global problems. Thanks to the deck, it will be easier for you to stabilize and explain the situation.
With the help of maps, it is easier to understand what the situation is developing from and where it can lead. The fact is that during normal viewing or when influencing the situation, you do not always understand where something came from - the vector of development remains unclear.
Thanks to the cards, there is a phased approach, the ability to put everything in order, find the source of the problem and correct it.
It is very useful to write down all your layouts and fortune-telling, so that all this can then be double-checked, re-arranged. So you accustom yourself to control, to understanding all the nuances of the energy that affects the situation.
When fortune telling, different decks are used depending on the aesthetic needs of the fortuneteller and the type of fortune telling that can be tied to the idea of a particular deck.
A little history of tarot cards
Tarot cards are a symbol system, a deck of 78 cards, which appeared presumably in the Middle Ages in the 14th-16th centuries, today it is used mainly for various prediction methods. The images on the Tarot cards have a complex interpretation from the point of view of astrology, occultism and alchemy, therefore, traditionally, the Tarot is associated with "secret knowledge" and is considered mysterious.
According to esoteric notions, there is a Hermetic, Gnostic or Kabbalistic symbolism in the Tarot cards, since the early Italian Renaissance, which gave rise to the Tarot, was a time of great intellectual activity. Therefore, Hermeticism, astrology, Neoplatonism, Pythagorean philosophy and unorthodox Christian thought, which flourished then, could leave their mark on the symbolism of the Tarot.
Similar symbolic "traces" in the Tarot prompted later researchers to the idea that the Tarot comes from some ancient cultures (Egyptian or Babylonian), that this system is a secret body of wisdom of the past. The first known explorer in this area was Cours de Geblen. In 1781, his book The Primitive World was published, in the last chapter of which it is stated that the Tarot goes back to the Egyptian tradition.
He suggested that the name "taro" is translated from ancient Egyptian as "The Way of the King", and that the gypsies, who were among the first in Europe to use cards, are descendants of the ancient Egyptians. His version formed the basis for subsequent studies of Tarot cards.
The esoteric attributes of the Tarot cards were dealt with by Arthur Edward Waite (White), who in 1910 publishes the book The Illustrated Key to the Tarot. Under his guidance, Miss Pomella Coleman-Smith, a young American who was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, drew a new Tarot deck, the so-called Ryder deck.
Here you will find nine of the best and most useful books for beginner tarologists published in Russian over the past twenty years. Books are ranked by value, the most useful, in my opinion, at the top. But you can read the ones you like the most. Even half of this small number of books will be quite enough for a productive start. Most of the recommended books can be downloaded for free in electronic form, but, if you are serious about a comprehensive study of Tarot cards, I strongly recommend that you purchase three books in paper form, because working with them in electronic format will be inconvenient and ineffective compared to the paper version, these are:
Tarot Waite as a system. Theory and practice - a large and detailed Tarot textbook, with numerous explanations and exercises to consolidate the material. This book is a must read! Buy Tarot Waite as a system can be found at this link .
THE BOOK OF THOT by Aleister Crowley - a fundamental work written by one of the largest magicians and tarologists of the late XIX - early XX centuries. The Tapo system is considered in it in close connection with other occult disciplines, as well as with the mythological, religious and philosophical views that influenced its formation. .
The Complete Tarot Guide by Teresa Michelsen is a very useful book designed to accurately understand the structure and content of the Tarot as a system. The book also contains many exercises and tests, and is considered one of the best guides for beginner tarot readers in Russian. You can order the Complete Tarot Guide here. .
Other Tarot Books for Beginners in Electronic Format
- a classic Tarot, a primary source, which is necessary to study for everyone who is going to use Tarot cards (and not only Waite's) for divination, meditation and magical work. But if you have already bought the Tarot Waite textbook recommended above as a system. Theory and Practice”, then this book can be skipped because its text is contained in the textbook.
One of the best tarot books for beginners! With the help of A. Chrzanowski's book "Tarot Magic" you will easily understand the meanings of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, as well as get acquainted with the basic principles and methods of predicting the future. Well, if you want to listen Mrs. Khrzanowska's audio lectures on the Major Arcana go here .
- a continuation of Tarot Magic from the Polish tarologist Alla Khshanovskaya. From this work of Mrs. Khrzanowska, you will learn about the Curly and Number Tarot cards, their meanings and layouts.
- a small, rather old, but undoubtedly very useful Tarot book for beginners.
Hayo Banzhaf is the largest German Tarot specialist, one of the leading fortune tellers and teachers of a number of esoteric disciplines, including the usual Tarot, Crowley's Tarot and astrology, the author of many books translated into 15 languages.
. Banzhoff has quite a few books, and not only on tarot, but mostly compilations or interpretations of what can be found in many other books. The Self-Instruction Book and the Hero's Journey Tarot, Banzhoff's earliest books, do not suffer from these shortcomings to the same extent as later books, and are also well suited for introductory reading for beginners in Tarot.
However, if we turn to the fundamental code of the venerable De Givry "Anthology of the Occult" (1931), we can find out that the first documentary evidence of the existence of the Tarot is of German (!) Origin and dates back to 1329. Thus, we, following De Givry, consider it established and proven that the teaching of the Tarot appeared in Europe in the XIV century, that is, a century before the arrival of the gypsies in Europe! As for the first officially "registered" full deck of Tarot cards, here the palm, apparently, belongs to Italy. True, back in 1392, the French king Charles VI, in order to avoid melancholy and unwind a little, ordered the artist Jacquemain Gringonnier to make a deck of Tarot cards. The artist successfully coped with the task entrusted to him, showing to the eyes of his monarch a deck of 22 cards of the Major Arcana (from the Latin arcanum - secret), made on calf parchment, with a gold edge and, in addition, having shirts inlaid with silver.
And the first complete, of 78 cards of the Major and Minor Arcana, the so-called Visconti-Sforza deck was created by the court artist Bonifacio Bembo in 1428. It should be especially noted that there are sources according to which this deck of cards was nevertheless created later - in 1441, when the still poor, but very ambitious Milanese condottiere Francesco Sforza married Bianca Maria Visconti, the illegitimate daughter of the third Milanese Duke Filippo Visconti. However, the third date, 1450, is much more likely, since it marks the acquisition of the title of the fourth Duke of Milan by Francesco Sforza, due to the fact that his wife's father had no other heirs. And although a year later a solemn celebration took place dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the marriage of Francesco and Bianchi, which is also a significant reason for the appearance of the deck, nevertheless, 1450, as the year the Visconti-Sforza deck was created, seems to us more reliable. Oddly enough, but then, until the 18th century, Tarot cards did not manage to gain popular recognition!
The situation changed radically by 1773-1784, when Count Antoine Court de Gebelin, who had previously studied theology at the University of Lausanne, and then, already an itinerant preacher of the Reformed Church, became interested in mythology and sacred sacraments and began to publish his unprecedented syncretic work Le Monde in parts primitive, analyse et compare avec le monde moderne ("The primitive world, its analysis and comparison with the modern world"). The next volume (1781) of his astonishing study contained an essay "On the game of Tarot", in addition, as an appendix appeared "A study of the Tarot, including the possibility of divination by means of cards", belonging to his pen.
It is there that Gebelin first proclaims the hypothesis concerning the Egyptian roots of the Tarot, and raises the teachings of the Tarot to the legendary Book of Thoth. This was the start. And two years later, de Gebelin's student, the Parisian hairdresser Aliette (1738-1791), published under the name of Ettail (he changed his name in 1781, joining the Masonic Lodge, of which his teacher, de Gebelin, became a member back in 1776 year) "A way to have fun through a deck of cards called Tarot", and after 5 years he begins to trade in Paris with his own deck of 78 cards, richly saturated with Masonic symbols, and it is he who owns the primacy of introducing commercial divination into everyday life. Etteilla enthusiastically told the Parisians on Tarot cards (and it was very expensive at that time) and very soon made a fortune on it. This circumstance - in addition to some liberties allowed in the symbolism and order of the cards - contributed to his unfavorable reputation in the opinion of followers.
In 1788, Simon Blockel published a deck that was a variant of Etteila's deck. Later, he publishes a monograph by Giulia Orsini devoted to the description and study of this deck. By the way, half a century later, with an interval of 20 years, two more versions of the Etteilla deck were published.
And in 1855, the French occultist Alphonse-Louis Constant (1810 - 1875), whom we now know as Eliphas Levi, published his book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ("Teaching and Ritual of Higher Magic"), which became the cornerstone in the rise of the occult. The structure of his book seemed very intriguing: two parts of twenty-two chapters, each of which corresponds to a certain Arcana of the Tarot. Eliphas Levi was little interested in the divinatory sphere of the use of Tarot cards. To a greater extent, he gravitated towards revealing the sacred mysteries of the Jewish Kabbalah: in his understanding, the cards embodied a secret alphabet that was closed from the understanding of the uninitiated, and each of the Major Arcana corresponded to a specific place on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
 |
| W.B. Yeats |
It is curious that the works of Eliphas Levi, which influenced the activities of a number of occultists, among whom, by the way, it is appropriate to name Arthur Edward Waite, inspired the venerable British prose writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873) to create impressive novels: "The Persecuted and the Persecutors", "Zanoni", "The Coming Race", "Amazing Story", filled with mysticism and references to the Tarot. These novels had an indelible impact on mystics and occultists such as S.L.M. Mathers, W.B. Yeats, who taught A.E. Waite in hermeneutics, and A. Crowley, whose activities were closely connected with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn founded in 1886 by Dr. Win Westcott, which determined the development of occultism in England in the late XIX - early XX century.
 |
| S.L.M. Mathers |
 |
| Moina Bergson |
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854 - 1918), a prominent Rosicrucian, developed the main rituals of the Order of the Golden Dawn and was in the 90s of the XIX century, when the Order was considered especially influential, its leader. Mathers was the author of a small treatise on the interpretation of Tarot cards - The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, use in fortune telling, and method of play ("Tarot: Occult meaning, use for divination, game technique", 1888), and his wife Moina Bergson, who had the ability to draw and was the sister of the amazing French intuitive philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941), who, by the way, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, drew a special Tarot deck, the innovative composition or, more precisely, the order of the cards of which was determined by Mathers: in addition to changing the iconography of a number of cards, he assigned the number VIII to the Force, and XI to the Justice, but most importantly, he assigned the I position to the Mad! This is how the "Tarot of the Golden Dawn" was created, which revealed the English version of the Tarot to the world and formed the basis of the A.E. Waite.
Before moving on to Waite itself, it is advisable to mention a number of researchers, without whom the history of the Tarot is almost impossible to imagine. First of all, this is a follower of Eliphas Levi, Gerard Encausse (1865-1916), who became famous under the name of Papus. He was the author of such monographs as "Gypsy Tarot" (1889) and "Predictive Tarot" (1909). A significant detail: an album of 78 cards appeared as an appendix to the last book. Since the paper was crappy, in order to avoid their imminent death, it was proposed to cut out the cards first, and then stick them on cardboard.
| page | 1 |
Turning experience into wisdom
Congratulations on choosing Tarot Cards: Simple and Clear for yourself! You will find it to be a handy and reliable reference for any Tarot deck.
There are already quite a few books on tarot, so why do we need this one? It seems to me that, first of all, because the Tarot cards are described in it in a simple and understandable language, their accessible interpretations are offered, reflecting the essence. When I wrote this book, I tried to stick to the original sources as closely as possible and, in a sense, tried to let the tarot cards speak for themselves. This book is based on an in-depth analysis of existing tarot literature as well as my own experience with card interpretation.
I asked my friends to review the text and give their opinion on how easy it is to understand. They unanimously agreed that the descriptions are clear enough to be understandable even to beginners. And, more importantly, they noted that additional definitions help to quickly and accurately understand the meanings of the cards, both for those who first picked them up and for those who already have some experience in interpreting the Tarot.
Why study Tarot? Mainly because they are an excellent means of acquiring the experience of knowing wisdom. In essence, Tarot cards are associated with the archetypal symbols of our reality. These symbols reflect our lives and help us better understand ourselves. Studying the Tarot, we merge with the mythical basis of our life, come into contact with our divine essence, discover the connection between our personal situation and the archetypes, which the cards are a reflection of.
Tarot is a means of awakening our intuition.
Before you start studying Tarot, you need to understand the basic meanings and symbolism of the cards. The book "Tarot Cards: Plain and Simple" offers interpretations of each of the seventy-eight cards, gives a brief overview of the history of the Tarot and describes six female popular layouts. This will help even the most inexperienced reader learn how to interpret Tarot layouts quickly and reliably.
Turning to the Tarot for clarification in problem situations opens up new perspectives for us, allows us to look at the question that has arisen from a different angle. Turning to the cards, each time you should ask the question of how the information received relates to our life, what main idea we should extract and assimilate from it.
Studying Tarot awakens intuition. Therefore, you should choose exactly the deck that stimulates your imagination, and, in addition, you need to learn how to associate the depicted symbols with the main meanings of the Tarot cards. As you study this divination system, you will learn that additional card meanings are added to the main meanings of the cards, and this will help you better understand what these mysterious and magical Tarot cards have to say. This process will require work, you will have to memorize a lot of information. At the same time, according to some people, sometimes the symbolic meaning of the card will differ from what is mentioned in the textbook, depending on the position of a particular card in the layout. Such options require our close attention, and in order to make a decision in such a situation, you need to listen to your inner voice.
After studying the instructions given in the book, you will understand that the interpretation of various layouts for each person under certain circumstances is made up of his understanding of the meanings of the cards and intuitive prompts. There are no exact and absolute values for each card; the definitions given in this book are only hints, indicating the direction of the search for one's own interpretations. When you interpret the meaning of the alignment, the inner voice itself will tell you the nuances of the semantic meanings of the cards that you did not pay attention to before. But such a state of intuitive understanding of the meanings of archetypes will become available only after a thorough and consistent study of theory and the acquisition of practical skills.
If you are doing a reading not for yourself, but for someone else, you should try to give as clear and simple explanations as possible. "Jargon" expressions and metaphysical terms (in the spirit of superstitious reverence) should be avoided. If your clients have never heard of the Golden Dawn, the Kabbalah, the Jungian archetypes, and the like, there is no need to clutter up the interpretation of the spreads with less than obligatory details. If you understand the meaning of the layout, you need to try "to convey it in a simple and accessible language. If the meaning of the layout remains undisclosed, then you need to directly tell the client about it. The Tarot interpreter is not required to be a know-it-all, however, he must respect his clients and be honest in The value of the information that the cards want to convey to a certain person with your help depends on how your interpretation will correspond to a particular situation.Some interpretations are sometimes surprisingly accurate to the situation, others simply do not hit the mark.The author approaches the study Tarot, based on an understanding of human nature and psychological conflicts.
Tarot experts and those who are simply interested in the field will find that a Jungian approach to card interpretation will help achieve deeper personal transformation and self-knowledge " I AM».
So, dear reader, now you are ready to hit the road, but as you study the Tarot and enjoy the secrets that these magical cards will reveal to you, you should remember the instructions given above. Good luck on your exciting journey.
Of course, the choice of a Tarot deck is individual, and much depends on your tastes. However, if you seriously intend to learn the art of divination or study the Tarot as an encyclopedia of occult symbolism, you should opt for one or more serious decks that carry a whole history of the development of philosophical thought. How often is it difficult for a novice tarot reader or an adept of magical science to understand which of the decks is worth his time and money, and which is not.
After all, the choice is huge, and the resources are not unlimited. Moreover, I want to begin to understand the Tarot, if not immediately, then after several months of study. There are decks with which this is simply impossible. But first, I'll tell you what's important in decks. Of course, I will not be able to describe all the existing variants of the Tarot in this article, but after reading you should have a fairly complete idea of \u200b\u200bwhat they are.
Briefly about the method
Each of the Major Arcana Tarot is an archetype, a kind of collective image of a force or energy that causes certain changes in your life. Images of earthly and divine parents, the shadow side of the personality, inspiring or terrifying images of sexual partners, as well as various signs and symbols of good and bad luck, movement and stagnation, separation and unification - all this refers to the depths of our psyche. Ideally, the Tarot layout is a photograph of a person, his personal history, mentality and an indication of his prospects in this regard. After all, there is no such future, the roots of which would not be in the past. And there is no situation that some signs would not point to in one way or another, whether in a dream, a vision, or an oracle's answer.
The Minor Arcana of the Tarot can be compared to the Book of Changes, the I Ching. They contain signs of a particular situation. Situations follow one another, but if you follow them long enough, you can notice the repetition of situations. The minor arcana is almost an exact copy of a deck of playing cards, with which you can also predict fate, but this prediction will be rather flat: there will be a lack of depth and an answer to the question of which archetype dominates the situation.
Also in each Tarot deck there are 16 curly cards depicting people. The meaning of these cards is considered the most difficult. On the one hand, they depict a person who is involved in a situation. On the other hand, they can indicate the character traits of the person who is guessing. These qualities can help or hinder him on the way, depending on the color of the minor arcana.
Truly valuable tarot decks are distinguished by the fact that they have a strictly ordered system of interpretation. Interpretations are not taken from the air and the author's imagination, but are derived from a finite number of symbols and signs.
In the “correct” decks, all these signs are printed on the cards and help at one time or another during practice to see one of the necessary symbols and apply them in interpretation. The word "correct" is in quotation marks, because on the one hand, almost every magical or tarot school considers only its own interpretation to be correct, and on the other hand, each drawn deck has the right to exist within its own boundaries - either for meditation or for personal understanding. its author.
In the "correct" decks, each card corresponds to one of the five elements (elements), one of the seven planets and / or a zodiac sign. Each major lasso carries the same information as the deity, which can be found if desired in each of the pagan pantheons of antiquity and even in monotheistic religions in the form of the names of god, angels and saints. Therefore, the major arcana has only one meaning: in front of us is either a planet, or an element, or a sign of the zodiac. All these keys are contained in the "Rose of the Cross" of the Rosicrucians.
And here is the image of the Rosy Cross, which contains all the keys to the Tarot and the occult tradition. On the cross, the central rose consists of petals with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Kabbalah is another way of interpreting the Tarot, and the knowledge of it is contained in the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life.
Each figure card (or court card, as they are also called) is a combination of two elements - for example, fire and air, water and earth. In the best decks, the minor arcana correspond to the planets in the sign of the zodiac and in the element.
In the images of Tarot cards, correspondences to the elements and planets must be taken into account. They must be of the appropriate color, and their heroes must bear symbols associated with the gods of one or more pantheons.
Best Decks
Aleister Crowley or Ryder-Waite?
Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck is a treasure trove of symbols. Compared to other decks, there is much more detail in her major arcana. Its study can take many years, but in the art of divination you will advance further than those who use simpler decks. You will not depend solely on intuition or the grace of the gods to show you the right cards. You will know their exact decoding. But the deck is certainly not suitable for those who do not want to delve deeply into the nature of the Tarot. This is not a toy or entertainment. The deck carries the secret keys to human abilities, and if you are looking for Tarot to just want to tell fortunes at Christmas time, do not take it.
The Rider-Waite deck is also a handy tool for divination and symbolism, and many tarologists choose it exclusively. In any case, in the image of the major arcana, every detail of the image of the central figure carries a symbolic meaning, although there are orders of magnitude fewer such details than in Crowley.
It is also difficult to trace the system in the interpretation of the minor arcana. In Waite, it is based on a system of divination using ordinary playing cards, while Crowley correlates his minor arcana with the planets in the sign of the zodiac, calculates the Kabbalistic value, gives the corresponding hexagrams from the I-Ching and geomantic signs. Although the system seems complex at first glance, in the end it is more orderly and logical.
Tarot by Papus and Oswald Wirth
These decks have a different from the previous two decks, but a fairly logical system of correspondences and, in general, reflects important aspects of those archetypes that are embedded in the idea of each of the arcana. They have a lot of symbolism, details, symbols that will help to understand them not in a flat and concrete way, but in a generalized way, in order to catch the meaning for a person of the idea behind them. Several times I heard the opinion that the predictive power of these decks is quite high. Difficulties can arise only when correlating these cards with Hebrew letters. Also, the numbering of the arcana raises some doubts, but this, in theory, should not be strongly reflected in predictions.
Decks that are interesting at a certain stage of learning
Marseille Tarot
Drawn quite simply and flat (obviously lacking a color palette), the deck is useful for studying the Tarot as a worldview system of mankind. Without the Marseille Tarot, it will be difficult to understand the history of the deck, which slowly but surely changed, without the Marseille Tarot, which is an intermediate link between the oldest decks of the Visconti era and the more modern Papus and Waite decks. However, it is unlikely that it will be possible to fully understand the Tarot symbolism system and learn the art of divination from scratch using only this deck.
Tarot Order of the Golden Dawn
Suitable for those who are determined to study Jewish-Egyptian magic and Kabbalah. The deck is a reflection of the worldview that is described in Israel Regardie's book The Complete System of the Order of the Golden Dawn. It was from this deck that Aleister Crowley drew inspiration when creating his own, although the decks are not very similar to each other. Suitable more for the study of symbolism than for divination. The problem with this deck is that there is little literature on its interpretation, so the decoding of some symbols remains a matter of conjecture.
Tarot Visconti Sforza
One of the oldest decks that has come down to us. It is said that it was assembled from several Milanese decks that were in circulation during the reign of King Visconti. One of them he himself ordered from the artist. There are some important clues in the deck that help you better understand the meanings of each of the major arcana.
Tarot Liber T "Stars of Eternity"
Those who like Tarot Thoth by Aleister Crowley will be interested in studying this deck. The Major Arcana are drawn here in less detail, but the younger ones are beautiful in that they tell a certain myth that may be useful for understanding them. It is difficult to use this deck for divination, because the interpretation of the minor arcana is not always limited to the myth they told, but it is very desirable to know it and keep it in mind when using Tarot Thoth.
Tarot Lona by Milo Duquette
This deck is not for prediction, but for magical rituals. In addition to some additions to the symbolism of each arcana, this deck is especially necessary for those who practice Enochian magic, as well as other spirit evocations, as it contains a system for combining Enochian tablets and spirit sigils with tarot cards.
Russian Tarot, Egyptian Tarot, Italian Tarot
We see in these decks the pursuit of stylization, which harms the information content of each of the arcana, but this group of decks deserves a few minutes of our attention (provided that the symbolism of the Tarot is already familiar to us).
Indeed, the image of Ivanushka the Fool from the Russian Tarot is close in meaning to the Jester from the Tarot Thoth, but this is only one side of the idea embedded in the lasso. If we are talking about the Egyptian Tarot, then Thoth really fits perfectly with the idea of the Magus card, but, firstly, other meanings and ideas that it contains are lost (and which are well revealed if we study several serious decks at the same time), and secondly, secondly, the ability to combine symbols inherent in the gods of different pantheons is lost.
The most useless decks
"Non-serious" decks
Tarot of gnomes, angels, witches, vampires, etc. In such decks, in the pursuit of style, the very versatility of symbols is lost. Each of the arcana may have only one match with more serious counterparts, or may not have it at all. For example, an angel on a card from the Temperance Guardian Angels deck can pour a white liquid from one vessel to another, and on the Justice card there will be scales, as in serious decks. But all other matches will be lost.
The fact is that these decks cannot be true: in the Tarot there are gnomes, witches, and angels at the same time - but they are not the main characters, but only accompany secret and multifaceted symbols that are best depicted in the form of human figures ( as in Waite and Visconti) or in the form of impersonal deities (as in Crowley). The main thing in the Tarot is an archetype that can be described using symbols, and no dwarves themselves are able to do this in such a way as not to leave a trace of their "gnome" energy, if such is possible at all.
A little apart are decks such as Madame Lenormand, Osho Zen Tarot, Tarot Manara, as well as many author's decks. The fact is that at one of the degrees of initiation, each magician must draw his own deck. There are too many custom decks to list here. Lenormand cards and most of the author's decks are more like solitaire for fortune-telling, and not a serious generally recognized (at least within one of the schools) system of correspondences. In principle, you can guess on coffee grounds, and on the insides of animals, and on Lenormand cards. But fortune-telling is hardly possible on Osho Zen Tarot. It's more of a meditation card. It is only unknown why such cards are called Tarot?
Tarot Hieronymus Bosch, Sandro Botticelli, etc.
These decks don't work at all. They are even worse than the previous form, because modern compilers simply took them out of the paintings of various characters and placed them on the lasso. For example, the real Pope of Rome from Botticelli's painting "The Temptation of Christ" migrated to the card Hierophant (High Priest, Pope). Venus from the painting "The Birth of Venus" - on the Empress card. But Tarot is different in that color matches, various details are important. If Bosch or Botticelli drew their popes and empresses, not wanting to compare them with certain arcana (often they aimed to ridicule a certain person in power or talk about an upcoming coup), then Tarot simply will not work out of such pictures. After all, in the Tarot there are not specific popes and empresses - these are collective images that carry such depth in themselves that can never be represented by a specific person. Well, in general, the artists who draw the Tarot at least think about the Tarot and the symbolic figures that need to be depicted, while in the case of the Tarot of artists, ready-made figures are pulled on the lasso (read - pulled by the ears).
The exception is Tarot Giger, who, in any case, participated in the creation of the deck. But this deck is too specific, hardly suitable for everyday use.
Map Study Sequence
First, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the Rider-Waite Tarot. It is the most popular and you have probably already seen it. Then it makes sense to look through the Visconti-Sforza Tarot to see that the Tarot has its own unique story. Then you should purchase Aleister Crowley's Tarot Thoth and books on its interpretation and delve into the history of occult symbolism. After a rather increased tension of your brains and the addition of the Tarot symbolism into a certain system, you can quickly study all the other Tarot decks (except the most useless ones).
After some time, you will see for yourself how well you can distinguish serious decks from frivolous, useful from useless, and also decide which correspondence system and school of interpretation is closer to you.
Loading...