Traditional Tarot Meanings

[Ziev]

Hello all.

 

I'm curious as to who might be considered a traditional tarot reader. Mary Greer, Rachel Pollack or are there no such things. If someone wanted to learn tarot with trad meanings who would you suggest?

 

Thanks.

[Rodney]

Which tradition? Rider Waite Smith? Golden Dawn? Thoth? TdM? Etteilla? Eudes Picard? Wirth? Papus? And I'm sure I've forgotten others.

[gregory]

Right on, Rodney.  

 

But if you want to learn from someone who will keep you on the correct path - I would say Mary Greer will take account of which tradition you are trying to use and make sure you don't try and superimpose - say - Waite on Thoth - a ghastly tendency I have sometimes seen here.

[katrinka]

Ew.
Imposing Thoth on Waite can be helpful at times, though. Waite added blinds. Crowley demolished them.
But Waite on Thoth?

 

I tend to think of Mary as a bit modern. She isn't purely modern, but she does tend to go that way. Rachel is extremely modern. If you don't want modern, go for books published prior to the 1970's-80's.

[Ziev]

22 hours ago, Rodney said:

Which tradition? Rider Waite Smith? Golden Dawn? Thoth? TdM? Etteilla? Eudes Picard? Wirth? Papus? And I'm sure I've forgotten others.

der! I guess I could've been more clear. I am asking about RWS. 

 

18 hours ago, gregory said:

But if you want to learn from someone who will keep you on the correct path - I would say Mary Greer will

Awesome! Thanks.

 

13 hours ago, katrinka said:

If you don't want modern, go for books published prior to the 1970's-80's.

Good suggestion! 

[gregory]

OK if WAITE - Barbara Moore is also  pretty safe. And Teresa Reed.

[Rodney]

Yes, in the Rider Waite school, I know that Mary has been working on and off on annotating the Pictorial Key. She uses late 19th/early 20th century dictionaries and Waite's other writings to get a better idea of what he meant by the specific words he's used. I've heard her say more than once that Waite chose his words very carefully.

 

I also agree that older books will likely do you better than more current ones, many of which likely won't stand the test of time.

 

ETA: What I meant by the first paragraph is that as far as I know Mary is likely the only person other than Waite himself who understands what he was actually trying to say in the PKT and therefore would be a great source for readings based on interpretations from that book.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Rodney

[gregory]

I went to an hour long presentation JUST on the Waite HP by Mary. It was nothing short of  awesome.

[Ziev]

5 hours ago, Rodney said:

What I meant by the first paragraph is that as far as I know Mary is likely the only person other than Waite himself who understands what he was actually trying to say in the PKT and therefore would be a great source for readings based on interpretations from that book.

Awesome and great to know! Thank you. 

 

 

2 hours ago, gregory said:

I went to an hour long presentation JUST on the Waite HP by Mary. It was nothing short of  awesome.

That would've been really neat to see! 

[Jewel]

I really like books by Mary Greer, Rachel Pollack and Barbara Moore.  Mary's work books are fantastic for learning, I would highly recommend 21 Ways to Read a Tarot card.  It helps you experience the meanings as well as use your intuition which I found invaluable.  This book is fantastic regardless of which system you use.  Rachel's 78 Degrees of Wisdom was like my text book for RWS decks.  Barbara Moore to me is sort of a combination of the two, all 3 are easy to understand what they are conveying.