Your first tarot book ....

[NewlifeSteev]

Does anyone else remember the first tarot book they ever owned?    Mine was "The tarot speaks" by Richard Gardener which I bought as a teenager in the 1970s.   I still have a copy (not sure if it's the same one) today.   I would add an image of the cover but I am unsure how to. 

[Natural Mystic Guide]

 Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune by Stuart Kaplan

[DanielJUK]

@NewlifeSteev when you get to 5 posts, you can attach images to posts and also post links. You've got one post to go 🙂 

[Laura Borealis]

I still have mine. A Complete Guide to the Tarot (1970) by Eden Gray, the second of three books on tarot she wrote.

 

Eden Gray is mostly forgotten these days it seems, but she was very important in the popularization of tarot in the 1960s and 70s. She's the one who coined the term "the Fool's journey." I'd argue that she was a driving force in making the RWS the standard tarot in the public consciousness. I was given my copy (a slightly battered paperback even then) along with a RWS by a friend, but my scandalized mom made me give the cards back. I hid the book among my science fiction paperbacks, and have hung onto it ever since. I don't refer to it much anymore, to be honest. But I think Eden Gray deserves respect for her contribution to tarot history. Mary K Greer wrote a blog post on her here.

 

Edited May 12, 2024 by Laura Borealis

[Misterei]

@Laura Borealis My first book was also Eden Gray [Tarot Revealed]. I finally burnt it b/c it was literally disintegrating but I thought it should have a nice funeral 😇

To this day I recommend Eden Gray to newbies. You can't go wrong with the books that spawned modern tarot.

In this day and age the fact that it's not trendy is priceless.

Edited May 12, 2024 by Misterei

[fire cat pickles]

My first book was Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice by Eileen Connolly. I got mine in the 80's as a teenager but don't have my original copy. I got a new copy and have since collected her other books and both her decks as well. I really have enjoyed her methods a d highly recommend them!

[Misterei]

13 minutes ago, fire cat pickles said:

My first book was Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice by Eileen Connolly. ...

LOL that was my second book. During those early years there were only 3: Eden gray, Connolly, and Waite's Pictorial key. I've none of them left now.

Connolly had those little rhymes. I remember the Hierophant rhyme to this day, tho I've forgotten the rest.

[Aeon418]

Somewhat predictably it was the Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley. I barely understood a word of it. But the mystery of it kept me coming back for more. I've still got that first copy and it's in pretty decent shape because books back then were sewn together to make them last longer.   

[Misterei]

2 hours ago, Aeon418 said:

Somewhat predictably it was the Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley. ...

of COURSE it was 🤣

I still have mine but only b/c it was a much later purchase so hasn't fallen to pieces yet.

[Guest]

My very first Tarot book was the companion guide to the original Mythic Tarot. Loved the stark black and gold of the cover, and the thick cream pages were a dream. The binding was frail though, so it sadly fell apart. 

[Ryokan]

Choice Centred Tarot by Gail Fairfield was the very first book I encountered; it has since be retitled as Everyday Tarot.  This was followed by Tarotmania by Jan Woudhuysen which made for interesting reading material.  

[NewlifeSteev]

Oh I had Tarotmania as well.  Sadly I don't remember much of it.  Might be worth looking up again? 

[Wooden_Nickel]

My first book was The Complete Guide to the Tarot and like @Laura Borealis and @Misterei, I was an acolyte of Eden Gray. Glad to see myself in such good company! 

 

It was the late '70s, somewhere between Star Wars and Close Encounters. The family next door was giving away a pile of their unwanted stuff before moving away and somehow I snagged their 1JJ Swiss deck, box already held together with tape, and with it a little black paperback by Eden Gray. 

 

Trying to make sense of Kaplan's LWB in the 1JJ box, I saw that he hadn't included interpretations for the courts and pips!  I wasn't going shove 56 cards aside and leave them with no meanings,  so I latched onto Eden Gray.  The Complete Guide to the Tarot was where I first saw Pamela Colman Smith's art, and those pictures set fire to my imagination. I read and reread Eden Gray for two or three years. When you're thirteen you can imprint on a book with an intensity that you never experience as an adult. Though I never quite fathomed what she was getting at in her chapter on the Tree of Life, I got her interpretations of individual cards down almost verbatim.  I bought a yellow-box RWS from Eaton's department store and let the 1JJ gather dust.

 

Eden Gray was my foundation. I've read a lot of Tarot books since then, but to this day I'm not quite sure where Eden Gray leaves off and my interpretations begin.

Edited June 19, 2024 by Wooden_Nickel
punctuation

[Misterei]

2 hours ago, Wooden_Nickel said:

... When you're thirteen you can imprint on a book with an intensity that you never experience as an adult. Though I never quite fathomed what she was getting at in her chapter on the Tree of Life, I got her interpretations of individual cards down almost verbatim. 

Interesting point about imprinting. Me too. I was 15. Like you, I didn't get the Tree of Life stuff, but I memorized every card meaning in that book.

[Chariot]

The New Tarot, by Rachel Pollack.  I still have this!  I bought it at a large bookstore in Glasgow in 1991. It's not a book about using the tarot, but contains reviews and photos of different decks that were available at the time.  Before the days of internet 'flip-throughs' this was an invaluable guide for me. I formulated a 'wish list' from this book and eventually managed to acquire the desired decks.

Other than 'little white books' and other books that came with specific decks, my first book about actually USING the tarot is still a favourite of mine, published in 2015.  It's a doorstop volume (!) entitled Holistic Tarot, by Benebel Wen.  I think you could do well having only this book to guide you, because she runs through—in detail— pretty much everything a tarot enthusiast/reader needs to know about.  From her own perspective, of course, but in general I don't take issue with her views.  This is an incredibly useful book, despite weighing about the same as a dressed roasting chicken. 

I don't buy many books on tarot. Many are repetitive, aimed at beginners. OR they sit at the other extreme: 'way over my head'  in terms of philosophy and spiritual issues.

 

However, I do love books by Theresa Reed.  Her approach is practical, down-to-earth, and her writing style is lively and engaging.  She gives fantastic real-life examples of what she discusses in the books, so it's easy to follow how spreads and interpretations work. Some of her 'tips' are quite unusual ...and very effective. I've learned a lot from her.  She's probably my favourite tarot author.

Edited June 19, 2024 by Chariot

[Guest]

On 5/16/2024 at 1:51 PM, Akhilleus said:

My very first Tarot book was the companion guide to the original Mythic Tarot. Loved the stark black and gold of the cover, and the thick cream pages were a dream. The binding was frail though, so it sadly fell apart. 

 

I remember now! My very first Tarot book that is not a deck companion is Learning the Tarot by Joan Bunning. Didn't read it cover to cover but pored over it extensively, so even then I had a good grasp of the RWS system. 

 

The first companion book that I deeply explored is Tarot: Mirror of the Soul by Gerd Ziegler. I had the AGM Urania set with the Thoth Tarot deck. For purists, that book might be quite verboten, but personally it was a great intro for me, sparking a deep interest before I delved into the more canonical books of DuQuette, Banzhaf, Akron, Snuffin, and of course, Crowley. 

[DanielJUK]

I bought the book of Learning the Tarot as I was using the website so much . Also buying the real book version helps support Joan running the site, so I do have a physical copy of it 🙂 

Someone here went to a tarot conference somewhere and Joan Bunning was a speaker there and I was so excited she was a real person, in photos and existed! She wasn't just a free online course 😆

[Guest]

Lol that's actually why I remembered it @DanielJUK. Her website has always been highly recommended for beginners, and with good reason. It is a goldmine! I too wanted to return her generosity and good will so I bought the book.

[Morwenna]

I've had a lot of Tarot books (still do, in fact), but my first one was by Eden Gray; I have both the ones referenced here, but I don't remember which was first. That was probably 40 years ago! 

[Misterei]

23 hours ago, Akhilleus said:

The first companion book that I deeply explored is Tarot: Mirror of the Soul by Gerd Ziegler. 

I like that book. It has Osho / Bhagwan Rajneesh flavor but it's a nice perspective on Thoth deck.

[Guest]

I really like the Osho Zen and Transformation Tarots and their guidebooks so i guess that's no surprise. 

 

[lightofdawnreadings]

Just bought my first deck a few weeks ago it's a gilded tarot deck! Already done 3 readings on myself. It's so fun to start reading for myself. Wish me luck!

[Ix Chel]

My first Tarot book was the Tarot and you from Lindel Barker Revell. It only contained the Major Arcana cards.

 

[WhiteMoon]

Both The New Tarot by Rachel Pollack @Chariot and Tarot: Mirror of the Soul by Gerd Ziegler @Akhilleus were important books for me. (I still dip into Ziegler now and then.) But my first and most impactful book was Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess Through Myth, Art, and Tarot by Vicki Noble. The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols by Angeles Arrien is another I've spent a lot of time with.

[Ryokan]

The Tarot Handbook by Angeles Arrien is one I have been reading recently.  The information shared within is though-provoking and helps us to reconsider the meanings we have chosen.  Rachael Pollack's Tarot Wisdom is another book that I am enjoying at the moment.  Reading other people's perspectives on the cards images just goes to show how interpretations have changed over the years.