Greenwood Handbook

[ilweran]

I was wondering if anyone here ordered a Greenwood Tarot Handbook from Chesca Potter before she disappeared? If so could you let me know if it is different from what was made available on her website (and that now is available on Mi-Shells blog.)

 

On her website it says:

In 1998, my friends at Sacred Sight Publishing helped me to produce an illustrated handbook to go with the Greenwood Tarot. This proved so popular that we have put a summarised version up on the Web for you to peruse.

(source)

 

I have searched fairly thoroughly online and can't find anything different to the apparently summarised version on her website.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

gee, that would be a great thing to have! I've got the book that came with the deck but printed a copy of the site one and it is the one I use, it is much closer to the actual cards.

 

Over the years I've seen a small number of companion books that left me saying what the...because the words didn't match the cards at all. I'm sure it is a disconnect between what the artist feels and what the author feels, but it sure seems like that would have been worked out before a publisher accepted it.  I much prefer artist and author are one and the same :) and the greenwood makes the hair on the back of my neck rise, I love it so much.

[ilweran]

Me too  ;D

 

It is tantalising that there may be a longer version out there somewhere, but I can't find any mention of it except that one on her old website. Yet apparently it was very popular.

 

Presumably the people who ordered it off her were pretty dedicated to the deck so maybe aren't likely to be selling, but nobody seems to have talked about it either. Or about the Greenwood Tarot much. I've checked Scribd, scoured Google Groups, been on the Wayback Machine. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

[EmpyreanKnight]

It seems like this guidebook by Potter really did exist. Check out the Wood and Water magazine by Daniel Cohen. You can download Issue 66 HERE  with the express permission of the editor.

 

There's a review of the book there. On page 15, it says:

 

Chesca Potter. The Greenwood Tarot Guidebook. Sacred Sight Publications 1998. pb. £4.00 inc. p&p from: PO Box 250, Oxford 0X1 1AP.

 

Recently two sets of divinatory cards have been the subject of books. The cards, and their creators are well-known in pagan and druidic circles; and it is good to see from the books that they continue to work on the ideology behind their images, even after the card-sets (and accompanying explications) are published.

 

Some years ago (November 1996 to be precise) I reviewed the Greenwood Tarot deck and booklet when they were first published by Harper Collins. At that time, I found that the cards and accompanying system for their use, worried me in two crucial areas:

 

1 Chesca's cards seemed to comprise not one pack, but three; the major arcana, minor arcana, and court cards apparently diverging so radically in style and purpose that I would experience great difficulty in using them for a unified working.

 

2 The dense, beautiful and experiential card-images seemed too 'heavy' for the slender explication given in the accompanying booklet by Chesca and Mark Ryan.

 

It appears that Chesca's original ideology was not fully represented in the accompanying book, and the publishers had in fact objected to some quite important things, eg. Chesca's beautiful non-gendered Lovers card (a copy of which can be obtained from Chesca if desired. Chesca's own publication puts items like this right, and gives a much more coherent account of her system, and the place of each card within it.

 

She explains that the images come from Europe's pre-Celtic past; which explains why some apparently non-European animal-forms (eg. Polar Bear) appear. I have to admit that, whilst Chesca has gone a long way to answering some of my original reservations about the theory behind the pack, I still have a small problem with the diverse images. It still gives me the feeling of 'three packs in one' — which in a sense is very good value. And in any case, the diversity of style within the pack displays Chesca's skills as an artist. This is above all a meditation pack. The booklet which Chesca has produced provides a great deal of valuable background information, and places the cards in the context of a ritual 'wheel of seasons' year.

 

I would therefore definitely recommend that anyone thinking of obtaining a Greenwood Tarot set

should also invest in this very reasonably-priced booklet. Unfortunately, Chesca is unable to reproduce all the card images in colour, so readers would benefit from having the pack itself in front of them as they read.

 

Also look at the thread from Aeclectic HERE.

 

The question still remains: does the text from that book differ from the online version? Potter herself said it does, and I don't see any reason for her to lie. Maybe someone who can confirm this would come across this thread.

[ilweran]

I'm hoping somebody with a copy will find this, yes.

 

I suppose what I want to know is how summarised the website version is! Are we talking cutting out 10% or 50%?

 

Thank you for the link though, there's an review of the deck in one of the issues as well, and to be honest it's the sort of thing I'm interested in so when I have time I may download more and have a read.

[ilweran]

Quick update - I found somebody with a printed copy of tje handbook from Chesca Potter and they say they can't see any difference, so it looks like the differences are likely to be small. Which is good to know!