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Okay I know this one isn’t very occulty, but it’s one I was reading when I joined and I just finished it. Been wanting to read this for a long time, one of a number of books recommended by Robert Anton Wilson. Just finished vol. 1 - ‘The Spell of Plato’ and wow it’s a great one! Plato the mystic is one thing, and Plato the political totalitarian is quite another. I’m still processing the distinction that must be made between the ideas of Socrates and the ideas of Plato. I remember in college reading The Republic and not being very impressed by Plato’s political theories. Popper skewers Plato’s political arguments, but also suggests possible reasons for Plato’s aversion to democracy. The story of Plato and Socrates’ relationship to the state, to tyranny and democracy in their own tumultuous time, is more complex than I ever realized. This is a book to reread. I need to digest it before moving on to volume 2 - ‘The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath’.

This book really got a lot of things started for me, and I will forever be indebted to it. The Marseille Tarot isn't hugely popular, but it resonates with me more than the Smith-Waite Tarot and its offshoots. French vs English school.

I see the text itself as initiatory, the examples of reading very specifically chosen. One first goes through and begins to learn while benefitting from the insights of these examples. Next, one learns to read the Tarot in this method. Having learned to read the Tarot, the text is reread in light of Jodorowsky's theories of Psychomagic, in order to unlock the more "read between the lines" details given, particularly in the Introduction. After that, one makes their own Tarot.

It often goes unremarked that there is more Tarot material in Jodorowsky's Metagenealogy, in which more advanced Tarot and Psychomagic concepts are used together to look beyond the individual to the family and ancestors.