@aversatrix this is one reason why I stopped using Goodreads back in the day lol. I hated conflating that I was reading with what I owned, since they're sometimes big ass collections
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Ph.D. in literary and cultural studies, professor, diviner, writer, trans, nonbinary
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Calliope's books
2024 Reading Goal
21% complete! Calliope has read 14 of 65 books.
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Calliope finished reading The private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner by James Hogg (Broadview literary texts)
Calliope finished reading Changewar by Fritz Leiber
Calliope replied to aversatrix's status
Calliope finished reading From Gods to God by Yair Zakovitch
Calliope finished reading Writings and drawings by James Thurber (Library of America ;)
Writings and drawings by James Thurber (Library of America ;)
Calliope finished reading The Clicking of Cuthbert (Large Print Edition) by P. G. Wodehouse
Calliope replied to Reverend Erik's status
@arnemancy You'll probably like David Vine's full intro and translation (Place uses Vine's work in this book). I got it direct, but I think a few sites are selling it now. Here's the direct link if you want: tarot-history.com/boutique/
Calliope finished reading A Walk Through the Forest of Souls by Rachel Pollack
A very good book with some small moments that made me twitch.
So it's a tarot book that doesn't sit down and run through all 78 cards, telling you the meanings. I wish we had more books like this. This particular book is inventive and playful, drawing both on esoteric traditions of tarot and the simple fact that we're looking at playing cards here.
At its core the book is about exploring different means we can draw information and wisdom from tarot, founded on the idea that the tarot is "the instrument of our wisdom."
There's a little more gender essentialism than I expected from Rachel Pollack, but from what I understand, this is a revision of a book first published in 2002.
There's also an understandable but unfortunate -- for me, probably not for you -- tendency to use Pollack's deck she made, and I don't like it …
A very good book with some small moments that made me twitch.
So it's a tarot book that doesn't sit down and run through all 78 cards, telling you the meanings. I wish we had more books like this. This particular book is inventive and playful, drawing both on esoteric traditions of tarot and the simple fact that we're looking at playing cards here.
At its core the book is about exploring different means we can draw information and wisdom from tarot, founded on the idea that the tarot is "the instrument of our wisdom."
There's a little more gender essentialism than I expected from Rachel Pollack, but from what I understand, this is a revision of a book first published in 2002.
There's also an understandable but unfortunate -- for me, probably not for you -- tendency to use Pollack's deck she made, and I don't like it very much. I'm sure the black and white reproductions aren't doing the deck any favors, though.
She draws on Kabbalah including actual Kabbalah, like, you know, midrashes; she also draws on Egyptian myth, astrophysics, and Hindu practice. The latter is perhaps a little too poppy, but still better than many.
The astrophysics bit is also better than you'll see in nearly every other work on occult topics.
Calliope finished reading First Occult Tarot by Robert Place
A nice expanded lwb essentially. The book goes through both de Gebelin's and de Melletcs lives and essays, briefly, before turning to describing the cards. Place used Aluette cards for inspiration when de Mellet didn't describe their meanings, as he concluded that's where de Mellet got his pip meanings in the first place.
It ends with a nice, succinct description of how to use de Mellet's divination method, including notes on how to deal with the inconsistencies.
If you get the deck -- and it's lovely -- definitely get the book as well.
