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Summary: Desert Island Tarot Book
Review: If you could have only one Tarot book, this is the one to have. I am a Certified Professional Tarot Reader with about 15 years of experience and I have not found a better single Tarot book. Even with my experience with the Tarot, I periodially will re-read this book and every time I do I come away with fresh insights into the cards. Yes, there are books that go into more detail on the Major Arcana or look more deeply into the magickal, historical, Kabbalistic or psychological aspects of Tarot, or provide more tutorial material, but for a single book that covers the entire deck and the broad meanings of the cards, this is the real deal. If I were stranded on a desert island and could have only one Tarot book, this would be it.
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Summary: Excellent, exhaustive, thorough guide to interpretation.
Review: May not be the best book for beginners, unless used in conjunction with books for tarot newbies. I find this book gives a depth and thoughtfulness that many "mass market" tarot books do not. Pollack really knows her tarot. I like her analysis of each card, with the specific briefer divinatory meanings for both upright and reversed positions. I use several books when analyzing a reading, and this is one of the first I use when I want a complete story of a card. Highly highly recommended for any serious tarot student. Best buy!
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Summary: An excellent guide to the history/herstory of modern tarot
Review: Originally published by the Aquarian Press in two volumes (Major Arcana-1980 and Minor Arcana-1983), this work is a must have for all serious tarot practitioners. Pollack does a superb job explaining the meaning of individual cards in the context of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley's influence during the 1800's. For those of us who try to understand the tarot from a pre-Golden Dawn perspective, this book is a valuable resource in that it helps the reader to distinguish between the older meanings and the newer movements led by such notable men as Arthur Waite and Aleister Crowley. Pollack also discusses the feminine influence upon the artistic interpretation of the cards, as both the Waiter-Rider and the Thoth (Crowley) decks were designed by women artists. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom is a fascinating journey through the history and culture of the tarot, one I would place next to my most valued magickal history texts.
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Summary: This book changed my life
Review: Profound, stunning and exceptionally well written.
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Summary: The best Tarot book ever written.
Review: Rachael Pollack has provided a thorough and exhaustive description of each card -- her knowledge encompasses psychology, mythology, history, sociology, art and literature. All of this amounts to the deepest analysis of Tarot symoblism we are ever likely to see, and reading this book can only improve your readings. She uses, as do most authors, the Rider-Waite deck as the basis for her explanations; but she also explains where and why it deviates from historical examples. This is perhaps one of the most valuable facets of this book -- it establishes the symbology of the Tarot as universal and timeless. The section on reading the cards is also well done, and she gives instructions for a number of spreads. Scholarly and beautifully written, a must for anyone interested in the Tarot.
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Summary: The most comprehensive Waite tarot deck textbook to date.
Review: Rachel Pollack has all my admiration for her thorough and comprehensive exploration of the symbolism of the Waite tarot deck. When my more advanced tarot students ask for a recommendation, this book is my first choice for Waite tarot readers/scholars.
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Summary: Simple Words For Profound Thoughts
Review: Rachel Pollack takes the complex subject of Tarot and renders it intelligible. As a novice reader on the topic, I was hesitant about buying this book for fear of not understanding, but as soon as I'd read the Preface, I felt reassured. It was like being welcomed into a unfamiliar house and then finding warmth and acceptance. The key to the book's success is found in Rachel Pollack's ability to communicate, as the Preface demonstrates: 'I wrote 'Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom' for three reasons. The first was to elucidate, in an abstruse colloquiality, the inherent dynamism of mystical exposition in a post-anti-intellectual epoch while simultaneously pre-empting myriad polarities arising from the tentativation of unscholarly ignorance predicated upon, yet not essentially inimical to, the clarity of confluence. 'The second reason for publishing was to extract from the inexplicable a discourse on deliniation between fact as fiction and fiction as didacticism, albeit well-intended, and to then distil that discourse till potency of purpose became integral to procedural rectitude without the attendant self-proclamation of justified revelation. 'The third reason was to communicate clearly and effectively.' Such was the effect of this book that I no longer feel I need to read any others on the subject of Tarot.
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Summary: Utterly Original Look at the Tarot
Review: Rachel Pollack's book is a completely different take on the Tarot, which owes as much to Jungian psychoanalysis as to Ye Standard Occult Fortunetelling Definitions. While I think that at times she strains the material to fit her preconceptions (i.e. I doubt very much that the robes worn by Catholic priests have anything to do with skirts or with goddess worship), she is to be commended for a bold and well-thought out look at the Tarot. She is also to be commended for avoiding the oft-repeated and just as oft-debunked claim that the Tarot originates in Ancient Egypt: while she mentions the legend in passing, she correctly identifies the source of the Tarot as 15th century Europe. Throughout the book her scholarship is generally excellent. If you already have a fair grasp on the Tarot, this will provide you with some new and important insights on interpreting the cards. (It will probably be a bit heavy for beginners, who are best advised to study Waite's Guide to the Tarot first)
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Original Look at the Tarot
Review: Rachel Pollack's book is a completely different take on the Tarot, which owes as much to Jungian psychoanalysis as to Ye Standard Occult Fortunetelling Definitions. While I think that at times she strains the material to fit her preconceptions (i.e. I doubt very much that the robes worn by Catholic priests have anything to do with skirts or with goddess worship), she is to be commended for a bold and well-thought out look at the Tarot. She is also to be commended for avoiding the oft-repeated and just as oft-debunked claim that the Tarot originates in Ancient Egypt: while she mentions the legend in passing, she correctly identifies the source of the Tarot as 15th century Europe. Throughout the book her scholarship is generally excellent. If you already have a fair grasp on the Tarot, this will provide you with some new and important insights on interpreting the cards. (It will probably be a bit heavy for beginners, who are best advised to study Waite's Guide to the Tarot first)
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Summary: One of the best book you'll ever read on Tarot.....
Review: Rachel Pollack's SEVENTY-EIGHT DEGREES OF WISDOM is a key work described by many (including Joseph Campbell) as an important source for understanding the wisdom of the Tarot. The book appears to have been first published in the early eighties in two volumes, one dealing with the Major Arcana and the other with the minor Arcana. Since few authors examine the minor cards Pollack's book is a must for serious students. Pollack writes insightfully and intelligently, including longer passages for each of the cards of the Major Arcana. She includes reversed meanings and encourages shuffling the deck so as to ensure some cards fall upside down for a reading. She provides two examples for each card, one from A. E. Waite's deck illustrated by Pamela Coleman and the other from various other decks. Pollack notes that when she first wrote her book no one compared the different pictorial representations of various decks. She includes points of agreement and disagreement with interpretations from Waite's "The Pictorial Key to the Tarot", Aleister Crowley's "The Book of Thoth" and other works. Unlike many contemporary authors on Tarot, Pollack subscribes to the notion that one can use the Tarot not only for interpretation of current circumstances but for seeking advice. She describes how to cast the Celtic cross a descriptive tool which can be used to gain insight into a present situation. She also shares a layout she created that the reader can use to gain insight into possible courses of action regarding work situations. Of the many books I've read on Tarot so far this one is the best.
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