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143 reviews for:
De 78 graden der wijsheid: de tarotkaarten van de Grote en Kleine Arcana ontsluierd
Rachel Pollack
4.21 AVERAGE
143 reviews for:
De 78 graden der wijsheid: de tarotkaarten van de Grote en Kleine Arcana ontsluierd
Rachel Pollack
4.21 AVERAGE
Honestly, I am still reading and re-reading this one to get insights into the Tarot.
The best book you can read on tarot IMO - detailed, inspiring & totally engrossing. So much history and insight packed in this book. Loved it.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom is a tarot classic. This new publication of the book includes a new (2018) preface but otherwise, as far as I can tell, faithfully reproduces older editions. Seventy-Eight Degrees first appeared in 1980.
Pollack provides extended discussions of all of the cards in the Smith-Waite deck, going well beyond keywords found in many ‘little white books.’ I actually prefer Pollack’s explanations of the minor arcana cards to her explanations of the majors, which is rare for a tarot book – so many give extended treatments of the majors and almost nothing about the minors, but here Pollack provides nuanced descriptions of the minors that situate them within the trajectories of their suit.
Inevitably, reading a book like this as an experienced tarot practitioner, some of Pollack’s understandings align with or resonate with my own while others don’t – this will vary for every reader, I’m sure. While I found some aspects of the book unhelpful and/or not particularly of interest, I also learned quite a bit and found some new ideas I quite like.
While I understand reproducing an older text as-is, I do feel like there are some comments in here that really should have been edited out, or at the very least given clarifying contextual footnotes. There is absolutely no call for using language like the ‘g’ word to refer to Romani people – perhaps the harmfulness of this language was not quite so well understood forty years ago, but it certainly is now, so it is disappointing to see this simply reproduced. There are some other aspects to the text do certainly mean it reads as dated in 2021, at least for me.
Finally, since I make a point of mentioning this for any books I read in this and adjacent genres: I appreciate that the book contains a short bibliography and a solid index, but wish that citations were included as well.
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
Reading my roommate’s books while I wait on ridiculous delays with my holds from the New York Public Library. This has some worthwhile thoughts on symbolism and philosophy, even coming from a perspective of not taking the woowoo particularly seriously.
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I loved this! Even if you arent into tarot, the connections between different forms of mysticism, religions, and psychology are powerful. It was really cool to see how symbols intertwine throughout human history and have ancient roots and deep meanings. I also really enjoyed the attitude of the author and found her explanations thorough, enlightening, and fun while still being thought provoking. Made me super excited to start reading tarot more seriously!
I started getting frustrated when I found myself drowning in a miasma of numerology, somewhere in the preface. The connections seemed rather tenuous, and my doubts were raised. I also found that the interpretations of the meanings of the cards didn't speak to me as did other sources, although they did seem to be a little more helpful in the context of doing a multi-card reading, especially for another person. But that's not how I've been using tarot, so it wasn't particularly helpful in that regard. Also, the author has a different take on reversed cards than I was familiar with, so I struggled to get comfortable with that. I guess it could be a problem of me not being ready to digest other sources, or it could be the doubts raised by all the numerology in the beginning; either way, I wasn't compelled to read all the way through or even consult the book all that much.