This book is a great accumulation of other writings on the Tarot, it's history and the card meanings. The author has taken others writing and succinctly published it into an essay type format that is accessable to modern readers. This is a great book for a practiced reader who wants to dive deeper into the academic side of tarot. I would not recommend this for a new tarot reader as a resource for meanings or interpretation.

Essential Tarot Writings by Donald Tyson

9780738765372

432 Pages
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Release Date: November 8, 2020

Nonfiction

This book is full of history. The author covers the origin of the Tarot from Comte de Mellet and Court de Gebelin to the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. The book is divided into eight parts.

Part 1
Introduction
Game of Tarots
Study of Tarots

Part 2
Introduction
Symbolism of the Tarot

Part 3
Introduction
Tarot Divination Methods of S. L. MacGregor Mathers
Three Other Methods of Divination

Part 4
Introduction
The Tarot Cards

Part 5
Introduction
The Isiac Tablet of Cardinal Bembo

Part 6
Introduction
The Great Symbols of the Tarot

Part 7
Introduction
An Analysis of Tarot Cards

Part 8
Introduction
The Art of Fortune-Telling by Cards
The Folklore of Playing Cards
Fortune Telling With Common Playing Cards
The English Method of Fortune-Telling Cards
Some English Methods of Telling

The information in the book has been thoroughly collected and presented in an essay style format. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the origins of Tarot or have a deeper understanding of the cards.

A nice book for those wanting a more primary text kind of book - more early writings about tarot. Which can be nice for those delving more into the history of the cards.

As the subtitle says, this is a "collection of source texts in western occultism." The texts focus mainly on Tarot with some texts on playing card divination at the end of the book. The book is arranged as follows: a general introduction, eight parts containing the texts and introductory notes by Tyson, biographical notes for the authors of various texts plus some people mentioned in the texts, a bibliography, and an index.

A reason I wanted to read this book is that in my humble cartomancy student view, to understand Tarot now and where it may be going it helps to know where it came from. I often see Tarotistas being rebellious about Tarot, so for me helps a bit to see and read what they are rebelling against. Plus as a student of history I enjoy reading historical things.

Tyson has done a good job in selecting, translating, editing, and annotating these texts. Sure, some of these may be freely available, often out of copyright, but Tyson saves us the work by creating this anthology of major works in one volume plus he provides annotations for context and further clarification. I'd say you get pretty good value in this work. In reading these works spanning from 1781 to 1928, you can follow how ideas of Tarot in occultism moved from France to England and Europe to the United States. Along the way, we meet people like Court de Gebelin, Ouspensky, A.E. Waite, and others. Their ideas, many of them fanciful, still survive to this day. As Tyson writes, "authors routinely refer to each other, to the same sources, and to similar esoteric meanings for the cards" (23). They may agree or disagree with each other, and we get to read their conversations and arguments across time.

Tyson does a good job editing these essays to make them accessible and legible. I found the works relatively easy to read. However, I do wish instead of endnotes he had used footnotes so I can check references and commentary on the spot. In a print edition, flipping pages may not be an issue. In an e-book without hyperlinks it is a significant issue for study, and one I hope the publishers address down the road in future e-book editions. Speaking of the endnotes, they can be just as interesting as the texts. Tyson often uses the endnotes to clarify concepts and often add context to the texts we are reading. In addition, if you want to learn more, there is a bibliography at the end of the book.

Overall, this is a good and well edited selection of historical essays on Tarot and cartomancy. They capture a time period when occultism was popular and Tarot was right in its midst. Some of the ideas were fancies of imagination (let's call that a polite way of saying they made some stuff up), but many of their ideas are with us today. If you are a Tarot student with an interest in western occultism, or you are curious about the connection, then this book is a good start.

For libraries, I'd say this is one for those that have good esoteric materials collections. For public libraries that may only have "pop" Tarot kind of books, or just a few Tarot books overall, this may be a bit too esoteric.

In the end, this is a book I really liked, and for serious Tarot and cartomancy students I'd recommend it. I recommend it mainly for its historical interest and, as I said at the start, to see where Tarot comes from, its history, and key authors.

This book had so much information in it and I was so excited to read a historical and in depth book on the tarot. With each historical essay Donald Tyson gives you a thorough description so you know exactly what you are diving into. Watching the evolvement of this amazing tool over history was really great.

I unfortunately had an extremely hard time with this writing style. I understand the essays from the previous centuries are going to be more difficult to consume at times but even the overviews and additions just read more as a research paper to me than a detailed overview of the tarot. With something so powerful and so old in our society, I just wanted to get a bit more connection with the writing.

This is an amazing book for someone who needs all the information and history you could ask for in the tarot. If you are an active tarot reader, this needs to be on your bookshelf ASAP. Thank you Donald Tyson, Llewellyn Publications, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you have been practicing Tarot for a while and want to dive deeper into the the meanings and use of them this is the book for you. It does a well rounded job of explaining each card in depth. I am excited to see the finished copy so that artwork of the cards etc are visible.

A fascinating book, which outlines the irreconcileable nature of some of the interpretations, but nonetheless provides a detailed account of them, and the history. Whether the reader agrees with the ancient Egyptian origin of the tarot or not, they are sure to find some gems in this book. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Essential Tarot Writing dives deep into the foundation’s of the divination through card reading. This is a thorougher and academic approach that may not appeal to those who enjoy pretty oracle cards. Long time practitioners of Tarot may find this useful to deepen their understanding and therefore their divination skills. This is also quality short cut to the writings of Antoine Court de Gébelin, Comte de Millet to P.D. Ouspensky and S.L. MacGregor Mathers for anyone interested.

I read the eARC so it will be interesting to see the final copies as I hope it contains the image of the card given in the description as it would make it easier to follow.

*eArc provided by the publisher and NetGalley