Tarot and Psychology: Spectrums of Possibility

by Arthur Rosengarten

This is a book that challenges the thinking of both practicing clinical psychologist and practicing Tarot readers...this work is based on solid clinical training and the author’s own extensive research and practical clinical experience. The author has developed a Spectrum of Possibility for each card in the Tarot deck. These spectra are not the cut and dried “card meanings”...but rich shades of psychological meaning...the author explains the Jungian Theory of Synchronicity, that is, the notion of acausality. This is the most lucid and uncomplicated exposition of this important and oft misunderstood subject. This is a “must read” for clinicians who are looking for new approaches to old problems and for Tarotists looking for a work with more depth and meaning than yet another description of the archetypal images of the Major Arcana.

Genres: Tarot, Psychology, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Metaphysics, Divination

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2000

Reviews

[Lee Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this book for anyone who is trying to understand Tarot from a perspective that is not rooted in the occult. This has changed the way that I read for myself and how I read for others. It made me really examine what I like about tarot and gave me room to experiment with how I feel about it as a medium of therapy. Absolutely love it!

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was pretty neat- I liked the author's overall tone of, "yeah I know this sounds a little batshit and that's okay; here's all this information I collected though- in case you're into it."

Also, in the appendix, he has included a little proverb or quote to go with each card; which I liked. There are ots of interesting ways to categorize and think of the cards in here. Would I use tarot in my hypothetical professional psychotherapy practice? Probably not.

[Oliver Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the card interpretations and analyses of reading styles, and especially the attempt to ground tarot cards in clinical, psychological theories and practice. I'm not sure I bought his argument but it was interesting nonetheless.

[Kat Starwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psychology and Tarot – the Perfect Combined Healing Modality

In my opinion this is an idea way past its due date. The Tarot works amazingly well to identify client issues even more thoroughly than a therapist is capable of doing through traditional psycho-therapeutic methods. The fact is, as observant as a therapist might be, clients can be adepts when it comes to keeping certain thoughts and behaviors secreted, often to the point that the client doesn’t even recognize the areas in which s/he requires someone who knows what they’re seeing and knows how to tease those issues out and up to the surface for healing.

Consequently, this makes it extremely challenging to offer a beneficial treatment program. But enter the Tarot into psycho-therapeutic treatment and there’s a whole ‘nother vista of healing possibilities.

The idea of utilizing Tarot with psychological therapeutic treatment modalities has intrigued me ever since I began my astrological counseling practice several decades ago. However, it wasn’t until years later that I finally added several other treatment modalities such as the Tarot, numerology, etc., and then finally returned to university in order to obtain my degree in counseling psychology so that my clientele might be better facilitated. While I never did (unfortunately) end up obtaining my counseling psychology degree, I’ve continued to be raptly interested in and study various aspects of psychology ever since.

Unfortunately there wasn’t as much ‘teaching’ in this book as I would have liked, and some of the chapters seemed more tangentially expository and confusing, even for someone who is familiar with psychology. Still, Rosengarten has some good ideas here, and even at 4 stars it’s well worth the read.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on the implications of Tarot with Psychology. There is healing and other great benefits to accurate and honest reading from tarot cards. This book emphasized the importance of knowing your patient or customer when doing Tarot Readings. The fortune telling aspect does not harmonize with psychology but the openness of interpersonal relations and strong connection to free will are great. I strongly suggest this book to any Tarot Reader or interested person of Tarot.

[Almudena Hellín · Rating 5 out of 5]

[4.5/5]
I found very interesting his case for using tarot as a tool for psychotherapy. It has quite convinced me that, esoteric nonsense aside, the tarot is a 78-picture tool that represents a quite wide rage of experiences and archetypes that can indeed be used as an alternative and fun method to explore forgotten, triggering and troublesome events.
Quite probably will try it myself

[Scott Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tarot as therapeutic tool

If, like me, your approach to Tarot is primarily therapeutic, you will find this book by a Jungian therapist and Tarot reader fascinating.

[Christina]

Interesting read with Jungian references

[Kathleen O'Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of potential and was wonderful in places, but is very uneven. The first part of the book was wonderful. This author really gets the importance of Tarot as a tool for psychological exploration and in this section of the book, the author puts forth this message in a way that I really have nothing but praise for. Things become more uneven in the second part of the book. The chapter "The Laws of Opposition" was good. Particularly interesting to me was Rosengarten's juxtaposition of the everyday world represented by the Minor Arcana with the transcendent significance of the Major Arcana. Also interesting to me in this chapter was Rosengarten's juxtaposition of interior and exterior experience when reading Tarot cards. Also helpful was the chapter on "Universality" and its analysis of the relationship between the Jungian archetypes and Tarot's Major Arcana. However, starting with the chapter on "The Fool's Journey" the book goes downhill. This chapter involves a lot of babble about nonlinear conceptions of time that ultimately goes nowhere. The third part of the book is a bit ridiculous. The author starts out by trying to define synchronicity and his definition is so circular that it is useless. The rest of the book is taken up with a project that the author has embarked upon to use tarot to try to help victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. Rosengarten seems to go about this in a bizarre way, however, and instead of determining how successful this enterprise was by asking those he used tarot with if it helped them in any way, he judges its success by how often the same cards come up in readings for different people in the same position of either abuser or victim. I also felt there was a hint of romanticizing and excusing batterers and blaming victims at places in his discussion of these issues. In conclusion, I found the first half of the book to be very valuable and the second half to be less than helpful.

[Marcello Tarot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro non certo facile, con un contenuto spesso denso. Nella prefazione, Lon Milo DuQuette afferma che si tratta di un’opera scritta principalmente per la formazione continua dei professionisti della salute mentale, e in effetti l’impressione che si ha spesso è che solo chi è del settore può comprendere appieno e con facilità certe parti. Tuttavia, con la debita applicazione, non è affatto incomprensibile a chi psicologo non è. Naturalmente, se uno cerca un semplice manuale sull’interpretazione delle carte farebbe meglio a rivolgersi a qualche altro testo; ma se uno non è proprio alle prime armi e vuole approfondire le proprie conoscenze studiando un punto di vista differente, allora può trovare preziosi alcuni contenuti di questo.

[Bridgett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting descriptions of how tarot can be used in therapy. Also taught me more about tarot and how cards can be used and interpreted.