A Walk Through the Forest of Souls: A Tarot Journey to Spiritual Awakening

by Rachel Pollack, Melanie Carey (Narrator)

Take a Magical Mystery Tour.

Join celebrated Tarot author, artist, and scholar Rachel Pollack on a magical walk through the mysteries, archetypes, and dream-like images of the Tarot. In the tradition of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Rachel draws upon symbols, myths, and folk tales both ancient and modern, to illuminate the spiritual truths behind the Tarot's symbols.

The Forest of Souls unfolds like a dream, in a series of musings upon the confluence of the sacred and the mundane. How can a simple deck of 78 cards become keys unlocking life's greatest secrets? While the most common use of Tarot is for divination, Rachel shows how to use the cards for readings of an entirely different nature. Asking improbable, even impossible questions, she plays with the sacred possibilities and answers that the Tarot gives us. What nourishes my soul? What is soul? What is Tarot? What plan did God follow to create the universe?

We now know that the Tarot was almost certainly not originally designed to include Kabbalistic and other occult correspondences. Yet such systems can greatly enhance our understanding of and relationship with the cards. Embracing paradox and non-linear thinking allows us to push the boundaries of the known and venture into the unknown. It is in that sacred space that we open ourselves to wonder and mystery.

Genres: Tarot, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Occult, Divination, Witchcraft, Magick

9 pages, Audible Audio

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Rachel Grace Pollack was an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. Pollack was a great influence on the women's spirituality movement.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Pollack, author of the classic "Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom" has left us at the height of her powers. This is clearly demonstrated in this, her latest and final work "A Walk Through The Forest Of Souls.” Literature, Judaism, particle physics, mythology, esotericism, pop culture, comic books, psychology...Rachel deftly uses such a wide range of interesting subjects to make her insightful, novel observations about divining with tarot cards. Actually, this book seems to reach beyond tarot, into something like a philosophical manifesto for the 21st century. I was fully on board all the way. Many tarot authors can get too fluffy or lost in the weeds, too woo, or too mundane. Rachel avoids these problems; she's an amazing story teller, and all around interesting person, curious about so many things inside and outside of tarot. Like a master alchemist, she has a knack for distillation; her language is unpretentious but cogent. And just to be clear, the wisdom in Forest has practical utility too. I love the new spread she presents in chapter 12. I'll be adding it to my rotation in the near future. I'm sad to see her go. I was supposed to see her at a workshop in 2022 but she had to postpone due to health issues. Thankfully, she left us with a long span of great material like this to slowly digest and relish.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Not your typical Tarot 101 book of card meanings. This is more like Tarot 301- Theory and Practice. Teaches you how to think, rather than telling you what to think. Written in a very engaging way, addresses some innovative ways to approach the cards.

[hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

(review to come)

[Ruxandra Grrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this. Will be back with a review - my notes are many and in two places and it's late and I've read too much this month. Taking it slower in the next few months, lol. I will absolutely read this again, after I get some more Tarot experience (it's only been a month), so if I don't come back soon with the review, I will come back after the re-read.

31/31 reads in January (I did it, woo!).

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite Tarot book. Not one that I pick up first to get an introduction, but one for exploring the cards and symbols for spiritual and personal development as well as just for fun and play.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This came at a perfect time, when I doubted my calling as a Tarotist and my interest in the cards. Pollack has jumpstarted my heart for my love for the cards, my darling decks, has returned, full force.

I bought this book several years ago and was instantly lost due to the focus on Jewish mysticism. Used to only earth-based Pagan spirituality writings and generic "Here's a Card's Meaning" Tarot guides, I felt bored and never thought I'd try to read it again.

Then I thought that one of my Tarot students might like it. Then I wondered why I thought that! Which lead me to read the book all the way through.

If you, a Tarotist, need one reason to buy this book, read page 232 about the Temperance card. The vague card to most readers, it's the hardest one for new students to see the power in. It was harder for me to grasp than any other Major Arcana. It seemed so bland. An Angel. Dullsville. But Pollack's descriptions of having the righteous power of Angels, of knowing the grace of God within every cell, and being able to stay grounded in all emotional states - Damn, don't we all want that?

Plus she challenges a lot of ideas about what questions the cards are meant to answer. "How did God use tarot to create the world?" Try that on for size!

[Liana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! I appreciate Pollack's approach to the tarot: playful, curious, wise. This isn't a beginner book, but great if you've been working with the cards for a while and need some fresh inspiration.

[Sophie Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

so many new perspectives and lots of wisdom to glean from this. this book is sparking a desire in me to dig deeper into other tarot-adjacent teachings and practices.

[FromAna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes! I read this twice this week it’s that Good 🤯
Amazing 👏🏽 epic amount of notes

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be a lot more about tarot; instead it used tarot as one lens to look at the human spiritual journey. rachel pollack, beloved in the tarot community, died last year. she wrote sci-fi novels, tarot books, tarot guidebooks, created decks, taught classes, etc. she was clearly very well-read and a scholar of religion, both mainstream and occult. she is one of those authors who can pull in interesting examples from surprising sources, from other authors and scholars and tarotists she's known and things she's read and come across.

my favorite thing about this book was when it connected spirituality and physics. my father, who also died last year, used to say quantum physics was his religion. I particularly liked the section where she discussed the speed of light being the only absolute in the universe, and how it creates a relativity of time, so that if you could travel at 90% of the speed of light in a spaceship, what would be a short time for you would be centuries back on earth. then she connects that to stories about people who spent a night in faerie and returned to the mundane world to find 100 years had passed. I just so appreciate an author who can take mythology seriously in this way. in this chapter as well she was talking about the christian myth of the fall from paradise as the fall from the divine condition of oneness with the godhead into the separation of the material world - which is interesting, I usually look at it as the fall from an animal state of innocence and instinct into human free will and morality/immorality.

the thing I liked the least about this book was her reliance on her own tarot, tarot of the shining tribe, to illustrate many of her points. it's understandable, she developed it, the concept behind it is cool, it's all based on cave paintings from around the world, it dovetails in with her beliefs about the cards and the tarot system as a whole. it's just...ugly. I don't know if this is the best of her drawing ability or if she purposefully kept it crudely drawn because it's based on paleolithic art or what the story behind the creation of the deck is. I just found it visually unpleasant and also, the symbology was not obvious to me. it's not a deck I've worked with. she explains it all in the text but sometimes I found it just a little too pat an explanation or connection, just because the same person having the ideas in the book also had the ideas in the tarot. she also does use RWS and some other decks as well. also the illustrations are sometimes repetitive, she'll have the same two cards on pages only a few pages apart. there was also a LOT of kabbalah in the book, and kabbalah isn't really my thing, but she doesn't insist on any one system being someone's thing, it's obvious that kabbalah and shining tribe are her things.

I did appreciate both her broad and deep knowledge and her spirit of play. she's not one to hew to an orthodoxy. without being preachy about it, she really encouraged people to go beyond the normal structures and purposes of the tarot and really use it as a way to think about deep spiritual questions and quests. very unique, and nice to have a spiritual text that takes tarot seriously on that level.

[Oliver Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Rachel Pollack book after taking several tarot classes with other teachers. I’d read two of her books before the classes and enjoyed them. It was interesting to read this now, after learning a few slightly different approaches. I liked this book and appreciated her interpretations and leaps in imagination and creativity a lot. It makes me want to seek out her Shining Tribe deck.

[Jay Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst I admired the scholarly approach I think the huge kabbalah judeo christian meld seems a lot of effort to make a fairly point that tarot draws on the common human efforts to make sense of the world, universe and our place in it by telling stories.
They are useful pictures to make difficult abstract ideas manifest, the effort to robe it all in magic and mystery seems a little overwrought.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book captured my imagination and made me curious about Ms. Pollack's own deck "The Shining Tribe Tarot." That deck has now become a personal favorite and one which I do all wisdom readings. This book expresses Ms. Pollack's amazing storytelling abilities.

[Philippe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarot seems to be hot. I read in the Saturday newspaper supplement that #tarot generates 26 million hits on Instagram and 8.8 million hits on Tiktok. In the wake of the Covid interval, tarot has been taken up massively by particularly young women who use the deck for 'self-reflection and therapy' rather than fortune-telling in the strict sense.

I came to the Tarot about 15 years ago when I found a deck in the seat pocket of an airplane. I was intrigued, but not enough to delve deeper. But in the last few years I have become very interested in Hermeticism as a millennia-old intellectual and spiritual movement, and this has fuelled my curiosity about 'magical' practices (Frances Yates' book on Giordano Bruno was a real eye-opener here). These interests have seeped into my doctoral research in the field of urbanism, which focuses on the development of a design methodology conceptualised as a 'practice of imagination'. I see a practice of imagination as a generic, layered springboard for 'worlding'. By this I mean a necessarily tentative practice of weaving patterns with and passing patterns on to other human and non-human beings in a process of maintaining 'ongoingness' and vitality in our world. Decolonial and feminist thinkers have foregrounded this kind of onto-metaphysics of 'worlding' as a blind spot in the Western modernist-colonial project (see, for example, the work of Donna Haraway and, less well known, Carl Mika, Professor of Māori and Indigenous Philosophies, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand). Rachel Pollack's book on the Tarot reinforces my sense that there is a meaningful resonance to be established between 'worlding' and not only indigenous practices and knowledge systems, but also with fringe, hermetic and occult movements in a Western history of ideas. And I think these deserve much more attention in our attempt to counter the ruinous effects of a Western, anthropocentric, logocentric, utility-maximising worldview.

What Pollack proposes here is to use the Tarot as a platform for a genuine practice of imagination. This is not about predicting your future or the future of others. Nor is it about individual 'self-therapy'. It is a springboard for cultivating a playful, inquisitive and receptive attitude to the world. A Tarot deck can be seen as a complex, modular and endlessly reconfigurable network of codified knowledge with mythical resonance. But it is also a collection of miniature works of art and a game. If it were a musical instrument, the basic fortune-telling would be the folk music of the Tarot. But it is also possible to compose symphonies and full-scale oratorios on it. Pollack's approach is both Jungian and Kabbalistic. Several chapters are devoted to reflections and practices based on the Jewish wisdom tradition. I am not particularly attached to the idea of the Tarot as a 'sacred text' and so find these sections a little less interesting. I lean more towards the Jungian (and Hillmanian) practice of 'soul making', of 'loving the images', which is about developing layered relationships with archetypal images and 'dreaming' them 'forward'. This helps us to go 'beyond information', to activate our intuition, to expand our conceptions of ourselves and our relationship to the world, and thus to create 'newness' and 'ongoingness'. This is what Pollack calls 'frontier tarot'. Another way of doing this is to engage in speculative, metaphysical experiments in thinking and sensing. What if we assume that God did not know everything in advance when he created the universe, and instead relied on the Tarot? How did the cards come about and what does that tell us about the world and our place in it? This may seem like a rather naive idea, but Pollack presents detailed, suggestive and profound readings that give flesh to these questions. In tracing her thoughts a reader feels perhaps as if one is taken by the hand in contemplatively journeying through a sprawling medieval retable. (Pollack uses both the classic Rider Waite deck and a self-designed deck that is visually less sophisticated but clearly also deeply felt). In the final part of the book Pollack delves deep into the structure and logic of the Major Arcana to extract a developmental perspective on a spiritual, seeking human life.

I do not take all of these ideas on board in any sort of literal sense. However, I find the spirit of Rachel Pollack's approach to Tarot very congenial to my own artistic-academic pursuits in a very different field. In any case, this book shows that there is still quite a lot of mileage to be had in these perennially popular cards.

[Barbara K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the late Rachel Pollack's nonfiction writings that I've encountered before, as well as her Shining Tribe Tarot deck have become favorites of mine. I only now noticed that I haven't reviewed any of those here. I had set aside my interest in reading more books about Tarot shortly before I started my Goodreads account, so I guess that makes some sense. But I have never considered that a permanent abandonment of my long-time interest in the cards.

I first encountered Tarot back in 1980, when I paid for a reading in an iconic San Diego vegetarian restaurant that unfortunately no longer exists, and then I forgot about it for a while until I encountered the Voyager Tarot at a friend's home. I bought my first Tarot deck in, I think, 1987. But it could have been earlier.

I purchased and read two of the author's books, Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom and The Kabbalah Tree, in the early 2000s, and I own the Haindl Tarot, for which she wrote the guidebooks, as well as previously mentioned, her Shining Tribe Tarot. She also wrote several science fiction novels and comic books, though I have not read any of those.

A Walk Through the Forest of Souls is curiously difficult for me to review, so I won't try to write a point-by-point or even a brief synopsis of it. But I found it thoroughly engaging and insightful, and I plan to read it again, possibly more than once, because it's one of those books that invites deep thought, practice, experimentation and re-engagement with the cards. It's one of those books that you want to read a little in, think about it, maybe play with the cards some, journal about, and then read some more. I had to check the e-book out of the library twice before I felt at all ready to review it, and I still don't feel as if I've finished with it. Now I want a print copy of it, because I know it's one I'll go back to again and again.

She meanders into Tarot history, into some fascinating connections between the Tarot and Kabbalah, and into experimental readings about God, about opening the heart, about specific cards such as the Fool ... It's really more a collection of essays about everything Tarot and everything one could dream up about Tarot.

Highly recommended for those who are not new to Tarot. I don't think it would help introduce someone to the cards, and it's not a how-to, or a reference book of card meanings (Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom is a good choice for that). This book questions on many levels what the Tarot is, where it came from, and where it can take us.

If someone is new to Tarot and wants to learn about it, I'd recommend instead one of Barbara Moore's books on the subject. She wrote the excellent guidebook to the Shadowscapes Tarot, as well as several other books about Tarot in general. Once someone has used Tarot for a while, read several books, and still has questions or is just curious or hungry for more, maybe it's time for this book. I don't say this to exclude or tell anyone that you're too much of a beginner or novice for this. I say it because for the most enjoyment and understanding of this book, and in order to make it a jumping off point for some deep work with the cards, it's probably going to work for you best if you already have your own experiences, thoughts, and practices for incorporating Tarot into your life. This is a deep dive!

[Sylvia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Pollack’s A Walk through the Forest of Souls is, without a doubt, her magnum opus—a profound, beautiful, and utterly transformative work that showcases why Pollack is regarded as one of the greatest minds in Tarot. This isn’t just a Tarot book; it’s a philosophical exploration that pushes beyond the cards and taps into the mysteries of life itself. If Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom is her foundational guide, then A Walk through the Forest of Souls is where she takes us deeper, to a place where the Tarot becomes a mirror for spiritual awakening.

What makes this book so extraordinary is Pollack’s ability to weave together such a diverse range of topics—mythology, Kabbalah, folklore, quantum physics, time travel—and somehow make it all relevant to the Tarot. She doesn’t just tell you what the cards mean; she shows you how they live and breathe, how they connect to the larger currents of mystery and magic that run through the universe. Each chapter feels like a revelation, peeling back layers of understanding and leaving you seeing the Tarot, and the world, in a completely new light. It’s the kind of book that keeps unfolding with every read, offering new insights and connections every time you return to it.

One of the most powerful aspects of A Walk through the Forest of Souls is the way Pollack uses stories and myths to illuminate each card’s essence. She invites you to journey with her through the landscapes of the Tarot, not as a passive reader, but as an active participant. You’re not just learning about the Fool or the World—you’re walking with them, experiencing their trials and triumphs alongside your own. It’s an approach that feels deeply personal, almost like a series of guided meditations that leave you profoundly changed by the end.

The visual element is just as stunning. With over 350 illustrations ranging from the historic Sforza deck to contemporary creations, Pollack builds a rich tapestry of imagery that captures the timeless nature of the Tarot. These aren’t just pretty pictures—they’re carefully chosen reflections of how the Tarot has evolved, expanded, and deepened over centuries. Seeing these cards side-by-side as you read creates a visual journey that complements the text perfectly, adding even more depth and resonance to her words.

What makes this book Pollack’s masterpiece, though, is her ability to ask the big questions without ever offering easy answers. Instead, she encourages you to explore, to question, to let the Tarot guide you through the unknown territory of your own soul. This isn’t a book that gives you all the answers neatly tied up—it’s a book that gives you better questions, the kind that linger in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page. By the end, you don’t just know more about the Tarot—you understand more about yourself, about life, and about the intricate dance between destiny and free will.

The Forest of Souls is, above all, a love letter to the Tarot as a living, breathing system of wisdom—a guide to the sacred mysteries that connect us all. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to take their Tarot practice beyond surface-level interpretations and dive into its spiritual depths. This is the kind of book that changes you. I can’t think of a higher praise than that.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book captured my imagination and made me curious about Ms. Pollack's own deck "The Shining Tribe Tarot." That deck has now become a personal favorite and one which I do all wisdom readings. This book expresses Ms. Pollack's amazing storytelling abilities.

[Gabriela Kozhuharova · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like my level of Tarot knowledge is still not sophisticated enough to truly appreciate and properly enjoy this book. This is like a collecion of essays, written by an incredibly erudite, wise and dedicated author, but it was somewhat fragmented. Also, I tend to gravitate more towards the psychological and day-to-day aspects of Tarot rather than the mystical, religious ones that are heavily accentuated here.

[Daevyd Pepper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down, the most inspiring book in Tarot I’ve read.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a first intro to the Tarot, however, if you’ve begun your journey into Tarot, get this book.

I feel this is one of those books that I will come back to many times and get way more out of it each time.

Love!

[Chanel Chapters · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25
very heavily historical and also touches upon tarot adjacent topics such as the thoth, religion etc
wasn't for me

[Ashley Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!
Transformative. I would recommend this book to anyone who reads tarot.
The insights and thoughts and anecdotes in here will stay with me forever.

[Kimberly A. Winnick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book! Learned more about tarot from these stories than any other book. Highly recommend.

[Elisefur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nourishing read. I am amazed by Rachel Pollack’s fun, imaginative and yet very loving and deep approach to spiritual practices and divination and, of course, the tarot.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved so much. I wish there were more tarot books like this one, but Pollack is unmatched.

[Era · Rating 4 out of 5]

My journey reading this book: The Sun > The Fool > The Hermit > The Hermit > The Sun > The Fool > The Hermit > The Moon for 3 days

[Morgan M. Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachel at her most spiritual and esoteric.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful deep dive into the tarot as a spiritual tool that combines classic explanations with new insights.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Wish I had known how heavily this book would discuss the illustrations before getting the audiobook!!

[Quinn Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

PERFECTION

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly fantastic, visionary book that will open your eyes to the possibilities of the Tarot.