The Tarot: A Short Treatise on Reading Cards

by S.L. MacGregor Mathers

Revised and expanded edition of Mathers' original treatise. Three methods of reading cards are included, along with instructions for the game of tarot, which can be played by two or three people. This is a classic text that will be appreciated by anyone interested in the study of the tarot.

Genres: Tarot

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1992

About the author

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, born Samuel Liddell Mathers and having allegedly added MacGregor as a claim to a Highland heritage for which there is little other evidence, was an English occultist best remembered as a founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

His translations of medieval grimoires and other obscure occult texts, while often criticized for their accuracy or incompleteness, served to make this otherwise inaccessible material more widely available to English-speaking audiences, and remain among the most popular of his works.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, Tarot: A Short Treatise on Reading Cards, written by S.L. MacGregor Mathers is seemingly intended to be a beginner's guide to those who are new to the practice of tarot, but the main problem that I have with the book is that despite its brevity (at only eighty-eight pages, it certainly lives up to its subtitle), it does not treat the reader like a beginner. While reading the book, I frequently found myself really confused on a detrimental level, constantly having to look words, phrases, and concepts up because I did not know what they were. The book is helpful on some levels. For example, it goes through all seventy-eight cards of the Tarot deck and explains what they typically signify, and that was part of the book that I found really helpful and interesting. Other parts of the book, however, such as the part that gives three different methods of laying out cards, were parts that I found to be extremely confusing. When I first learned how to read (albeit intuitively), I was taught to lay out three to five cards and read them left to right. That is simple enough, but this book describes three different ways that, as I said, are incredibly complicated. I even tried to use one of my own decks to follow along, but I got far too confused to continue. Another part of the book describes how to play a game with a Tarot deck, but this, too, was something that I found far too difficult to follow (I don't really see myself using my decks for games, anyway - probably just for divination). Another matter (although not anywhere near as pressing) is that there are a couple of distracting typos throughout the book. Some parts, as aforementioned, are helpful, but for the most part, I would recommend trying something different if, like me, you're rather new to the practice and wish to learn more about it.