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Tarot Compendium
A comprehensive full-color tarot book from Lo Scarabeo. This third volume completes the set, along with Tarot Fundamentals (978-0-7387-4899-3) and Tarot Experience (978-0-7387-5272-3). This hardcover book focuses on advanced tarot ideas and practices, exploring esoteric disciplines as they intersect with tarot.
- GenresTarot
640 pages, Hardcover
Published February 8, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 4, 2018
This is the concluding volume to Lo Scarabeo's Tarot Encyclopedia. It's intended for immediate and advanced students, especially the latter. Most of what's included can be used to add depth to a reading or give you something to study and contemplate, but isn't necessary for doing a good reading.
The book starts with a section on "esoteric disciplines" that stand on their own but can be used with tarot: Kabbalah, alchemy, astrology, and numerology. Of these, the one I know best is astrology. I'd say nothing in the astrology section was incorrect, but there was an emphasis on a pretty presentation (full-page illustrations from Lo Scarabeo's Astrological Oracle, for instance), details were included that a tarot reader new to astrology probably doesn't need (like the metals associated with each zodiac sign), and it seemed like it could be confusing to someone who wasn't familiar with astrology.
Every volume of the Tarot Encyclopedia includes a guide to the individual cards. In this volume, the focus is on each card's esoteric associations, and there's not much space devoted to the basic meanings—just enough to remind you what the theme of the card is. The following section goes into some detail on two ways to look at the structure of a tarot deck: Wirth's analysis of the Major Arcana and a modern-day correlation of the Court Cards to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I thought Wirth's system was intriguing and plan to look into it further, but the section on the MBTI failed to convince me this was going to work.
Next was a section on assorted ways to use the tarot beyond basic readings: shadow work, free association, elemental dignities, and tarot magic. If you are interested in becoming a professional tarot reader, this volume has a section on the business end of things. And, like the earlier volumes in the series, there's another collection of tarot spreads. (Yay: more spreads!) Because this project did well on Kickstarter, there are some bonus sections that came from that. I enjoyed Kim Huggins' chapter on tarot outside the box, even though I'm likely to stay in the box most of the time myself. I'm not inclined to become a tarot teacher, but Theresa Reed's chapter on that was interesting. Unfortunately, I could not summon up much interest in Nei Naiff's chapter on sacred geometry.
Some of my opinions on this book carry over from its predecessors. An index would've been nice (although there is a glossary). I'm sure all the decks pictured are from Lo Scarabeo, but many of them aren't identified, which might be frustrating if you want to get one of them. 656 pages of glossy paper makes for a book that's not easy to haul around with you. It's a lovely book overall, though, as Lo Scarabeo didn't skimp on the production values (and a ribbon bookmark is always a good thing). Read this book if you'd like a sampling of many different ways to use and look at the tarot, but you'll probably need other sources if you want to learn any of these techniques in depth.
The book starts with a section on "esoteric disciplines" that stand on their own but can be used with tarot: Kabbalah, alchemy, astrology, and numerology. Of these, the one I know best is astrology. I'd say nothing in the astrology section was incorrect, but there was an emphasis on a pretty presentation (full-page illustrations from Lo Scarabeo's Astrological Oracle, for instance), details were included that a tarot reader new to astrology probably doesn't need (like the metals associated with each zodiac sign), and it seemed like it could be confusing to someone who wasn't familiar with astrology.
Every volume of the Tarot Encyclopedia includes a guide to the individual cards. In this volume, the focus is on each card's esoteric associations, and there's not much space devoted to the basic meanings—just enough to remind you what the theme of the card is. The following section goes into some detail on two ways to look at the structure of a tarot deck: Wirth's analysis of the Major Arcana and a modern-day correlation of the Court Cards to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I thought Wirth's system was intriguing and plan to look into it further, but the section on the MBTI failed to convince me this was going to work.
Next was a section on assorted ways to use the tarot beyond basic readings: shadow work, free association, elemental dignities, and tarot magic. If you are interested in becoming a professional tarot reader, this volume has a section on the business end of things. And, like the earlier volumes in the series, there's another collection of tarot spreads. (Yay: more spreads!) Because this project did well on Kickstarter, there are some bonus sections that came from that. I enjoyed Kim Huggins' chapter on tarot outside the box, even though I'm likely to stay in the box most of the time myself. I'm not inclined to become a tarot teacher, but Theresa Reed's chapter on that was interesting. Unfortunately, I could not summon up much interest in Nei Naiff's chapter on sacred geometry.
Some of my opinions on this book carry over from its predecessors. An index would've been nice (although there is a glossary). I'm sure all the decks pictured are from Lo Scarabeo, but many of them aren't identified, which might be frustrating if you want to get one of them. 656 pages of glossy paper makes for a book that's not easy to haul around with you. It's a lovely book overall, though, as Lo Scarabeo didn't skimp on the production values (and a ribbon bookmark is always a good thing). Read this book if you'd like a sampling of many different ways to use and look at the tarot, but you'll probably need other sources if you want to learn any of these techniques in depth.
July 14, 2018
This is the third and last volume of Lo Scarabeo's tarot collection. The series is intended to be a one stop reference for everything you would want to know about tarot. Tarot Compendium is the advanced volume, presenting the esoteric side of tarot. Here we have information on kaballah, alchemy, numerology, astrology, and sacred geometry, and supposedly how these subjects relate to and enrich one's knowledge of tarot. I mentioned in my reviews of the previous volumes how working on a fixed deadline imposed by funding these books through Kickstarter made some sections feel rushed and unfinished. That is a particular problem here, because of the subject matter. This is a book that needed great writing in order to work. The subject matter is complex, and editor Sasha Graham had to decide how best to present this dense information in the most lucid prose possible. The section on kaballah felt like a shallow treatment that left me knowing almost nothing I did not know before. The sacred geometry section in the main part of the book was better, but I was left with no clear idea how to apply this to tarot. The numerology section was also detailed, but I have always felt that numerologists were just playing around with numbers for the fun of it; this book did not provide me with a rationale for using the numerical values of the cards in this way.
Let me say before I continue my criticisms that there is some value here. A section in the middle of the book entitled Welcome to Advanced Arcana presents a quick reference to every card in the deck with richly detailed correspondences, and this seems to be the section that had the most time and thought put into it. The sections on alchemy and astrology were strong, and struck the right balance of clarity and detail that I was looking for.
In the previous volumes, the supplemental material in the back of the books have been some of the best parts. These are articles by guest authors on various subjects. The fact that they were not written by committee yielded some of the strongest writing in the books. Sadly, that is not entirely the case here. There are three articles here. The first, and by far the best, is by Kim Huggens. Huggens had a hand in creating both the Tarot Apokalypsis and the Tarot Iluminatti. These decks feature similar color schemes, and both have dense imagery that makes them unsuitable for beginners, but appropriate to this volume. Huggens explains how to use different images on a single card for single card readings, and I found this fascinating. It will not work well with a more simplified deck, but it is entirely suitable for a Rider-Waite style deck. Next is an article by Theresa Reed on teaching tarot. This one is not bad, but it really is a collection of advice about teaching in general. Surely, there are issues that arise specifically when the subject matter is tarot, but those are not covered here. The last article was the most disappointing. Neil Naiff discusses sacred geometry, and falls prey to the biggest trap in writing about esoteric subjects. To put it simply, I have no idea what he is talking about. This one features great blocks of unintelligible prose. Naiff is supposedly a tarot teacher of long standing, but I would never want to study with him based on this article. It's a shame, because there seem to be hints of a much better article here. If I understood correctly, Naiff at least tries to discuss how sacred geometry can enrich your tarot experience, which is something that I felt was missing from the discussion of the topic in the main part of the book. But this is of no help if he can not make himself understood.
I had some issues with the first two volumes of this series, but I am not sorry I got them. This one has some useful material, but I did not feel I got enough value for the price I paid, and it pains me to say so. I will ignore some of the topics covered here, and seek out better books on some of the others. That said, I will take what value I can from this one.
Let me say before I continue my criticisms that there is some value here. A section in the middle of the book entitled Welcome to Advanced Arcana presents a quick reference to every card in the deck with richly detailed correspondences, and this seems to be the section that had the most time and thought put into it. The sections on alchemy and astrology were strong, and struck the right balance of clarity and detail that I was looking for.
In the previous volumes, the supplemental material in the back of the books have been some of the best parts. These are articles by guest authors on various subjects. The fact that they were not written by committee yielded some of the strongest writing in the books. Sadly, that is not entirely the case here. There are three articles here. The first, and by far the best, is by Kim Huggens. Huggens had a hand in creating both the Tarot Apokalypsis and the Tarot Iluminatti. These decks feature similar color schemes, and both have dense imagery that makes them unsuitable for beginners, but appropriate to this volume. Huggens explains how to use different images on a single card for single card readings, and I found this fascinating. It will not work well with a more simplified deck, but it is entirely suitable for a Rider-Waite style deck. Next is an article by Theresa Reed on teaching tarot. This one is not bad, but it really is a collection of advice about teaching in general. Surely, there are issues that arise specifically when the subject matter is tarot, but those are not covered here. The last article was the most disappointing. Neil Naiff discusses sacred geometry, and falls prey to the biggest trap in writing about esoteric subjects. To put it simply, I have no idea what he is talking about. This one features great blocks of unintelligible prose. Naiff is supposedly a tarot teacher of long standing, but I would never want to study with him based on this article. It's a shame, because there seem to be hints of a much better article here. If I understood correctly, Naiff at least tries to discuss how sacred geometry can enrich your tarot experience, which is something that I felt was missing from the discussion of the topic in the main part of the book. But this is of no help if he can not make himself understood.
I had some issues with the first two volumes of this series, but I am not sorry I got them. This one has some useful material, but I did not feel I got enough value for the price I paid, and it pains me to say so. I will ignore some of the topics covered here, and seek out better books on some of the others. That said, I will take what value I can from this one.
May 17, 2022
Covers a wide range of Tarot related topics - really informative!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews