Savage Tarot

by Brad Ashlock

Tarot like you've never experienced! No memorisation, no esoteric flimflam. Savage tarot is a mule kick to the head to break you out of everyday thinking and unleash creative new ways of seeing and being. Stop memorising tired card meanings and layering occult fantasies over the beautiful images of the tarot. In this book, Brad Ashlock (MFA, University of Chicago) teaches you how to read the cards utilising techniques never before made public, including metaphorical motion, mumble tarot, and new exercises and methods pressure tested through hundreds of hours of real card readings with strangers. Included are interviews with fascinating philosophers, teachers and tarologists, including Enrique Enriquez, Sailor Bob Adamson, and Dr. Michael A. Aquino. A must for the adventurous tarot explorer. EDITORIAL "Savage Tarot" is beyond intriguing. I'm not very knowledgeable about tarot, but the method Ashlock proposes takes tarot away from the realm of mystics and occult b.s. to something useful and practical. (Levels, man. Levels.) I started noticing startling new connections in my life through his teachings, intended or not. Ashlock includes a story about his dad chainsawing though a building that had become an obstacle, a lot like Ashlock chainsaws through tarot tradition. No wonder so many people in the tarot community hate him! He's blowing their fairytale world apart. This book did something I never would have thought it got me interested in tarot as a real tool for exploration and creative growth. It's like a whole new level of storytelling meets ink blot test meets the interconnectivity of atoms--man, it's wild stuff. It's especially great because at times Ashlock is fighting bullshit with bullshit, but acknowledging it himself. If I had any criticism, I'd say it reads more like a collection of essays than a book with a column down its back, but that also made it easy to digest in chunks. Love the cover, too. Savage! --Matt Ader, Author

Genres: Tarot

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 25, 2020

Reviews

[Frances Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing Perspective on Tarot

Brad Ashlock's YouTube channel was my first introduction to Tarot de Marseille.

This book is an insightful and thorough expansion on his non-mainstream thoughts and ideas on the tarot and his + Enrique Enriquez's reading method on the same channel.

Brad's way of teaching how to read TdM for new insight, creativity, and getting unstuck is one of the quickest I have ever seen anywhere else, even when you have zero background in tarot. If you are looking for a book on how to predict the future using tarot, this isn't it.

If you have an open mind and a no-offense-taken attitude towards perspectives on the tarot that might be different from yours in order to learn something new, then this book might be for you.

[Trina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but I only really enjoyed a few chapters. I feel the author is a bit of a braggart and perhaps he has the right to brag- his schooling and background are impressive, but I was a bit turned off by each chapter where he felt he had to talk about his background, jobs, schooling, etc. Reading became tiring and tedious and for all the hype I was given by people I know who read this book and recommended it to me, I feel really let down. I'm know many people who read this book think it’s awesome, but for me, it doesn't come anywhere close .

[scavenging the parallel universes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really learned a lot. Because of this, I craved similar books rather than the tarot books with outright meaning. As a read, you have to take it by the grain. Not everything might be agreeable, but I learned a lot! The pip cards technique was the best for me :)

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on reading Marseilles / pip decks. (Not for RWS people.)
Down to earth, conversational, great examples.