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熄燈後請不要翻牌 塔羅祕典：從神話與女神信仰出發，重新認識塔羅的起源、歷史和符號學
★──暢銷全球30年──★
影響無數塔羅玩家的絕代經典
國內外讀者齊聲讚譽：「作為塔羅愛好者，你一定要認識這本書！」
★ 華文界塔羅三部曲黑皮書，近年來最值得期待的塔羅神作！
★ 暢銷全球，女性主義權威芭芭拉．沃克經典作品
★ 拍賣圈內一書難求，塔羅愛好者可遇不可求的神祕之書！
★ 塔羅專家星宿老師審定‧專文導讀（占星協會會長）
塔羅牌為什麼是78張牌？
塔羅牌的起源是什麼？與基督教、女神崇拜，以及東方文明的關聯從何開始？
為什麼聖杯、金幣、權杖、寶劍牌組代表水、土、火、風四元素？
塔羅牌如何能流傳至今，其中隱藏了什麼祕密訊息？
各張牌卡上的人物究竟是誰？
知名作家芭芭拉‧沃克以嶄新的觀點出發，結合世界各地的神話故事與女神信仰，帶領讀者重新探尋塔羅牌的歷史起源，並逐一解讀七十八張塔羅牌卡的神祕符號與含義，包括元素、女神崇拜、各地傳說、密教信仰等主題，如何對神聖塔羅牌造成影響。不同於一般的基礎牌義介紹，本書將帶來更全面的討論與啟發，不僅橫跨東西以豐富的各地神話信仰為本，也提出大量證據佐證，作者精彩出色的洞見將大大顛覆過去你對塔羅牌的誤解與想像，開啟全新的塔羅世界。
「我很高興能以其他語言在國外分享我的塔羅牌洞察。欣喜於我提出這個觀點之時，也希望這本書能為讀者帶來啟發與熱情。」——芭芭拉‧沃克／給台灣讀者
從神話與女神信仰出發，
重新認識塔羅的起源、歷史和符號學
塔羅歷史的主要內容，緊扣於一個主旨：「為何塔羅具有神性色彩？」多年來，本書持續受到塔羅玩家的推薦與喜愛。最大的原因就是，塔羅領域的許多論點和知識起點都是來自本書並流傳，塔羅應有的各方面觀念和知識無不備載，例如：塔羅與宗教歷史的淵源、聖山圖徵、女陰符號、流轉之輪。還有很多塔羅領域之外的知識，也都是本書率先提到的，諸如：西洋各種占卜法和各式紙牌、巫術集會。
本書也幾乎能回答大半的神祕學問題，猶如一部神祕學百科。不僅如此，本書更被譽為「神話學」殿堂，以凱爾特的德魯伊教與北歐古老信仰等神話，打破塔羅對應希臘神話的局限觀念。從塔羅、神話、女性主義、文化人類學到宗教歷史，這是一本跨足眾多領域學問交織而成的重量級塔羅祕典。解讀塔羅牌想要深入運用意象，還須掌握歷史脈絡才能得心應手，作為塔羅愛好者，你一定要認識這本書！
「這本書的存在是塔羅發展歷史的見證，跨越古今眾多信仰與神祇加以統合，以七十八張紙牌道盡千年來不能說的祕密。」──星宿老師Farris Lin／專文導讀
本書特色
1. 經典全新中譯本，忠於原著，保留原意，最貼近原著的閱讀體驗。
2. 獨家搭配芭芭拉沃克塔羅牌，華麗精美的封面設計，翻開書就猶如進入一個浩大的魔幻國度。
3.. 塔羅專家星宿老師審定，並在專文導讀引領之下，讀者能更加享受這場塔羅盛宴。
4. 完整收錄原著內容，包括78張牌圖、聖山、流變之輪、女陰符號塔羅牌列、文獻資料索引等。
5. 內文搭配精美芭芭拉沃克塔羅78牌圖逐一解說，就算沒有塔羅牌在手，也能一書上手。
6. 無論你是塔羅入門超級新手、熟練玩家，或是高階塔羅師，皆能在本書中找到屬於你的啟發。
影響無數塔羅玩家的絕代經典
國內外讀者齊聲讚譽：「作為塔羅愛好者，你一定要認識這本書！」
★ 華文界塔羅三部曲黑皮書，近年來最值得期待的塔羅神作！
★ 暢銷全球，女性主義權威芭芭拉．沃克經典作品
★ 拍賣圈內一書難求，塔羅愛好者可遇不可求的神祕之書！
★ 塔羅專家星宿老師審定‧專文導讀（占星協會會長）
塔羅牌為什麼是78張牌？
塔羅牌的起源是什麼？與基督教、女神崇拜，以及東方文明的關聯從何開始？
為什麼聖杯、金幣、權杖、寶劍牌組代表水、土、火、風四元素？
塔羅牌如何能流傳至今，其中隱藏了什麼祕密訊息？
各張牌卡上的人物究竟是誰？
知名作家芭芭拉‧沃克以嶄新的觀點出發，結合世界各地的神話故事與女神信仰，帶領讀者重新探尋塔羅牌的歷史起源，並逐一解讀七十八張塔羅牌卡的神祕符號與含義，包括元素、女神崇拜、各地傳說、密教信仰等主題，如何對神聖塔羅牌造成影響。不同於一般的基礎牌義介紹，本書將帶來更全面的討論與啟發，不僅橫跨東西以豐富的各地神話信仰為本，也提出大量證據佐證，作者精彩出色的洞見將大大顛覆過去你對塔羅牌的誤解與想像，開啟全新的塔羅世界。
「我很高興能以其他語言在國外分享我的塔羅牌洞察。欣喜於我提出這個觀點之時，也希望這本書能為讀者帶來啟發與熱情。」——芭芭拉‧沃克／給台灣讀者
從神話與女神信仰出發，
重新認識塔羅的起源、歷史和符號學
塔羅歷史的主要內容，緊扣於一個主旨：「為何塔羅具有神性色彩？」多年來，本書持續受到塔羅玩家的推薦與喜愛。最大的原因就是，塔羅領域的許多論點和知識起點都是來自本書並流傳，塔羅應有的各方面觀念和知識無不備載，例如：塔羅與宗教歷史的淵源、聖山圖徵、女陰符號、流轉之輪。還有很多塔羅領域之外的知識，也都是本書率先提到的，諸如：西洋各種占卜法和各式紙牌、巫術集會。
本書也幾乎能回答大半的神祕學問題，猶如一部神祕學百科。不僅如此，本書更被譽為「神話學」殿堂，以凱爾特的德魯伊教與北歐古老信仰等神話，打破塔羅對應希臘神話的局限觀念。從塔羅、神話、女性主義、文化人類學到宗教歷史，這是一本跨足眾多領域學問交織而成的重量級塔羅祕典。解讀塔羅牌想要深入運用意象，還須掌握歷史脈絡才能得心應手，作為塔羅愛好者，你一定要認識這本書！
「這本書的存在是塔羅發展歷史的見證，跨越古今眾多信仰與神祇加以統合，以七十八張紙牌道盡千年來不能說的祕密。」──星宿老師Farris Lin／專文導讀
本書特色
1. 經典全新中譯本，忠於原著，保留原意，最貼近原著的閱讀體驗。
2. 獨家搭配芭芭拉沃克塔羅牌，華麗精美的封面設計，翻開書就猶如進入一個浩大的魔幻國度。
3.. 塔羅專家星宿老師審定，並在專文導讀引領之下，讀者能更加享受這場塔羅盛宴。
4. 完整收錄原著內容，包括78張牌圖、聖山、流變之輪、女陰符號塔羅牌列、文獻資料索引等。
5. 內文搭配精美芭芭拉沃克塔羅78牌圖逐一解說，就算沒有塔羅牌在手，也能一書上手。
6. 無論你是塔羅入門超級新手、熟練玩家，或是高階塔羅師，皆能在本書中找到屬於你的啟發。
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1984
About the author
Barbara G. Walker
36 books150 followersBarbara Walker studied journalism at the University of Pennsylvania and then took a reporting job at the Washington Star in DC. During her work as a reporter, she became increasingly interested in feminism and women's issues.
Her writing career has been split between knitting instruction books, produced in the late 1960s through the mid-80s; and women's studies and mythology books, produced from the 1980s through the early 21st C.
Her writing career has been split between knitting instruction books, produced in the late 1960s through the mid-80s; and women's studies and mythology books, produced from the 1980s through the early 21st C.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 26, 2015
Barbara G Walker is the sort of woman you imagine probably dances around her garden at midnight, naked, daubed in her own menstrual blood and wearing a tiara made of wheat. I find her very endearing, in a sort of 1980s west-coast-US kind of way. Her bibliography is neatly divided between what you might call ‘feminist spirituality’ books (mostly to do with supposed pre-modern matriarchal goddesses), and, strangely enough, knitting designs, which apparently are classics of their kind.
This book, and the accompanying deck, belong to the former group (although if she came out with a knitted tarot, I would definitely get it). I used to use tarot cards quite a lot, and this was my deck of choice. Not that I believe they allow you to predict the future – that would be mental – but I do find them a useful way of ‘mind-mapping’ big decisions when I'm in some confusing situation. They're an entertaining free-association tool.
Among tarot aficionados, this deck is notoriously little-used, most people finding it too dark, too uncompromising, too explicit, too woman-centric – basically all the reasons I like it so much. All the cards have these very stark, archetypal designs which I find extremely appealing, and every one seems to be about SEX! or DEATH! or SEX AND DEATH! For instance:
To give you an idea of her rambling, wise-woman, feminist-hippy, amiably nonsensical approach to interpretation, here's her take on the princess of wands, on the far right up there:
As you can probably see, she takes a slightly cavalier approach to comparative mythology, but the results are often weirdly productive and provocative, or at the very least morbidly fascinating.
Her particular brand of proto-Wiccan gynocentrism is unfashionable these days, but I find it very appealing and actually rather creatively stimulating. But it's hard to review this objectively. I must have had this deck since I was 15 or 16 (although I don't think I got the book itself till several years later), and a lot of the images in here are almost a natural part of my thought process now. Which is perhaps a little concerning.
This book, and the accompanying deck, belong to the former group (although if she came out with a knitted tarot, I would definitely get it). I used to use tarot cards quite a lot, and this was my deck of choice. Not that I believe they allow you to predict the future – that would be mental – but I do find them a useful way of ‘mind-mapping’ big decisions when I'm in some confusing situation. They're an entertaining free-association tool.
Among tarot aficionados, this deck is notoriously little-used, most people finding it too dark, too uncompromising, too explicit, too woman-centric – basically all the reasons I like it so much. All the cards have these very stark, archetypal designs which I find extremely appealing, and every one seems to be about SEX! or DEATH! or SEX AND DEATH! For instance:
To give you an idea of her rambling, wise-woman, feminist-hippy, amiably nonsensical approach to interpretation, here's her take on the princess of wands, on the far right up there:
The Philistine name for the fish-tailed White Goddess was Atargis. Her Syrian name was Astarte. Her Babylonian name was Ishtar. At Der she was called Derceto, “Whale of Der,” the great Fish-mother who swallowed the phallic god Oannes, prototype of the biblical Jonah. Even Judeo-Christian Scriptures admitted that Jonah's whale was female, and he spent three days in her “womb” (not stomach) prior to his rebirth. The myth of the swallowing was really a sexual allegory. The fish was a common symbol of the yoni […blah blah…] that ubiquitous castration figure ever apparent in men's dreams and myths: the vagina dentata […blah blah…] power of the female over the male […] well-known principle in psychiatry that both sexes fantasize the vulva as a mouth [… etc.]
As you can probably see, she takes a slightly cavalier approach to comparative mythology, but the results are often weirdly productive and provocative, or at the very least morbidly fascinating.
Her particular brand of proto-Wiccan gynocentrism is unfashionable these days, but I find it very appealing and actually rather creatively stimulating. But it's hard to review this objectively. I must have had this deck since I was 15 or 16 (although I don't think I got the book itself till several years later), and a lot of the images in here are almost a natural part of my thought process now. Which is perhaps a little concerning.
February 22, 2019
The subtitle essentially sums up this book, although my primary reason for buying it was less as a "guidebook" for the Barbara Walker Tarot Deck but merely to search for any symbolic insight into the deck beyond the Little White Book. There are indeed some insights tho it's mostly confined to the Minor Arcana.
What this book really does well is trace the pre-Christian origins of the Tarot & how the Church systematically went out of it's way to demonize the Tarot & any Pagan competition.
I wish this would have been one of the 1st books I had read on the Tarot & I would recommend this book to anyone new to the Tarot, in addition to the Rachel Pollack books.
What this book really does well is trace the pre-Christian origins of the Tarot & how the Church systematically went out of it's way to demonize the Tarot & any Pagan competition.
I wish this would have been one of the 1st books I had read on the Tarot & I would recommend this book to anyone new to the Tarot, in addition to the Rachel Pollack books.
Did Not Finish
August 18, 2023DNF at 50% (I made it through the introduction and major arcana). From the very first sentence's declaration that tarot cards are precursors to playing cards, this book is full of incorrect information. While there are citations throughout, the author attributes their own ideas to sources they don't appear in and many of the sources cited are not very good. There is a lot of problematic generalization here, conflating different cultural contexts and incorrectly positing highly culturally specific ideas as universals. I cannot recommend this.
April 3, 2026
I started this book about four years ago when sierra gifted it to me. i was entranced but never finished it, so i finally went back and restarted it. wow. i LOVE this book. I’ve heard some info is not entirely accurate or verifiable but after some research some of it is as well. amazing for deprogramming patriarchal ideals and for informing your spiritual practice. just so much great knowledge in here.
September 13, 2013
Tarot cards have intrigued me every since I've seen a deck. They're so pretty and mysterious and so different, yet so closely related in look to our familiar playing cards, and so many of the decks are rich in symbolism. I started collecting decks, and even reading them for friends for fun, even though I'm a thorough-going rationalist and don't believe they can be tools of divination.
I also don't believe in a lot of nonsense promulgated about their origins. The Wiki will tell you there's just no evidence of the Tarot, either literary or surviving cards, before the early 15th century. At least Walker doesn't claim they go back to Ancient Egypt, although she does link them to the gypsies, another dubious claim to say the least--since Tarot Cards were known in Europe before the Gypsies arrived! (See, this History of the Tarot online .)
All that said, I do find this book fun and informative. It covers each card of the Major and Minor Arcana, devoting pages to each. And I like the deck featured in the book. It's pretty, and with the Tarot I'm all about the shiny!
I also don't believe in a lot of nonsense promulgated about their origins. The Wiki will tell you there's just no evidence of the Tarot, either literary or surviving cards, before the early 15th century. At least Walker doesn't claim they go back to Ancient Egypt, although she does link them to the gypsies, another dubious claim to say the least--since Tarot Cards were known in Europe before the Gypsies arrived! (See, this History of the Tarot online .)
All that said, I do find this book fun and informative. It covers each card of the Major and Minor Arcana, devoting pages to each. And I like the deck featured in the book. It's pretty, and with the Tarot I'm all about the shiny!
August 21, 2019
I found this book a very interesting reading. Informative. Provocative. Challenging. It presents the Tarot cards in a new way going back to ideas that leads to information about the origins not only of the cards but of many myth and old traditions which change into "moderns" religions. I love that the sources are cited and the references are easy to find on the web. Because that is how the content is presented, it shows itself and one have to look for more, wondering if that could be possible. I love it.
June 18, 2024
This was worth every penny. So unbelievably informative
February 29, 2012
Walker's feminine-centric research is often criticized. I always kind of liked her, & worked with this deck quite well for a while.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews