Pictures from the Heart: A Tarot Dictionary

by Sandra A. Thomson

For hundreds of years, people have turned to the tarot for guidance and focus in seeking answers to life's questions. While millions use the Tarot regularly, much of its history, lore, and symbolism remain obscure--making it difficult for the user to get the deepest possible reading. Also, with hundreds of different decks available, drawing on several major traditions, finding the right deck--the one that the Tarot user will find most sympathetic to their needs, desires, and usage--can become an arduous task.

Pictures from the Heart provides hundreds of entries detailing the symbolism of the Tarot, contrasting the various decks on the market, as well as issues, figures, and topics of interest to the Tarot user. For both the experienced and the neophyte user, this tarot dictionary is a long-awaited and essential resource.

Genres: Tarot, Divination, Reference

544 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2003

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very unique resource for Tarot readers, well worth adding to your Tarot shelf. The symbol dictionary is ideal for beginners all the way up to more advanced readers. Knowing how to interpret symbols within the Tarot is one of the most important aspects of intuitive reading. This dictionary can help a reader to gain even more knowledge and insight when reading the cards. My only issue is that the dictionary does not cover all the most common symbols found within the cards. For this reason alone, I had to give Pictures from the Heart a rating of 4/5 stars.

[Marcello Tarot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il 'Dizionario di Tarocchi' di cui al sottotitolo è una gemma: in ordine alfabetico vengono trattati i simboli più ricorrenti nei vari mazzi di Tarocchi, ivi comprese voci che nulla hanno a che vedere con i RWS. E quando si tratta di parlare delle singole lamine – sì, sono contemplate anche quelle! – vengono inclusi nella trattazione confronti tra le simbologie di diversi mazzi.
L’apparato di note, che funge spesso anche da bibliografia, è quanto mai puntuale.
Non manca un’introduzione sulla simbologia, una disamina dei diversi mazzi disponibili in commercio raccolti in macro-famiglie, e qualche informazione sulle stese.
È sicuramente un libro per studenti di livello avanzato che dovrebbe essere presente nella biblioteca personale di ogni lettore di Tarocchi.

[Judy Croome · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reference book with detailed explanations of symbols in many well-known tarot packs. For such a broad topic, the definitions are brief but useful, and help add layers of meaning to any specific tarot card.