I am happily ensconced on Christine Payne Towler’s site, http://www.tarotarkletters.com/arkletter_essays_and_articles/index.html. I could stay there for hours, looking at her book and deck recommendations, reading (and many times rereading) articles, essays and Arkletters. Today I want to bring Christine’s own book into the spotlight, as well as two other highly valuable reference books. I love building a personal library, and it helps to get recommendations from someone of Christine’s caliber.
The first book that caught my eye was Carl Jung’s “Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle”. This is an extract from Volume 8, a parapsychological study of the meaningful coincidence of events, extrasensory perception, and similar phenomenon. While not directly related to Tarot, it certainly has an application in how the Tarot is perceived by the reader as well as the Seeker. Not bad reading if you want to take Tarot to a deeper level.
The next book that caught my eye was Caitlin Matthews’ “Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom: The Divine Feminine From Black Goddess To World Soul”. Here the journey moves from pre-Christian spirituality to present day, seeking out the presence of the Goddess, the divine feminine power of wisdom. Throughout history, the Goddess and Goddess wisdom has been shunted aside – buried, if you will. In current times, focus is returning to the divine feminine in all of us.As readers, we use the Tarot as a tool of empowerment in readings, ritual, visualization and journey work. It is there to help us access our feminine wisdom and put it to work in our lives.
The third book, and one that I highly recommend, is Christine Payne-Towler’s “The Underground Stream: Esoteric Tarot Revealed”. This book makes you think, an I am quite enamored of it. Even if you don’t agree with everything Christine has to say, it makes you think about why things are the way they are in the Tarot world, and the world of esotericism. She discusses ancient knowledge, evolving magical traditions, weaving them together to illuminate the blind spots that hold us back from understanding the origins of the Tarot. She combines ancient astrology, Hebrew Kaballah, Alexandrian Hermeticism, Renaissance Magism and a history of the European Secret Societies to show the esoteric structure at the foundation of Tarot. Blatant self-promotion – my review can be seen here – http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/books/underground-stream/.
© April 2011 Bonnie Cehovet
Bonnie Cehovet 