Tarosophy: Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It by Marcus Katz

If you’re looking for a tarot book that takes you through the basics and then way past them, then Tarosophy is well worth considering. I had moments whilst reading it that I thought ‘really’ but for the most part it inspired me to reach for my cards and to dig deeper and deeper and deeper still. I recognise for some that isn’t what they’re looking for and that’s fair enough. Whilst this book does have a beginner’s section I don’t know if it’s for an absolute beginner. If I’d have picked it up when I first started I think I would have found it way too intimidating.

Furthermore, if you’re looking for a book that tells you what each card means, (as you generally are when you’re starting out), then Tarosophy isn’t the book you’re looking for. The information is there but not in the plain and simple language you find in Holistic Tarot and the aptly titled Tarot Plain and Simple. This is very much a teaching tool rather than an extended “little white book”. It’s aim is to help readers to discover, and I quote, “both [the] esoteric and exoteric secrets of the tarot for mystical and practical application.” The focus is very much on grounding students in tarot symbolism, attributes, and correspondences. It would be possible to experience information overload if it wasn’t for the fifty exercises scattered throughout the book. Doing the exercises makes the information more relatable and I found they led me to additional insights and new ways of viewing my cards in general that I look forward to exploring further.

Many aspects of Tarosophy add to its originality. For one, the author is a licensed neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) trainer so he has incorporated this knowledge in various ways throughout. As someone who has been interested in NLP since my Mum introduced me to it in my 20s I enjoyed seeing it used alongside tarot. There are many ways it’s incorporated into the text. For example he has used it to model and teach intuition, as a means to help people become more confident and skilled readers, and generally to help increase understanding and integration of the material presented. This is interesting in its own right.

If I had to describe the overall book, I would say it’s an incohesive cohesive book. I know that doesn’t sound possible but it is. It’s like the author sat down and wrote a list of everything he would like to see in a tarot book and then set about writing it. On one hand I would describe it as a valuable resource for people wanting to set themselves up as a professional tarot reader. There’s a lot of practical advice such as how to handle difficult clients, dealing with unusual questions, helping to reframe questions and ways to address the usual questions. Plus there’s information on the legalities of running and promoting a tarot business as well as tips on how to market your business. All of these aspects are of benefit to those wanting to become a professional reader.

On the other hand I would describe Tarosophy as perfect for people who are ready to dive deeper into the astrological and Kabbalistic aspects of the tarot. That for me is its strength. And yet, if I had a third hand, I’d use it to say that this book is great for those wanting to firmly establish and integrate their own tarot-based philosophy into their day to day life. Maybe putting it all together is a tad much. It’s great having all the information in one place but it’s hard to go back and find what you’re looking for easily at a later date.

Tarosophy is broken into sections that take you through from beginner, to intermediate and then advance but I have to say I would rather the groupings have been by topic or maybe to have at least some form of course outline for the various topics. I intend to create one of my own. That isn’t to say that this isn’t a well thought out book and in hindsight maybe what I want is unique to me and therefore an unjust criticism. But to explain what I mean, if you want to delve into the Kabbalah, when you look up the index it is listed as only having one entry, page 80. However, for me it is a foundational aspect of the book and found throughout. Although, the individual parts are indexed more thoroughly, apart from flicking through, the charts and templates are not easy to find. Maybe I’m just being lazy in wanting to be able to look them up in one place and make my way through them accordingly. This is a small complaint when weighed against the value I find in the book though.

About the Author

Marcus Katz is a professional tarot teacher with over 30 years experience reading tarot. He is the author or co-author of over 50 books and co-director of the Tarosophy Tarot Association. He also teaches Witchcraft and various subjects of Western Esotericism.

Tarosophy Contents

For those of you interested I am providing the full contents list as I do for all the book reviews. But unless you’re looking for something in particular I’d probably skip this bit by clicking here. Believe me it goes on and on and on. I know cause I had to type it.

Section One: Tarot True

• Part 1: Tarot Vast, Tarot Vindicated
  • 1.1 Introduction/1.2 What is the Tarot/1.3Tarot History: Guilt by Association/1.4 Tarot Esoteric/1.5Tarot Popular/1.6 Tarosophy/Exercise 1: Making a Metaphor/1.7 Metaphors/1.8 Symbols/1.9 How does Tarot Work/Exercise 2: The Voices Explain Themselves/1.10 Attributions and Correspondences/1.11Synchronicity and Tarot as Vision/1.12 Archetypes/1.13 Querent, Client, Customer, Seeker, Questioner, Petitioner, Person/ 1.14 you can Make a Map of the Map/Exercise 3: The Map is the Territory (Literal Readings)/1.15 Mythic Creation, Creative Myth/1.16 Types of Foresight/Exercise 4: Your Tarot Journal – the Triangle of Foretelling/Section one, Part 1 Reading List
• Part 2: Tarot Consecrated, Tarot Created
  • 2.1 your First Tarot Deck/2.2 What is NLP/Exercise 5: Consecrating your Cards, Bag or Box/2.3 Tuned Consecrations/2.4 Big Picture, Little Picture/2.5 Anchoring/2.6 Fail-Safe Tarot/2.7 What is the Kabbalah?/2.8 Tarot in 10 minutes/Exercise 6: Living the Archetypes/2.9 Reading the Spread/Exercise 7: Some Cards are Cool, and Some cards are Small/2.10 Reading the Tarot of Creation/2.11 Recording Your Reading/2.12 The Elements/Exercise 8: The hand of the Four Elements/Exercise 9: Your Tarot Alter/2.13 Layouts and Spreads: Analysis and Synthesis/2.14 The Torus Layout/2.15 Spreads and DIY/2.16 The Dawn Spread/2.17 How to Get a Yes or No Answer/2.18 The Courtroom or Judgement Spread/Section One, Part 2 Reading List
• Part 3: Tarot Oracle, Tarot Voice
  • 3.1 Oracle, Voice/3.2 Oracular Talent/Exercise 10: becoming an Accidental Oracle/Exercise 11: Tarot on TV Trick for Intuition Training/3.3 You are Intuitive/Exercise 12: Linking Words for Intuitive Speaking/3.4 Drawing from the Well of Intuition/Exercise 13: Feeling Towards the Truth/Exercise 14: Natural Dignities (The Cards Go Walking)/Exercise 15: Deeper Down the Well/Exercise 16: Intuitive Response/ Section One, Part 3 Reading List
• Part 4: Tarot Reader, Tarot Read
  • 4.1 The Tarot Reader/4.2 Creating Your Tarot Self/4.3 The Top 5 Characteristics of an Excellent Tarot Reader/Exercise 17: Pivot Grammar and Linking Words/Exercise 18: Confident Reading/Exercise 19: Flirty and Seductive Methods for Reading/Exercise 20: Creating your Tarot Self/4.4 The Tarot Reader’s Toolkit/Section One, Part 4 Reading List

Section Two: Tarot Deep

• Part 1: Tarot Told, Tarot Tuned
  • 1.1 Reading for Others, Reading for Self/1.2 Strange Places for Tarot/1.3 Difficult Clients and Querents/1.4 When Will Dwayne Come Back to Me?/1.5 Every Sickness, Every Disturbance, Every Attack/1.6 The Questions You Will be Asked/1.7 A Deck for Every Deal/1.8 Specific and General Questions/1.9 When Do People Ask Questions/1.10 Dealing with Unusual Questions/1.11 The Dark Man and the Woman Without Mercy/Exercise 21: Exploring Relationships in the Court Cards/1.12 Reading Hot, Reading Cold/1.13 The Only Important Thing You Need to Do/1.14 Tuned and Attuned Decks/1.15 Reading Spatially/1.16 Fall-back Reading/Section Two, Part 1 Reading List
• Part 2: Tarot Spread, Tarot Stepped
  • 2.1 The Minors in Three Lights/2.2 Tarot Astrological/2.3 Tarot Kabbalistical/2.4 The Spiritual Process Triads of Papus/Exercise 22: Papus Pimps the Majors/2.5 The Secret Keywords of the Major Arcana/Exercise 23: Generating Your Own Keywords/2.6 More Archetypal Than Others/2.7 Powerful Reading with the Majors Only/2.8 The Tarot Reader Revealed/2.9 The major Arcana Considered as a System/Exercise 24: Chunking up Exercise (Archetypes)/2.10 The Major Arcana Enquiries/2.11 The Jackson Square Spread (Mutable Spread)/2.12 The Temple of Thoth (Gated Spread)/2.13 The Unfolded Cube Spread (3D Spread)/2.14 The Snowflake Spread (Fractal Spread)/2.15 The Next Step Spread (Progressive Spread)/2.16 layered, Chained, Linked, and Pulled Spreads/Section two, Part 2 Reading List
• Part 3: Tarot Dreamt, Tarot Realised
  • 3.1 The Fountain of Morpheus/3.2 Senoi Dream-work/3.3 The Inner Guide Meditation/Exercise 25: The Inner Guide Meditation/Exercise 26: Over-Intellectualising Overcome/Exercise 27: Working with Attachments/3.4 Coded Questions and the Inner Guide/3.5 Clean Tarot/3.6 Tarot and the Poet/Exercise 28: Creating a Tarot Story/Exercise 29: Tarot Yoga/Exercise 30: Tarot Martial Arts, Music and Dance/Exercise 31: Creating Your Own Tarot Deck/3.7 Reviewing Tarot Decks/Section Two, Part 3 Reading List

Section Three: Tarot High

• Part 1: Tarot Tree, Tarot Path
  • 1.1 Learning the Correspondences/Exercise 32: Learning the Correspondences/1.2 The Kabbalistic Calibrated Spread/1.3 The Seasonal Path Spread/1.4 Understanding the Kabbalah Through Tarot/Exercise 33: Three Cards to Unlock the Crown/Exercise 34: Four Cards to Unlock Understanding/1.5 The Mystery of the Kingdom/1.6The Mystery of the Rainbow/1.7 The Wedding Day: A Kabbalistic Tarot Journey/1.8 The Celtic Cross Unpacked/Section Three, Part 1 Reading List
• Part 2: Tarot Stellar, Tarot Trance
  • 2.1 Exploring the Natal Chart Through Tarot/Exercise 35: Matching the Sun and Moon/Exercise 36: Comparing Sun and Moon/2.2 Astrological Dignities and the Tarot/Exercise 37: In-Depth Exploration Around the Sun and Moon/2.3 Tarot Trance/Exercise 38: The Betty Erickson Technique/Exercise 39: Vogt’s Fractionation/Exercise 40: Merging the Cards for Creative Solutions/Exercise 41: 3-card Pattern/Exercise 42: Changing a Situation Through Tarot/Section Three, Part 2 Reading List
• Part 3: Tarot Ascended, Tarot Secret
  • 3.1 The Ladder/3.2 The Tarot as Illustrating Spiritual Ascent/Exercise 43: Tarot of Spiritual Ascent/3.3 The Book of Thoth as Illustrative of Spiritual Progression/3.4 The Ladder Laid Down/3.5 the Tarot of the Braid/3.6 Solomon’s Ladder/3.7 The 1,232 Major Lessons of Tarosophy/3.8 Tarosophy and a Tarot Secret of the Golden Dawn/3.9 Never Will the Eternal Change/Exercise 44: The Secret Journeys of the Majors/3.10 Towards your own Tarosophy/Exercise 45: A Tarosophical Spiritual Statement/Exercise 46: A Tarosophical Analysis of an Argument/3.11 The Ten Degrees of Tarosophy/3.12 Tarot Long Term/3.13 The Hidden Teachings Beyond Tarot/3.14 Tarot Dangerous/3.15 Who Wants to Live Forever?/3.16 The Top Five Tarot Crimes/3.17 Tarot Haiku/Exercise 47: Haiku your LWB/Exercise 48: 3-card Haiku Creation/Exercise 49: Annual Year Ahead Spread (36 Card Spread)/Exercise 50: All the Traps/All the Escapes (78-card Spread)/3.18 A Tarot Blessing/Section Three, Part 3 Reading List
• Author’s Afterword: The Fair-Wrought House
• Appendix 1: Half the Market Think you are Evil (Marketing)
• Appendix 2: Tarot Law, Tarot Trade (Legal)
• Appendix 3: top Tarot Tweet Tips (78 Tips)
• Appendix 4: Contributors to the Secret Keywords

Summary

As you can see, the extensive contents list confirms how much has been packed into this book. Could it have been simplified – YES! Could the sections have been more clearly titled – YES! Is this book a valuable addition to your Tarot library – YES! And, when it comes down to it that’s all that matters. Whilst I don’t believe it’s for the out and out beginner I think there’s much to be gained by anyone interested in dedicating to a study of the tarot. I bought my first deck over twenty years ago and over the years I have focused on learning various aspects of the tarot. This book really confirmed for me that I want to dedicate even further to using tarot as a serious study tool. It might not be for everyone, but for those that it is, it’s great.

You’ll find spreads that you don’t come across in other books, tarot’s astrological and Kabbalistic associations, an introduction of sorts to NLP, information appropriate to those setting up a tarot business, suggestions on ways to use tarot as a creative tool and a whole lot more. For me this book opens your thinking to tarot’s possibilities. This makes it a great launching pad for any tarot scholar. It has an extensive further reading list at the end of each section to help you on your way. The author is obviously passionate about the tarot and he has sought to write a book that shares his extensive knowledge with those that are interested.

Publishing Details

Published by:

Forge Press

Pictured Version:

Third print Edition, 2016

Pages:

518 pp.