What is your preferred tarot resource?

September 6, 2022 6:34 AM

I have been using learntarot.com to look up meanings of tarot cards. It occurs to me, though, that there may be other better resources out there. What do you recommend?

I would be particularly interested in resources that mention the origin of the meaning of each card (a sort of etymology of tarot), but that's not at all a requirement. I also have a preference for resources that just give a meaning, without giving a lot of examples of what it might mean in specific contexts (but again, that's not a requirement).

posted by wesleyac to Religion & Philosophy (15 answers total)

Truly Teach Me Tarot is my go-to resource.
posted by limeonaire at 6:40 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Out of the dozens of Tarot books I’ve read and owned, one of the few I’ve kept is Tony Louis’s Tarot Plain and Simple. It has in-depth meanings for each card without a lot of unnecessary stuff.
posted by Atrahasis at 6:41 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

The book form of the learn tarot website "The Big Book of Tarot" is a really easy reference. It has a thoughtful layout, and the sides of the pages are marked in a way that it's easy to flip to the right suite. This is usually the first book I pull if I'm referencing a card.

You might also like "Holistic Tarot" by Benebelle Wen. It gets much deeper into the "history", "origins" and other "symbology" of each card.

For a super quick reference, I use the "Galaxy Tarot" app. It's free and it has a quick and easy reference section. Alternatively, you can probably print off a reference sheet from the internet.

I've found that depending on the language used for each card, you may find yourself gravitating towards one set of descriptions over another. I personally really found "WTF is Tarot & How Do I Do It" to be super useful. It's not for everyone, a more modern "description" of each card -- e.g., Paige of Swords is the bookish daughter, King of Swords is basically a Steve Jobs-ish dad.
posted by ellerhodes at 6:52 AM on September 6, 2022

Resources I use for Tarot:

Books: The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean, Seventy Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary K Greer

Websites: The Tarot Lady (Theresa Reed), Jessica Dore (her approach is based in social work and psychology), The Little Red Tarot (they focus on LGTBQ+ contributors for their blog and decks)

I'm at work but I have a whole shelf of Tarot reference books that I'm sure I am blanking on.
posted by Kitteh at 7:11 AM on September 6, 2022

My primary go-to reference is Melissa Cynova's Kitchen Table Tarot. I ended up making myself a spreadsheet with the bullet points of the Kitchen Table interpretations, the old Rider-Waite ones from the tiny booklet, and from the Everyday Tarot that is my usual deck. I just fill in the cells each time I look one up (...and also remember to update the spreadsheet), and just that exercise is useful to me for better cementing them in my head.

I am also fond of The Tarot Lady and Jessica Dore.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:21 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Rachel Pollack's books on tarot
posted by kokaku at 7:27 AM on September 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

learntarot.com is an excellent source, but if it’s a book you’re after, that site is available in book form, published by Samuel Weiser (the author is Joan Bunning). Also nthing the recommendation for Louis’s Tarot Plain and Simple.

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (not Seventy), is a great book, but perhaps a bit dense for a beginner.
posted by holborne at 7:33 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

biddytarot.com.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:13 AM on September 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've been aided by understanding the tarot through the major arcana's story arc.

Many tarot books tend to take you through it, but the guide that resonated with me the most was this two-part video by Damien Echols : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5sQXcX8t_A
posted by jander03 at 8:16 AM on September 6, 2022

Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack
posted by wellifyouinsist at 10:18 AM on September 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

I love Kitchen Table Tarot as well. 78 Degrees of Wisdom is a classic. I also have an audio book called Tarot for Beginners: 5 Books in One by Shelly O'Bryan that i love. It is very dry and repetitive, but I quite like it for its no nonsense history and descriptions of the cards from various perspectives.

I also use The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot by Fiebig & Burger as a desk reference.
posted by pazazygeek at 10:39 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

This guide was given in in an answer to a previous question. It's pretty thorough for each card and is also trying to related them to other meaning systems like astrology or the planets or I Ching.
posted by foxfirefey at 11:50 AM on September 6, 2022

Bradford Hatcher has written an interesting and comprehensive book about using the Tarot as a counseling tool without necessarily "believing" in it in a mystical sense. Hatcher also has translated the I Ching. His Tarot link:

Tarot As a Counseling Language
posted by Agave at 12:00 PM on September 6, 2022

I find the Biddy Tarot website to be the most helpful. She turned it into book that I have not yet bought, but Cassandra Snow's Queering the Tarot posts have also been really helpful to me.
posted by lapis at 3:51 PM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

The Root Lock Tarot Podcast is really brilliant - just the right balance (I think) of therapeutic, mystical and common-sense ideas. I listened to the whole thing chronologically and it makes sense that way. It’s sort of like a series of lessons on how to approach tarot.
posted by Weng at 3:27 PM on September 7, 2022