Book Review: Introduction to the Tarot by Gary Shook

Introduction to the Tarot. © 1991, 2011 by Gary Shook. Usul Press. Highland, CA ISBN 089536-395-0

Disclaimers:

Relationship: Slight, I have met Gary at various events over the years but I’ve never had a beer with him. I’m afraid if I passed him on the street I might not recognize him. I guess it would be fair to say that he is an acquaintance but that's all.

Personal Expertise: Well, I am certainly not what anyone would call a tarot expert; in fact I do not regularly read or work with the tarot anymore. Like many Pagans I studied fairly seriously early on my path and I even read occasionally for the public when I had the store but I have since found that my divinatory talents lay elsewhere. I still have a collection of tarot and tarot type cards that I occasionally work with.

Review:

So since I’m not a tarot expert or even regular user one might ask why in the world am I reviewing a book on the tarot and that would be a fair question to be sure. Actually I stumbled onto this book while watching a friend’s store; it was on the shelf and business was slow. Since I had met Gary several times I thought what the hell, why not give it a peruse. 

It didn’t take me long to come to the conclusion that I really liked this book and I wished that I had seen it 20 years ago when I was studying this divinatory art. The book was originally written as a workbook for Gary’s tarot classes and judging by the book I would guess that his workshops are really good as well.

Almost any book that you pick up on the tarot and almost any teacher of the tarot has lots of rules. Lots of things you must do or must never do when handling, choosing or reading tarot cards. Don’t shuffle the cards like they were playing cards, always keep your cards in a natural cloth bag, always keep your cards in a natural fiber cloth inside a box made of wood, don’t lay your cards on a bare table, etc. etc. etc. All of these rules always seemed a bit arbitrary to me; personal philosophies carved into stone and somehow made into cardinal rules over the years. Of course any different author or teacher might have their own set of cardinal rules or personal philosophies but seldom does a book encourage you to decide for yourself.

Ultimately Gary’s approach which is one of self-determination if you will makes so much more sense to me then a bunch of rigid do’s and don’ts. Yes, he covers the basic info, spreads, techniques and even mentions many of the “rules” that he has come across but he encourages the student/reader to find their own way. He includes exercises so that the student/reader can really get a feel for their cards and the art rather than a bunch of stuff that you have to memorize. And he discusses more than one method for learning the art. Honestly I wish more Pagan and metaphysical books would take this approach instead of the “one right and only true way” approach that so many seem to favor.

Cons: The book is generously illustrated with pictures of various cards from various decks and while this is a good thing it lacks identifying information for the cards so if a person reading the book is particularly drawn to the artwork and symbolism of a particular card they have no way of actually knowing which deck it came from. 

Perhaps it’s not the only book you will ever need to learn the tarot but I definitely recommend it not only for beginners but for anyone who has struggled with the limitations and rigidity of standard tarot instruction or who feels that they need or just want a new approach. So to rate this book on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being "it might make a good doorstop" and 5 being " Awesome" I would give it a 4.

Availability can be a bit tricky. You won’t find this book on any online sites but you can contact the Enchanted Crystal in Running Springs, CA or you can contact the author directly.

Enchanted Crystal

909-867-1190

enchcrystal@earthlink.net

Gary Shook, author

garyshook@adelphia.net

Pagan Book Reviews

Opinions are like........

In our current age of electronic publishing and communication the opportunity for people to publically review books as well all sorts of things has grown exponentially which like most things has its pros and its cons. I think that a lot of us seldom make large or even medium purchases without researching the available reviews. While it is seldom that one will find any item that has only good reviews any reasonably intelligent person can make a reasonably intelligent decision about a purchase by researching the available reviews. Of course it is up to the person who is reading the review to decipher how intelligent the reviewer might be or if the way in which any particular reviewer might be using or misusing the item in question might have colored their review. Obviously the more reviews an item has received the easier it is to figure that out. I have often read reviews on things like vacuum cleaners where the majority of reviews are glowing or at least positive but there is always a certain percentage that gives the item a general fail; allowing for the normal percentage of idiots in the world that is totally understandable. One can generally assume that whoever wrote the bad review probably didn’t read the instructions or they simply used it for a purpose it was not intended for. 

Book reviews on the other hand are a funny thing; you see it’s pretty impossible to separate personal tastes and experiences out of the equation and when it comes to Pagan books being reviewed it gets really tricky. The greater Pagan community is a relatively small and definitely incestuous group. Certainly our numbers continue to grow but when compared with say.....non-Pagans we are definitely in the minority. This fact creates a rather difficult situation in regards to book reviews and recommendations. If a reviewer dislikes the author it is fairly hard to be completely objective when reviewing their book and as often as not the reviewer may not even know the author but be working on second or third hand information. For instance if the author has in some way real or imagined dissed the reviewer’s HP/HPS then the author must be a jerk and therefor whatever they write is no good. However when reading the review you will generally have no way of knowing that the review was biased before the book was even read.

Another sad but true issue I have seen in regards to Pagan book reviews is the jealousy factor. It seems that many in the Pagan community have egos with a fragility matched only by the voracity of their opinions. I have seen books given terrible reviews by people who have not even read the book simply because they are jealous of the author’s success.

Then there are the reviews that are colored by the reviewer’s personal type of Paganism to such an extent that they can’t see the value of the book to someone whose practice might be different. For instance one who practices Druidism might slam a book because it is too Wiccan which only okay if they actually state that for a Druid the book has little to offer due to it being written from a Wiccan perspective but if they just proceed to slam a book without making that distinction then whoever reads the review might have no clue.

Of course this works the other way too; sometimes reviewers will write glowing reviews on a book based more on the incestuous nature of our community than on true critical opinion. I have yet to see a glowing review of a book that includes the disclaimer that the author is the reviewer’s best friend, lover, coven mate, HP/HPS or whatever but I guarantee that at least some small percentage of glowing reviews are written by people who have some sort of connection to the author. It’s not that I don’t think people who share some sort of relationship should never review each others work but I do think it only fair that they state somewhere in the review that such a connection exists. That way when we read the review we can take that fact into consideration. Too omit this information seems disingenuous to me. 

Just to be clear, over the years I have seen all of these examples and many others which in my opinion are rather unethical and do a great disservice not only to the authors of the books being reviewed but also to the potential readers who might be making their decision on whether or not to purchase and read a book based on such an unfairly biased review.

Anyway, the reason for this whole diatribe is that I will be posting book reviews from time to time. Every now and then perhaps simply because I’ve been around a while or perhaps because I’ve read a book or two someone asks me to review a book. Then again sometimes I find a book on my own that I seem to have a strong opinion about…one way or the other. Sometimes very good books don’t get read near enough either because no one reviews them, the authors or publishers can’t afford to publicize their books properly or, and this is the real shame, sometimes a book is so good that certain “elders” don’t want you to read them because then you might see behind the curtain so to speak. I hope to bring some of those good books to the attention a few more people and in the process perhaps clear up some misconceptions in regards to the origins of things. 

What I will tell you is that when I do review a book I will make the appropriate disclaimers right up front. If I know the author I will tell you and if I find that I can’t possibly be objective because of my relationship to the author then I simply won’t review the book; in other words if I love ’em or I hate ‘em too much to be honest I simply won’t comment. I will do my best to be honest, clear and fair when reviewing a book; I understand all too well what goes into the writing of a book. I also know how influential the books we read can be on our practice, philosophy and traditions. With all this in mind I hope that some of you will find some value to these reviews.

Blessings

Raven Womack

Raven’s Flight

The Magickal Apothecary

www.ravensflight.net