Customer Reviews

The Flight of the Feathered Serpent

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It is said that one doesn't so much pick a Tarot deck as it picks you. To add to that, often getting one is like getting a car without the manual. This is one of those times. This is the companion book for the Xultun Tarot deck. Although Peter Balin deals with two distinctly alien cosmologies, the Western Esosteric Tradition and the Mayan Tradition, he uses the structure of the Tarot to weave them together without it becoming an eclectoplasmic pastiche. This was my first real introduction to the mythology of the native peoples of the Meso-American region and it is a great primer also on the basics of their numerology, totems, mystic terms, and icons. He has done good research although he often lapses into romanticizing the Maya, he nonetheless acquits himself of the kind of cultural pillaging and dubious credentials of such as Carlos Castaneda and Lynn V. Andrews. He also adds his opinions on organized religion, sexuality, and the enigmatic legacy the Maya left. A very good read!

The book is nice. Has a lot of information but nothing that directly deals with the images in the Mayan Tarot Deck which is the main reason I wanted it. I was rather let down on this, for while the divinatory meanings are more elaborate than the LWB (little white book) that comes with the deck, they are nothing but traditional Golden Dawn astrological associations and meanings. I think if you are interested in Mayan History there are better books out there. The Mayan Oracle: A Galactic Language of Light by Spilsbury or her earlier oracle deck The Mayan Oracle: Return Path to the Stars [With 44 Full-Color Cards] [BOXED-MAYAN ORACLE, alas she did no tarot,will inform you more of the traditions and symbols of the civilization than this. Don't let this deter you from the deck though, it's superb. It's just unfortunate Balin does not share his thoughts for why he chose what pictograms he did for the cards.