Customer Reviews

Tarot For The New Aeon (A Practical Guide to the Power and Wisdom of the Thoth Tarot)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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I'm just getting interested in the tarot and read a review of this book on
Aeclectic Tarot Forum. The book has been a great find. It helped me do a reading for myself using the Advisor Section. It was right on and very helpful. Also, I found the section called Understanding the Symbols of the
Thoth Tarot easy to follow. The book is written in everyday language and is very down to earth and practical in it's application. It's a good book to own and I'm glad I bought it.

Written by Thoth deck tarot teacher P. C. Tarantino, who studied the art of Thoth tarot and Aleister Crowley's writings for twenty-eight years, Tarot for the New Aeon: A Practical Guide to the Power and Wisdom of the Thoth Tarot is an in-depth effort to make Crowley's wisdom of the Qabalah, alchemy, astrology, and numerology accessible to modern readers and tarot practitioners of all backgrounds. Chapters examine the Thoth tarot deck card by card with black-and-white illustrations, explore how to find one's Personal Guidance cards, offer tips for interpreting readings, especially those under unusual conditions, and much more. A superb addition to metaphysical studies shelves, recommended for anyone intrigued by tarot and its divination and character-revealing potential.

This is a clear and simple book about the Thoth deck. It appears to have been designed to avoid frightening new readers who might otherwise be put off by the complex imagery and symbolism that Crowley incorporated into the deck. The author succeeds in this purpose. It will enable a newbie to begin reading with the Thoth cards and finding something useful and meaningful in the spreads. I don't agree with the reviewer who called it simply "new age schmaltz" - that was a bit harsh. I did find Section I to be rather vague and general, however. For example, the interpretations of the cards from pages 28 through 183 (Section I) did contain a lot of clichés like "keep your feet planted firmly on the ground," etc. The interpretations in this section do read a bit like newspaper horoscopes that could apply to anyone. The rest of the book is much better and more directly related to the cards. Section II on the symbols in the cards is very helpful. It focuses on the key symbols without overwhelming the reader. Newcomers will find this useful. Appendix II is a kind of fortune cookie listing of card meanings that serves as a quick review of some essential divinatory meanings. It is well done and will come in handy. There was one typo that confused me. On page 358 the diagram of the Tree of Life has the Princes in sephira Nine, Yesod, but the text on the bottom of page 359 says the Princes belong in Tiphareth. It is not clear what the author intends and which of these is a typo. The discussion of the Qabalah is limited to a few pages in the appendix, which was fine with me since I don't much use qabalistic symbolism in reading the cards. I recommend this book for readers who have felt intimidated by the Thoth deck and want a gentle way to ease into it. If they find that they like the deck and its symbolism, they will certainly want to explore it in more depth but will need other books (like those of Crowley himself, Banzhaf, DuQuette, and Ziegler) to do so.

Tarot For The New Aeon grabbed my attention, believe it or not, because of its cover, which is simple and poignant and textbook-like and promises scholarship and erudition. Also, the rave reviews combined fatally with my fiscal irresponsibility and the result was a mistake: purchasing this book. Frankly, I don't understand how it hasn't been criticized yet, I don't understand how it has merited all this positive press. But that cover...how humble it is! How like an information-stuffed tome!

Never judge a book by its cover.

The data felt canned and generic, akin to the mawkish astrological "forecasts" generated these days on the Internet. Mrs. Tarantino's profligate use of the second-person pronoun "you" suggests that she designed her work for those who read Tarot primarily for themselves, so if you aim to read for others then you will need a more serious grimoire. Tarot For The New Aeon is entirely too optimistic, a trait at odds with the Thoth deck; the book's tone is saccharine and weak and irritatingly effervescent.

One gets the sense that Mrs. Tarantino wears Birkenstocks and beads and attended Woodstock back in the Sixties and protested the Vietnam War. This is not the sort of person I want to instruct me in recondite doctrines. I want a Magus, or at least a Scholar. I doubt if she is the former, although she is quite possibly the latter--the lady must be cunning to have marketed the book as she has (see my comments below) but if she is a scholar she does not show it in this work.

That said, I will give her effort two stars instead of one, because A.) on a few isolated occasions she actually augmented my understanding of a little bit of the imagery, and B.) the usage of "you" really does make this absurd little fraction of a book a convenient reference for those who are both irrepressibly optimistic and interested in interpreting only for themselves.

The heart of the matter is that you cannot expect your Tarot to tell the truth--the real, undiluted truth--if you study Tarot For The New Aeon. I don't even think it was designed for study; it was built for ease-of-use and rapid reference, and I can tell you right now, if "easy" is what you're looking for then you are no Tarotist. True cartomancy is difficult. It is abstruse. Few are they who understand it and fewer still who successfully transmit their understanding. Besides, reference books are nigh-worthless. The only knowledge that really matters is that which you have in your head, right now, divorced from the crutch of any references. The only knowledge that counts is that which you can use right now. Therefore, buy a good book written by an informed author, and study it--own the knowledge between its covers. Make your peace with that hypothetical good, honest book--once you make your peace with it then you'll be able to use it for speedy reference, no matter how dense it is. But the ultimate is to internalize its information and make it yours. Tarot For The New Aeon will help you to own diluted gruel when what you want is a full-fledged feast. Adepts, you will find little of interest here.

(Helpful Hint: once you do find that good, honest book, do what I did: procure a quality voice recorder and narrate pertinent entries into audio files. Then, download one of the many free audio conversion programs available and convert the voice-recorded files into .mp3 format. Then, put your new "audiobooks" onto your iPod and listen to them when you go to sleep or drive in your car or clean your house. I have an .mp3 for each of the 78 cards. Go, and do thou likewise. By the way, I used a few good books for each audio entry, consolidating their information and thereby providing myself a hefty ten- or fifteen-minute compendium of wisdom, one per card.)

The book's lack of seriousness turned me off a great deal. It is not a work of scholarship and wisdom. It is not going to help you understand the Thoth Tarot. It will increase only your ignorance and land you squarely within the ranks of the profane and the untutored. She skims the imagery and almost ignores the numerological and astrological correspondences. To be fair, she does discuss these correspondences, but only briefly, thinly, unsatisfyingly. Mr. Snuffin's book is far superior. Buy it instead.

As if all of this weren't enough, Tarot For The New Aeon is thoroughly unmasculine. In other words, one gets the overwhelming impression that it was written, not to get at the truth or to uncloud confusion, but to pander to the many women who patronize New Age media. If you are a man, you will probably feel as if Mrs. Tarantino is excluding you. Seriously, I felt like painting my toenails and playing with potted plants after reading it. I will stop short of saying that the book has a definite feminine slant (I have read worse in this regard) but I will say that the best occult volumes have a gender-neutral stance. This reasoning leads me to believe that Mrs. Tarantino wrote the book to profit off of the female demographic, and not to enlighten. Therefore, her motive for writing the book was wrong. And this wrongness permeates the entire work.

Bottom line.

This book, at last, gives readers something to *do* with all the complex information displayed in tarot cards. Tarantino gives her readers a number of ways to work with a traditional deck, from detailed interpretations of each card, to a rundown of zodiac symbols, to various card games you can play using numerology. But what about tarot novices? Well, here's the best part! The book is firmly rooted in the real world and seems written for people who are seeking a way to apply symbolism and metaphysical experiences to everyday life. Tarantino's tone is friendly and nurturing, and she focuses on card play as a kind of working meditation. Bottom line: The book is a delight, providing a great departure point for new insights.

As both a student and former teacher of Tarot, I am happy to see an eminently understandable and practicable version of the Thoth Tarot. Beautifully written, comprehensive and insightful, Tarantino's book is a hands-on guide for all seekers of the ancient wisdom which still exists. Both beginners and seasoned readers will find what they need in these pages - for daily living, personal insight, and for simple enjoyment. I now keep a reference copy on my desk.

If you are tired of the negative random and karmic events in your life- this is the book for you. The author, after twenty years of study, has found a way for us to move from random to intelligent, intentional living. In 1899, Aleister Crowley received secret Tarot knowledge from The Order of the Golden Dawn. The author has updated the Thoth Tarot for our times. The book includes Personal Guidance Cards so readers can use natural forces to help prevent negative random events. The indepth book provides a "wormhole" to higher awareness to help us create for ourselves a more intelligent and rewarding life.

Whether a person is an expert or a novice, this book is an excellent guide to deeper insights in the use of the Tarot. The book is superbly written and in language anyone can understand and relate to. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has the intention of exploring more deeply one's life situations and experiences. I personally have had the honor and the privilege of knowing the author and have long awaited the wisdom of this book to available.
Barbara Courtney

Finally! A beautifully conceived and well written resource book on Thoth Tarot has arrived at the bookstore. PC Tarantino's Tarot for the New Aeon is easily approachable from the introduction through the last of Bottom Line Card Interpretations.This is a must have for any soul with a sence of adventure.