Customer Reviews

The Underground Stream: Esoteric Tarot Revealed

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This book represents the missing link in the available literature about Tarot. It answers so many nagging questions, that for me it was like finding the cheat sheet to an upcoming test. Bishop Payne-Towler has done all the tough, grueling leg work for us Tarot enthusiasts who are haunted by questions about what the Tarot truly is and is not. This book is very densely packed with information and insight. Although low in page numbers, you will not be disappointed with the smorgasboard of food for thought which the author presents.

This book is not geared toward interpretation of cards specifically for the sake of doing Tarot readings. This book is geared to give you an overall understanding of the absolute limits of what can be known about Tarot history and it's links to other sacred sciences. The natural result of your new understanding is that your interpretations will automatically open up, possibly quite dramatically (this happened for me). This book uncovers the mystery shrouding the links among Tarot and its sister sciences, such as Astrology, Hermeticism, and Kaballah in a way that no other work available today has even come close to. In fact, very few books and decks on the market today even address Tarot's relationship with it's sister sciences in any more than a cursory manner. And usually, when done so, even in passing, the Astrological and Kaballistic associations are completely off-base from the actual historical correspondences. Some readily available exceptions to this rule are: the Tavaglione tarots (Stairs of Gold), El Gran Tarot Esoterico (available at areyougame.com for 4.99), IBIS Tarot, Oswald Wirth Tarot, Cagliostro Tarot, and Tarot of the Ages.

The functional duty of Christine's labor of love is to give the upcoming generation of Tarot scholars, hobbyists, and professionals a cornerstone of digestible, encyclopedic, accurate Tarot history and sacred science correspondences from which to conduct our own further explorations into Tarot.

I found this book amazingly inspiring. Where other books on Tarot have left me hungry for "What it all REALLY means!?," and searching desperately for something more scholarly and academic, this book felt like being given a free, historical, panoramic synopsis of the answers I'd been seeking, which made it all suddenly click into place in a most exhilarating manner. My comfort level and trust of the structure, symbolism, ordering of the cards, and the purpose of Tarot as an overall system, has increased dramatically, now that I know these images are nestled deeply and inextricably into a cohesive, wide-ranging system encompassing several other sciences by which to cross-reference and research their true meanings.

Mouni Sadhu's _The Tarot_ (although somewhat inaccessible in some ways), and Oswald Wirth's _Tarot of the Magicians_, are two texts which have gone a long way for me in answering some of the deeper esoteric and eternal meanings of the Tarot within their proper correspondent contexts, after I had received schooling in that foundation from Christine Payne-Towler's book.

_The Underground Stream_ takes some mental work on the part of the reader because it is so wide in scope historically. This text does not give you "training" in the sacred sciences--that is something you will have to seek in other books. Again, what she *does* is formally and most properly introduce you to the whole family of sacred sciences through it's most illustrious and quite prodigal (in recent centuries) member, Tarot. This was the introduction I had been seeking for over a course of years. Unfortunately, none of the other authors I read could do this for me. After a cursory glance, in a short beginning chapter, at "Tarot History," they jump right into divination meanings. This is not to say there is not amazing work out there being done by some of these authors in the way of interpretations and creativity with Tarot---there certainly is. They are like the interior designers and Christine is a hard-hat contractor. We need them all.

This book does have some typographical errors. Also I could see some areas where she shared opinions about image interpretation that I might take in a different direction (and have, in my own work with Tarot). One can forgive the author however, because after all her superhuman research and work, it almost makes her seem human that she has some slight imperfections. One cannot help but respect her as an esteemed colleague and Master, despite these small issues. I owe a huge personal debt of gratitude to Christine Payne-Towler, as a Tarot reader. Chances are high you will feel some similar sentiment after you've read this book.

This volume is an excellent introduction to the esoteric roots and correspondences of all the major decks, with information on the Kaballah, astrology,, numerology, and gnosticism. Yet it is an easy and enjoyable read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the archetypal symbolism and history of tarot cards, and their relationship to the Western mystery tradition.

The title (Esoteric Tarot Revealed) and the look of cover with the image from Etteilla's Esoteric deck created the impression, that it would be specifically about Etteilla (Alliette) and his unique Tarot system I'm keen on. BUT, although the book does mention Etteilla a couple of times, it's about tarots in general. So, don't get confused.

I was disappointed by the lack of quality of this book. She might have some interesting things to say about the history of tarot, but had this book been turned in as a research paper in college it would have come back with lots of red ink. There are typos on most pages, books and authors are referred to and mentioned in the text, yet are missing from the bibliography. She whines at great length that the English occultists and their descendants were swayed by the editorializing comments that Levi's English translators, such as A.E. Waite, added to his text. Among those who supposedly just don't understand are the authors of "A Wicked Pack of Cards." What she fails to mention is the fact that one of the authors of that book (not mentioned in her bibliography) is French, and that both the original French and the translated English editions are mentioned in their bibliography. I would also find it hard to believe that the other authors--a distinguished philosopher at Oxford and an art historian--don't have at least a passing reading knowlege of French. Surely, they would've been able to read the originals for themselves.

In general, this was clearly written by someone with little understanding of how to do basic research, and who doesn't have the skills that would be required of someone writing a paper for a college class. The fact that it is praised as being well researched is amazing. This is so filled with inaccuracies that it is hard to take anything she says seriously. At the very least, someone should have bothered to proofread the manuscript! And it's a thin paperback for that price. Yuck.

This book is a gem. It's divided into article-like chapters which allows for reading at any point.
Of note is Christine Payne-Towler's magnificent references to the Bible. She sheds new meaning on many Old and New Testament passages through the lens of esotericism and gnosticism via the Tarot.
I think it would be of interest to a variety of people: those interested in Tarot History; those interested in esoteric symbolism; those interested in a Gnostic interpretation of the Bible; Qabalists; Taroist and scholars.