When you open this book, be prepared to get pulled inside and kept there for quite a while. Once you start reading in earnest, you'll find yourself scribbling on the margins and then, out of frustration, begin a notebook, frantically writing away well into night.
You'll put the book down, breathless, with your head spinning from ideas that never occurred to you. In chapter seven, for example, Pollack takes us to the beginning of creation, with God turning the cards to determine how the foundation of the universe be built. In chapter nine, the author takes us on a journey through the dream time with the Kaballah.
This book is a conundrum. Pollack goes into length about the true origin of the Tarot; and just when you think you know the truth, she will take you to the beginning of creation and tell you that Tarot existed before time. And somehow, both statements are true.
This book is expansive and mind altering. It changed everything I knew or thought I knew about Tarot, Kaballah, myth and history. It cannot be read once. It must be read over and over, scribbled in, highlighted, journaled and contemplated because there is just so much information contained, you'll want to squeeze every drop of information out of it. Every serious student of Tarot should have a copy of this book on their shelves.
~review by Patricia Snodgrass
Author: Rachael Pollack
Weiser/Red Wheel, 2023
$24.90, pp 290
