Copyright Ceci Henningsson 1994. This article may be freely copied and distributed provided that this copyright notice is included. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Review of Gareth Knight: _The Magical World of the Tarot_ Data ==== Author: Gareth Knight Title: The Magical World of the Tarot -- Fourfold Mirror of the Universe Publisher: Aquarian Press, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB, UK. Copyright: 1991 ISBN: 0-85030-940-9 Price: My copy is in paperback and costed 13.95 USD. The UK price is 7.99 GBP. Summary ======= _The Magical World of the Tarot_ is a practical book about how to learn to read the Tarot. It seems mainly to be aimed at people who have little or no familiarity with the Tarot deck beforehand, and who wish to use it for divination purposes. Contents ======== Introduction to the Tarot Lesson 1: The Spirit of the Tarot. Lesson 2: The four Cardinal Virtue trumps. Lesson 3: Trumps ruled by the Cardinal Virtue trumps. Lesson 4: The basics of divination. Lesson 5: The four suits, wands. Lesson 6: Cups, swords. Lesson 7: Coins, principles of spreads, the court cards. Lesson 8: Reading the tarot. Lesson 9: More about reading the tarot. Afterword: Towards an advanced study of the tarot. The lessons are all subdivided into Working Plans, Knowledge Notes and Questions & Answers sections. The Author ========== Gareth Knight has penned other books about neighbouring subjects, such as _A practical Guide to Quabalistic Symbolism_(Kahn & Averill, 1966), and _Tarot magic_ (formerly _The Treasure House of Images_, Destiny Books, 1990). He has also designed a deck of his own together with Sandel Littel. At the end of the book he encourages the reader to send a SASE to his address: Gareth Knight, PO Box 739, Braintree, Essex CM7 7JW, Great Britain. Introduction: Knight starts his book with giving the story of how the Tarot came to Italy. He then dives headlong into the tarot and talks about the Fool and the Magician. The organisation of the tarot deck is also outlined. I don't know how universal the system Knight uses is, but it's based on the number four, made up of two pairs of polarities. Knight sees the Fool and the Magician as standing outside this system, directing it, perhaps. He then sees four Halls, one for each of the Cardinal Virtue cards: Strength, Temperance, Justice and the World (signifying Prudence). Strength rules the trumps High Priestess, Empress, Emperor and Pope (Hierophant) and the suit of Wands. Temperance rules the trumps Lovers, Chariot, Hermit and Wheel of Fortune and the suit of Cups. Justice rules the trumps Hanged Man, Death, Devil, Tower and the suit of Swords. The World rules the trumps Star, Moon, Sun, Last Judgement and the suit of Coins. Throughout this chapter there are black-and-white reproductions of antique cards. There is also a diagram that shows this system of fours. Lesson One: After this headlong dive into the systematisation of the deck, Knight talks about what he calls the Spirit of the Tarot. He encourages the reader to antropomorphise the deck itself. We then set out on a pathworking meeting the Spirit of the Tarot, the Fool. Knight goes into some detail about the practicalities of pathworking, but doesn't make a fuss of it. There is also a brief review of some of the tarot packs on the market. Lesson Two: In this lesson we get to meet the Magician and the four Cardinal Virtue cards in pathworkings. Knight encourages the reader to see the cards as people we can talk and socialize with. Knight talks some about the many different versions of each card that exist, and recommends some books. The Knowledge Notes in Lesson Two are about the Magician and the Cardinal Virtue Cards. Lesson Three: In Lesson Three there are further pathworkings in the Halls of Strength, Justice, Temperance and Prudence. A quote from the Q&A section, says a lot about Knight's approach: "The Wheel, as originally conceived in the old designs, had the Godess of Fortuna turning its handle -- so you do not have to feel a complete lemon trying to talk to the spokes." Lesson Four: The apt headline of this chapter is "The Basics of Divination". Knight talks about ethical concerns, spreads, reversals and the many diverse interpretations made by different people. He also gives a sample reading using the Celtic Cross spread. The Knowledge Notes are about the lesser Trumps' divinatory meanings. Lesson Five: Through the Hall of Strength we enter the Theatre of Wands. Knight outlines what the numbers stand for in each suit. Lesson Six: In the sixth lesson we visit the Theatres of Cups and Swords. Knight then suggests using our knowledge of the Language of the Tarot to express storylines. He uses Cinderella as an example. Lesson Seven: The last Theatre is the one of Coins. When we're finished with that Knight talks about Tarot spreads and their underlying principles. The last issue in this chapter are Court Cards. Lesson Eight: Lesson 8 consists almost entirely of sample readings. In the Knowledge Notes Knight brings up statistics, and the attitude of the querent. Lesson Nine: In this last lesson Knight explains his own spread, the Gareth Knight Spiral Spread. There are more sample readings, including the same spread (and question) read by different people. Afterword: This chapter delineates one way of using the Tarot for further development. Personal view ============= (Disclaimer: If you aren't interested in my opinions, don't read the next paragraph.) I quite liked this book. I find Knight's approach practical and down to earth, and I appreciate that he encourages the reader to find her own meanings of the cards. There are however two things I didn't like about the book. One is Knight's "traditional family values." Luckily these were quite easily separated from the practical content of the book, so this wasn't much of a problem to me. I do question the way Knight chose his sample readings. Out of eight querents all but one were female. Four of these were asking about heterosexual relationships with men and one about having children. I think it would be far better if the readings represented more diverse querents and questions. I have to return the book to the owner now, and will not be able to answer questions about details in it. Book returning blessings, --Ceci