Robert Wang Libri

NEW 2004 REVISED EDITIONHailed by reviewers as "a masterpiece," and as "the single most profound reference of its kind," The Qabalistic Tarot has become the standard in its field, a book essential to all students of Tarot symbolism. It is both a textbook and a sourcebook for the symbols of the Western Hermetic Qabalah, a corpus of mystical ideas which have, for centuries, exerted a powerful influence on the development of Western thought. Dr. Wang explains the Tarot as an externalization of a mystical system which has evolved from approximately the third century C.E. to our own time. He traces the development of Qabalistic ideas from the Neoplatonic through the Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern periods, systematically discussing each Sephira and Path on the Tree of Life. He uses the Tarot images as a point of visual reference, and provides a thorough explanation of the symbolic intricacies of the Paths. The Qabalistic Tarot is recommended as a comprehensive textbook for individual study or for the classroom. The first and only work based on the four major decks in use today, it is the ideal companion book for the Golden Dawn Tarot , the Thoth Tarot , the Rider-Waite Tarot , or the traditional Marseilles deck.

Tarot Psychology is unique in that it describes a practical system of inner development, using Jungian methods of active imagination similar to those taught secretly by Hermetic-Qabalistic and other organizations. The goal of these inner journeys is, however, not an escape from mundane human contact, but an appreciation of the complex relationships between mother, father, daughter, son, and others encountered in daily life. The principal is that until one truly understands the nature of these interactions, it is not possible to deal comfortably with the difficult group constructs which are called the archetypes of the collective unconscious Mother, Father, Daughter, and Son much less with the complex and often psychologically-dangerous inner Paths of the mystery tradition. Tarot Psychology presents a basic, and safe, plan of personal psychoanalysis which may lead to self-understanding and to true inner contact with the unconscious psychic realities described by mystics. The trip can be an amazing one using modern psychological principles, and pictures from the tarot, as the tools rather than the complex symbolism of esoteric tradition. (Volume I of the Jungian Tarot Trilogy.)