The best books on tarot for personal growth and spiritual development

I like many of Rachel Pollack's books, but this was one of the first tarot books I read. This kind of book is perfect for me to learn something. It reads very easily, more like a course than a book with pages full of text. The layout is light and each page is richly illustrated with colour photos including tarot cards from all over the world, so you can compare and get a good idea of ​​the character of each card.

All facets of tarot, which you can delve into later, are discussed: origin, history & the different traditions, symbols & colours, the Tree of Life & the Hebrew letters, numbers & the paths of the Sefiroth, Kabbalah & astrology, the journey of the fool through the Major Arcana, different readings & card spreads, different ways to use the tarot cards: to meditate, to work with dreams, games, storytelling and music.

Rachel also pays attention to the value of making your own tarot deck, by copying, colouring or painting it. Or by making your own version in a very simple way with collage techniques or photography. Or by designing or illustrating your own new tarot deck. And that is exactly what I have done. I created my own deck to deepen myself more into each card separately and to pass on this wisdom. Making your own tarot deck is also a journey through self-discovery and spiritual development.

While designing and illustrating my own Sun and Moon Tarot, I followed the normal order of letters of the Hebrew alphabet and therefore also their values. And I respected the original Western Hermetic order of the cards on the paths of the Tree of Life and their corresponding Hebrew letters. This system is explained in detail in this book.

Rufus C. Camphausen describes in detail how the numbering of the tarot cards has been changed by different groups of people (Kabbalists, Astrologers, the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn & Aleister Crowley, A. E. Waite of the Rider Waite Tarot). The same is true with the assignment of the planets and zodiac signs and the assignment of the numbers and the Hebrew letters on the paths of the Sefiroth (Tree of Life in Kabbalah).

Together with Van Leeuwen he also created ‘The Kabbalistic Tarot/Tree-of-life Tarot’. This tarot deck was designed as a study aid for learning the Kabbalistic and Astrological associations in Tarot. The images on each card are wholly symbolic. Instead of illustrated scenes, the Major Arcana features the Tree of Life with a path between two Sefiroth highlighted. Within each of the two Sefiroth, a planetary symbol is inscribed. The Minor Arcana shows a zodiac wheel with three houses highlighted and a small glyph of the Tree of Life is in the center of the Zodiac wheel.

Tarot scholar and art historian, Ronald Decker, provides a solid and up-to-date grounding in the history and esoteric sources that informed the design of the earliest tarot decks. Decker balances the demands of historical scholarship with esoteric insights derived from Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and the Kabbalah to provide a foundational text in the various traditions underpinning the notion of an esoteric tarot.