A review by marginaliant
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot by Rachel Pollack

5.0

This isn’t a “pick up and leaf through mid-reading” kind of book, I’ll say that flat out. Instead Pollack prefers to study the occult symbolism and psychic significance of each card (to the point where, memorably, she went on at length about horse symbolism in The Chariot. Esteemed review-reader will note that there are no horses in the chariot card, only implied horses. This is the level we are operating on.) She draws from a ton of different resources, from Waite’s texts to Hermetic philosophy to Kabbalah to Jungian psychology and Hindu myth. Nothing is off the table here. While this wouldn’t be my first choice to introduce someone to reading tarot, since I’ve been trying to increase my understanding of the cards it’s been an incredibly useful tool.