Book Description
Take a Magical Mystery Tour Join celebrated Tarot author, artist, and scholar Rachel Pollack on a magical walk through the mysteries, archetypes, and dream-like images of the Tarot. In the tradition of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Rachel draws upon symbols, myths, and folk tales both ancient and modern, to illuminate the spiritual truths behind the Tarot's symbols. The Forest of Souls unfolds like a dream, in a series of musings upon the confluence of the sacred and the mundane. How can a simple deck of 78 cards become keys unlocking life's greatest secrets? While the most common use of Tarot is for divination, Rachel shows how to use the cards for readings of an entirely different nature. Asking improbable, even impossible questions, she plays with the sacred possibilities and answers that the Tarot gives us. What nourishes my soul? What is soul? What is Tarot? What plan did God follow to create the universe? We now know that the Tarot was almost certainly not originally designed to include Kabbalistic and other occult correspondences. Yet such systems can greatly enhance our understanding of and relationship with the cards. Embracing paradox and non-linear thinking allows us to push the boundaries of the known and venture into the unknown. It is in that sacred space that we open ourselves to wonder and mystery.


About the Author
Rachel is considered one of the Worlds foremost authorities on the modern interpretation of the Tarot. She is also a poet, an award-winning novelist, and a Tarot card and comic book artist. She has published 12 books on the Tarot, including 78 Degrees of Wisdom (Thorsons, 1998), considered a modern classic and the Bible of Tarot reading. Its marriage of common sense, wide-ranging knowledge, and esoteric awareness have inspired many tens of thousands of readers worldwide to a deeper knowledge of the Tarot. She is a member of the American Tarot Association, the International Tarot Society, and the Tarot Guild of Australia. With fellow Tarot author Mary Greer, she has taught at the famed Omega Institute for the past twelve years. She has been conferred the title of Tarot Grand Master by the Tarot Certification Board, an independent body located in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a fiction writer, Pollack has been bestowed many honors and awards, among them the famed Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction (for Unquenchable Fire) and the World Fantasy Award (for Godmother Night). She is a recommended member of PEN International, and has written for numerous publications.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Get answers to the big questions of life

The readings in this book ask the big questions: "How do I open my heart?" "What nourishes my soul?" Even "What plan did God follow to create the universe?"

The Forest of Souls examines the cards and their dreamlike pictures from the standpoint of myth and story. It draws on ancient practices to use the cards as an opening to wonder and mystery. In this book, the Magician is not the ritual master of spells, but a poet and courageous guide. You will find Persephone in the High Priestess and the Star cards; Aphrodite in the Empress and the World. The focus is on the possible truths the cards reveal, rather than the easy answers of fortunetelling.

By a renowned Tarot scholar and authorBrings the cards to life through stories and poems, exercises and meditations, even rituals and invocationShows how the Tarot can break down our boundaries to bring us to revelations of awe and beauty

About the Author: Rachel Pollack is a poet, an award-winning novelist, a world authority on the modern interpretation of Tarot cards, and a Tarot card artist. Her novel Godmother Night won the 1997 World Fantasy Award. Her earlier novel, Unquenchable Fire, won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.