When you are looking for a good book that will help you to learn Tarot, Rachel Pollack’s Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom is the best and most fantastic book that you can ever find! Rachel Pollack is one of the world’s foremost Tarotists and she writes beautifully (naturally, since she is also an acclaimed writer!). I happened to stumble onto this book during my early days of learning Tarot, and have never regretted purchasing it.

Let’s have a quick look at what the book is all about.

Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: Overview

The book has often been referred to as the ‘Tarot Reader’s Bible’ and I tend to agree. Not only does this book cover the basics, but it also goes deeper into the cards, giving you a lot of knowledge and information about the different aspects of the cards such as Psychology, Mythology, and Symbolism.

Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: Contents

The book has been arranged in 3 sections: the Major Arcana, the Minor Arcana and Readings. Each of these sections comprehensively covers the topics.

Deck Used

The book uses the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of Tarot cards for the purpose of looking into the images. This is great, because the RWS deck is the basis of many a Tarot readers’ journeys with the cards.

Section One

Starting with a an introduction to the cards where it comprehensively provides a History of Tarot and a look at the concepts of Divination, the book then moves on to the Major Arcana.

With Rachel’s easy writing style, it is not very difficult to grasp the intricacies of the pictures and their historical and mythological aspects. With each of the Major Arcana cards, she looks into the psychological, mythological, astrological and numerological aspects of the image – helping us understand the card image on a very deeper level. We look at the journey of the Major Arcana as the Journey of the Fool through different stages of enlightenment and awareness.

Section Two

The story continues with the Minor Arcana cards. Again, this section also begins with an Introduction, and here she delves into the history of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Then we move towards understanding the Four Suits. Rachel also delves deep into the connection of the Tarot cards with Kabbala.

With both the Majors and the Minors, Rachel looks at the interpretation of the cards in an Upright as well as in the Reversed positions.

Section Three

The section on Readings also begins with an introduction, where Rachel talks about Divination and how readings work. She then walks us through a variety of spreads and sample readings. We also go through a ‘Tree of Life’ spread, which gives us an overview of the Kabbala Tree of Life concepts.

The book ends with chapters that talk about how we can use Tarot card readings and other applications of the cards in Mandalas and Meditation.

Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: My Thoughts

Personally, this books means the World to me! I cannot thank Rachel enough for the clarity that this book brought into my knowledge of Tarot cards and consequently into my Tarot readings.

When I learnt how to read Tarot cards, I had but a basic know-how of the card meanings. I intuitively knew that the meanings emanated from the images, but then I always kept feeling that there was so much more to these images than just that. Sure, many people look into the cards and want to know their future. But is that it?

I was very sure that the cards served a much higher purpose than that! So when I started to look around on the Internet for good books which would help me understand my cards better, I was so glad I managed to come across this book. And after reading it, I was more than pleased with my choice. I felt as if I had struck gold!

If you are looking to study Tarot and understand the cards on a deeper level, then simply get this book! And yes, there are several other books (which I will talk about) that will further your connection with your cards, this is simply the best book to start off with!

Your Turn

What was your first Tarot book? Did it help you understand the cards? What aspects of the cards did it cover? How about this book – have you read it? What are your thoughts about it? Would you recommend it to those wanting to learn Tarot?

Do let me know in the comments below.