The Book of Tokens
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I have been wanting to try my hand at writing poetry based on the Tarot. I thought that the process of doing this would help me gain deeper insight into the Tarot, and all it entails. I wanted to read others works on this, as I know that they are out there in cyber land.
I would like to ask if you know of any notable works, Besides AC and Mary Greer, that have poetry based on the tarot? I found lots and lots of tarot forums, with bits and pieces of semi interesting works..I asked my sister, as she is pretty well schooled and hip in the tarot world, and she laughed at me......said she doesn't get poetry so she doesn't ever read those threads, books, ect.
But she did lend me some of her prized BOTA material, specifically The Book of Tokens. I have read it a few times, and while it is not at all what I had in mind, or wanted I am enjoying it.
As I read the meditations, I would try to look at the card and engrain, entwine, and assimilate the words. It is hard to do when you are flipping pages, reading out loud and trying to " get it".
So I recorded the meditations, and now have them on file so that I can listen, and look/ feel the card / letter. I am having a few technical difficulties, which I should be overcoming today, but I thought that some of you may like to hear them, I don't have them all quite right yet, reading out loud is not as simple as it sounds, but I am pleased. I don't think that this is in any way a copyright infringement, but if it is, or if it is deemed disrespectful to PFC works, I will just keep them to myself
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Now that you mention it, it's odd that there is not more tarot-inspired poetry. You probably know that Crowley has some nice short poems and prose-poems in The Book of Thoth. Case's student Ann Davies wrote a book called Inspirational Thoughts on the Tarot that has some poems in the back, but they're not specifically tarot poetry (and they're not, in my opinion, very good). They are her hymns to her HGA. Ouspensky's Symbolism of the Tarot could be considered prose-poetry I suppose.
The Book of Tokens, for all its stodginess, is one of my favorite books for meditation. The best thing you can do with it IMO is just stand up and read it out loud, without particularly trying to "get" it.
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a serbian psychologist and writer on Thoth tarot, Maja Mandic Markovic included in her book "Keys to the Arcana" quotes from a TV-series Keys to the Arcana ( which I was never able to find online, and about which I had heard only from that book ...)
I have her book in serbian, and those quotes represent poetic and dramatic illustrations of the Major Arcanas; there is an english e-edition of the book (= the book was never actually printed in english, just published as an e-book), and I am not sure if it includes these quotes - but you can look it up on the net...if you don't find it there, I can translate the quotes from my copy of the book and post here (it's worth the effort!)
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@danica said
"a serbian psychologist and writer on Thoth tarot, Maja Mandic Markovic ... "Keys to the Arcana""
Very cool looking cover: www.knjizara.com/knjige/knjiga/12851_Klju%C4%8Devi+Arkana_ISBN:
The book doesn't seem to be available for love nor money
although it's described as a "bestselera". The author's other book, on astral projection, is available through Abebooks.com. -
@gmugmble said
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Very cool looking cover: www.knjizara.com/knjige/knjiga/12851_Klju%C4%8Devi+Arkana_ISBN:
The book doesn't seem to be available for love nor money although it's described as a "bestselera". The author's other book, on astral projection, is available through Abebooks.com."yeah, a nice cover it is!
I bought mine as a used copy, on a sale, run into it by pure luck (or should I say Chance!?)I see her site is unavailable..
here's the link to her FB profile, I'm sure she would share info on how to get the english version of the book on Tarot if someone is interested:
www.facebook.com/arkonamaja -
@Dar said
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Could you do a compilation of the eastern European set and include the books we occult students should really have? You're at the heart there."hmmm, I can at least try...
I've heard there's some person in Canada (and he is from Serbia) who is trying to do this, but on a larger scale - writing a book about all the occult & esoteric works from the Balkans (especially the ex-Yugoslavia countries).but there is a lot of {****} there to be found !
I'll scan the field, and compile a list of works I find worth mentioning. -
There's another big book about the tarot that I bought but never got around to reading and sold it already. Meditations on the Tarot by Anonymous (he calls himself "a friend" and I believe it was only published posthumously, as he intended)
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@danica said
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@gmugmble said
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Very cool looking cover: www.knjizara.com/knjige/knjiga/12851_Klju%C4%8Devi+Arkana_ISBN:
The book doesn't seem to be available for love nor money although it's described as a "bestselera". The author's other book, on astral projection, is available through Abebooks.com."yeah, a nice cover it is!
I bought mine as a used copy, on a sale, run into it by pure luck (or should I say Chance!?)I see her site is unavailable..
here's the link to her FB profile, I'm sure she would share info on how to get the english version of the book on Tarot if someone is interested:
www.facebook.com/arkonamaja"Thanks for this lead,
I am very interested!In thinking about my own work on constructing poetry and or prose, I am reminded of something that Mr Eshelman had shared with me in regard to my name and gematria.
"When you don't have references, and want to get the intrinsice essence of a number, write it in Hebrew; that is, 362 would be written as Shin Samekh Beth. Lay out the corresponding Tarot cards, The Aeon, Art, and The Magus, and meditate on them to see what the number is about."
It maybe very possible to write some incredibly powerful, beautiful works if one combines gematria and tarot.
!?!Smacks forehead!?!
Ah, duh I think someone already does that!
I think that this also may go hand in hand with the music and astrology as well.
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@danica said
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@Dar said
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Could you do a compilation of the eastern European set and include the books we occult students should really have? You're at the heart there."hmmm, I can at least try...
I've heard there's some person in Canada (and he is from Serbia) who is trying to do this, but on a larger scale - writing a book about all the occult & esoteric works from the Balkans (especially the ex-Yugoslavia countries).but there is a lot of {****} there to be found !
I'll scan the field, and compile a list of works I find worth mentioning."Not from Serbia but from Bosnia and this is just one chapter in the book written together with Henrik Bogdan. I am not informed what is hapopening with this and when this would be published.