‘Taschen to release Waite-Colman Smith tarot collection’

    

Taschen has done it again. This time the publisher of lavish books and other sumptuous treats is poised to release its take on the A.E. Waite/Pamela Colman Smith tarot deck. You know, the one we all get started with, although it is more than enough for a lifetime of contemplation. Coming soon, and open for pre-ordering now, is a box of book and deck. From the publicity:

Doors into Our Uncharted Depths

The Story of the World’s

Most Popular Tarot

A unique edition of bright texts, brilliant images, and historic reprints, this kit provides everything that both beginners and advanced Tarot users might need and want to read cards for themselves and to study and experience this cultural gem in all its beauty and significance. The valuable collector’s box includes a complete deck of the Waite Smith Tarot cards and Waite’s famous companion book The Key to the Tarot. In this illustrated book, with texts and images compiled by Johannes Fiebig, the Tarot cards become psychological mirrors and signposts leading toward new answers and personal solutions. The fact that this works well can be attributed to certain advantages inherent to the Waite-Smith cards, and these points are illuminated in an essay by Rachel Pollack.

All 78 cards are presented individually and in detail. The explanatory texts provide several dimensions and levels of interpretation, including concrete practical tips. Further, the book offers a new feature: the quick check. This presents a concise hint regarding the meaning of each card in each possible position of all the spread patterns featured in the book.

When Arthur E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith developed their Tarot deck in London in 1909, nobody could have predicted that it would have an overwhelming renaissance starting around 60 years later. What were the lives, works, and passions of these creators like? Pamela Colman Smith and Arthur E. Waite are brought vividly back to life in essays by Mary K. Greer and Robert A. Gilbert.

The authors

Johannes Fiebig is one of the most successful authors in the field of Tarot and a leading expert in the psychological interpretation of symbols. He published his first book in 1984. Since then, his books have sold more than 2 million copies, translated into more than a dozen languages. In 1989, he co-founded and co-owned Königsfurt publishing house, which later became the publishing houses Königsfurt-Urania and AGM-Urania, of which he was managing director until 2018. Since then, he has been an independent writer based in Kiel.

Mary K. Greer is one of the world’s leading Tarot scholars and experts, famous by her outstanding, both exciting and useful Tarot blog. She is an author, teacher, and professional tarot consultant known for her innovative teaching techniques. With an M.A. in English Literature, she taught Tarot in colleges for fifteen years. Since the 1980s and her book Tarot for Your Self (1984), Mary belongs to the pioneers of the tarot as self-experience and as a tool of personal transformation and empowerment. She is a co-author of Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story (2018). She lives in California.

Rachel Pollack is the author of 46 books, including two award-winning novels, a book of poetry, a translation, with scholar David Vine, of Oedipus Rex (2012), and a series of books about Tarot known around the world. Her first book, Seventy-Eight Degrees Of Wisdom, was published in 1980 and has been in print ever since. Her work has been translated into 15 languages, and she has taught and lectured on four continents. She also is a visible artist, creator of The Shining Tribe Tarot, and has collaborated with artist Robert M. Place to create the Raziel Tarot, and the Burning Serpent Oracle. She lived in Rhinebeck, New York for many years, where she died in 2023.

R. A. Gilbert is a retired antiquarian bookseller and a prolific author and editor in the field of Western Esotericism, specializing in the life and work of A. E. Waite and in the history and lives of members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. His books include A.E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts (1987); The Golden Dawn Scrapbook (1997); Gnosticism and Gnosis (2012). Gilbert read Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Bristol, and received his doctorate from the University of London for a thesis on the publication of esoteric literature in the Victorian era. He lives a Somerset Village, England.

Click here to explore the pre-order process. Treat yourself or someone else important to something extraordinary for the holidays.