Welcome to our recommended Top 10 Reading List for Diviners, this Summer of 2019.
This year we have taken the theme of “psychology and inner worlds” in its most general sense and selected 10 books which are not about tarot but are very much about what happens in tarot.
We are not all therapists nor counsellors, but often a decent background reading in the theraputic modalities can support and inform our tarot readings or open up our own self-development.
Our criteria is always to pick 10 books that:
a) you may never have thought to read,
b) have been useful in our own work over the decades,
c) may take you on an unexpected voyage of discovery and insight,
d) and may not neccesarily be about tarot or divination per se.
This year we have included a mix of practical titles, specialist titles, introductory and advanced titles. The older ones are well-worn in our library and the newer ones already well-read.
Hope to hear from you in our Facebook group if one or more of these titles intrigues you enough to read it – and all about your experience of the book.
- Rise and Shine is a fantastic new book by Frank Kwiatkowski. It provides a clear and accessible guide to midlife awakening which also relates to many transitory points in life. As readers we both face this in ourselves and our clients, so this book is a beautiful starter point – particularly for those who may have never before considered any sort of self-development work.
- Meeting the Shadow (ed. Zeig & Abrams) is an essential collection of essays on the concept of the Shadow. It should serve to highlight the deep nature of this notion and hopefully inform those wishing to conduct “shadow work” in anything other than a supervised, highly informed manner with full awareness of the consequences.
- Learning from the Patient by Patrick J. Casement is a classic text in therapuetic circles which is equally useful for all those working with others in any context. It provides helpful prompts for reflecting on sessions which may have proven challenging or even mundane.
- Conjoint Family Therapy is one of my personal favourites, as it showcases Virginia Satirs ground-breaking and incisive analysis of family dynamics. However, it goes beyond this to look at the nature of language and inter-personal relationships – and the touchstone of defining the “maturity” to which we as readers might wish to guide ourselves and clients.
- Jungian Dream Interpretation is another classic text, by James A. Hall. What I really like about it is that is clearly defines Jungian concepts in an accessible way, just in the first few pages of the book, more than any other title I’ve read.
- The Inner Guide Meditation by Edwin Steinbrecher is an essential method if you are looking to enter into tarot as a self-developmental toolkit. We also have a personalised workbook you can order so that you can interact with the tarot cards in unique patterns perfectly matched to your entire birth chart.
- Magical States of Consciousness by Denning & Phillips is a deep and rich introduction to pathworking on the Tree of Life using Tarot. An often underestimated classic of western esotericism.
- Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers might actually be quite well-known from just the title alone, but if you haven’t read it, this may be the summer reading for you. It is also a good book to reccomend to many clients, providing a supportive framework to taking big decisions in life.
- An Introduction to the Therapeutic Frame by Anne Gray is perhaps one of the more specialist books in this years list, but a highly relevant read for those starting to look at the overlaps between therapy and tarot reading in terms of the session itself.
- A Psychology with a Soul by Jean Hardy is on the list as our final book simply to introduce readers to Psychosynthesis, if they have not already come across it. There are parallels to Kabbalah, and even Thelema, within this modality, and so it makes an interesting read coming from a tarot readers perspective. It may also send you into discovering more about this particular modality.
We look forward to hearing about your summer reading and any new directions you might take as following one of these great books!
This years list composed by Marcus Katz.
