In 2008, Rachel Pollack (Tarot author) was in Adelaide, South Australia, for some workshops. I was able to catch up with her for a quick interview about her first book on Tarot.

Don: Your book ‘Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom’ has been around for over 25 years. When you wrote that, did you have any idea that it would be so successful?

Rachel: I don’t think I was thinking about it in that way. I felt there was something worth saying though… I’d been writing fiction, and not getting very far with it, and then I thought because I’d been teaching Tarot, maybe I should write about that. I decided my audience was people who had a sensitivity for spiritual ideas, but who didn’t necessarily know anything about Tarot cards. So it treats readers as people who are smart enough and sensitive enough to spirituality to get it, but it doesn’t start by assuming they’re already involved.

Don: When ‘Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom’ was republished in the one volume recently, were there many changes you wanted to make to it?

Rachel: The biggest change was to the section on The Moon, because when I wrote it I was very much following the occult tradition of seeing the moon as insanity and dangerous. Since getting involved in Goddess worship and ritual and nature, I really came to see the Moon quite differently. I realised to some extent it was a patriarchal bias of the occult tradition that sees the moon as fearful. There’s this beautiful book about Kabbalah called ‘Dreams of Being Eaten Alive’, by David Rosenberg, and he has this wonderful line in it where he says, “The most important thing to remember about Kabbalah is that it’s always a mistake to clarify it.” I feel that about Tarot cards too. It’s always a mistake to start explaining it and to have it all as this big list in your head.

Rachel Pollack has been the main guru of Tarot for decades. Her guidance is always worth heeding! Big thanks to Rachel for taking the time to talk about her books.