Rachel Pollack is a prolific author. Her science fiction novel ‘Unquenchable Fire’ won the 1989 Arthur C. Clarke award, and her book ‘Godmother Night’ won the 1997 World Fantasy Award. But it’s her knowledge of Tarot card meanings that has made her such a star of the New Age realms. She has now written over a dozen books just on Tarot, and has created her own set of cards called ‘The Shining Tribe Tarot’, which was inspired by prehistoric art.

Her book ‘Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom’ was published in 1980 and is such an important reference book that it has been in print ever since. It was originally published in two volumes—one dealing with the Major Arcana and the other with (of course) the Minor Arcana. In 1997 both books were combined and released as a Revised Edition with a New Preface. In this preface, Rachel describes her introduction to the cards, and the journey that has evolved over her thirty years of teaching and writing about its imagery and symbols.

To say this is an in-depth analysis of Tarot card meanings is an understatement, but don’t get me wrong, it’s not too academic for readers who just want to learn a bit more about the cards. Rather than being just a book of interpretations and spreads, it delves into psychological resonances, and the card’s historical, mythological, and esoteric background.

Rachel says, “the term divination means a way to have a two-way conversation with the divine.” And this conversation has resulted in a book that is regarded as the classic guide to Tarot that any serious student of the cards should read at least once.