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While I was conducting a workshop some weeks ago, - not on tarot but on LIVSPROFIL -
a way of retrospecting one's life by using the technique of mind maps - the only male attendant posed
the question: "Why is it that its mainly females, that attend workshops and courses dealing with
introspection?" One of the female students responded: "Women are not that afraid of looking within,
but the strange thing is, it is almost always males that conduct such workshops and lectures".
I do not quite agree with that last statement, since I feel that the modern way to look at the tarot is
mainly created by women. I do not speak of the rabid feminists who also, to a certain degree, have influenced
what has happened in this second revival of the tarot (the first being the tarot interest influenced by The
Golden Dawn around the turn of the century), but it is necessary to acknowledge, that many of the influential
and renewing modern authors and exponents of the 20th century tarot are women like Rachel Pollack, Gail
Fairfield, and Angeles Arrien. While most recent tarot literature written by men is still based on the
traditions, the female authors tend to see the tarot in innovative and different ways. One of these new
authors is Mary Greer, whose trilogy on tarot: "Tarot for Yourself", "Tarot Constellations" and "Tarot Mirrors
- Reflections of Personal Meaning" is an exponent for the late 20th century tarot when it is at its best.
Even if Mary Greer's latest book on tarot, "Tarot Mirrors" has been on the market for quite a while now,
I feel that I need to give it a few words. The main concept of the book is to clarify that the tarot is a
mirror or a tool, in which the serious and searching person can reflect upon herself in order to get insight
from her Self, instead of her using the tarot to have her anxieties and restrictions alleviated. To Mary Greer
this has to do with the personal intentions of the person seeking to clarify her life, using tarot cards or
other means. By being focused and positive, everything is possible. Mary illustrates this by telling the story
of how she, as a young woman, visited a fortune-teller, who told her that only through accepting the fortune-
teller's help could she be happy. Mary decided, that this was not the case; she wanted to be responsible
herself for whatever happened to her, and as we - the readers of her books - can imagine - she took over her
own responsibility. We can see now, what this intention of hers has led to, Mary's books being part of the
result. Mary Greer is not a fanatical tarot addict, starring at the cards day after day, and considering them
being the life proper. She is a person, who has been curious enough to explore the tarot - look at the mirror
- and has used it to gain insight; a method she, in this book and in her earlier books, has been willing to
share with her readers.
I like that Mary Greer uses feminine pronouns in her book. Actually she is writing mainly for women, so why
should she again and again need to write "him" or "his". I do not generally approve of the effort to introduce
artificial neutral pronouns like "hir", nor with even more artificial constructions like Elksingers "tai" or
"tais". I have myself in later books generally used the feminine pronouns, acknowledging that 95% of my readers
are females. I do not know if this abundance of females is a specific European phenomena or if it is different
in USA? Maybe some of our readers would want to comment on this?
An interesting distinction is the four methods of doing readings which Mary clarifies:
1) The analytical method, where every detail on every card in a spread is analyzed and discussed,
2) the psychic method, where a short glance at the complete pattern is the basis for a prediction or reading,
without the reader intellectually being able to say, how she came to the result.
3) the therapeutic method, where the reader functions as a helper or counselor to the client who is encouraged,
on the basis of the card spread, to discover and clarify her own situation and the possibilities given.
4) the magic method, which is based on helping the client towards an attitude of affirmation of her basic
worth and values.
Mary herself feels, that her own readings are mostly based on the analytical and the therapeutic method, or a
combination of these. She emphasizes the necessity to analyze one's own methods and try to develop one's
abilities in the methods felt being the weakest to one self. To help in doing such an analysis Mary Greer
gives a checklist. As an occasional reader myself I have to acknowledge that I am 80% therapeutic and 20%
analytic reader, the other methods being alien to me. Now I know that I really should use some time to develop
these abilities too, if I want to be an all round reader!
Mary Greer corresponds the four methods to the four suits of the tarot (or to the energies they represent):
the analytical method being equivalent to the Swords-energies, the psychic to the Cups, the therapeutic method
to the Wands, and the magical method to the Pentacles. The same structure she uses again in her analysis of
"The Four Dimensions of Meaning", where Mary also sees a fourfold layering, be it in the translation of the
single card or in the spread as such. These four layers or dimensions are 1) the literal, 2) the allegorical,
3) the moral and 4) the spiritual.
Another interesting chapter in "Tarot Mirrors" is called "The art of asking questions - The Dialogue reading
and other processes". Mary advocates here the concept of dialoguing with the cards, and she gives good advice
on this; she also points out the importance of formulating the questions. In the chapter on "The Break Through
Process" Mary discusses the reader's responsibility, and she points out the necessity to bring responsibility
to take care of her own life, back to the client. To help in doing so, Mary has developed "The Break Through
Process", which she considers herself being one of her most important contributions to the literature of tarot.
In this method, Mary describes how blocks and obstacles can be identified, and how it is possible to help the
client do something about it herself.
The second half of "Tarot Mirrors" deals with a number of spreads Mary has constructed, mainly based on the
tarot writings of PAPUS (1865-1916), one of the classic authors on tarot. In his book "The Tarot of the
Bohemians", Mary has found the foundation for the mirroring way of looking at the tarot. Papus ideas are too
complicated to describe here in a few words, but in Mary's book they are described and used in an
understandable way (in my own book "TAROT" from 1975, I also included some of Papus' theories, since I found
them interesting, but apparently the time was not ready for their revival; most tarot literature dealt with
correspondences to astrology or, in more advanced cases, to the kabbalah. It is Mary's merit, that she again
has brought Papus` concept up and rendered it in a way understandable for the modern student of tarot. Papus
own words, describing the second part of his book that contains simple divinatory card spreads "that ladies
will be able to practice the use of the divining tarot by methods, that are rendered easy" is by Mary's book
put to shame, because she shows that ladies are are able to understand and even clarify the first part of
Papus' book, which is indeed complicated reading.
A minor correction: On page 18 in her book Mary Greer illustrates a 15th Century playing card, which she calls
"the female joker". This card is from a deck popularly called "Hofämterspiel", because the figures rendered in
it are the royal or princely courts and the senior members of the royal household. The deck is not a tarot deck,
as Mary states, but a hand painted deck of 48 playing cards with four suits of each 12 cards. The card Mary
depicts as a joker is not a joker at all, jokers being a fairly recent American invention, and a characteristic
of them is, that they are not part of the suits of the card deck. In the Hofämter-deck each of the four suits
have as the lowest valued card - at the bottom of the court hierarchy - The Narr or "Court Jester". In two of
the suits this person is a female called "Nerryn" (feminum of Narr?) The four suits illustrate different
European courts of the time (the deck dates from ca. 1445) and instead of using the suitmarks that we are
familiar with, this deck uses the heraldic shields of the four reigning families in France, Hungary, Germany
and Bohemia (the card illustrated in Tarot Mirror is from the "French" suit, the suitmarks being the French
lilies.
This present volume adds to Mary Greer's two former books on tarot: "Tarot for Your Self" and "Tarot
Constellations". Like those, this book is very well produced and enjoyable to hold in one's hands. The cover
is based on the Moon-card, of course referring to the reflecting theme of the book. The pages are well laid
out, and editing and diagrams are clear and understandable, and the typography is readable. A special feature
is the general permission to reproduce Mary Greer's diagrams for study use as long as the source is mentioned;
she has even made this easier by including a "permission-line" on each of the diagrams.
The last chapter of "Tarot Mirrors" deals with the future aspects of tarot. Mary Greer is very optimistic
about the role the tarot deck will play in coming years. She foresees, that the tarot will be a tool for
every day use by ordinary people, not just esoterists. It will also be the tool used by therapists and in
business training programs. The tarot will be computerized. There is now already a simple tarot computer
program available, doing primitive readings and one day it might be possible to get advanced programs, where
the tarot figures can interact, too. Mary also looks forward to seeing a three-dimensional tarot deck, like
the Dungeon and Dragons figures. Well, several years ago a Dutch artist made a three- dimensional ceramic
tarot with figures, illustrating the major arcana. (How about a hologram-tarot? It should not be too far
away; the technique is available, and perhaps soon it will be possible to produce a deck for a reasonable
price. Or what about a tarot exhibition with holograms of tarot landscapes where you can walk around meeting
the tarot figures?)
As a conclusion of these remarks I will say that Mary Greer's book "Tarot Mirrors - Reflections of Personal
Meaning", like the other books in her trilogy on tarot, is enjoyable and intelligent tarot literature that
need to be included in every serious tarot student's library.
Mary K. Greer:
"Tarot Mirrors - Reflections of Personal Meaning"
Introduction by Rachel Pollack
Newcastle Publishing Co. California 1988
206 pg. large format, illustrated
Review first printed in Manteia-1: June 1989
© K. Frank Jensen 1989
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