General Book of the Tarot

What It's About

First published in 1930, this is a systematic guide to the tarot built around a single organising idea: that the seventy-eight cards form a symbolic map of the heavens. Thierens opens with a substantial theoretical section covering his esoteric philosophy, the structure of the major and minor arcana, and the correspondences between the suits, trumps, zodiac signs, planets, and elements. The heart of the book is a card-by-card commentary on both the greater and lesser arcana, giving each card an upright and reversed divinatory meaning alongside its astrological association. Thierens moves through the trumps and then the four suits — wands, cups, swords, and pentacles — showing how each image reflects cycles of fate, character, and destiny. The Rider-Waite-Smith illustrations are not part of the original text; they have been added to this edition to make the card references clearer.

About the Author

A. E. Thierens (1875–1941) was a Dutch astrologer and occultist, regarded in his time as one of the leading figures in European astrological thought. He was associated with Theosophical circles and approached both astrology and the tarot as branches of a unified esoteric tradition.