Last year, I wrote an article that listed my 15 best tarot books for beginning to advanced readers. I was pleasantly surprised to see this post get so much traffic. Apparently there are a bunch of people like me who love tarot books! This list of the 15 best advanced tarot books for experienced readers is for anyone who wants to up their tarot game and take things to the next level. From Thoth to Marseille to learning symbolism and strengthening your psychic abilities through tarot, these books for advanced tarot readers will have you reading deeper for more meaning in the cards and in your life. Let’s get started!
Advanced Tarot Secrets by Dusty White
Advanced Tarot Secrets, Dusty White’s follow up to The Easiest Way to Learn Tarot—Ever!!, which I recommend in my list of the best tarot books, is a great tarot book. Advanced Tarot Secrets will absolutely help you become a more advanced tarot reader. White helps you achieve this with activities and exercises that he calls “games,” and these are no child’s play. These assignments will pull a lot of personal meaning out of you so you can better connect with the cards. With topics like spread theory and creation, manifestation at tarot, and using tarot to read the past and future, you will leave this book a better tarot reader.
- How to read it… Add Advanced Tarot Secrets on Goodreads or purchase it on Amazon
Tarot Beyond the Basics by Anthony Louis
If you’re an intermediate or advanced reader, check out Anthony Louis in Tarot Beyond the Basics. Louis has expertise in numerology, numeric symbolism, correspondences between tarot and the elements, the personalities of court cards, advanced Celtic Cross reading, and even anatomy. By the time you’re done reading Tarot Beyond the Basics, you’ll have fresh insight into the cards, even if you go into it thinking you know all there is to know.
- How to read it… Add Tarot Beyond the Basics on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
The Essential Lenormand by Rana George
A couple of years ago, Lenormand was all the rage. A close cousin of tarot, the Lenormand deck is named for its creator, the famous French fortune teller Marie Anne Lenormand. While this list of advanced tarot books contains almost exclusively tarot books, I think it’s just as important to understand similar divinatory practices. Learning about other divination methods can only enhance your understanding of tarot. Get started with Rana George’s The Essential Lenormand, my go-to Lenormand book. This comprehensive guide to reading Lenormand is accessible for tarot readers who want to further their divinatory skills. If you’re just getting started in Lenormand, I definitely recommend the Gilded Reverie deck by Ciro Marchetti.
- How to read it… Add The Essential Lenormand on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth by Benebel Wen
I first discovered this book in my local Barnes and Noble and was so impressed. In Benebell Wen’s Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth, you’ll have a lifetime of tarot knowledge ahead of you. While this book does cover beginner topics, Wen’s strength is finding new knowledge to share about the cards. You’ll find ways to blend tarot with meditation and even building personal resilience through tarot reading. If you’re stalled out with tarot, check out Holistic Tarot and break free from your block.
- How to read it… Add Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon.
Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols
I bought Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols at one of my favorite used bookstores and have considered it an essential part of my tarot library. Nichols covers influential psychologist Carl Jung’s interest in tarot, archetypes, and symbolism. This book will get you seeing deeper meaning in the cards and in your life. Reading Jung and Tarot is like attending a master class on psychology and the tarot.
- How to read it… Add Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Divination by Richard Webster
Sooner or later, if you want to study tarot at the advanced level, you’re going to want to branch out and learn about other systems of divination. It definitely helps strengthen your tarot practice to understand about divinatory theory across the various methods. And boy are there a lot of divinatory methods! Pick up Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Divination by Richard Webster for a solid introduction into the divinatory arts, everything from tarot, runes, and astrology to tea reading and the I Ching. Webster is a leading New Age author with more than 70 books to his name, making him an excellent guide to divination for advanced tarot readers.
- How to read it… add Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Divination on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
The Marseille Tarot Revealed by Yoav Ben-Dov
Reading the infamous Tarot de Marseille deck from the 15th century is a bucket list for many tarot readers. Demystify the TdM with Yoav Ben-Dov’s The Marseille Tarot Revealed. In this advanced tarot book, you’ll find an expert breakdown of the cards in the TdM, which have proved foundational in many decks that followed, including the Rider-Waite deck. Ben-Dov looks at the granular details of the cards and their significance, such as color and body language, as well as overall themes. He teaches you how to read with the deck, and The Marseille Tarot Revealed also discusses the history of divination and the development of tarot cards, making it an excellent choice for readers who want to understand the historical basis for tarot. If you’re looking to buy a Marseille deck to get started, I recommend this one.
- How to read it… Add The Marseille Tarot Revealed on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Psychic Tarot: Using Your Natural Psychic Abilities to Read the Cards by Nancy Antenucci and Melanie A. Howard
Maybe you’re just studying tarot for Jungian psychology or to better understand Kabbalah or only for a purely academic interest. But at some point you’ve got to wonder: can I tell the future with these cards? Is there really a psychic connection to tarot and fortune telling? Well, my friend, if you’re wondering about these questions, delve deeper into tarot’s psychic connection with Psychic Tarot: Using Your Natural Psychic Abilities to Read the Cards. In this book, you’ll find an entryway into reading tarot cards for divinatory purposes. Nancy Antenucci and Melanie A. Howard’s exercises will help you strengthen your intuitive skills. The authors help the mystical and magical feel real with practical ways to identify synchronicity in your life, connecting with spirits on the other side.
- How to read it… Add Psychic Tarot on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
The Secret Language of Tarot by Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone
We all know that the tarot is packed with symbolism, but what’s often glossed over is the meaning behind the images in the cards. Every deck artist and creator takes extraordinary care with choosing the art on the cards, and there’s a reason why some of them look so similar. In The Secret Language of Tarot, authors Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone crack the code of symbolism wide open. This advanced tarot book trains students to recognize universal symbols from deck to deck to find universal wisdom. In The Secret Language of Tarot, you’ll learn the history and meaning behind frequent tarot images like mountains, moons, horses, feathers, gardens, and even blindfolds. The Secret Language of Tarot will definitely have improve your tarot reading and make you more open to the deeper significance of the cards.
- How to read it… Add The Secret Language of Tarot on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Tarot and Astrology: Enhance Your Readings with the Wisdom of the Zodiac by Corrinne Kenner
Tarot is connected deeply with astrology, but how? In Corrine Kenner’s Tarot and Astrology: Enhance Your Readings with the Wisdom of the Zodiac, you’ll find out. I appreciate that this book is a good place to start with astrology if you’re not as familiar with it. Kenner uses many examples and clear language to meld the two divinatory methods, making it accessible for tarot readers and astrology buffs alike. In Tarot and Astrology, you’ll learn beginner to advanced topics in tarot and astrology, like zodiac signs, the planets, and how to incorporate astrology in readings.
- How to read it… Add Tarot and Astrology: Enhance Your Readings with the Wisdom of the Zodiac on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Tarot & Magic by Donald Michael Kraig
Tarot means a lot of things to a lot of people, but undeniably it is associated with magic. But if you’ve been studying tarot for a while and feel like you’ve platueud, it’s hard to find the magic. In Donald Michael Kraig’s Tarot & Magic, you’ll discover how to use the cards with magic to deepen your connection to the cards. Kraig’s book covers topics like using tarot in spells and rituals, working with tarot as talismans, and blending tarot with astral projection.
- How to read it… Add Tarot & Magic on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Tarot Correspondences by T. Susan Chang
What exactly are tarot correspondences? If you want to be an advanced tarot reader, you’ll need to know. Pick up T. Susan Chang’s Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers to get started. In this advanced tarot book, Chang explains how the meaning in tarot can be further enriched when you look at other systems that inform the cards. Change connects Kabbalah, astrology, numerological, natural magic, and more to tarot, showing how to synthesize the ways these systems connect to pull the most out of a reading. This book will definitely up your tarot game.
- How to read it… Add Tarot Correspondences on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo DuQuette
Some tarot readers believe that the one true tarot deck is the Thoth tarot deck. These cards are rich in symbolism and follow the guidance of legendary occultist Aleister Crowley with sublime artwork by Lady Freida Harris. I admit that I myself have not dabbled much in the Thoth tarot, mostly because I’m afraid it’s over my head. But I know that the day I go to study the Thoth tarot, I’ll be in good hands with Lon Milo DuQuette’s Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. This comprehensive guide breaks down the Thoth tarot card by card and suit by suit, illuminating this cerebral deck and making it more accessible. A must-have book for advanced tarot readers.
- How to read it… Add Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
Untold Tarot: The Lost Art of Reading Ancient Tarots by Caitlín Matthews
Like The Marseille Tarot Revealed, Caitlín Matthews’s Untold Tarot deals with the historical origins of the oldest tarot decks, including the Tarot de Marseille, making it perfect if you want more history of tarot books. In Untold Tarot, Matthews transports readers to an earlier time when tarot was a parlor game, blending history with practical guidance. Matthews discusses various ways to actually read these early decks, which is especially helpful for the pip cards (the Minor Arcana), which simply held the card and suit, much like playing cards we use today. Without the reliable and familiar symbols of the Nine of Swords or the Five of Cups, how do you read these cards? Matthews shows you how. I also like that she includes some of the old spreads, like the tableau, which I’ve frankly found intimidating.
- How to read it… Add Untold Tarot on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Marianne Costa
Delve deeper into tarot with filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards. With Tarot de Marseille as a basis, Jodorwosky delivers a mind-blowing intellectual and spiritual tour of the tarot. If you feel like you’ve maxed out and stalled in your tarot studies, you’ll want to pick up The Way of Tarot to learn more about how different cards in the deck are “duets” that reinforce each other’s messages, which pairs add up to the magical 21 in the Major Arcana, and advanced numerological analysis of the tarot structure. The ultimate goal of The Way of Tarot is to achieve a spiritual awakening through tarot. Ready to take things higher? Pick up this book.
- How to read it… Add The Way of Tarot on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon
