The Book
Each of us is traveling upon an ever-evolving path toward greater illumination. The Tarot can provide deep awareness on many levels. Performed effectively, a Tarot reading encourages individual strengths, while proposing options to overcoming unhelpful blocks. Revelation unfolds within the open heart.
The mystical deck has fascinated both nonprofessional and paranormal scholar alike since its early development in the 15th century. Today, a myriad of books on using the cards to read for others is readily available. However, few works focus exclusively on the process of self-reading. Heart Vision: Tarot’s Inner Path is your in-depth, hands-on guide for a balanced path of discovery through the art of the solitary reading.
Highlights include card-by-card message interpretations; a special focus on self-contemplation; the step-by-step process of self-reading unique to this work; and a variety of simple yet powerful spreads utilizing no more than six cards original to this book, many illuminated by actual self-readings.
World-leading Tarot authority Rachel Pollack provides an insightful foreword. Award-winning author and specialist in Ancient Egyptian spirituality, Normandi Ellis offers an illuminating afterword.
In addition to the wisdom of diverse spiritual traditions, the text includes exclusive comments by a variety of contemporary luminaries in the realms of the mystical and magical, such as Nimue Brown, Mélusine Draco, Gemma Gary, Mary K. Greer, Paul Huson, Chris (Mogg) Morgan, Shani Oates, Alan Richardson, and Julian Vayne.
Acclaimed artists Scot D. Ryersson, Gary Lund, and David Palladini all contribute to the book’s stunning illustrations.
Through Heart Vision you will find an innovative pathway to inner transformation.
The Publisher
Based in Oxford, England, Mandrake of Oxford has been referred to as an innovative "new edge" publisher and Chris (Mogg) Morgan, its founder, a "respected literary catalyst". Since 1986, this specialist independent house continues to release a variety of books in the realms of magick, occulture, tantra and Thelema. Visit mandrake.uk.net to learn more.
Michael Orlando
Michael Orlando has read, taught, and written about the Tarot. Through private consultation, his unique approach expresses decades of exploration and study. For several years, his column The Common Reader offered practical, ethical, and mystical advice for the professional Tarot reader worldwide. In addition, Michael Orlando has written extensively on alternative film, unconventional historical figures and the occult for many international publications. He is the recipient of degrees in psychology and film studies from New York University and is a graduate of Suluk Academy’s heart-centered spiritual training in Sufi mysticism. Michael Orlando remains a student and explorer of the hidden realms since childhood. With Scot D. Ryersson, he is co-author of the international best-selling biographies Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati and The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse; the play Infinite Variety: Portrait of a Muse; the fairy tale The Princess of Wax: A Cruel Tale [scroll down once at linked page]; as well as co-editor of Spectral Haunts and Phantom Lovers, a collection of British ghost stories. Experiential reports from a year-long psychedelic exploration appear in Psychedelic Press Journal XXIV and in Volume III of The Psychedelic Anthology. He is the creator of various audio-projects, including Heart Echoes on Sufi mysticism and Stars Fade Like Memory based on a contemporary interpretation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead by Normandi Ellis. Yaccarino lives in the Northeastern United States where he Co-Directs The Casati Archives. Visit marchesacasati.com to learn more.
(author photo © Rigaud / Paris)
Published by
Mandrake of Oxford
The Contributors
Rachel Pollack (1945-2023; Foreword) was the author of thirty six books of fiction and non-fiction, including: two award-winning novels; a poetry collection; a new translation of Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus ("Oedipus Rex"), with David Vine; and a series of books about Tarot that have become known around the world. Described many times as "the Bible of Tarot readers," her first Tarot book, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, has been in print continuously since 1980. Pollack has taught and lectured in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and China. She has designed and drawn The Shining Tribe Tarot, and worked with artist Robert Place to create The Burning Serpent Oracle and most recently The Raziel Tarot. Pollack's work has been translated into fourteen languages. Among her more recent books is the novel The Child Eater. Until her retirement, Pollack was a senior faculty member of Goddard College's MFA in Creative Writing program. She lived in New York's Hudson Valley. Visit rachelpollack.com to learn more.
Normandi Ellis (Afterword) is the award-winning author of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and memoir. Among her books are Awakening Osiris, a new version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead; Dreams of Isis, a spiritual autobiography; Invoking the Scribes of Ancient Egypt, a literary tour of Egyptian temples; Imagining the World into Existence, a primer of Egyptian magic and consciousness; and The Union of Isis and Thoth, an experiential exploration of building and inhabiting the temple within. For more than two decades, she has led sacred pilgrimages throughout Egypt. An ordained Spiritualist minister, clairvoyant medium and astrologer, she resides at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana. Visit normandiellis.com to learn more.
Scot D. Ryersson (cover design and interior illustrations) is a renowned illustrator and graphic artist who has lived and worked in London, Toronto, Sydney, and New York City. He is the recipient of two Art Directors of London Awards and is responsible for acclaimed advertising campaigns for many Academy Award®-winning films. Ryersson is also the author of numerous critiques and essays on film and literature. With Michael Orlando Yaccarino, he has co-authored the critically-acclaimed biographies Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati and The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse; the play Infinite Variety: Portrait of a Muse; the fairy tale The Princess of Wax: A Cruel Tale; as well co-edited Spectral Haunts and Phantom Lovers, a collection of British ghost stories. Ryersson lives in the Northeastern United States where he Co-Directs The Casati Archives. Visit marchesacasati.com and Arcanifacts to learn more.
(top-left image: Cups by Scot D. Ryersson
© by the artist)
Gary Lund (front-cover art) is an award-winning, widely-exhibited American painter, sculptor, and animation film designer. Born in Los Angeles, he studied painting and illustration there at the Chouinard Art Institute. During the late 1960s and 1970s, he was responsible for the production design of several highly-regarded animated films, including The Point (1971), songwriter Harry Nilsson’s celebrated, Emmy Award®-winning fable of non-conformity; and the Academy Award®-nominated short The Legend of John Henry (1974). In 1989, Lund earned the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence for his design and illustration of the book Life: Before, During and After. His distinctive work has been featured in such leading publications as Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times. Lund is also the creator of the Third Eye Oracle, printed privately by the artist. His artwork has been collected in the book Welcome to Earth: Drawings by Gary Lund and channeled writings in Open. He lives in Silver City, New Mexico.
(top-center image: front-cover art by Gary Lund /
design by Scot D. Ryersson © by the artists)
David Palladini (1946-2019; back-cover art and interior study) was born in Roteglia, Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1946 and raised in Highland Park, Illinois. He attended Pratt Institute of Art (Brooklyn, New York). Palladini was a book illustrator, artist, photographer, teacher, and author. He was the creator of the Aquarian Tarot, one of the most influential decks of the twentieth century, as well as the New Palladini Tarot. Palladini was the author of The Journal of an Artist, a memoir; and co-author of Painting the Soul: The Tarot Art of David Palladini. He lived in Newport Beach, California, where he passed away in 2019.