The TOMAR TAROT manual
Welcome to the place where tarot, magic and reason meet. The TOMAR tarot manual has been created for the thoughtful beginner. Someone, like you, who is keen to understand just what a tarot card reading can do, but as their curiosity grows, finds themselves thinking ‘What are the deeper ideas behind this?'
The TOMAR guide eases us into performing insightful tarot readings, and along the way we’ll be exploring the traditional systems of Western Esotericism that have shaped it as the tool of 'self-divination' it is today. From Ancient Egyptian Magic, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Archetypal Astrology, Renaissance Hermeticism, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Alchemy, right up to the influence of psychology, and Modern Magick in the 20th century.
Throughout this exploration, there'll be lots of stories and examples to help you remember the individual tarot card meanings - a common frustration for beginners.
The TOMAR manual is divided into five books, so there are five separate free PDFs to download. A link to each PDF book is featured below, along with its 'Chapter List' so that you can easily find what you are looking for. At the bottom of this page there are some tips for downloading the PDFs, and how best to view some of the diagrams featured throughout the manual.
The PDFs are large, up to 180 MB in some cases due to the illustrations, so please keep this in mind when downloading to your device.
BOOK ONE:
UP & RUNNING
v 1.2
47 pages/ 2 hrs read/ 150 MB
Good to knows/ List of Chapters and Illustrations.
1. Introduction.
2. Understanding a tarot card; Images as 'Archytypes' or 'ways-of-being'.
3. Performing a simple tarot reading; The 3 card 'Adjustment spread', including a sample reading.
4. It's all just chance isn't it? Synchronicity and sub-conscious communication in tarot.
5. The tarot deck structure; The secrets of the Major and Minor Arcana.
6. A brief history of the tarot deck
BOOK TWO:
THE MAJOR ARCANA
v 2.2
64 pages/ 2 - 3 hrs read/ 70 MB
The Myth of Osiris: the 'big idea' behind tarot, magic and reason.
7. Overview of the Major Arcana; An ‘evolution’ of 22 archetypes.
8. A 'card by card' run-through of the Major Arcana.
9. Interpreting the Major Arcana as ourselves; Two different takes on a 3 card 'Adjustment Spread' through sample readings.
10. Exploring the Art of Self-guidance; Accessing our sub-conscious through tarot symbols.
11. Exploring the Art of Divination; Astrology and Mysticism in tarot.
12. The Stellar Assent; Reshaping our destiny through tarot.
13. Neo-Platonism & Hermeticisum; The key to the conscious/ sub-conscious tarot.
14. Hermetic Qabalah in Tarot; 'The Hermetic Tree of Life' accessed through the Major Arcana cards.
15. The Magic and Ritual in Tarot; Late Neoplatonic ‘Theurgy’ & Renaissance ‘Astral Magic’.
16. The Self-alchemy of Tarot.
BOOK THREE:
THE MINOR ARCANA
v 3.2
68 pages/ 2 - 3 hrs read/ 180 MB
17. The Four Suits and Four Elements of the Minor Arcana.
18. The Theory of the Elemental Suits.
19. The 'Aspects' and 'Virtues' of the Suits.
20. Decoding the Pip cards; Method 1. Elementally and numerologically; Method 2. Astrologically. A very brief history of the Astrological Correspondances in tarot cards.
21. Decoding the Court cards; Method 1. Elemental combinations;
Method 2. Astrological correspondences, including instruction on Court card ‘reversals’.
22. ‘Modalities’ in the Court Cards (Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable).
Reconciling inconsistencies in the Court Cards astrological correspondences.
23. The Suit of Wands in depth.
24. The Suit of Cups in depth.
25. The Suit of Swords in depth.
26. The Suit of Pentacles in depth.
BOOK FOUR:
THE PRACTICAL
v 4.2
68 pages/ 2 - 3 hrs read/ 155MB
27. A tarot reading as a ritual.
28. Setting a question.
29. Preparing the deck; Shuffling and selecting the cards.
30. Three 'Key Spreads' to shape a tarot sitting.
31. Spread One: The ‘Orientation’, including a sample reading.
32. Spread Two: The ‘Pathway’, including a sample reading.
33. Spread Three: The ‘Options’, including a sample reading.
34. Interpreting 'reversed' cards in a reading.
35. Astrological correspondences in the Major Arcana and Pip cards, and their use in 'reversals'. A very brief history of 'reversed' tarot cards.
36. Finding the emphasis in an ‘Orientation spread’.
37. Popular questions for beginners; The differences between tarot decks; Choosing a deck; Caring for your deck.
38. Responsible tarot reading for other people; Practice; Building confidence.
BOOK FIVE:
THE 78 tarot CARD meanings
v 5.3
215 pages/ 5-6 hrs read/ 100 MB
- The 78 Tarot Card Meanings
- Quick reference 'Astrological Correspondences' in the tarot deck; Ingredients for creating an 'offering bowl'.
- Glossary & Definitions (Work in Progress) *
- Acknowledgements.
- Bibliography and references.
* The ‘Glossary & Definitions’ at the back of Book Five are a labour of love, so not fulfilled at this point. I’m shaping the definitions so they are relevant to the theme of the book, and it's taking me a while to do this. As this work progresses I’ll update it to a newer version, so keep an eye out to see if it changes from the one you’ve downloaded.
What's inside...
Tips on Downloading and viewing the PDFs
The simplest way to view each PDF is as a ‘Single Page' with 'Scrolling Enabled', and most electronic devices will come with a PDF viewer that does this. Google Drive only opens PDFs up to 100MB so you will need to use the PDF viewer that comes with your device.
Because the TOMAR manual was created in a ‘book layout', viewing the PDF as 'single pages' means the 2-page diagrams will be obscured, however, you can find these key diagrams in the 'Cheat Sheet' section on this website.
If you want to view the manual as 'the Book’ experience (something only viable with a larger monitor or screen), each PDF can be viewed with two facing pages, like a printed book. Some PDF viewers will let you select this format, if yours doesn't you can download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, but please make sure you find the free version and don’t get coaxed into paying for it.
When setting the PDF view:
1. Open the PDF in Acrobat Reader.
2. Select ‘View’ in the top bar.
3. Select ‘Page display’ in the drop-down box.
4. Make sure ‘Two Page Scrolling’, and ‘Show Cover Page in Two Page View’ are both ticked as options. It’s important that the ‘title page’ of the book is displayed on its own so the subsequent pages align with each other as shown below.
