After a few hours of gemuchlichkeit at a local Oktoberfest, we stopped by Barnes and Noble on the way home.
In the children's section -- not the teen section -- the children's section, next to kits on bead projects, children's cookbooks, and stuffed animals, was this little gem.
Pondering whether it would be confession-worthy if these things mistakenly ended up under one of the store's cushy lounge chairs or accidentally got dropped in the garbage or one of the kids spilled a vendi mocha on them.
Here's what the BN site has to say about this set:
Synopsis
“A primer for beginning enthusiasts. The text is accompanied by soft, flowing illustrations and detailed pictures of the most popular Tarot cards...This guide will be ideal for providing a solid base for exploration.”—School Library Journal. “One of the best parts of this is its crisp, bright artwork. The cards’ familiar look will make potential Tarot readers more comfortable...An attractive choice.”—Booklist.
Annotation
Full instructions on how to use tarot cards. Includes ideas for birthdays, parties, storytelling, keeping a journal and designing your own tarot cards.
School Library Journal
Gr 6 Up-A primer for beginning enthusiasts. The text is accompanied by soft, flowing illustrations and detailed pictures of the most popular Tarot cards, the Rider-Waite deck. Beginning with a brief history, the author moves into a step-by-step guide for using the cards. From there, readers are given a picture and description of what each one means in both upright and reserved form. The text finishes with sample spreads and tips for designing one's own deck. The book guides girls through the Major and Minor Arcana (the two sections of the deck) in simple language, and explains what the Tarot will and will not answer. While touting this device as a way to connect to intuition and bring clarity to a situation, the text retains a neutral, if somewhat New Age tone. Olmstead makes it clear that the Tarot should blend into one's daily life, "not be a controlling force." This guide will be ideal for providing a solid base for exploration, but practitioners of the art may be disappointed by the lack of in-depth information.-Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Being a parent these days really requires vigilance. The malls are full of suggestive ads/displays, you can't watch most of what's on television, and you can't even browse in the children's section of a bookstore without having to look over your kids' shoulders! And, it's interesting that school librarians are reviewing this and recommending it. Personally, I don't know enough about Tarot to have even mustered a review. Interesting how versed the librarian is on the topic.
9 comments:
Ew. Sicking. Absolutely sickening. Evil in a box to be given to children!
You may be interested to know, though, that in my blog feed this post was directly under one by a priest entitled, "God Alone is Good" and just under your post, "The Rosary: The Devil's Defeat."
:-)
Adoro:
It has pretty slick packaging too. Very attractive.
Interesting to be "sandwiched" between the two posts you mention!
The Tarot is so much more than a gateway into the occult - it is at the heart of it. So creepy. I wonder if this means such books are in school libraries as well?
Not surprising.
ToysRUs has has an "exclusive" pink Ouija Board, by Hasbro:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3107661
Terry:
By the grace of God, I've never messed with Tarot or had a reading. Seems the Tarot decks weren't as readily available as they are now!
Vin:
That one is definitely not going on my wish list!! Never messed with a Ouija board either.
Oh yuk. That is truly, truly nasty.
nasty and dangerous.
I wonder where the book teaching kids to pray and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is?
OK. It should be understood that contrary to the mainstream media and the new age publishers imply, tarot is NOT at the heart of the occult. Tarot card reading should really be called "pseudo-occult" because there's really nothing occult about the cards themselves. Tarot was really made for use as a card game similar to bridge and the original tarot images were derived from Catholicism. It was only about 300 years after they first appeared that they were used by occultists for card reading.
People still play games with tarot mostly in Europe and this one sided way of presenting tarot cards for occultism in our media stereotypes and distorts the culture of people.
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