The Bible and The Tarot

A Personal Pilgrimage of Discovery

Gil W. Stafford

Paperback
978-1-958972-45-8
US $23.00 Indiepubs Bookshop Amazon Barnes & Noble
eBook available
September 2024

“Beautiful, generative, loving, and deep: this may be the wisest Tarot book ever written. Gil Stafford finds the folly of the Cross in the journey of the Fool, and reminds us that ‘Life is a pilgrimage on the path of wisdom’s way.’” —Lisa Freinkel Tishman, author of Mindful Tarot

This book is a portal for those interested in the Bible and curious about the Tarot, for both those who might read the Bible daily as well as those who know very little about it but are not averse to it.

The first two chapters provide background that place the two mystical texts in conversation with each other. The vast and complex mythos of the Bible with its complex characters, actors, symbols, stories, and parables, are the backstory of the magnificent creatures of the Tarot’s inner psychic world.

A book for spiritual explorers, reading the Bible and the Tarot hand-in-hand can expand the imagination. It explores how to read the Tarot and the Bible to provoke the unconscious, the dream world, and expand the imagination. By the final chapter, readers are able to connect the mysteries of the Bible with the psychological magic of the Tarot.

Gil Stafford, PhD, DMin, Episcopal priest and former Canon Theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, was president of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Life is pilgrimage and Stafford has walked many, including Ireland coast to coast. He is a spiritual director to many, and also often leads spiritual retreats on the Bible and Tarot. He and his wife, Catherine, live in the Arizona desert west of Phoenix.

“For anyone coming from or living in Christian tradition who wants to understand the Tarot, start here. Gil Stafford brings together a history of Tarot, and understanding of its use in Christian traditions, and how it has increasingly grown in significance in the toolbox of spiritual directors and companions walking with the spiritually minded and those in contemplative practice.” —Lil Copan, columnist and author of Little Hours: A Novel

“Beautiful, generative, loving, and deep: this may be the wisest Tarot book ever written. Gil Stafford finds the folly of the Cross in the journey of the Fool, and reminds us that ‘Life is a pilgrimage on the path of wisdom’s way.’” —Lisa Freinkel Tishman, author of Mindful Tarot

“Gil Stafford has become my preferred guide to the woo and the weird, both of which are inseparable from Christian faith. His The Bible and the Tarot is an essential companion in my own spiritual practice. I love the way he approaches both stories as a human quest to discover the Divine.” —Jessica Mesman, associate editor, Christian Century

“Stafford is not the first Christian theologian to write about the Tarot, but he may be the first to do so under his own name. Tarot cards are typically thought by Christians to be taboo, like Ouija boards. . . . The result is a book many Christians will probably read in secret. . . . The final chapter is worth the price of admission by itself: ‘The Practice of Reading the Bible and the Tarot.’” —Jon M. Sweeney, SpiritualityandPractice.com