Tabs! + A Hidden Resource, and . . .

. . . more about the Exploration Project surveys

First: If you didn’t have a chance to read The Next Newsletter (7.20) last week, I hope you’ll have a look now. There’s no need to rummage around in your Inbox—just click the link.

That issue includes an update on the future of Exploration Project, along with Tarot-related perspectives on the Voynich Manuscript—a mysterious picture book created around the same time as the earliest known Tarots.

Also: an invitation to participate in a new Tarot survey, along with a preview of the whole research project. There’s a quick recap below.

Tabs?

Up to now, when anyone (including subscribers) visited the Exploration Project home page on Substack, they saw only the six most recent posts. Those might be newsletters I’d sent out, or standalone stories. But Substack moves everything posted before the most recent six into a separate area.

You could access the earlier posts by clicking on a tiny “See all >” link below the sixth item. But even then you would just get to scroll through a very long list, with all the posts thumb-nailed in chronological order.

However! Substack has recently introduced a new feature that makes it possible for readers to browse content by category. So next time you go to the Exploration Project site, you’ll see these tabs:

“History” and “Basics” both seem obvious. “Mystery” is a home for essays on various aspects of Tarot theory and practice. “Lore” focuses on books, decks, events, et cetera. And one more tab is coming soon.

I hope this new feature will enhance the Exploration Project, and offer readers a chance to discover content they might have missed. Try it out!

More about the Exploration Project Surveys

I’ve created five (so far) surveys, delving into different aspects of how and why people became interested in Tarot, how they use Tarot now, and how Tarot fits into their overall worldview.

The first survey, “Tarot Connections,” is available now. To participate, all you have to do is click on this link.

There are eleven questions (naturally), including a place to share additional opinions and ideas. Here’s a sample of what the questions look like:

You can remain anonymous if you wish, and neither SurveyPlanet nor I will keep any information about your visit. Participants so far have spent five minutes or less on the survey, so it’s something you could do very quickly—and I’d really love to collect a wide variety of responses.

Thanks in advance!

A Hidden Resource

(Not really “hidden,” I suppose, just not obvious. But hidden fit better in the headline.)

The resource in question is the Internet Archive Books Collection. Some of you may be familiar with the Internet Archive as home of the “Way-Back Machine”—a digital library of web content, amassed by an army of industrious bots over more than two decades. Almost any web page that ever existed in that period is likely to be way-backed, and if you have the URL, you can see what was on it.

But most people don’t know that the Internet Archive is also a huge lending library, stocked with digital books uploaded by both institutions and individuals. And if you enter the search word “Tarot,” you’ll be rewarded with an array of possibilities.

Many of these digitized Tarot books are long out of print, and some are rare. So if you want to see early editions of classic works, or obscure foreign-language materials, you can have a good time. For example:

And if you want to have a look at some important books from the later 20th century—that’s a choice too. For example:

You can flip through these just like any ebook, using the Archive’s excellent online reader.

But the most enticing thing about accessing books from the Internet Archive is that they are fully indexed. You can search on any word in any book, and easily surf through the results. So if you want to see every passage that contains “Hanged Man” in the 848 pages of Israel Regardie’s book The Golden Dawn, you’re covered:

Most items in the public domain can be downloaded, but books still under copyright are only available to borrow—often on an hour-by-hour basis. It’s all completely free, though, and open 24/7, so if you find yourself curious about what a particular author said about something in a particular book, the answer may be just a few clicks away.

Although searching on “Tarot” will bring several hundred items (including Tarot-adjacent books, Tarot-themed novels, and other oddments), you can filter results by sub-category, year, author, and language.

Summing up: Whether you’re on a specific knowledge-quest, or just curious, there’s every chance of having a fun Tarot browse at the Internet Archive Books Collection.

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Look for the next EP newsletter on Tuesday, July 27. There will be actual news, along with some notes on Tarot in the wide world—and a link to Survey 2.

Warmest regards, Cynthia