Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThe best, most comprehensive book you can get
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2022
I am relatively new to tarot, having used the Zen tarot cards for myself for some years, but the Rider Waite deck not as often. As a professional dowser, I have many interests in intuitive techniques. I always wanted to learn to use tarot better, so I purchased this book. I am an information junkie and very analytical, although also very intuitive. This book is just what I needed. Some people might find it overwhelming, but just do one chapter at a time and take it slow. I've gotten through about 1/4 of the book at this point. I have not read straight through, but mostly. I have consulted the appendices and found the numerology summaries for Life Paths to be more useful to me than those in a book I have on Numerology. It's like you get these little surprise gifts as you go through the book.
This book includes lots of useful information for practitioners who intend to read for others. I think if you ever intend to read for others, you must learn ethics, how to present what you've 'seen' in the cards and develop your intuition as fully as possible, since intuition is a key to reading. This book will help you do all those things. She also includes suggestions about things that aren't tarot, but will help you, like different meditation techniques and why she recommends them.
I love the detailed explanations for the cards both upright and reversed. I'm not yet confident enough to read cards reversed, so for now, I'm sticking with all cards being upright. But she gives detailed meanings for reversed cards.
The only thing so far that I haven't been able to find, and maybe it's me just missing it, is how you get reversed cards in the deck in the first place. She tells you about dealing and preparing yourself for a reading and all kinds of other practices, even cutting cards, but I can't find how you introduce a certain number of cards in reversed position. In fact, I haven't really found anything useful on that topic online or in the other book I have. It would seem to me that it matters which cards are reversed. For example, a Three Aces spread relies on mainly the aces, and it matters whether they are upright or reversed, yet I can't find how she says to compose the deck to make sure all your aces aren't one way or the other. I imagine it doesn't matter that much, but it's a lingering question I have. That said, it's the only thing I have been able to think of that she doesn't answer in detail. And I may just be overlooking it. It's a minor thing.
This book is the one book I'd get if I only got one book on tarot. It will take me years to fully learn everything she teaches. If you are not an information junkie, or you are easily overwhelmed by deep, analytical explanations, maybe this isn't a good starting point for you. But it seems to me that in any skill or technique like this, if you want to master it, at some point you have to dive in deeply, think deeply and practice seriously. This book is not only loaded with the basic information you need to start using tarot for self-improvement; it has everything you need if you intend to master it completely.
I have plans to order her I Ching book which comes out in 2023, because I am sure it will be equally complete and useful. I give this book my highest recommendation, and I have written over 20 books with my husband on dowsing and intuitive techniques, so I have experience teaching and presenting information and have experience in evaluating books like this. I'd be really proud if this were my book. It's a major accomplishment.
