Tarot for Life: Reading the Cards for Everyday Guidance and Growth

Thank you all for reviews, links etc.
I have only had time to read Pollacks foreword, and Quinns own introduction so far.
Until now it really seems promising, and I must say, that Quinns description of what the Tarot is and how it works, and how it can help us to discover ourselves etc. is in harmony with how I see the Tarot. I know it sounds a bit silly, but I never really had this experience with an introduction before, like the author totally is in tune and has understood what I need to read and learn about *G*

Well, with The Tarot: History, Symbolism & Divination , Tarot for Yourself and 78 Degrees of Wisdom, this could really go right into the top of my tarotbook hitlist.

So I'll just continue reading now. I hope my expectations are met. I think they are.

ETA: btw when I shuffled the majors to draw a card, the Sun jumped out. So I picked that.

I hope nobody minds me digging up this thread from some months ago - but I wanted to chime in and say that I also bought this book as my intro to Tarot and am finding it brilliantly written - it seems to put across multiple meanings without tying itself up in wordiness - a neat feat.

Like cormac_zoso I have also just done the "draw one card" exercise to see why it is I have been drawn to this book, and in light of the introduction I made ( http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=130205 ) I probably should not have been surprised to draw The Lovers

On my wish list! Thanks for resurrecting the thread and for all who gave their opinions about it.

This book is one of my favs. I think it will be a Tarot Classic and a must have for new readers.

Alpha-Omega said:

This book is one of my favs. I think it will be a Tarot Classic and a must have for new readers.

Click to expand...

I agree!

Does everyone still rate this book? I am thinking about ordering it.

I read it and I loved it from the beginning to the end and I could read it all over again (and I probably will some time in the future) In short it is a must have.

I just finished it a couple weeks ago. I definitely recommend it, the way Quinn explained each card plus the handy little chart at the end of each card's "section" is very helpful. He cleared up a lot of meanings I struggled with. The real world stories help you apply context and meaning to the way a cards in every day life.

I got this book because I wanted to use my tarot cards for self help and growth, it's helped. It's useful for self improvement and just learning in general. As a beginner, I found it extremely useful.

I just recently got the Kindle version of this book. I'm finding that this book is the culmination of my decades-long search to find the best book for reading with the RWS. The card meanings are perfect -- they all make sense to me, and they all work well when applied to present-day people doing present-day things. There's a nice balance of psychological and spiritual insight. There's also a clear and consistent logic to how he sees each card's shadow and reversed meanings.

I have a lot of fondness for the reading-details-of-the-imagery-intuitively approach, and have in fact been reading Marseille decks that way for years. But lately, for RWS-type decks, I've been favoring the each-card-has-a-set-meaning approach, and that's the approach taken in this book. Each card has a core concept, which can manifest in different ways depending on the context, but that core concept will be the same for that card no matter what reading it appears in.

Paul gives modern psychological/spiritual interpretations for many (but not all or even most) of the small visual details of the RWS. Most of them are probably not what Waite or Smith had in mind when they created the deck, but they all make sense and are presented in a direct and easy-to-understand manner.

Unlike most tarot authors (myself included), Paul is actually a good writer and his book is a pleasure to read. The numerous real-life-reading examples and quotations are a great resource. I've made myself a booklet from the summarized meanings at the end of each card chapter to use when doing readings, as a way to help learn the meanings.

In the book, Paul questions the ultimate usefulness of predictive readings and prefers to do readings that empower the client. I actually agree with both these viewpoints, but my one slight niggle is that it seems to me that the situation is more ambiguous than he describes it. For example, he gives several examples of readings where the question is something like, "What is the greatest good that will come from doing X," and the resulting card is negative, so the end result is that that option doesn't look too good. To me, that's a predictive reading, regardless of how the question is phrased. To me, actually, any reading with a card position that in any way references the future is to some extent predictive. But I do agree with Paul that a reading which helps the client be proactive is much better than a reading where the client passively sits and waits for the oracle to tell them what's going to happen. I just wish he had approached the topic with a more nuanced and less black-and-white discussion.

I avoided this book for a long time because it seemed to offer nothing particularly new, but I was wrong! The general approach is in line with mainstream tarot interpretation for the last few decades, but Paul has constructed a set of meanings that stands above others for its clarity and logic and usefulness, and his presentation is terrific. I honestly think that anyone, whether newbie or old hand, would get a lot from this book and I highly recommend it.