3ill.yazi
Okay, so I'm about 90 pages in, and I have to report THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!
As I suspected, it suffers a little bit in the execution. A little bit jokey and self-promoting sometimes for my taste, and the text is a little hard on the eyes, but I suspect that's to keep it from being thicker that a boxed set of George R.R. Martin, and as a sometime designer, I think they chose a hideous font for chapter titles. Sorry, I'm a snob about things like that: I won't buy tarot meanings books with flush-centered italicized text because they look like Hallmark cards.
But the content! So the book presents a series of games/exercises to help you "get to know" the cards intuitively. I know some of these from the podcast, and I can already see them helping. That is about 70 pages.
Then he spends about another 30 or so presenting some fairly simple and familiar spreads. Then the bulk of the book, some 150 pages or so I'm guessing, he goes into each card in detail in a workbook manner. While his method is to downplay keywords and memorization, he presents a good overview of traditional meanings, as well as exercises to unpack what each card means to you.
Then there are appendices, a junk drawer full of great tidbits and advice. Some odd stuff, like contact information for the Golden Dawn and other secret societies. I can't decide if he's being tongue in cheek about that.
His orientation is very much for getting you to where you are doing readings for clients, though he writes about tarot helping your life all over.
That said, I find the tone in this book much more diplomatic than the podcast. He's very gentle about some things that he can rip into in the podcast, such as certain decks.
But all in all, there is material in here that could keep you busy for a very long time, and my gut tells me that it could radically help a beginner. I think the book would not appeal to people who have made up their minds about the authority of certain card meanings. His approach is very much if it works for you, then it's right. IMO a good mix of tradition and intuition.
Highly recommended.
As I suspected, it suffers a little bit in the execution. A little bit jokey and self-promoting sometimes for my taste, and the text is a little hard on the eyes, but I suspect that's to keep it from being thicker that a boxed set of George R.R. Martin, and as a sometime designer, I think they chose a hideous font for chapter titles. Sorry, I'm a snob about things like that: I won't buy tarot meanings books with flush-centered italicized text because they look like Hallmark cards.
But the content! So the book presents a series of games/exercises to help you "get to know" the cards intuitively. I know some of these from the podcast, and I can already see them helping. That is about 70 pages.
Then he spends about another 30 or so presenting some fairly simple and familiar spreads. Then the bulk of the book, some 150 pages or so I'm guessing, he goes into each card in detail in a workbook manner. While his method is to downplay keywords and memorization, he presents a good overview of traditional meanings, as well as exercises to unpack what each card means to you.
Then there are appendices, a junk drawer full of great tidbits and advice. Some odd stuff, like contact information for the Golden Dawn and other secret societies. I can't decide if he's being tongue in cheek about that.
His orientation is very much for getting you to where you are doing readings for clients, though he writes about tarot helping your life all over.
That said, I find the tone in this book much more diplomatic than the podcast. He's very gentle about some things that he can rip into in the podcast, such as certain decks.
But all in all, there is material in here that could keep you busy for a very long time, and my gut tells me that it could radically help a beginner. I think the book would not appeal to people who have made up their minds about the authority of certain card meanings. His approach is very much if it works for you, then it's right. IMO a good mix of tradition and intuition.
Highly recommended.
