A book for beginners

cal1304 said:

To those who recommended Tarot Plain and simple by Anthony Louis. I thank you, I got the book and funny enough was given the Robin Wood deck as a gift. the book has been a great help already. thank you

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I am also a beginner and I am trying to find some good tarot books to help me learn, too. You said Tarot Plain and Simple has been a great help to you, do you mean that it is very helpful in helping you learn what the cards mean ( in a way that is easy to remember and that the interpretations are written so that they are very easy to understand) or do you mean that the interpretations were accurate in your readings?

Thanks!

thanks for the suggestions here ~ i will have to look into getting one of these

I would recommend "Tarot Life Planner" by Lady Lorelai.
Does anyone else here have this book?
I think it is wonderful and would definitely recommend it to beginners, especially for journal work. It uses the beautiful Classic Tarot (Lo Scarabeo) rather than the RWS and as this deck has pips rather than illustrated minors, you could really use it with most decks without getting confused over the different imagery. For each Major it gives meanings and also an exercise to do which will connect you with the energy of the card (most are spreads) and also meanings for the minors. It also contains many insightful spreads with which to examine oneself and work out one's purpose and the path to one's goals and happiness (hence the title "Life Planner"). Although I don't rely on book meanings, when I have used Lady Lorelai's spreads, the book meanings have been uncannily accurate.

"Beginner's guide to Tarot" by Juliet Sharman-Burke is another I would recommend. It comes with the Sharman-Caselli deck which is similar to the RWS but prettier and with some Marseille influences. I'm sure there would be plenty of information about this deck on this site. The book is very easy to understand.

Another good one is "The Illustrated Guide to Tarot" by Jane Lyle. I found this to be a great introduction to Tarot.

If you want to work on gaining a deep and personal understanding of the cards, then invest your time and work through "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card" by Mary K Greer. (I'm doing this now, but finding it hard to find the time as I am studying and working too- I know it will be well worth the time and effort though!).

I agree that Choice-Centered Tarot is excellent; you can use it with any deck! It's especially helpful if you use a deck with pips.

I also like Paul Fenton Smith's tarot books (he has 3, entitled "The Tarot Revealed", "Mastering the Tarot" & "Tarot Masterclass"). He is Australian, so I don't know how easy these books are to get outside of Australia.

I like The complete idiot´s guide to Tarot and The complete idiot´s guide to Tarot Spreads.

They are funny, easy to read and they have good examples =)

metal_romantic said:

If you want to work on gaining a deep and personal understanding of the cards, then invest your time and work through "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card" by Mary K Greer. (I'm doing this now, but finding it hard to find the time as I am studying and working too- I know it will be well worth the time and effort though!).

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I wish this book had been published when I started working with the Tarot back in the early 90's. If you persevere it will definetly be worth your while. Not only in terms of Tarot, but in terms of what you will learn about yourself. We have study group here on AT which is excellent! We split the work into Apprentice and Adept levels, so we did the 21 steps at the Apprentice Level and are now Working on completing the steps at the Adept level. People can jump in and revive the old threads any time they like and get support from those of us who have already done the work. 21 Ways teachings you to trust your intuition, while at the same time gives you a solid tarot background. If I had to start over, I would start with this book.

Why? well I started with Tarot Plain and Simple and other such books, and I became very reliant on the books. I was looking for tarot cards to mean specific things, and feeling insecure in my own abilities to read the cards. Then again I learn better by applying knowledge gained and 21 Ways gave me that. It really opened my eyes, removed mental blocks, and lead to me being able to read with more decks and to enjoy most decks instead of critizing them for what I think might be missing in them. Well that is my two pearls on the subject *LOL*.

The DruidCraft is an excellent deck, with what I consider to be the best court cards in any deck I have worked with (including my most favorite decks *LOL*). Courts are challenging to learn and this deck will really help you get a grasp on them.

gregory said:

WANT to, yes. Thinking on.....

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You should watch the used sellers on Amazon or maybe eBay. But it's a very good, very popular book and the sellers know that so they usually keep the price up there. You may not get it much cheaper, but at least a little.

Grizabella said:

You should watch the used sellers on Amazon or maybe eBay. But it's a very good, very popular book and the sellers know that so they usually keep the price up there. You may not get it much cheaper, but at least a little.

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I know. Sob. I shall give way in the end. But not today !

Hmm...

My first book (that I'm still going through) is Tarot for Beginners by P. Scott Hollander. It's RWS-based and offers both upright and reversed meanings. =] It also has many beautiful pictures to look at from different decks.

I have the Robin Wood book at last (someone spotted it on e-bay UK. And I fell....) And it is all I had been told it was. Add it to the list Both for beginners and for added value for others.

One of the best and most through books is an old one used by many tarot schools. Called Easy Tarot Guide by Marcia Masino, this book will take you thru your deck that is based on RWS. Another great book for learning a deck is Tarot for Yourself by Mary Greer, this book works with any deck and is in workbook formate also.

With these two books you will be on the best start of your adventure with the tarot.