Confused about nancy garen's book

Hello,
I recently received 'tarot made easy' as a birthday present from a friend. Ive been using various book for my study so far including '78 degrees of wisdom' mary k greer's 'tarot for yourself' and janine renee tarot book and found them all really useful and interesting, and although seem to have slightly different perspectives they are at least comparable and fairly consistant i think in their meanings. However i found this book of nancy garen's kinda negative and some of the meanings seem to be totally different from what ive been learning.
Has anyone else had anyexperience of this book and found the same thing or am i just being a bit stupid and not getting it ?

Any insight is appreciated

( sorry if anyone loves this book, im not meaning to knock it or flame it, just my personal experience from reading it )

LRF x

Hey redfox,

You are not alone! Actually Tarot Made Easy is kinda notorious both for the overall negativity and the mind-boggling minutiae. As someone once said in another thread: a book guaranteed to keep your readings book-dependent.

The drag is, that you've been reading three great titles and you hit a dud. If you're looking for a general workthrough I'd heartily recommend Terry Michelsen's new book Complete Tarot Reader or for more of a historical, theoretical guide, Robert Place's Tarot: History, Symbolism & Divination is full-on dazzling. I've linked to the Aeclectic reviews.

Scion

You are definitely not alone - I have this book as well and it doesn't work for me either.

LB

I really liked this book when I first got it - until I got to start reading it - there are so many possible meanings that it takes the spontonaety (sp) out of doing a reading. Its a massive book and its full of information, unfortunately most of it went right out of my head as soon as I put the book down.

It was too heavy for me to digest all at once so its a book I sometimes refer back to - her system and style of writing might work for some but for me it didn't.

I have talked - even argued with Nancy about her book. 'Tarot Made Easy' is anything but easy! It is one of the books I tell my new students NOT to buy! Later on, once you have some Tarot experience, it may prove a great reference book for you if you get 'stuck,' but to 'learn' tarot? NOT!

Thank your friend for the nice birthday gift, but don't look a gift book in its bibliography.

Ummmmm. *sheepish embarassment*


And I'd also wholeheartedly recommend a superb book by a certain John Mangiapane (aka Tarotbear) called It's All In The Cards unreservedly if your looking for a solid general intro that's beautifully presented and sublimely practical. Again I've linked to the Aeclectic review on the title.

Scion

I shall ditto all the above posts here. I think the best thing to use this book for is to enhance you base meanings once you have them down. Since it is catogerized)sorry I am on pain killers can not spell right now) it is usefull for things like romance and career twists on cards. It will help you expand your meaning but do it one area at a time like love only for all you cards ect.

Cat

cybercat said:

I shall ditto all the above posts here. I think the best thing to use this book for is to enhance you base meanings once you have them down. Since it is catogerized)sorry I am on pain killers can not spell right now) it is usefull for things like romance and career twists on cards. It will help you expand your meaning but do it one area at a time like love only for all you cards ect.

Cat

Click to expand...

I think Power Tarot is much better for that (the categories). Even 10 Minute Tarot isnt bad. I've enjoyed and use both, to look up meanings when I get stumped, which is almost all the time.

Thanks for your views, made me feel a bit less 'lost'.
Im sure as youve said that the book will be more useful once i have a good fundemental grasp of the cards meanings and feel more confident using my own interpretations and intuition (which im working hard on atm). Ive stored it away for now, as just looking at all the caregories and conflicting meanings makes me feel almost panicky (sad i know lol).

But, on a positive note I quite like the court cards bit at the front and the career info from that is helpful (which court cards correspond to which professions) and theres quite a nice mini cross spread (as the celtic cross is rather too advanced for me yet). Ive made a note of these in my 'fifi the chawawa' journal.

However ive put the books that Scion and sunfowr have recommended down on my amazon list to buy over the next few months, so im excited about that.

Thanks again,

LRF x