A warning about this book and about the other one on this subject "Gypsy magic" by Patrinella Cooper.
They are nice books as a whole BUT they really contain a lot of new age stuff inside.
Some part seem genuine but other really just don't ring true.
About Gypsy wisdom for example: the author says she's been trained by her grandmother in the Spain of the 70's. Her grandmother tells her that there are hundreds of decks out there (in the Spain of the 70's???) and teaches her the celtic cross spread (a very anglosaxon spread, a tirage en croix would have been much more believable!) and a lot of common places about latin countries.
Some things her grandmother says look like new age or wiccan thought: interconnectedness of all beings, sexual freedom ( Gypsy society was not sexually free!).
So I think there is a base of truth and the book is nice as a whole but I don't believe everything in it come from the gypsy wisdom of the grandmother's author.
The content is the following:
- intro
- card reading: 52 cards deck and Tarot> again: I think a Sanish gypsy would have used the 48 spanish deck and not the 52 cards one...and above all the meanings for the 52 pips are those..of the Rider Waite Tarot! Then speaking about the Tarot the meanings for the 22 major arcana are added. These are weak points but as a whole I like the practical and fortune telling oriented approach of the subject: I think that for many anglosaxon this could be a refreshing one.
- pendulum (a couple of pages)
- crystal ball (a couple of pages)
- some spells : these are nice, they look different from wiccan spells and ring as truly traditional ones.
- a few herbal remedies and one gypsy recipe (beef tripe)
Hope this has been of use..