You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
samsegal3 's review for:
Tarot Magick
by Lindsay Squire
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
(I'm in between 4 and 4.5 stars ^^; )
Going into this book, I knew it was going to lean spiritual, but the number of five star reviews had me curious, so I decided to take a dive--and I absolutely do not regret it! Even as a secular reader, I really enjoyed this book. The author did a fantastic job describing the cards and giving information about tarot. I think it's a very beginner friendly book, but also a book to check out just to see another reader's interpretations.
The book opens introducing tarot and some frequently asked questions, along with further information on choosing a deck, bonding and caring for it, how to start, various spiritual connections (astrology, colors, timing, planets, etc), numerology (useful for secular readers too, imo!), yes and no questions, and reversals. So definitely a lot to start with!
The majors all had an original card artwork along with the card explanations. The minors only had card explanations with one graphical art element, not a full card. Each card has its name, ruling planet(s), zodiac sign(s), element(s), yes or no, key words upright and reversed, along with more details on the upright and reversed meanings, often containing symbolism meanings. I really liked the author's interpretations of the cards, and appreciate that each had a couple options for meanings to try and be a catch-all. It was also nice to see the stereotypical 'doom and gloom' cards to have positive bits about them too.
After the card explanations is a section discussing advice on setting up for readings, a list of 3 and 4 card spreads (really liked these!), the celtic cross (which interestingly had a different position meanings than I'm used to), spells and rituals, and recommended reading.
I had a few nit-picks, however. But I wish the minors had accompanying card art, like the majors. (Without them, unless you know the RWS imagery, you'd either need a deck to use with the book or search up the cards online. Not difficult to do, but a little annoying.) In the 'rituals' section, several minors had card art shown, so I'm not sure why they weren't included with the minors. I also thought it was random and strange for some pages/cards to have a white background and others black. It didn't seem to serve a purpose and was just a little jarring when the colors inverted while I read. And some of the colored background pages' text was hard to read, just not enough contrast between the text color and the background color. And for the 'yes or no' interpretations for the cards, well over half of them were a 'yes', which feels unbalanced to me. I don't really do yes/no personally, but mentioning for those who do.
For secular readers like myself, you won't be using /all/ the information in this book, but I do think this one is worth looking at. You can totally read this from a secular perspective and be just fine. The explanations are easy to wrap your head around and I think the author did a great job getting all the information across. Definitely a book I wish I had had starting out.
(I'm in between 4 and 4.5 stars ^^; )
Going into this book, I knew it was going to lean spiritual, but the number of five star reviews had me curious, so I decided to take a dive--and I absolutely do not regret it! Even as a secular reader, I really enjoyed this book. The author did a fantastic job describing the cards and giving information about tarot. I think it's a very beginner friendly book, but also a book to check out just to see another reader's interpretations.
The book opens introducing tarot and some frequently asked questions, along with further information on choosing a deck, bonding and caring for it, how to start, various spiritual connections (astrology, colors, timing, planets, etc), numerology (useful for secular readers too, imo!), yes and no questions, and reversals. So definitely a lot to start with!
The majors all had an original card artwork along with the card explanations. The minors only had card explanations with one graphical art element, not a full card. Each card has its name, ruling planet(s), zodiac sign(s), element(s), yes or no, key words upright and reversed, along with more details on the upright and reversed meanings, often containing symbolism meanings. I really liked the author's interpretations of the cards, and appreciate that each had a couple options for meanings to try and be a catch-all. It was also nice to see the stereotypical 'doom and gloom' cards to have positive bits about them too.
After the card explanations is a section discussing advice on setting up for readings, a list of 3 and 4 card spreads (really liked these!), the celtic cross (which interestingly had a different position meanings than I'm used to), spells and rituals, and recommended reading.
I had a few nit-picks, however. But I wish the minors had accompanying card art, like the majors. (Without them, unless you know the RWS imagery, you'd either need a deck to use with the book or search up the cards online. Not difficult to do, but a little annoying.) In the 'rituals' section, several minors had card art shown, so I'm not sure why they weren't included with the minors. I also thought it was random and strange for some pages/cards to have a white background and others black. It didn't seem to serve a purpose and was just a little jarring when the colors inverted while I read. And some of the colored background pages' text was hard to read, just not enough contrast between the text color and the background color. And for the 'yes or no' interpretations for the cards, well over half of them were a 'yes', which feels unbalanced to me. I don't really do yes/no personally, but mentioning for those who do.
For secular readers like myself, you won't be using /all/ the information in this book, but I do think this one is worth looking at. You can totally read this from a secular perspective and be just fine. The explanations are easy to wrap your head around and I think the author did a great job getting all the information across. Definitely a book I wish I had had starting out.