Tarot Book Review Christiana Gaudet Tarot Book Review Christiana Gaudet

The Tarot Book You Need to Read

Here is my review of Theresa Reed's new book. I love it, and so will you.

A Review of Tarot No Questions Asked
By Theresa Reed
Published by Weiser Books
Review by Christiana Gaudet

If you are going to read only one tarot book, this year (or at all) let it be the new book from Theresa Reed, Tarot No Questions Asked. Recently published by Weiser Books with a forward by Rachel Pollack, this book is a unique and valuable gem. I might go as far as to say that Reed has written the perfect book for modern tarot readers, whether beginner or adept.

The book is subtitled ‘Mastering the Art of Intuitive Reading’. Reed strikes the illusive balance between interpretive and intuitive reading styles. I’m convinced that the delicate balance that happens when we use both these tarot skills well and together creates the best readings for all of us. This book makes mastering that balance approachable and understandable.

At 283 pages, this book is an easy, comfortable read, filled with the right amount of information to be useful without being cumbersome.

Theresa Reed has a very specific communication style that uses a lot of slang and pop culture references. In Tarot No Questions Asked she shows us her natural voice in a way that doesn’t feel forced or cheesy, and that doesn’t distract from the depth of her subject matter.

The first half of the book includes a full description of each of the seventy-eight cards, making it appropriate for any tarot beginner. Each card description offers ideas for the different ways the card may speak in a reading. There is also a suggestion for a way to embody the energy of each card, as well as a ‘tarotcize’ designed to help the student find deeper understanding of the card. These extra nuggets of wise action steps will give the beginning student a fuller understanding of how to work with tarot and will make the book interesting and useful to more advanced readers.

The second half of the book focuses on intuitive reading in a way that is unusually grounded, practical and useful. Nowhere will you find the usual misleading adages suggesting that one’s intuition is always correct. Reed asks us to do the actual work it takes to discern, understand and deliver truth.

The book is peppered with short personal anecdotes from Reed’s lengthy career as a full-time tarot reader, and her lifetime as a natural intuitive. Its final chapter offers good advice for those tarotists who might consider reading professionally.

One of my concerns over time about the way we tarotists share our collective knowledge and experience is this. For the very most part, the tarot authors who tend to write the most popular books are not themselves fulltime tarot professionals. Many of the tarotists sharing wit and wisdom on YouTube don’t have a significant amount of real-world tarot reading experience.

The people who do the most tarot readings, and the people who encounter the most challenging situations in tarot reading, are those of us who are fulltime tarot readers. Sadly, a fulltime tarot reading schedule doesn’t give most of us the time required to share and document our knowledge and experience in well-written books.

Thank goodness Theresa Reed found the time and dedication to carefully craft this book which reflects the wisdom and knowledge she has acquired over her lengthy and successful fulltime career.

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A Review of Tarot for Troubled Times

Tarot for healing the self and the world!

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Tarot for Troubled Times
Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed
Published by Weiser Books, 2019
Review by Christiana Gaudet

 

Tarot for Troubled Times is not the first book to discuss tarot as a tool of healing and magic, nor is it the first book to offer uses for tarot in a turbulent world. Yet, Tarot for Troubled Times is fresh. This book uniquely explores previously uncharted territory with an originality that in and of itself is a major accomplishment.

The book is subtitled confront your shadow, heal your self, transform the world. That is the logical order in which the three parts of this book are presented. Long before I was a professional tarotist I was a political fundraiser and community organizer. Then, we used to say that “the personal is the political”. That phrase from so long ago rang in my mind as I read this book and considered how personal healing leads us to foster social change.

I was curious to see how the authors, Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed, would structure their co-authorship. These two luminaries make this book a seamless read, unlike many other co-authored books that feel jagged as they shift from voice to voice abruptly.

Part One of the book focuses on exercises and advice based on three Major Arcana cards, the Fool, the Tower, and Strength. I was surprised at how little discussion of tarot there is in this first section. Rather, the authors present a smorgasbord of creative and wise techniques for shadow work and self-healing, including meditation, journaling, Emotional Freedom Technique, and energy work.

Part Two of the book focuses exclusively on tarot. The Major Arcana is presented in terms of archetypes and numerology. The reader is invited to calculate their birth card as a tool of self-understanding. Each birth card offers an affirmation for personal empowerment and a directive for action. Next, there are instructions for finding one’s year card, and the Major Arcana is presented again, this time with affirmations and interpretations in that context.

After a discussion of the Four Elements, the authors provide keywords for all seventy-eight cards, and offer exercises, spreads and techniques using tarot as a tool of personal healing. Though a relatively short portion of the 270-page book, this section is jam-packed with provocative tarot wisdom, appropriate for every tarotist at any level of expertise.

Next is a chapter focused on creative, eclectic magic for self-healing, protection and positivity, including candle magic and jar magic. Oddly missing is much mention of tarot magic. I was grateful for the last paragraph of the chapter which warns against the harmful way in which our community often misinterprets the Law of Attraction.

Part Three of the book brings our attention to the world. Once again, the Major Arcana is presented, this time in reference to year cards for the planet, with appropriate affirmations and associations. The exercise is to combine your personal year card with the world year card to discover a personal way that you can take action to create change in the world. What an intriguing concept!

The rest of the book concerns itself with activism. There is a lot of well-thought-out material in this section, even for those whose views are not completely in line with the authors. This section does a better job than earlier sections of incorporating tarot wisdom with other exercises. Here there is advice on how to listen to those with whom you disagree, a discussion of what privilege is, what it means to be an ally, and tarot exercises to help you explore your allyship, and your activism. There are magical rituals for groups and individuals, and tarot magic to bring justice to the world.

There is even advice, and a tarot spread, about running for office. Back when I was a young community organizer, some of the elders approached me with the idea that I should run for a city council seat. I couldn’t imagine myself in such a role. Though flattered, I refused. Had I a time machine to go back and give my younger self this book, the outcome might have been different. I am excited for today’s young activists who will find empowerment and inspiration with this book!

In the early 1980s, in our dingy campaign offices, we often played with divination, tossing coins to read the I Ching, and working with the then-new Motherpeace Tarot. Tarot for Troubled Times honors and quantifies the ideas we had then, and brings to light a new, more sophisticated and compassionate energy for social change.

Other than my desire for a bit more tarot in a tarot book, there are only two things I didn’t love about Tarot for Troubled Times. They both have to do with my personal preferences for tone, and thus might not be at all disturbing to others.

One is the occasional use of profanity. The other, in Part One, the section on personal healing, are hyperbolic generalizations about the readers of the book. The most egregious example of this is the simple statement, “You are [expletive] brilliant!” I believe that when we use unfounded generalized superlatives, we undermine rather than empower. As my four-year-old son once pointed out after watching an episode of Barney and Friends, “If everyone is special, then no one is special at all”. The use of hyperbole and profanity felt a bit lazy and condescending, and out of step with the rest of this thoughtfully written book.

Tarot for Troubled Times gets five stars and three cheers from me, because it is a unique, well-written, powerful and beautifully formatted book. It is book that can bring activism to tarotists, tarot to activists, and a new vision of tarot and personal healing to us all.

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