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Your Tarot Your Way: Learn to Read with Any Deck
Tarot Guidance With A Personal Touch Discover what it's like to receive tarot lessons with a warm and encouraging teacher at your side. Join Barbara Moore as she shows you how to build tarot skills from the ground up and form your own intimate connections with the cards. Your Tarot, Your Way invites you to honor your unique life experiences as you respond to symbols and cultivate a spirit of play. With practical, real-life examples, this book helps you explore tarot as a practice for nourishing your soul and discovering new perspectives.
216 pages, Paperback
Published September 8, 2016
51 people are currently reading
688 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Moore
188 books141 followersThe tarot has been a part of my personal and professional life for nearly twenty years. I first discovered the Tarot in college. Right from the start, the tarot intrigued me with its marvelous blending of mythology, psychology, art, history mystery, and magic.
My education in the tarot has been and continues to be broad and enlightening. I am grateful to have been blessed with the opportunity to study under renowned tarot scholars Mary K. Greer and Rachel Pollack. I have also had the privilege to share the wonders of the tarot with all manner of wide-eyed, would-be tarot readers.
I enjoy giving a voice to tarot cards by writing the books that accompany decks. I have had the good fortune to write books and booklets for several decks, including A Guide to Mystic Faerie Tarot (Llewellyn, July 2007), The Gilded Tarot Companion (Llewellyn, September 2004), The Enchanted Oracle (Llewellyn, September 2008), The Mystic Dreamer Tarot (Llewellyn, September 2008), and Shadowscapes Tarot (Llewellyn, May 2010). Recently, I finished writing a new edition of Tarot for Beginners (Llewellyn, November 2010).
My articles on the tarot have appeared in several tarot publications and in Llewellyn's New Worlds of Mind and Spirit.
Over the years, I have been very active in the tarot community. I am a founding member of the Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium and have spoken at tarot conferences around the United States. In July of 2010, I had the pleasure of attending the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI) Annual Conference as keynote speaker.
In addition to teaching tarot classes and providing personal readings, I currently work as a consultant for tarot publishers Llewellyn Worldwide and Lo Scarabeo. I also contribute bi-weekly posts to Llewellyn's Tarot Pathways blog. I am very excited to be working on designing several forthcoming tarot decks as well as another book for tarot newbies on spread design.
My education in the tarot has been and continues to be broad and enlightening. I am grateful to have been blessed with the opportunity to study under renowned tarot scholars Mary K. Greer and Rachel Pollack. I have also had the privilege to share the wonders of the tarot with all manner of wide-eyed, would-be tarot readers.
I enjoy giving a voice to tarot cards by writing the books that accompany decks. I have had the good fortune to write books and booklets for several decks, including A Guide to Mystic Faerie Tarot (Llewellyn, July 2007), The Gilded Tarot Companion (Llewellyn, September 2004), The Enchanted Oracle (Llewellyn, September 2008), The Mystic Dreamer Tarot (Llewellyn, September 2008), and Shadowscapes Tarot (Llewellyn, May 2010). Recently, I finished writing a new edition of Tarot for Beginners (Llewellyn, November 2010).
My articles on the tarot have appeared in several tarot publications and in Llewellyn's New Worlds of Mind and Spirit.
Over the years, I have been very active in the tarot community. I am a founding member of the Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium and have spoken at tarot conferences around the United States. In July of 2010, I had the pleasure of attending the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI) Annual Conference as keynote speaker.
In addition to teaching tarot classes and providing personal readings, I currently work as a consultant for tarot publishers Llewellyn Worldwide and Lo Scarabeo. I also contribute bi-weekly posts to Llewellyn's Tarot Pathways blog. I am very excited to be working on designing several forthcoming tarot decks as well as another book for tarot newbies on spread design.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 9, 2018
I wish someone had been writing beginner books like this when I first started learning tarot. Barbara Moore uses a very warm conversational tone. She doesn't make a show of mysticism and tries to be as straight forward as possible ... or as straight forward as is possible for a quasi-supernatural phenomenon. She touches upon tarot reading ethics at the very beginning, which lets the reader know that tarot is more than a just game and something that shouldn't be taken lightly, but at the same time she also expresses a great sense of fun and excitement about reading tarot.
A note on the subtitle "Learn to Read with Any Deck": while you can use this book with any deck, it's best to start with a Rider-Waite-Smith deck or one based on the RWS deck. For all its current criticism, this is still the deck upon which the modern tarot tradition is based. The symbolism on RWS-based decks reflect the standard meaning of the cards, making it easier to learn the cards. So, it's best to wait until the intermediate level to begin using a deck that completely departs from basic RWS imagery.
Like all intro to tarot books, the author gives her take on basic meanings for each card, but she mixes things up and begins with the Minor Arcana first, followed by the Major Arcana. Her description of the Major Arcana meanings as a narrative of the Fool's journey was interesting. But I'm not sure if I found it helpful or not. I did appreciate her defense of the Hierophant card. The negative side of organized religion tend to bias readers against this card. Her discussion of the Minor Arcana was more traditional, and I had not previously encountered some of her perspectives on various cards. For the minors, she created helpful tables to show the commonalities of numbers and suits. Rather than lists of keywords, Barbara Moore tries to give a sense of each card.
She also offers guidance specific to the court cards. First, readers should think of court cards as representing actual people. Second, the gender of the person depicted on the court card is symbolic and not literal. Kings can represent women as well as men, queens can represent men as well as women, et cetera ... Each card is presented as a mini-character study to help identify the person depicted in the spread.
The author encourages readers to trust themselves and find out what a particular card means to them. This is a more contemporary approach to tarot in which each practitioner determines what the individual cards mean based on study, experience, and intuition. Modern practice is that of participating in a living, still evolving tradition rather than being a passive vehicle for esoteric knowledge. The 1970s tarot books from which I first learned were more about being an acolyte to arcane knowledge than proficient in one's own right, and the authors took themselves very seriously. Some guidance from someone as friendly and chatty as Barbara Moore would have been welcome. Austere ex-hippies, Jungian disciples, and heirs to early 20th century spiritualists can be as intimidating as they are unintelligible.
Barbara Moore is also one of the few instructors who actually discusses how to shuffle. Yes, people need to be told how to shuffle. The vague instruction to "shuffle" is baffling to a lot of readers. Not everyone grew up playing card games especially people born after the rise of digital technology who didn't spend hours playing Uno, go fish, crazy eights, and old maid during their childhoods.
Another fun note on modern tarot, using significators (a card -- usually a court card -- pulled from the deck prior to the reading to represent the querent) is considered an antiquated practice. Since every card reader creates his/her own ritual, the author does give a basic explanation of significators in case a reader does want to adopt this practice. I always disliked significators, finding them somewhat arbitrary and unnecessarily taking one card out of play, so I am more than happy to have permission to dump them.
The author is also in the camp that doesn't use reversals -- viewing a card's meaning as negative if it's upside down. She uses to the context to decide whether a card's aspect is positive or negative. But being easygoing and supportive of individuality, she gives a very good reason on reversals and tells readers to decide for themselves how they feel about them.
One of the best things the author does it to advise the reader to always interpret the cards in conjunction rather than view each card in isolation, which is easier said than done when the meaning of each card is given a series of wide ranging and sometimes contradictory keywords. Looking at the cards in a spread as a single entity rather than individual units makes them easier to interpret because it provides a context for the myriad of possible meanings. Chapter 4 "How to do a Reading" describes how to scan the cards before diving in to reading the spread.
This book includes a lot of exercises or, as the author puts it, "playtime" to help readers familiarize themselves with the cards and get comfortable doing readings. Barbara Moore starts with a three card spread, progresses to a five card spread, and then goes on to the Celtic cross spread, which is still the most common spread. In chapter 8, she gives a five card yes/no spread, which I found fascinating as all previous advice had been to avoid yes/no questions, and a modified horseshoe spread. One of the author's most fun suggestions for practice is to read for fictional characters.
The activity to practice with difficult cards is very good as well. The author suggests picking any spread and then interpreting a card one finds difficult in each position within that spread.
One of the author's best pieces of advice is not to get into the habit of drawing clarifying cards. Although it's tempting to pull another card if one doesn't understand a card in the spread or is hoping the reading isn't actually saying what it looks like it's saying, it can quickly become a bad habit.
If you're a beginning reader who is looking for an encouraging, have fun, and give it a go tarot book, this would be a great one for you.
A note on the subtitle "Learn to Read with Any Deck": while you can use this book with any deck, it's best to start with a Rider-Waite-Smith deck or one based on the RWS deck. For all its current criticism, this is still the deck upon which the modern tarot tradition is based. The symbolism on RWS-based decks reflect the standard meaning of the cards, making it easier to learn the cards. So, it's best to wait until the intermediate level to begin using a deck that completely departs from basic RWS imagery.
Like all intro to tarot books, the author gives her take on basic meanings for each card, but she mixes things up and begins with the Minor Arcana first, followed by the Major Arcana. Her description of the Major Arcana meanings as a narrative of the Fool's journey was interesting. But I'm not sure if I found it helpful or not. I did appreciate her defense of the Hierophant card. The negative side of organized religion tend to bias readers against this card. Her discussion of the Minor Arcana was more traditional, and I had not previously encountered some of her perspectives on various cards. For the minors, she created helpful tables to show the commonalities of numbers and suits. Rather than lists of keywords, Barbara Moore tries to give a sense of each card.
She also offers guidance specific to the court cards. First, readers should think of court cards as representing actual people. Second, the gender of the person depicted on the court card is symbolic and not literal. Kings can represent women as well as men, queens can represent men as well as women, et cetera ... Each card is presented as a mini-character study to help identify the person depicted in the spread.
The author encourages readers to trust themselves and find out what a particular card means to them. This is a more contemporary approach to tarot in which each practitioner determines what the individual cards mean based on study, experience, and intuition. Modern practice is that of participating in a living, still evolving tradition rather than being a passive vehicle for esoteric knowledge. The 1970s tarot books from which I first learned were more about being an acolyte to arcane knowledge than proficient in one's own right, and the authors took themselves very seriously. Some guidance from someone as friendly and chatty as Barbara Moore would have been welcome. Austere ex-hippies, Jungian disciples, and heirs to early 20th century spiritualists can be as intimidating as they are unintelligible.
Barbara Moore is also one of the few instructors who actually discusses how to shuffle. Yes, people need to be told how to shuffle. The vague instruction to "shuffle" is baffling to a lot of readers. Not everyone grew up playing card games especially people born after the rise of digital technology who didn't spend hours playing Uno, go fish, crazy eights, and old maid during their childhoods.
Another fun note on modern tarot, using significators (a card -- usually a court card -- pulled from the deck prior to the reading to represent the querent) is considered an antiquated practice. Since every card reader creates his/her own ritual, the author does give a basic explanation of significators in case a reader does want to adopt this practice. I always disliked significators, finding them somewhat arbitrary and unnecessarily taking one card out of play, so I am more than happy to have permission to dump them.
The author is also in the camp that doesn't use reversals -- viewing a card's meaning as negative if it's upside down. She uses to the context to decide whether a card's aspect is positive or negative. But being easygoing and supportive of individuality, she gives a very good reason on reversals and tells readers to decide for themselves how they feel about them.
One of the best things the author does it to advise the reader to always interpret the cards in conjunction rather than view each card in isolation, which is easier said than done when the meaning of each card is given a series of wide ranging and sometimes contradictory keywords. Looking at the cards in a spread as a single entity rather than individual units makes them easier to interpret because it provides a context for the myriad of possible meanings. Chapter 4 "How to do a Reading" describes how to scan the cards before diving in to reading the spread.
This book includes a lot of exercises or, as the author puts it, "playtime" to help readers familiarize themselves with the cards and get comfortable doing readings. Barbara Moore starts with a three card spread, progresses to a five card spread, and then goes on to the Celtic cross spread, which is still the most common spread. In chapter 8, she gives a five card yes/no spread, which I found fascinating as all previous advice had been to avoid yes/no questions, and a modified horseshoe spread. One of the author's most fun suggestions for practice is to read for fictional characters.
The activity to practice with difficult cards is very good as well. The author suggests picking any spread and then interpreting a card one finds difficult in each position within that spread.
One of the author's best pieces of advice is not to get into the habit of drawing clarifying cards. Although it's tempting to pull another card if one doesn't understand a card in the spread or is hoping the reading isn't actually saying what it looks like it's saying, it can quickly become a bad habit.
If you're a beginning reader who is looking for an encouraging, have fun, and give it a go tarot book, this would be a great one for you.
March 8, 2018
A good book for beginners. Barbara Moore can be counted on to write a book that's both enticing and informative. The tone is friendly and chatty, and Moore doesn't go into anything esoteric. It's just a little bit of all the basics: tarot history, how to do a reading, and short descriptions of all the cards. If you have good beginner books already, you won't need this one, but you might want it anyway.
November 4, 2018
A good book for a beginning reader. I've developed a love for the way Ms. Moore writes so was happy this book came into my hands. Even though I'm not a beginner, I've found new viewpoints and things to think about with this book.
November 23, 2020
I’ve used this book consistently for several years now and I absolutely love it. Every time I reread it I feel like I learn something new from it. This book is great for beginners, but I also think it can add to the practice of experienced readers.
October 30, 2018
Nice illustrations, friendly tone. Early in the book there is a good summary of the relationships among the suits, the numbers, the court cards and the elements, with a solid few pages of keywords summarizing the major arcana. The suggested practice exercises have been useful.
The writing contains some noise, needless emotional assurances, and excessive casualness. I guess this is the "your way" part. I seek to learn by incorporating knowledge into my intuition; incorporating intuition into intuition and calling it knowledge is likely to just muddy the waters, so this book isn't a great fit for me.
Some cards are given vague or unwise descriptions, especially the court cards of the suit of swords.
As seems common in Tarot books, the author mistakenly presumes the cards to be making definitive statements in isolation. There's a lot of, "If this card appears, you know that you will ____ and you should ___." But that's unknowable, because advice and interpretation come from the context of the question asked, the surrounding cards and the spread in which the card appears, not from the card by itself. The card by itself expresses only symbols and states of being without judgment, without "supposed to"s. Sometimes a card appears as a description of a state of affairs rather than a piece of advice. The author's confusion about this has made most of her card descriptions, especially the long descriptions for the major arcana, far less useful than they could be -- and maybe even detrimental, as they promote unjustified, mentally limiting biases about a card's meaning. Many of these attempts at explanation lead back to the same shallowly optimistic platitudes as well.
The explanation for finding one's birth cards via numerology is unclear/incomplete. I had to use a second source to learn that if one's birthday adds up to three digits, when reducing it you're supposed to add the first two digits as one number to the third digit, rather than adding all three digits together. I added all three together as instructed (1+1+1 instead of 11+1) and got only one birth card (3 instead of 12 and 3), a possibility not recognized by the text.
There is some unclarity in the spread descriptions as well. In the modified horseshoe, is the #1 card selected by shuffle or selected consciously as a querent significator? It's a mystery. We're told to treat it as a significator (meaning avatar, right?) after it is dealt, but we're not told how to deal/select it. But, oh well -- I don't see the point in using significators anyway, as I don't wish to use a card to represent already consciously believed information. It puts one card at odds with the others.
The writing contains some noise, needless emotional assurances, and excessive casualness. I guess this is the "your way" part. I seek to learn by incorporating knowledge into my intuition; incorporating intuition into intuition and calling it knowledge is likely to just muddy the waters, so this book isn't a great fit for me.
Some cards are given vague or unwise descriptions, especially the court cards of the suit of swords.
As seems common in Tarot books, the author mistakenly presumes the cards to be making definitive statements in isolation. There's a lot of, "If this card appears, you know that you will ____ and you should ___." But that's unknowable, because advice and interpretation come from the context of the question asked, the surrounding cards and the spread in which the card appears, not from the card by itself. The card by itself expresses only symbols and states of being without judgment, without "supposed to"s. Sometimes a card appears as a description of a state of affairs rather than a piece of advice. The author's confusion about this has made most of her card descriptions, especially the long descriptions for the major arcana, far less useful than they could be -- and maybe even detrimental, as they promote unjustified, mentally limiting biases about a card's meaning. Many of these attempts at explanation lead back to the same shallowly optimistic platitudes as well.
The explanation for finding one's birth cards via numerology is unclear/incomplete. I had to use a second source to learn that if one's birthday adds up to three digits, when reducing it you're supposed to add the first two digits as one number to the third digit, rather than adding all three digits together. I added all three together as instructed (1+1+1 instead of 11+1) and got only one birth card (3 instead of 12 and 3), a possibility not recognized by the text.
There is some unclarity in the spread descriptions as well. In the modified horseshoe, is the #1 card selected by shuffle or selected consciously as a querent significator? It's a mystery. We're told to treat it as a significator (meaning avatar, right?) after it is dealt, but we're not told how to deal/select it. But, oh well -- I don't see the point in using significators anyway, as I don't wish to use a card to represent already consciously believed information. It puts one card at odds with the others.
July 1, 2025
This is the only beginner tarot book I've not given up on so far. Out of a dozen or so. Moore does a great job of introducing everything needed to start reading the cards without being either woo-woo or overwhelming.
Other books will just throw a bunch of keywords at you, then jump directly to a Celtic Cross spread, or will pack in so much information that it's dizzying (looking at you, Holistic Tarot). Moore starts by building up an intuitive sense of the symbolism and stories in a RWS-based tarot deck and forcing you to decide what your approach will be before ever mentioning a keyword.
Moore's recommendation to read for fictional characters is also great advice. It's fun, low pressure, and doing a reading before opening a book or loading a movie builds in practice time.
(Annoyingly, from my skeptic's perspective, the handful of pre-book readings I've done have been largely right, at least as far as the cards are concerned. My interpretations of the cards isn't always spot on, but the cards themselves are the ones I'd pull to summarise the character arcs.)
Despite the subtitle, I do recommend getting the boxed set with Llewellyn's Classic Tarot deck included. The artwork and card explanations are based on that and trying to tie them in to something different--even a pure RWS clone--gets confusing fast. If you start with something like Lo Scarabeo's signature deck, which draws on Thoth and Marseille as well as RWS, you're likely to become hopelessly lost.
For truly working with any deck as a beginner, I'd recommend Llewellyn's Tarot for Beginners (also by Moore), which uses images from three different decks with wildly different art styles and notes how the differences suggest slightly different interpretations. It make it easier to look at the nuances of your own deck. (I, personally, am loving both the Ethereal Visions and Everyday Witch decks as alternatives to RWS, which I maintain is ugly af.)
Other books will just throw a bunch of keywords at you, then jump directly to a Celtic Cross spread, or will pack in so much information that it's dizzying (looking at you, Holistic Tarot). Moore starts by building up an intuitive sense of the symbolism and stories in a RWS-based tarot deck and forcing you to decide what your approach will be before ever mentioning a keyword.
Moore's recommendation to read for fictional characters is also great advice. It's fun, low pressure, and doing a reading before opening a book or loading a movie builds in practice time.
(Annoyingly, from my skeptic's perspective, the handful of pre-book readings I've done have been largely right, at least as far as the cards are concerned. My interpretations of the cards isn't always spot on, but the cards themselves are the ones I'd pull to summarise the character arcs.)
Despite the subtitle, I do recommend getting the boxed set with Llewellyn's Classic Tarot deck included. The artwork and card explanations are based on that and trying to tie them in to something different--even a pure RWS clone--gets confusing fast. If you start with something like Lo Scarabeo's signature deck, which draws on Thoth and Marseille as well as RWS, you're likely to become hopelessly lost.
For truly working with any deck as a beginner, I'd recommend Llewellyn's Tarot for Beginners (also by Moore), which uses images from three different decks with wildly different art styles and notes how the differences suggest slightly different interpretations. It make it easier to look at the nuances of your own deck. (I, personally, am loving both the Ethereal Visions and Everyday Witch decks as alternatives to RWS, which I maintain is ugly af.)
February 9, 2026
Disappointing book coming from such a well-known author. I really enjoyed the early chapters, particularly the discussions on tarot worldviews and why tarot works, whether the source to be God, the universe, the subconscious, the higher self, spirit beings, or some blend of all of the above. That part felt thoughtful and nuanced and often neglected or glossed over by other books.
But the later explanations for each individual card is written in a way to as if it were pulled to answer a single generic question like “What do I need to know about my life?” Draw the 10 of Wands and you’re exhausted by responsibilities, draw Death and transformation is coming. These explanations are not useful in real readings at all. (also I already know what’s going on in my life, why do I need to pull a card at all?) Even the most basic beginner tarot books provide general meanings that can be applied to different contexts like love, career, or personal growth.
The organization of the Minor arcana by numerology was another major issue for me. I don’t find the Minor arcana to have an intrinsic relationship simply because the cards share a number. Saying “5 equals chaos” may explain the 5 of Wands, but it doesn’t meaningfully account for the 5 of Pentacles. Linking them feels forced and adds little value to understanding the cards themselves and it confuses tarot learners about the relationships between Tarot and numerology, which I believe can intersect, but are their separate distinct systems. (similar to astrology and tarot)
Overall I’d recommend other popular introductory tarot book over this one.
But the later explanations for each individual card is written in a way to as if it were pulled to answer a single generic question like “What do I need to know about my life?” Draw the 10 of Wands and you’re exhausted by responsibilities, draw Death and transformation is coming. These explanations are not useful in real readings at all. (also I already know what’s going on in my life, why do I need to pull a card at all?) Even the most basic beginner tarot books provide general meanings that can be applied to different contexts like love, career, or personal growth.
The organization of the Minor arcana by numerology was another major issue for me. I don’t find the Minor arcana to have an intrinsic relationship simply because the cards share a number. Saying “5 equals chaos” may explain the 5 of Wands, but it doesn’t meaningfully account for the 5 of Pentacles. Linking them feels forced and adds little value to understanding the cards themselves and it confuses tarot learners about the relationships between Tarot and numerology, which I believe can intersect, but are their separate distinct systems. (similar to astrology and tarot)
Overall I’d recommend other popular introductory tarot book over this one.
January 16, 2023
An instructional book about how to use tarot decks. 2nd person point of view. Author on the one hand acts like there is no one true answer to things, yet certainly expresses her own personal convictions. And that's interesting because the title itself, and the things she says, repeat that how an individual reads tarot is entirely up to them. I think it's hard for her to delineate between saying, this is how she does it, versus, this is how you (any individual reader) will do it.
I think while the start of the book was a bit self-contradictory, the second portion gives brief, entertaining descriptions of the cards in the deck. I like how in the third section, the author weaves a story, the Fool's journey from start to finish, working through the different cards, until he/she reaches The World, the representation of achievement or the journey's end. Of course, when doing tarot spreads for readings, you wouldn't go through ALL the cards, but it does give a nice overview of how it all works together for interpreting a reading.
It's a handy reference that is easy to page through. It's a good option to have in your personal library if you're interested in learning more about tarot, and how to possibly interpret the various cards. I borrowed my copy from the local library, but if I ever really feel like delving more into my own tarot decks, I'd consider purchasing this book.
For challenge prompts -- There are animals on the cover. There is a rabbit on the cover -- that fits one of my prompts, I think the 52 book challenge, maybe. Subtitle. Script on the spine. Opposites. Royalty. Second person POV.
I think while the start of the book was a bit self-contradictory, the second portion gives brief, entertaining descriptions of the cards in the deck. I like how in the third section, the author weaves a story, the Fool's journey from start to finish, working through the different cards, until he/she reaches The World, the representation of achievement or the journey's end. Of course, when doing tarot spreads for readings, you wouldn't go through ALL the cards, but it does give a nice overview of how it all works together for interpreting a reading.
It's a handy reference that is easy to page through. It's a good option to have in your personal library if you're interested in learning more about tarot, and how to possibly interpret the various cards. I borrowed my copy from the local library, but if I ever really feel like delving more into my own tarot decks, I'd consider purchasing this book.
For challenge prompts -- There are animals on the cover. There is a rabbit on the cover -- that fits one of my prompts, I think the 52 book challenge, maybe. Subtitle. Script on the spine. Opposites. Royalty. Second person POV.
July 8, 2018
I recently started learning Oracles, and have had great results with them. I decided to try my hand at Tarot. I knew a couple cards from previous readings I have had, but was always daunted by how many cards, spreads, meanings, insights, etc. one little deck can deliver.
I was in one of my favorite stores looking at How-to Tarot books, and this one kept calling to me. I am so glad that I picked it up! It really helped simplify things a bit. What I really love is the story of the Fool. It helps bring all the Majors together.
This is a great study tool. Chock full of information, but easy to understand, especially a beginner like me. All the cards are explained, and multiple possible meanings listed for interpretation. There is also a brief history in the beginning of the book if you are curious to learn how Tarot began.
While still perplexed by the Tarot deck, I am not as afraid and look forward to learning more about myself and the meanings of the cards.
I was in one of my favorite stores looking at How-to Tarot books, and this one kept calling to me. I am so glad that I picked it up! It really helped simplify things a bit. What I really love is the story of the Fool. It helps bring all the Majors together.
This is a great study tool. Chock full of information, but easy to understand, especially a beginner like me. All the cards are explained, and multiple possible meanings listed for interpretation. There is also a brief history in the beginning of the book if you are curious to learn how Tarot began.
While still perplexed by the Tarot deck, I am not as afraid and look forward to learning more about myself and the meanings of the cards.
May 22, 2020
4,5*
This was amazing for start. I knew some basic meanings of the cards but this really showed the connections between them and made me realize in which way I should think about them and made me find love towards exploring the cards. Every deck feels different and every deck feels right and every deck has slightly different meanings and I understand because of this book that it's a good thing to put yourself into the reading. It's about the balance of what you feel from them what you logically get from them and what is the good old fixed base. This book teaches about the first 2 and the balance. It explains a lot of options you have and as a beginner it's important to explore and find your way and this just shows you all the paths you can take. Amazing for start. I just wish it talked about reverse cards a bit.
This was amazing for start. I knew some basic meanings of the cards but this really showed the connections between them and made me realize in which way I should think about them and made me find love towards exploring the cards. Every deck feels different and every deck feels right and every deck has slightly different meanings and I understand because of this book that it's a good thing to put yourself into the reading. It's about the balance of what you feel from them what you logically get from them and what is the good old fixed base. This book teaches about the first 2 and the balance. It explains a lot of options you have and as a beginner it's important to explore and find your way and this just shows you all the paths you can take. Amazing for start. I just wish it talked about reverse cards a bit.
January 18, 2020
Rounded down from what might have been a 3.5 stars. There were things about this that I liked (her tone, the exercises), but even though the book claims that you can learn with any deck - it seems really dependent on literal RWS imagery especially in the major arcana, and kind of boils down too many of the cards for my liking. I liked that she allowed for a lot of different approaches toward practice though, both psychological and divinary. And I liked that she actually told some of the Fool's Journey too, which I never really consider when looking at cards.
December 7, 2019
I have a better understanding the patterns and relations of the cards. I'm a lot further to getting tarot with the little more understanding of the cards. I'm slightly still not getting something but that just could be me. This book did help me greatly and I recommend this book to other beginners such as myself as a start.
December 17, 2019
This book is amazing! I came in nothing absolutely nothing about tarot and I learned so much from reading this and doing the exercises. I will definitely come back to this again and again and I feel excited and energized about the idea of practicing and learning more! Going to dive right in to this author’s book of tarot spreads!
July 26, 2020
I wanted to see exactly what tarot is all about without bias or talk up from non-partisan individuals.
This provided an interesting insight, and while I won't be running to a deck for all of life's answers, I find that I feel less likely to pooh-pooh someone else's life views or ways of making sense of the world we live in.
This provided an interesting insight, and while I won't be running to a deck for all of life's answers, I find that I feel less likely to pooh-pooh someone else's life views or ways of making sense of the world we live in.
December 6, 2017
If you ever want to learn how to handle tarot this is the book to go for! If i hadnt had this book i honestly dont think i would have ever learned how. Now i can read people with ease. Thank you Barbara Moore for teaching so well!
April 7, 2025
Wonderfully written book. Very casual. Doesn’t have much for tarot meanings, but more informative about how to read for others and ethical practices within the industry. I think it was enjoyable. A fast read.
November 26, 2017
Easy to read, chockablock with information, and extremely helpful guidance on multiples and court cards. Highly recommended.
May 30, 2018
Useful and written in a fun and engaging way. Will likely use as a reference in the future.
November 1, 2020
My pick so far for best starter tarot book
November 6, 2021
Na początek chyba wystarczająca. Same ogóły, brak szczegółów. Dla mnie trochę za mało, ale dla laika będzie w sam raz!
January 2, 2022
Good for beginners! I liked it a lot when I first read it
April 17, 2022
There's a lot of practical advice here for reading the cards accurately.
June 26, 2022
Great for beginner's.
March 2, 2025
Short and to the point - excellent information, no nonsense and a couple of REALLY good exercises to start your tarot practice from an authentic place. Going to come back to this a lotttt.
September 14, 2017
My review can be found here.
https://brittanypearlsmind.wordpress....
https://brittanypearlsmind.wordpress....
April 1, 2017
I love this book for it's teaching methods most of all.
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