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Tarot for Troubled Times: Confront Your Shadow, Heal Your Self & Transform the World
Out of Darkness Comes the Light of Transformation Each of us has a shadow that darkens our inner and outer lives. In Tarot for Troubled Times , Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed show us how working with the shadow—facing it directly, leaning into it rather than away—releases power that can free ourselves from negative mental habits and destructive emotions to find healing ourselves and others. Tarot, as the authors show, offers a rich and subtle path for this profound transformation. Through this book, you will discover a different approach to tarot, life, and self-empowerment. Tarot for Troubled Times is not just another book on how to read the tarot—the authors provide specialty readings and suggested practices for issues such as grief, addiction, depression, fear, anger, divorce, illness, abuse, and oppression, and provide practical suggestions for stepping up as an ally or leader so that you can shape social policies. With a selection of mindful, introspective tarot spreads, you’ll learn how the Tarot can help you rewrite your healing story and change your life, and help transform the world.
288 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2019
128 people are currently reading
449 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 10, 2019
What I liked:
-I love the spreads. They are -amazing- and really unique. I will definitely be referring back to them.
-I've never delved into tarot "birth cards" and "year cards" and that was a fun exercise.
- The "shadow" descriptions for aspects of the cards.
What I didn't love:
The use of the word "smudge" and the recommendation to just wave a sage wand around to "smudge". There's been lots of recent chatter about sage and use of the term smudge in particular in pagan communities. I'm a nehiyaw woman, and I will say that waving a sage stick you bought from Whole Foods around =/= smudging. It really doesn't. In fact, this whole thing really kind of belittles the intricacy and diversity throughout our nations and ceremonies.
And if we are aiming to have communities that are loving and justice orientated, taking the feedback from marginalized peoples is important. It's a simple fix, really: if you have not learned from an Indigenous elder the protocol and ceremony that actually goes into smudging (FYI, an important "protocol" is that your sage is never bought from a store but harvested respectfully with proper protocol...) drop "smudge" from your lexicon and use "cleansing" instead. And opt for cleansing with herbs you know the source of.
The difference HERE is I actually think the authors would be receptive to this feedback.
If you want to read more about "smudging", you can easily Google it, but I like this article: https://www.asaliearthwork.com/blog/2...
-I love the spreads. They are -amazing- and really unique. I will definitely be referring back to them.
-I've never delved into tarot "birth cards" and "year cards" and that was a fun exercise.
- The "shadow" descriptions for aspects of the cards.
What I didn't love:
The use of the word "smudge" and the recommendation to just wave a sage wand around to "smudge". There's been lots of recent chatter about sage and use of the term smudge in particular in pagan communities. I'm a nehiyaw woman, and I will say that waving a sage stick you bought from Whole Foods around =/= smudging. It really doesn't. In fact, this whole thing really kind of belittles the intricacy and diversity throughout our nations and ceremonies.
And if we are aiming to have communities that are loving and justice orientated, taking the feedback from marginalized peoples is important. It's a simple fix, really: if you have not learned from an Indigenous elder the protocol and ceremony that actually goes into smudging (FYI, an important "protocol" is that your sage is never bought from a store but harvested respectfully with proper protocol...) drop "smudge" from your lexicon and use "cleansing" instead. And opt for cleansing with herbs you know the source of.
The difference HERE is I actually think the authors would be receptive to this feedback.
If you want to read more about "smudging", you can easily Google it, but I like this article: https://www.asaliearthwork.com/blog/2...
September 19, 2019
This book is the non-fiction equivalent of a clickbait video on youtube.
I regret buying it, and if you think this homunguous pile of hyperboles and metaphores will solve your problems, maybe go to the library and borrow The Secret. It's a stupid book, just like this one. But at least reading it is free.
But don't take my word for it. Just take a look at the stats.
264 pages total (including intro and outro).
Pages 1-76. The world is a bad, bad place. Everything is confusing! Also includes 3 pages directly quoted from EFT-Alive.com (huh???) Anyway Shaheen this Shaheen that.
"Dance with your shadow!" (the reader is actually told to dance with her shadow at least 3 times in the first 70 pages and that's just what I actively counted.)
"Black tourmaline, the protector" etc. Pretty much nothing about Tarot in these pages except for an anecdote about a reading Shaheen did where he drew Strength. Amazing!
PSYCHIC VAMPIRES ARE REAL! RUN! PROTECT YOURSELF WITH MAGGGGGGGGIC! AND PRAYERS!
Pages 79-83 relates the longest and most convoluted explanation of how to mathematically find out which Major Arcana is your birth card. Great! Finally some tarot. I thought.
Pages 83-139 explains the meaning of the 22 Major Arcana, one paragraph each. Then gives keywords and affirmations for each Major Arcana, 1 page each. Then gives YET ANOTHER bunch of keywords and affirmations for each Major Arcana, 1 page each. In between, the talented author duo briefly tells us to journal about the 44 pages they so lovingly illustrated with giant RWS images and one quote and two sentences each ("light" and "shadow" meanings). You can't call that writing a book. Seriously.
Pages 140-155 explanation of what the four elemental suits are, followed by four pages of keywords for every single card in the deck (you'd think that after re-hashing the Majors 3 times already would be enough ... page count, baby!)
Pages 156-162 The longest and most convoluted explanation of how to ask a question, including bullet points, lists and hint questions. Utterly necessary.
Pages 162-181 Spreads! Finally, we're using a goddamn tarot deck instead of asking deep philosophical questions to our shadow self! 9 glorious spreads. I counted all of them, even the body-mind-spirit one that everyone is already using ... Honestly, 2 of those spreads are useful. Unless you're a recovering alcoholic, in which case there are two more spreads for you, one based on the cool AA program and the other one which implies you relapsed, lol. Then there is a spread about a relationship that went south, and one about dealing with your addict friend. Then there are two spreads that are kind of ... basic. Like the 2-card "State of mind - Tarot prescription" spread. Or the "Current job - new job - advice" spread. Those are head-scratchers. I mean, sure you can use them, but aren't they a bit one dimensional? And what's up with the oddly specific themes of all those spreads? Why not just include one about the hated dictators. "Current dictator in office - next dictator that'll be elected - how to save tax money" Too useful? Sorry ... We are living in bad, bad times....
Pages 182-204 *+~bEliEvE iN mAgIC~+* also full moons are there. Use candles! (how does this relate to tarot ...?)
Pages 205-231 what do you mean we already went through the Major Arcana, 4 times? We can do it again. It's different this time because the affirmation is a tad different. See, it's no longer the birth card or the personal year card but THE OVERALL YEAR CARD. 2+0+1+9= Hanged Man. We are geniuses at work and the page count just went over 200. Oh, 1 page per card, obviously. With pictures. So that the three lines on each page wouldn't look so naked.
Pages 232-256 Be political! Go to demos, run for office, write blog posts and also light candles with your friends! (no mention of how to use tarot while writing on twitter or running for office)
Pages 257-264 useful content including a spread, why the spread exists and how to use it. Amazing! Also, written by someone other than the two authors.
Soooo...
19 pages of spreads
22 pages arguably tarot content with keywords + how to ask questions and stuff (basic)
81 pages of keywords and affirmations for the major arcana (x4)
122 pages of go to demos, run from psychic vampires ~dance with your shadow ~ run for office and which candle color to choose on full moons and stuff
7 good pages (written by someone else)
Why is this book a 1-star, I-hated-it read? Because 1) it's a scam. The 4 rehashes of Major Arcana keywords and affirmations are clearly just there to inflate page count on this thin book that is already low on any kind of content. 2) Beacause of the click-bait title and because the authors imply that their cookie-cutter magic will actually solve real problems, which is a very harmful idea.
It's a badly written, superficial and superfluous self-help book.
The authors dip their toes into every subject from mental health to magic to tarot, without ever going into anything for real.
Their assumption that the world is a ~Bad, Bad ~ place is statistically wrong. Obviously world poverty is at an all time low, starvation is getting less and less, life expectancy is increasing and there are actually less wars (even though the US is obviously in most wars right now so maybe that colored the authors' impression that everything has gone haywire?). Also, dictators are not on the rise. Yes, far right-wing parties are moving into governments in develloped countries. But this impression of people living in privileged, rich societies is false: nowadays, roughly half of the countries in the world are democracies. That's 5 times the amount of 1900!
Get your facts straight. Just because you don't like Trump (I don't either) doesn't mean that the world is a dark dark place overrun by terrible dictators (although there are many, but way less than there used to be).
The book would have gotten 2 stars from me, if it had actually been a good self-helf book. It isn't. This book clearly shows that the authors have no fundamental knowledge in psychology, politics or writing, or self-help.
They just do their ritual magic and activism, by rote or by tradition. Which is fair enough, but they kind of imply that they have a bunch of solutions that are actually very incomplete and misleading. People who have very little knowledge on the matters of mental health, who are perhaps in an abusive relationship or actually suffering from PTSD will get a number of false impressions from this book. Lighting a candle, purging stuff on a full moon are good rituals. I see the sense in that. Yet, this book is meant "for troubled times". In troubled times, lighting a candle will not make your spouse stop beating you. In troubled times, activism will not feed you. In troubled times, writing a nasty collegue's name on a paper and doing the mumbo jumbo with a honey jar will not stop the sexual harassment suffered at work.
Get real. Either you write about Tarot, or you don't. Either you write about mental health, or you don't. Either you give us solutions, or you don't. This is a jumbled mess. I can only warn people away from this book, especially since the "solutions" in this book will only help mostly content, secure people in "first world" countries. The idea that a person actually in troubled times who has never gotten any kind of help will read this book and cause herself further harm by not looking further than this book frankly sickens me. Or, I don't know. Perhaps they'll just dance with their shadow and the depression will disappear.
I regret buying it, and if you think this homunguous pile of hyperboles and metaphores will solve your problems, maybe go to the library and borrow The Secret. It's a stupid book, just like this one. But at least reading it is free.
But don't take my word for it. Just take a look at the stats.
264 pages total (including intro and outro).
Pages 1-76. The world is a bad, bad place. Everything is confusing! Also includes 3 pages directly quoted from EFT-Alive.com (huh???) Anyway Shaheen this Shaheen that.
"Dance with your shadow!" (the reader is actually told to dance with her shadow at least 3 times in the first 70 pages and that's just what I actively counted.)
"Black tourmaline, the protector" etc. Pretty much nothing about Tarot in these pages except for an anecdote about a reading Shaheen did where he drew Strength. Amazing!
PSYCHIC VAMPIRES ARE REAL! RUN! PROTECT YOURSELF WITH MAGGGGGGGGIC! AND PRAYERS!
Pages 79-83 relates the longest and most convoluted explanation of how to mathematically find out which Major Arcana is your birth card. Great! Finally some tarot. I thought.
Pages 83-139 explains the meaning of the 22 Major Arcana, one paragraph each. Then gives keywords and affirmations for each Major Arcana, 1 page each. Then gives YET ANOTHER bunch of keywords and affirmations for each Major Arcana, 1 page each. In between, the talented author duo briefly tells us to journal about the 44 pages they so lovingly illustrated with giant RWS images and one quote and two sentences each ("light" and "shadow" meanings). You can't call that writing a book. Seriously.
Pages 140-155 explanation of what the four elemental suits are, followed by four pages of keywords for every single card in the deck (you'd think that after re-hashing the Majors 3 times already would be enough ... page count, baby!)
Pages 156-162 The longest and most convoluted explanation of how to ask a question, including bullet points, lists and hint questions. Utterly necessary.
Pages 162-181 Spreads! Finally, we're using a goddamn tarot deck instead of asking deep philosophical questions to our shadow self! 9 glorious spreads. I counted all of them, even the body-mind-spirit one that everyone is already using ... Honestly, 2 of those spreads are useful. Unless you're a recovering alcoholic, in which case there are two more spreads for you, one based on the cool AA program and the other one which implies you relapsed, lol. Then there is a spread about a relationship that went south, and one about dealing with your addict friend. Then there are two spreads that are kind of ... basic. Like the 2-card "State of mind - Tarot prescription" spread. Or the "Current job - new job - advice" spread. Those are head-scratchers. I mean, sure you can use them, but aren't they a bit one dimensional? And what's up with the oddly specific themes of all those spreads? Why not just include one about the hated dictators. "Current dictator in office - next dictator that'll be elected - how to save tax money" Too useful? Sorry ... We are living in bad, bad times....
Pages 182-204 *+~bEliEvE iN mAgIC~+* also full moons are there. Use candles! (how does this relate to tarot ...?)
Pages 205-231 what do you mean we already went through the Major Arcana, 4 times? We can do it again. It's different this time because the affirmation is a tad different. See, it's no longer the birth card or the personal year card but THE OVERALL YEAR CARD. 2+0+1+9= Hanged Man. We are geniuses at work and the page count just went over 200. Oh, 1 page per card, obviously. With pictures. So that the three lines on each page wouldn't look so naked.
Pages 232-256 Be political! Go to demos, run for office, write blog posts and also light candles with your friends! (no mention of how to use tarot while writing on twitter or running for office)
Pages 257-264 useful content including a spread, why the spread exists and how to use it. Amazing! Also, written by someone other than the two authors.
Soooo...
19 pages of spreads
22 pages arguably tarot content with keywords + how to ask questions and stuff (basic)
81 pages of keywords and affirmations for the major arcana (x4)
122 pages of go to demos, run from psychic vampires ~dance with your shadow ~ run for office and which candle color to choose on full moons and stuff
7 good pages (written by someone else)
Why is this book a 1-star, I-hated-it read? Because 1) it's a scam. The 4 rehashes of Major Arcana keywords and affirmations are clearly just there to inflate page count on this thin book that is already low on any kind of content. 2) Beacause of the click-bait title and because the authors imply that their cookie-cutter magic will actually solve real problems, which is a very harmful idea.
It's a badly written, superficial and superfluous self-help book.
The authors dip their toes into every subject from mental health to magic to tarot, without ever going into anything for real.
Their assumption that the world is a ~Bad, Bad ~ place is statistically wrong. Obviously world poverty is at an all time low, starvation is getting less and less, life expectancy is increasing and there are actually less wars (even though the US is obviously in most wars right now so maybe that colored the authors' impression that everything has gone haywire?). Also, dictators are not on the rise. Yes, far right-wing parties are moving into governments in develloped countries. But this impression of people living in privileged, rich societies is false: nowadays, roughly half of the countries in the world are democracies. That's 5 times the amount of 1900!
Get your facts straight. Just because you don't like Trump (I don't either) doesn't mean that the world is a dark dark place overrun by terrible dictators (although there are many, but way less than there used to be).
The book would have gotten 2 stars from me, if it had actually been a good self-helf book. It isn't. This book clearly shows that the authors have no fundamental knowledge in psychology, politics or writing, or self-help.
They just do their ritual magic and activism, by rote or by tradition. Which is fair enough, but they kind of imply that they have a bunch of solutions that are actually very incomplete and misleading. People who have very little knowledge on the matters of mental health, who are perhaps in an abusive relationship or actually suffering from PTSD will get a number of false impressions from this book. Lighting a candle, purging stuff on a full moon are good rituals. I see the sense in that. Yet, this book is meant "for troubled times". In troubled times, lighting a candle will not make your spouse stop beating you. In troubled times, activism will not feed you. In troubled times, writing a nasty collegue's name on a paper and doing the mumbo jumbo with a honey jar will not stop the sexual harassment suffered at work.
Get real. Either you write about Tarot, or you don't. Either you write about mental health, or you don't. Either you give us solutions, or you don't. This is a jumbled mess. I can only warn people away from this book, especially since the "solutions" in this book will only help mostly content, secure people in "first world" countries. The idea that a person actually in troubled times who has never gotten any kind of help will read this book and cause herself further harm by not looking further than this book frankly sickens me. Or, I don't know. Perhaps they'll just dance with their shadow and the depression will disappear.
August 4, 2019
I really wanted to like this book. I thought it would go into more detail about confronting your shadow and how the cards would help. There really wasn’t anything new here that I didn’t already know or hadn’t already read. The reviews were really good and I expected so much more. Maybe I’m in the minority on this book but it fell flat for me. Disappointing
June 18, 2019
I was drawn to this book totally based on its title – because these are troubled times. Then I started to think that denizens of all times might have considered their times troubled. The focus in this work is clear – it is on how the Tarot can help us deal with what we consider to be obstacles/difficulties in our lives. In other words, how we can deal with our shadows. Miro and Reed address the spiritual nature of the Tarot, and how we can move beyond our self-imposed limitations and discover the magic in our own lives.
The magic begins with the foundation of this book – that we can help ourselves through the use of the Tarot. That we can address our shadow sides through the 22 Major Arcana, and that we can come to embrace our shadows, and learn to work with them and through them. To heal ourselves, and to take that healing out into the world to help transform it. We are given a multitude of tools to work with, including specific Tarot spreads, affirmations, and journaling prompts.
In their introduction Miro and Reed acknowledge the general and political unrest that marks this time. They also note that this is a time when shadow work is a necessary part of life. They encourage us to be part of the solution. They define “Tarot For Troubled Times” as a handbook for personal evolution, social justice, and healing.
The Fool begins our journey, by defining the tools that we have available. The spiritual tools that we have available, such as meditation, affirmations, the Tarot, and magical rites. Anyone, from any background, can put these tools to best use. We are presented with journaling prompts to help us get a grasp on where we currently are in our understanding of ourselves. (These prompts continue on through the book.) My thought here would be to start a journal dedicated to working with this book. This is definitely not a read it and shelve it kind of book. It is a book to be worked with on a continuing basis, focusing on whatever most needs to be addressed in your life.
I am a great fan of thinkers such as Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh. A common thread with each of them is staying in the present, living in the present, being aware of what is happening around us, and how we are reacting to it. This is also one of the first things that Miro and Reed address. Specifically, they say “You cannot heal the pain or create the dream if you cannot be in the moment with every part of yourself as it is.” They also speak of the necessity of changing our perception about ourselves, so that we can become “coherent and congruent” with all of our parts. We have to know our shadow to come to peace with it.
From the book: “Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.” (Leonardo da Vinci)
I am very impressed with the tools that are offered in this book, including meditation, meta meditation, EFT, creating sacred space, working with ceremony, learning to go with the flow, working with breath, claiming your own space, working with energetic chords, empowering and protecting yourself, and visualization.
Miro and Reed view the Tarot as a mirror of ourselves. Every good Tarot reader knows this. They present the Major Arcana
as archetypes and ally’s on our journey of self-discovery and empowerment. They also present the birth card system as a way for us to know which cards in the Major Arcana lend their energy to us. There is a synopsis for each of the 22 cards, as well as suggestions for working with them. Each card is presented with a black and white scan (from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot), an affirmation, the positive traits and the shadow side, and actions to take.
Part of the package includes the Minor Arcana – the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, with their basic energy and elemental associations.
The three powers of the Tarot are listed as (1) Tarot is diagnostic, (2) Tarot is retroactive, and (3) Tarot is creative. It is through these avenues that we work with the Tarot to heal ourselves. Spreads included are Body/Mind/Spirit, When You’re Feeling Low, The Grief Spread, Twelve Steps To Freedom Spread, When You’ve Relapsed, When Your Loved One Is An Addict, Moving On, The Compass Spread, and When You’re Struggling To Make A Decision. There are also tips on creating your own spread.
Do you believe in magic? Miro and Reed do, and they have a wonderful section on placing magic into our lives, including creating magic, working with candle magic, and working with magical rituals.
Another wonderful tool is working with the energy of each year. Miro and Reed show us how to calculate the number for any given year, and associating it with the energy of each of the 22 Major Arcana.
“Tarot For Troubled Times” is all about doing the inner work, manifesting personal change, and then taking that change out into the world to effect global change. This is a powerful book, a book that shows us the path to self-empowerment. As a writer, I commend the author’s for the manner in which they present their work, and for their choice of words. Their work carries the expectation of a certain level of intelligence in their reading audience – bravo! Kudos to Miro and Reed for putting themselves on the front line for what the Tarot represents, and what we can accomplish through working with it!
The magic begins with the foundation of this book – that we can help ourselves through the use of the Tarot. That we can address our shadow sides through the 22 Major Arcana, and that we can come to embrace our shadows, and learn to work with them and through them. To heal ourselves, and to take that healing out into the world to help transform it. We are given a multitude of tools to work with, including specific Tarot spreads, affirmations, and journaling prompts.
In their introduction Miro and Reed acknowledge the general and political unrest that marks this time. They also note that this is a time when shadow work is a necessary part of life. They encourage us to be part of the solution. They define “Tarot For Troubled Times” as a handbook for personal evolution, social justice, and healing.
The Fool begins our journey, by defining the tools that we have available. The spiritual tools that we have available, such as meditation, affirmations, the Tarot, and magical rites. Anyone, from any background, can put these tools to best use. We are presented with journaling prompts to help us get a grasp on where we currently are in our understanding of ourselves. (These prompts continue on through the book.) My thought here would be to start a journal dedicated to working with this book. This is definitely not a read it and shelve it kind of book. It is a book to be worked with on a continuing basis, focusing on whatever most needs to be addressed in your life.
I am a great fan of thinkers such as Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh. A common thread with each of them is staying in the present, living in the present, being aware of what is happening around us, and how we are reacting to it. This is also one of the first things that Miro and Reed address. Specifically, they say “You cannot heal the pain or create the dream if you cannot be in the moment with every part of yourself as it is.” They also speak of the necessity of changing our perception about ourselves, so that we can become “coherent and congruent” with all of our parts. We have to know our shadow to come to peace with it.
From the book: “Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.” (Leonardo da Vinci)
I am very impressed with the tools that are offered in this book, including meditation, meta meditation, EFT, creating sacred space, working with ceremony, learning to go with the flow, working with breath, claiming your own space, working with energetic chords, empowering and protecting yourself, and visualization.
Miro and Reed view the Tarot as a mirror of ourselves. Every good Tarot reader knows this. They present the Major Arcana
as archetypes and ally’s on our journey of self-discovery and empowerment. They also present the birth card system as a way for us to know which cards in the Major Arcana lend their energy to us. There is a synopsis for each of the 22 cards, as well as suggestions for working with them. Each card is presented with a black and white scan (from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot), an affirmation, the positive traits and the shadow side, and actions to take.
Part of the package includes the Minor Arcana – the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, with their basic energy and elemental associations.
The three powers of the Tarot are listed as (1) Tarot is diagnostic, (2) Tarot is retroactive, and (3) Tarot is creative. It is through these avenues that we work with the Tarot to heal ourselves. Spreads included are Body/Mind/Spirit, When You’re Feeling Low, The Grief Spread, Twelve Steps To Freedom Spread, When You’ve Relapsed, When Your Loved One Is An Addict, Moving On, The Compass Spread, and When You’re Struggling To Make A Decision. There are also tips on creating your own spread.
Do you believe in magic? Miro and Reed do, and they have a wonderful section on placing magic into our lives, including creating magic, working with candle magic, and working with magical rituals.
Another wonderful tool is working with the energy of each year. Miro and Reed show us how to calculate the number for any given year, and associating it with the energy of each of the 22 Major Arcana.
“Tarot For Troubled Times” is all about doing the inner work, manifesting personal change, and then taking that change out into the world to effect global change. This is a powerful book, a book that shows us the path to self-empowerment. As a writer, I commend the author’s for the manner in which they present their work, and for their choice of words. Their work carries the expectation of a certain level of intelligence in their reading audience – bravo! Kudos to Miro and Reed for putting themselves on the front line for what the Tarot represents, and what we can accomplish through working with it!
September 27, 2019
This book is not good. I hate to admit it, because I like Shaheen Miro and I do enjoy Theresa Reed's works, but this? This was awful. It was poorly edited--absolutely no excuse for all the grammar errors.
For a book called TAROT for troubled times, you would NOT expect that 2/3 of the book is...not about Tarot. At all. Instead, it's crap baby fake wicca without even the absolute BASICS of psychic protection. It mishmashes trashpop new age wicca with hoodoo conjure without even acknowledging their roots--cultural appropriation? In 2019? Disgusting.
Their discussion of shadow work is shallow and full of instagram slogans like 'accept all parts of yourself!'--very smarmy and not helpful at all.
The spreads they offer, and their interpretations (the measly third of the book that is devoted to Tarot is basically bulked out with going through each card as a card glossary--in very shallow and generic terms--there's no real new spin or new insight in their card interpretations.) The spreads--oh god, the spreads? You can find on Pinterest.
Everyone flailing about OMG the personal numbers! How cool! You? YOU ARE SAD. Mary Greer discusses personal numbers, year numbers, and also other even more valuable numbers like Inner Teacher numbers...in her STILL BEING REISSUED masterwork, that is, actually 100% about Tarot, Tarot For Yourself. Pick that up, and leave this cultural appropriation shallow cash grab in the trash.
If I sound angry, it's because, as I said up top, I really like both authors, so this is an anger born of disappointment. They know better and can do better, and didn't. Now, with so much Tarot information available for free on the internet, a book on tarot needs to offer something MORE, not just a half-page-summary of each card and a sugar jar spell you could have found in the 1990s in the ALSO problematicly culturally appropriating Silver Ravenwolf.
For a book called TAROT for troubled times, you would NOT expect that 2/3 of the book is...not about Tarot. At all. Instead, it's crap baby fake wicca without even the absolute BASICS of psychic protection. It mishmashes trashpop new age wicca with hoodoo conjure without even acknowledging their roots--cultural appropriation? In 2019? Disgusting.
Their discussion of shadow work is shallow and full of instagram slogans like 'accept all parts of yourself!'--very smarmy and not helpful at all.
The spreads they offer, and their interpretations (the measly third of the book that is devoted to Tarot is basically bulked out with going through each card as a card glossary--in very shallow and generic terms--there's no real new spin or new insight in their card interpretations.) The spreads--oh god, the spreads? You can find on Pinterest.
Everyone flailing about OMG the personal numbers! How cool! You? YOU ARE SAD. Mary Greer discusses personal numbers, year numbers, and also other even more valuable numbers like Inner Teacher numbers...in her STILL BEING REISSUED masterwork, that is, actually 100% about Tarot, Tarot For Yourself. Pick that up, and leave this cultural appropriation shallow cash grab in the trash.
If I sound angry, it's because, as I said up top, I really like both authors, so this is an anger born of disappointment. They know better and can do better, and didn't. Now, with so much Tarot information available for free on the internet, a book on tarot needs to offer something MORE, not just a half-page-summary of each card and a sugar jar spell you could have found in the 1990s in the ALSO problematicly culturally appropriating Silver Ravenwolf.
June 5, 2019
One of my favorite tarot and shadow work resources.
July 18, 2019
There's so much awesome about this book that it's hard to not just say in my best teenager, "It's awesome, get it." Here are some of the ways the book is unique.
1. The book immediately focuses on how you, as an individual, might be upset. Rather than focusing on changing the trouble outside of you, the book zeros into the dark corners of our personality and use the tarot to reveal where we might be uncomfortable.
2. There are some fun "recipe card" ways of determining things to help you better understand your friends. The book goes into detail how to determine which Tarot card a person is born under and what that means -- both good and bad. That's an excellent way to understand yourself better as well as figure out why that jerk is bothering you so much.
3. Tools, tools, tools. If you find this time to be troubling, the book will provide you with at least one tool to help you get through. What could be better than that?
Get the book - get to work. When we improve individually, we all improve.
1. The book immediately focuses on how you, as an individual, might be upset. Rather than focusing on changing the trouble outside of you, the book zeros into the dark corners of our personality and use the tarot to reveal where we might be uncomfortable.
2. There are some fun "recipe card" ways of determining things to help you better understand your friends. The book goes into detail how to determine which Tarot card a person is born under and what that means -- both good and bad. That's an excellent way to understand yourself better as well as figure out why that jerk is bothering you so much.
3. Tools, tools, tools. If you find this time to be troubling, the book will provide you with at least one tool to help you get through. What could be better than that?
Get the book - get to work. When we improve individually, we all improve.
August 15, 2019
More self-help than Tarot. Yes, the symbols of the tarot are used for reflection and journaling, but I was hoping for more guidance on working with tarot spreads and imaginative insight. There is some of that there, particularly in the second half of the book, but not enough for me. Perhaps having read a lot of Jung this just felt like a simplistic rehash. Might be good for someone just starting out though.
December 30, 2019
A disappointment.
Too many things only briefly touched upon. If only it'd been only about the Tarot + shadow work (which I thought it would be) and hadn't included all the stuff about magic and such. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about magic but. But. The way this book handled it was very problematic and didn't do any of it justice.
Too many things only briefly touched upon. If only it'd been only about the Tarot + shadow work (which I thought it would be) and hadn't included all the stuff about magic and such. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about magic but. But. The way this book handled it was very problematic and didn't do any of it justice.
May 21, 2020
This book seems like it was weirdly polarizing with lots of 4/5 and 1 star reviews here. I really enjoyed it! It discussed the concept of the shadow and how tarot can help you come to terms with difficult aspects of life. The spreads were great. I liked that there were 2 or 3 that concerned addictions issues, just because I’ve never seen that in a tarot book before. My only quibbles were stylistic—the writers each like little asides like ‘Shaheen finds that....blah blah blah’—which just felt awkward. Like didn’t he write the book? Maybe it’s hard for a two author book to flow without breaking up the perspectives somehow. And there were like 3 sections where each page had one card description on it. Whatever. It’s a good book and I’ll come back to it.
August 8, 2019
Really great book. My wife purchased this book as she is the Tarot reader in the family but I am impressed that it is written in such a way that I can follow it too. The concept of delving into our darker recesses to emerge lighter is intriguing. Using this to help understand and navigate the current social and political climate is a bonus. Recommended reading.
August 9, 2020
I really wanted to love this book, but I was expecting the book itself to be about using tarot, rather than just two chapters and a few mini-exercises towards the end. I feel like it would be much better-received if the title and description were more relevant to the actual contents of the book. While I think the collection of topics discussed can be quite relevant and useful, I feel like it's more likely to reach the people it's likely to be useful for if it's sold as what it is: a surface-level discussion of a bunch of different tools (with a slight focus on tarot), rather than an in-depth tarot discussion.
I also felt like a lot of it was lacking in meaningful content, like maybe they wrote their first draft and realised they only had half of what they promised to the publisher, so had to pad it out? It might have been better served as an online course or a series of blog posts.
I also felt like a lot of it was lacking in meaningful content, like maybe they wrote their first draft and realised they only had half of what they promised to the publisher, so had to pad it out? It might have been better served as an online course or a series of blog posts.
January 25, 2020
I thought this book was going to be something other than what it was. I thought it was going to have a political component, based on the way it was being presented. It also needed heavy editing. The two stars are for the spreads at the end, the three lacking stars are for everything else.
October 31, 2020
It's a 2020 tarot book. It has taken me a few months to work through this book because I used the journal prompts as I read it chapter by chapter.
There's a lot of territory covered here that doesn't get covered in your average tarot book, and it is not always fun spiritual work to do.
I think it's best suited for people ready to do some heavy shadow work. There's a lot of prompts for unpacking trauma, privilege, and wading through the muck (and keep wading through it.) But you also have to be willing to work for that yourself because as other reviews have noted -- a lot of the book is not directly working with tarot and there's a lot of journaling work.
I did feel that the 4x rehash of the Major Arcana affirmations could have been condensed into 1 page per card, so that felt like a way to inflate the page count that could have been done faster and in a more streamlined way.
There are spreads included that you don't often find, and that I appreciated a lot. There's 3-4 on addiction and codependency that I particularly appreciated.
Your mileage may vary.
There's a lot of territory covered here that doesn't get covered in your average tarot book, and it is not always fun spiritual work to do.
I think it's best suited for people ready to do some heavy shadow work. There's a lot of prompts for unpacking trauma, privilege, and wading through the muck (and keep wading through it.) But you also have to be willing to work for that yourself because as other reviews have noted -- a lot of the book is not directly working with tarot and there's a lot of journaling work.
I did feel that the 4x rehash of the Major Arcana affirmations could have been condensed into 1 page per card, so that felt like a way to inflate the page count that could have been done faster and in a more streamlined way.
There are spreads included that you don't often find, and that I appreciated a lot. There's 3-4 on addiction and codependency that I particularly appreciated.
Your mileage may vary.
June 27, 2022
I definitely noticed the polarization in reviews for this title, and after my purchase, I was hoping to be one of the people who would love it. Sadly, I do not. Rather than being an informative book about tarot, it seemed to focus more on "self-help" in a way that I did not find helpful at all. Their advice seemed to be positive to the point that mindfulness is lost, which felt inauthentic to me. There are a lot of other books regarding magick and witchcraft that can help people during their troubled times in a more effective way, I believe. While some of the descriptions of tarot cards were good and I liked the illustrations, and I thought the idea of having short anecdote sections from the authors made sense, I was disappointed in how repetitive everything was. Long story short, this selection seemed rather gimmicky to me.
June 17, 2020
There are spells in this book and a lot of self help type information. I wish there was a lot more to do with tarot. For the Minor Arcana you get a lot of basic general meanings that you can find in almost any white book, it would have been nice to see them turn each meaning of a card into something more positive and healing. I like all the spreads that there are and I don't hate the spells or the self help aspect of the book but the description didn't say much about them. Overall, I did enjoy this book, and would recommend it.
January 2, 2020
This book was not what I thought it would be. I was looking for a very intense companion to Tarot Shadow Work by Christine Jette. But what I got was very vague references to shadow, and a lot of information recycled from other authors (in one case, uncredited ). The only reason I gave it a four star rating is because the last section on political activism is really very good.
May 2, 2020
3 and a half stars for this as it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, however I do always love a reminder of what my birth cards are and how they relate to the yearly cards energy, particularly when I have two that are within 1 - 22, and this is the section that I’ll dip back into whenever necessary.
June 18, 2020
Talk about timely! I found this book to be a fascinating analysis and practical guide of how the tarot can work on both a personal and a more-engaged social level. Its spreads are intriguing, its tone is familiar and fun, and it makes me want to be more active with my cards and the world around me. Really well done!
May 5, 2022
I liked the tarot spreads included but that’s like the second half of the book the other half is about magic and other stuff. My issue was the title and the content being not exclusive to tarot. BUT if you are a beginner to tarot and to other practices, this is a nice book to have. It introduces you to other stuff without being overwhelming.
February 16, 2020
Useful, well written, well organized and introduced some tarot practices and thoughts I have not seen in other books. The journal prompts actually made me want to do them, which I rarely feel after 34 years as a diarist.
June 26, 2020
A great resource for both seasoned readers and those just beginning to get to know the cards. Insightful and honest exploration of our "shadow side" is a highlight of the text. This is a book I will keep close to use for reference purposes.
October 28, 2020
I think i saw single page, really basic descriptions of the major arcana THREE times. 66 pages. Kind of a weird assemblage of content. I do appreciate that they attempted to tackle provocative topics.
March 12, 2020
This is the coolest Tarot book I have ever read.
May 25, 2020
A few helpful tips but really lacked the depth of what your shadow self is, how to recognize it and work with it. The whole point of this book was moot.
November 4, 2020
important. really like how this dives deep into the tarot.
June 24, 2021
Disappointing. The title over-promises and content under-delivers.
September 27, 2023
Very, very bad.
December 16, 2024
Kind of surface level to me.
December 6, 2019
There is a lot to unpack in this book and it was clearly written with a lot of love. I had been wanting a book on shadow work and this just happened to pop onto my radar at the right time. Its been a great companion for diving deeper into my psyche & opening up to new ways of thinking. There are tonnes of exercises and I have made my own little reference chart for this book.
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