Illustrated Tarot Spreads: 78 New Layouts For Personal Discovery [Paperback]

The main feature of this book are the 78 different Tarot card spreads in this book - that's one for every card in the Tarot deck. That's a lot of spreads, and thus you might find that some of them aren't "right" for you.

I've been reading a long time, and I generally use a "Tree of Life" spread when reading for my friends, and a "Celtic Cross" when reading for people I don't know. But this book provides tools to read for both of those types of readings, as well as plenty in between.

The authors start with an introduction to Tarot cards, as many books geared to beginners do. There's a nice section about Using the Tarot properly, and an unusual section dealing with a "Sum of the Digits" card that might add a new facet to readings. Then there's a short guide to interpreting meanings of cards, followed by a section that allows you to select your significator - your own personal Tarot card.

Then we finally get into the meat of this book - the 78 different Tarot reading spreads. I found some of the beginning spreads such as the three card "Know Thyself" and the four card "Reaching the Goal" too simple for an in depth reading, but they might be OK for an answer to a simple question or a surface reading. There are two instances of using the Celtic Cross arrangement - one for your use on yourself and another with prompts for using it on others. There's three occurrences of the "Tree of Life" layout I like to use - one labeled "as the Tarot sees it", one labeled "of the seven levels", and one labeled "My World". The prompts for discovering the meanings of the cards in the layout are different for each, but I would have been happier had there only been one occurrence of each type of layout.

One of my favorite sections was the Astrological signs. There are layouts for each sign of the Zodiac, as well as a general Astrological sign layout. Each includes ways to find out what each card means in that layout. I plan on using this to tailor my deeper readings of people I don't know well based on their star sign.

The book ends with a fantastic "Structure of Life" layout using 34 cards. Labeled "The Total Human Being", it is broken down into easily digestible sections each dealing with a different facet of things that normally come up in readings. I am now using this layout for thorough readings for friends.

This is a good book for beginners, and a fine book to add to the experienced Tarot Card reader's library. If you want to do more than the "Celtic Cross" then this book is for you.