Tarot of Transformation: Chart Your Own Course to Healing and Spiritual Awakening [Paperback]

It is also true that the authors stray from the traditional interpretation of the cards. I have thoroughly enjoyed their spiritual transformation orientation. A friend once told me that our subconscious is so anxious to communicate with us that it will use any symbol system we choose to employ, I believe this to be true, and enjoy exploring different symbols as well as experiencing the nuances between similar decks.

With this deck, I have especially enjoyed selecting just one card, and then exploring it in my journal for several days. For fun, I sometimes do a Google search with the name of the card, for example, "Passionate Play". Sometimes what shows up is synchronicity in action. That in turn, can become more fodder for the journal.

But if you're going to use this deck, I would suggest not using the meanings in the book that comes with it, but instead use more traditional meanings for the cards. A lot of the card meanings in the book bear only a passing resemblance to traditional meanings, and sometimes not even that much. There's nothing wrong with reinterpreting the cards a little so that they fit with the view you have of them, but it almost seems like the authors here were trying to create a whole new system. For example, the description of the Nine of Cups starts out like this: "One of the traditional meanings given this card is "free-flowing feeling." Since we have been looking at defensive strategies in the suit of Cups, we use this card to represent the cutting off from feelings that accompanies the defense of intellectualizing." Their meaning clearly bears very little resemblance to the original meaning. And the authors decided that the suit of Wands should represent the chakras, which leads to card interpretations that have virtually no connection with the cards' original meanings.

Some might find the authors' card meanings useful. But I've had much better luck using traditional meanings with these cards. When I tried using the authors' meanings, I didn't get anywhere.

I would definitely recommend using this deck. The illustrations are lovely and speak to your intuition. However, I suggest not using this deck unless you're fairly familiar with the tarot, and I would recommend disregarding the meanings in the accompanying book. It's somewhat irritating to have to do this, but this really is an amazing deck.