Book Review: The Tarot Almanac

Bess Matassa, The Tarot Almanac: a Seasonal Guide to Divining With Your Cards. New York: Sterling Ethos, 2023. ISBN: 9781454947837.

Genre: Tarot

Subgenre: almanac, reference, study

Format: e-galley

Source: Edelweiss Plus

This book aims to look at Tarot and help you learn how to read the cards based on the astrological signs throughout the year. The book offers card spreads, rituals, and reflection and/or writing prompts you can do over a year and beyond. 

The book is arranged as follows: 

• Author's note, which provides a nice, lighthearted opening to the book. 
• Introduction. 
• How to use this book. Some advice and instruction on doing the monthly practice. Over the month, you work with at least one Major Arcana card, a few Minor Arcana cards, then the court cards. Cards are spaced through a month. 
• The monthly chapters. Each month includes some basic information such as the month's sign, element, and some magic keywords. You also get the cards for that month. You get an introduction to the month, then the work and reflection on the Major Arcana for the month, the Minor Arcana, and the court cards. Throughout the chapters  you get various writing prompts and questions to further reflect and aid your learning. You also get a card spread, various tips, and each chapter closes with taroscopes for a month. 
• Card-by-card Mini Reference. This is a bit of a cheat sheet with the card meanings. 
• Index. 
• Notes. The galley did not include the notes nor the index, so I can't assess what kind of reference the author may have used at the time. 

The book overall is a pretty good guide to do a monthly Tarot practice. However, in some cases the instructions may not be so explicit. In parts about meditation and visualization, it may just tell you to do it. It seems there is some expectation readers know how to do this already. 

The exercises and themes vary by month. A strength of the book is in the exercises. Exercises and prompts allow the reader to pause, take time to reflect and write, and work to integrate the lessons. Though the book provides some blank writing pages, I would strongly advice you keep a notebook or journal to do the prompts. If you already keep a Tarot journal, you can use that. In addition, the various tips are helpful and practical, adding value to the book 

Overall I really liked the book. As I often write for this kind of book, read it a bit at a time. You can start in whatever month you pick up the book, or just work through it as you see fit. It's not really one to read cover to cover, unless like me you read it for review. Some directions are clearer than others, but the book as a whole is pretty accessible. It is a book I want to go back to work through.

The book may be good for beginners, though I feel it may be better for intermediate cartomancers and up. I do recommend it for libraries that collect pagan and esoteric materials.  

I would also add that if you have a deck you want to use more, you can use it to go through the book. You get to really bond with a deck over a year. You can also switch decks every month, or use more than one Tarot deck for comparative work. You have options in deciding what Tarot deck to use with the book. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

Book qualifies for the following 2024 Reading Challenges: