Minerva Siegel, Tarot for self-care: how to use Tarot to manifest your best self. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2019. ISBN: 9781507210970.
The book is arranged as follows:
- Introduction.
- Self-Care: Beyond the Buzzword. This briefly defines self-care, explains why it is important, and defines three kinds of self-care: mental, physical, and spiritual.
- Chapter 1: Set the stage: Methods for Manifesting a Magical Mood. This discusses some ways to get in the mood and get ready to read cards including using candles, smoke cleansing, and reading tea leaves. Some methods may be more complicated.
- Chapter 2: Find the Divine in the Details: a Crash Course on Interpreting Tarot. Goes over the Fool's Journey, provides a brief guide to numerology, and a look at the four suits.
- Chapter 3: Take up Space: Exploring Tarot Spreads. Goes over basic card layouts like single card and three card. Naturally the popular Celtic Cross is included. We also get a Week Ahead 9-card spread and a 5-card Elemental Spread.
- Chapter 4: Major Arcana Interpreted. Each entry includes a basic image, interpretation, a list of self-care activities featuring the card's symbolism, and reversed interpretation. You get about two pages per card entry.
- Chapter 5: Minor Arcana Interpreted. Entries here are similar to the Major Arcana, just a bit shorter.
- Chapter 6: Open Your Third Eye: Harnessing the Power of Intuition. This presents some ways to improve your intuition such as meditation and creativity, for example, doing art.
- Chapter 7: Get Your Sparkle On: Enhancing Tarot Readings with Crystals. Lists some crystals you must have, very brief discussion of crystal grids, and pairing Tarot with crystals.
- Chapter 8: Dive Deep: Using Tarot for Self-Care Exploration. Some discussion of shadow work and Tarot, and journaling (something I do and encourage).
- Chapter 9: Own Your Potential: Embracing Your Personal Power Tarot Card. Gives some ideas for figuring out your personal power card, and notes on Tarot and astrology.
- Chapter 10: So What's Next? Further Tarot Lessons for Everyday Self-Care. Brief discussion of other techniques like palmistry and pendulums.
The book offers a lot of information and content, but it is very lightweight. Many of the topics are covered superficially. These are topics that have full book treatments, and you just get quick overviews here. Very often you may want to get a full book on a specific topic such as shadow work or astrology and Tarot. The idea of using cards as a tool for self-care is a good one. This book just feels light and superficial, like a book to read in a tub with a bubble bath and champagne. If that is you, then this book is for you. For others seeking more substance, there may be better books out there.
In regards to better books, note that this book lacks a bibliography or list of suggested readings. This is not a requirement, but given the lightness of topics a list of works could have added some value.
A strength of the book is in the card interpretations. The interpretations are down to earth and easy to read and understand. Esoterica and jargon are kept to a minimum. Want a book with more contemporary meanings for the cards? This may be for you.
If you look for diversity and related topics in your cartomancy, this book may not be for you. It feels very homogeneous.
Overall, for me the book was just OK. It is not bad, and some readers may like it, especially if they want something very basic. For me, a bit further along in my cartomancy journey, I need something more substantial. I am happy that I read it, but it is not a memorable book. I would consider this book an optional selection. If you can, borrow it rather than buying it. For libraries, I would consider it optional, more for public libraries that may want more basic texts. This is not a book I would order for our small academic library.
2 out of 5 stars.
This book qualifies for the following 2025 Reading Challenge:
No comments:
Post a Comment