Tarot Tips (Special Topics in Tarot Series, 4) (2024)

This book was born out of the free monthly e-newsletter from Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone's Tarot School in which they sought to answer reader questions about tarot in the most simple, straight forward way possible. (The free monthly e-newsletter still exists, and interested parties can subscribe on the Tarot School's website.) What makes this resource interesting is that it largely succeeds in providing practical tips for something as complex as tarot. Moreover, it's written to reach as many practitioners as possible, so it doesn't espouse a particular worldview, philosophy, or mysticism or delve too deeply into the esoteric.

The book contains a total of 78 tips. Most are in the form of question and answer, but some are suggestions directly from the Amberstones. It is divided by topic into six sections:
1) Decks, Cards, & Card Handling
2) Interpretation & Meaning
3) Reading Techniques
4) Spreads
5) Other Things You Can Do with Tarot
6) Ethics

While it does contain a lot of good advice, this book was probably a lot more helpful when it was published back in 2003. The biggest shortcoming of this book is that the answers/tips are very short and don't go in-depth, so the reader is left wanting. With the explosion of Google, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogging a lot of information on the same topics is available online in more detail. Basically, all one has to do is type one's tarot question into Google to find extensive answers. The caveat is that, unlike this book that tries to remain as neutral as possible, most resources returned from an internet search clearly espouse an opinion and are based on a particular type of practice. Benebell Wen's videos for tarot beginners cover much of the same ground as section 1 but with more in-depth explanations, and she does try to be inclusive and remain neutral. So, that is a great place to start if you are a total beginner.

The downside to Internet resources is that tarot professionals will usually try to sell you something, which is understandable since the love of the game won't pay any bills, but dodging sales pitches is still annoying. Benebell Wen will try to sell you her book Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth, but she is not as aggressive as some tarot professionals and links to a lot of free resources. Daily Tarot Girl, Little Red Tarot, and Biddy Tarot are great resources offering high quality free content as well as paid content. Even the Amberstones are not shy about promoting their Tarot School both within this book and on their website. So, be weary and stick to the free content.

Here is an example of how the suggestions in the book only scratch the surface. The advice for choosing one's first deck boils down to find one that resonates with you, which, while not unimportant, isn't particularly useful. The authors fail to mention that there are three dominant tarot systems: the Rider-Waite-Smith based, the Thoth, and the Tarot de Marseille, and the easiest of which for beginners is the Rider-Waite-Smith. They also don't give a lot of guidance on how to find a deck with which one connects. Here is where a Google search yields much better results. Just type in any variation of "tarot decks for beginners," and viola! Deck reviews on YouTube will show the cards, so readers can get a feel for a deck prior to purchasing it, and most deck reviews will include whether or not a particular deck is recommended for beginners. Beginners can be as specific as they want to find decks that speak to them by adding keywords.

Another characteristic of this book that is problematic is the or, whatever works for you disclaimer following nearly every hint. On one hand, it's great to know that all the rules can be bent, broken, or disregarded, but, on the other hand, it's extremely frustrating for a beginner who is trying to get a basic grasp on tarot practice and isn't ready to experiment with creating a personal methodology.

The section on spreads doesn't contain any diagrams, which I thought was a serious oversight. Any time one discusses spreads there should be a drawing of the layout with the cards numbered. In this section the authors even suggest using an online search engine to learn more about this topic.

All criticisms aside, there were several tips that I found extremely helpful. Tips #33: Clarifying the Question, #35: Quiet Querents, #36: Paying Attention, #38: Deck Orientation, and #40: Drawing a Blank were all helpful to me.

I also appreciated that there was an entire section on ethics. Since people tend to get readings when they are worried about something or experiencing a rough spot, they are vulnerable, and an ethical reader will feel a responsibility towards their clients.

If you can get your hands on a copy, this book is still definitely worth a read whether you're a beginner or an intermediate student. It's at its most helpful if its tips are used a springboard for further inquiry. Another great no nonsense guide to tarot written particularly for beginners is Kitchen Table Tarot: Pull Up a Chair, Shuffle the Cards, and Let's Talk Tarot.

While this book does act as a decent resource, a lot of the external links/information is badly outdated.

It's presented mostly as a Q&A/FAQ, excerpted from the Tarot Tips newsletter from The Tarot School. That's a weird way to present it, let alone write a book, but it did help make it more approachable in that readers are assured they aren't the only ones with these questions. One drawback of this format is that it slogs, like you're reading a email newsletter that just. Will. Not. End. That's cumbersome.

Another thing I found was the answers were frequently wishy-washy. I'll be the first one to tell you that tarot isn't black and white and there are a myriad of possible responses, but some of these answers takes that too far. They wind up in the realm of participation trophies and toxic positivity meme. "If you think you're right, then you are!" is a dangerous attitude to promote, even in tarot.

Bottom line: if you see it second hand somewhere or it's at your local library, pick it up and give it a read. Take what information you find useful from it and put it in your tarot journal/notebook, then pass it along to someone else.

Tutto nacque da una mailing list. I due autori, coniugi, gestiscono The Tarot School a New York City, e verso la fine degli anni Novanta iniziarono a inviare una newsletter settimanale contenente alcune informazioni o curiosità sui Tarocchi. Dopo un po’ di tempo iniziarono ad arrivare alcune domande da parte degli iscritti e dunque vi fu sempre nuovo materiale per la newsletter. Con il passare del tempo il numero degli iscritti aumentò di gran lunga, con provenienza mondiale e non più limitata agli Stati Uniti, la newsletter divenne mensile e a un certo punto si decise di rendere disponibile al pubblico – in forma cartacea – il cosiddetto “meglio di”. Ed ecco «Tarot Tips».
Lungo tutto il libro le risposte alle domande hanno il carattere di ragionevoli linee guida derivanti dagli anni di esperienza degli autori, e mai sono intese in forma dogmatica. Di questo stile morbido è impregnato tutto il volume, rendendone assai piacevole la lettura.
In «Tarot Tips» si affrontano gli argomenti più disparati e per questa ragione può risultare di interesse altalenante, a seconda delle inclinazioni personali, ma vi si possono comunque trovare diverse chicche.
Resta, in ogni caso, un libro per studenti avanzati (e infatti fa parte della linea "Special Topics in Tarot" della Llewellyn).