Customer Reviews

The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor: The Fast, Revolutionary Method for Learning to Read Tarot Cards in Two Hours... Without Memorizing Meanings!

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"Reading Tarot cards is really very easy. All you have to do is look at the cards and see what you say. By simply looking at the cards, you are making an intuitive connection with them. The cards speak in a language of symbols. If you look at the cards, the images actually do talk to you." - From the book

With Wilma Carroll's radical method for reading Tarot cards, there is no memorization of meanings or years of study. Her simple advice? Say what you see.

Can it really be that easy? Well, it depends on whom you ask. Many Tarot readers and authors advocate memorizing meanings-including reversed ones-even if those meaning are self-generated through experience and personal symbolism. Others advocate strict adherence to a tradition such as the Golden Dawn where every meaning, astrological association, and dignities are laid out for the reader.

Carroll, a psychic and metaphysician, maintains that "thinking" breaks the spontaneous stream of symbols flowing through intuition. Yet, she also maintains "...Tarot cards are a focusing tool that keeps the mind from wandering. When the attention is fixed and the reader is concentrating, psychic energy flows. As the reader focuses on the cards, the symbols being to stimulate her subconscious mind."

The first 43 pages of The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor show the reader, through examples and worksheets, how the author taught individuals unfamiliar with the Tarot to read the cards for themselves and others. Using the Celtic Cross spread for several case histories, we get a peek inside the trepidation that beginning readers often feel-and the triumphant feelings of accomplishment when their readings turn out to be amazingly accurate.

While the first two sections of the book can, indeed, teach individuals to read the Tarot in 2 hours (provided they actually perform the exercises), the book title is somewhat misleading. The majority of the book, while building upon the simple foundation of "say what you see", is full of mystical meat that could overwhelm total novices. Carroll shares some bona fide psychic secrets for gleaning important information from the cards while also providing an excellent crash course in numerology, performing timing readings, and interpreting complex spreads. For example, her advanced Seven Sisters Spread uses 21 cards and her advanced Horoscope spread uses 39 cards. However, using Carroll's method for reading the Tarot-and following along with worksheets based on actual readings-even these daunting spreads becoming manageable and doable.

In the 2-Hour Tarot Tutor, the author gives thorough answers to questions such as:

* Will following a special diet enhance my intuitive/psychic faculties?
* What can I do to develop my intuitive/psychic faculties?
* What is the difference between the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana?
* What do the four suits of the Tarot mean?
* Where do Tarot cards come from?
* How should I read reversed/inverted cards?
* Do Tarot cards require special care?

Although Carroll is not in the least dogmatic, she does share her personal preferences. In fact, she even discusses traditional meanings for some cards, but stresses the importance of "saying what you see." The last part of the book covers possible meanings of individual cards as well as possible meanings when combined with other cards or certain spread positions, allowing room at the bottom to jot down observations and notes about each card. Several worksheets for various spreads are also provided.

The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor is an engaging and informative read for both those new to the Tarot and those who've been reading for quite some time. It's fascinating to read how the author was put on the spot during a Halloween episode of Live with Regis (this was just after Kathie Lee had departed and he had yet to find a permanent replacement). Regis asked her, of all things, to predict the winner of the 2000 Presidential election! (Interestingly, the cards reflected the uncertainty about the winner-but Carroll called the election correctly.) Other personal anecdotes from the author help to solidify the importance of "saying what you see", especially as she demonstrates how this technique worked when reading for a variety of clients.

The section on numerology is immediately helpful. After reading The 2-Hour Tarot Tutor, I began incorporating a client's personal year and month when doing Birthday/New Year Spreads and the results have been remarkable. My clients report that weaving numerology into their readings makes for a more personalized and relevant reading.

If you're new to the Tarot and are overwhelmed at the prospect of learning 78 meanings by rote memory (let alone another 78 for reversals) and would just like to learn to read with the right-brain (intuitively), The 2-Hour Tutor is an excellent book for this purpose. If you've been indoctrinated by certain occult traditions or feel a need to memorize tons of correspondences and Tarot trivia to "keep up" with other readers, this book could give you a new lease on your reading life by stripping down the process to you, the cards, the symbols, and your innate intuition.

I was *very* skeptical about this book at first. But if you give it an honest and sincere try, it's amazing how fast and how much you can really learn. Using the Rider-Waite or Universal Waite deck, the book focuses on getting you to pay attention to the images and intuitively respond to them. It's that attention that quickly helps you understand the meanings of the cards without a lot of memorization. I wouldn't use it as my only tarot book, and I don't because it really is a basic introduction. But if you use this book first, you may find - as I did - that any other tarot book you refer to will be much more accessible and effective.

I've been reading Tarot for several years now and have my own private practice as a professional reader. I am constantly buying new books on the Tarot as the come out to see what is out there and to occasionally get a new perspective.

The simplicity of the method taught in this book is ideal for not only beginners, but also for experienced readers stuck in a rut. It does not depend on memorization or intense analysis of the symbolism in the cards but instead instructs you to read what you see. Period.

The anecdotes and the sample spreads are very helpful and she has some interesting and insightful meanings of the cards as well.

The idea the author is examining is to be able to learn to "read Tarot Cards in two hours... without memorizing meanings!" Hmmm...

The technique is a good one. Sit down with the deck and a pad of paper, and go card by card through the deck, writing down your own impressions of the card, what you derive from the images, and use this as a basis for your readings.

There is merit to the technique, and is nothing new actually. Many teachers recommend you sit down with your deck, going through it card by card and meditating on the images and contemplating the meanings that come to your mind.

But I am not sure that this is an "instant" method as purported by the author of this book. Nor do I feel that the student would glean as much information as they could during an actual reading, had they the basics in the original and intended meaning of the cards. But those are my feelings.

I also believe that this book focuses on one deck, the Rider-Waite, and does not allow for the many other kinds of decks out there, and the interpretations of the artists and authors. Therefore, the nuances of the decks could be or are lost for the reader, again not allowing the reader to benefit from the additional information the reader could have from this valuable insight into the deck.

However, the author, to her credit, does cover the personal interpretations that a reader does have over and above the meanings of the cards. She does encourage personal insight and allows for those moments when we see "beyond" the meaning of the cards and into the situation faced by the client.

While I see the merit of this system and it's exercises, I do not believe that this system alone would allow a person to make the most of the Tarot. I am a firm believer that the actual system does require further study and that the actual talent of the reader will be more of a factor in determining the readers success with clients. I see this technique as a point of study but not the entire learning.

This is a good book on a technique, but again, not the only piece to the working and I would recommend further study in addition to this to hone your talent and become a really good Tarot Reader. boudica

I bought this book knowing just a little about tarot and the meanings, but very interested in a more intuitive approach to reading. The book uses the Rider-Waite deck and even requests that the reader do so as well (just to make it easier to follow along, but not required). Rather than relying on stock meanings and trying to tie them into the other cards, Carroll asks you to just go with your intuition (which makes sense if you believe that the tarot is a window into the subconscious)and "say what you see". Although one may want to eventually learn the actual meanings, this is an excellent way to get the ball rolling and start reading in two hours.

I've been trying to read tarot cards for a year, and I was always confused by the various meanings in the books. Then, I read The 2 Hour Tarot Tutor. It changed my readings - for the better! It taught me to use my intuition (which I had always found to be very difficult before). I even predicted that a friend would move his things out of his girlfriend's house - the very night that he was moving! If I had looked up the card meanings in a book, the reading would have been totally different and less accurate. For anyone wanting to learn the tarot, this book is for you.

It was a very good choice. I had no knowledge at all on how to read cards, just the interest.

So this was my first book on this topic and it worked for me.
It took me more than two hours, because you have to learn the meanings and practice, but I found it very useful.

I am new at reading Tarot and this book gave me a solution by very easy way out, JUST LOOK AT THE CARDS AND SAY WHAT YOU SEE. Altough you do want to learn depth meaning of each cards eventually, the book gives you a confidence to read your card at your pace and level. I liked it far better than "Tarot for Dummies" This book does take more than 2hours, but it is fun and easy to follow. It is 4 stars because I bought "Learning the Tarot for beginners" by Joan Bunning and it is an excellent book to me. Bottom line, both books are good to keep for Tarot learners!

Wilma Carroll has written about the astounding insights that can be gleaned from a Tarot reading. Indeed, she has had many unique and wild experiences with the cards. This is an aspect of the book that makes it different and well-worth reading. The author encourages the reader to strive for his or her own intuitive insights. It is the practical application of the Tarot as an oracle that allows for the development of the intuition. Then the esoteric meanings to the cards are revealed. Instead of memorizing the meanings, the reader is taught to easily come up with his or her own meanings. The short section on numerology is also very valuable. There is something for the beginner and something for the advanced student. This is an original, a must for every Tarot library.