Complete Book of Tarot Spreads [Paperback]

Evelin Burger (Author), Johannes Fiebig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 1997

Here you'll find 122 different layouts with information on when and how to use them. Start with personal day and year cards, and learn how to relate Tarot to your own interests, in order to find specific blind spots and personal resistances, as well as how to look for new chances and unexpected directions. Then you progress to the larger and theme cards, and learn to interpret networks of cards and also "to view every card as a world by itself." You'll become acquainted with the Cycle of the Year (with 20 major layouts) and with the practice of Tarot and astrology, using the respected Golden Dawn System developed by Arthur A. Waite and Alistair Crowley. Soon you'll appreciate the variety and creativity inherent in Tarot, to see the cards as a mirror of yourself, and to discover what the authors mean when they say that "being lucky has nothing to do with luck." 192 pages, 114 b/w illus., 6 x 9.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (June 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080699505X
• ISBN-13: 978-0806995052
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Divination > Tarot

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book is not as great as the title seems to be., March 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Book of Tarot Spreads (Paperback)

The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads at first look appears to be just what every serious tarot reader is looking for, this is sadly not the case. Many of the spreads are one card spreads with different meaning such as The Unknown, Stress Card, Your Dream Card or The Next Step. There are numerous 2, 3 or 4 card spreads also with trivial meaning for their positions. I find these smaller spreads to be disappointing and practically worthless. This type of information would be helpful for a starting student, but any experienced card reader could easily make these spreads up on the spot. There are 4 versions of the Zodiac Spread and 4 versions of the Celtic Cross, each with slightly varried meanings and counting as seperate layouts. I found about 6 spreads that had any depth and usefulness for professional work. These few spreads in this book that had value have been published by many other sources. The 1st chapter covers the tarot basics in a thorough manner. The intoductory chapter is the most useful part of this book because it's always good to hear other opinions and theories of professional card reader. This includes numerology, colors and tips on keeping a tarot journal. There is also about 7 pages of tarot in relation to astrology, this is mostly lists and charts with very little explanation. The astrology correlations are taken directly from the Golden Dawn teachings and may be confusing for the beginner. The bottom line is this book is neat to own for the ideas and helpful hints of the authors but the variety of card spreads are very minimal and practically worthless for any serious reader.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Simple Spreads For The Beginner, January 6, 2004

By 

Theia (Carrboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Book of Tarot Spreads (Paperback)

Most of this book is filled with pictures of layouts with two or three word descriptions of the meanings of each position. When I got this book I had been studying tarot for only two months. I found that my intuitive senses seemed to dull after considering only three or four cards. I did not have the experience to comfortably interpret large spreads like the Celtic Cross. Sensing connections in such a large spread was also difficult. Enter "The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads." The layouts are mostly smaller (2-6 cards) making reading much more accessible to the beginner. Many of the layouts have several variations, and by studying the variations I began to understand how to create my own layouts.

A more experienced tarot reader now (but not that experienced), I still occasionally turn to this book for ideas on creating my own layouts but rarely use the simple layouts now. The descriptions of the positions are incrediably simple. In some cases so simple I don't even understand what they mean.

If you are a beginning student looking for simple spreads, buy this book. If you are comfortable with larger spreads like the Celtic Cross or other spreads using greater than ten cards, don't waste your money.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not mindblowing, but handy, December 25, 2002

By 

Erica (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Book of Tarot Spreads (Paperback)

This book didn't have quite the range of spreads that I'd hoped, but I did expect that when I bought it and I wasn't sorry. I won't comment on the introductory segments on numerology, astrology, or general card theory, as I largely skipped over that (although I suppose that's worthy of comment in itself). As some other reviewers have mentioned, of the 120 (or however many) spreads that there are in this book, a very large number of them are one, two, and three card spreads. I tend to make up my own spreads, often on the fly, so what I've found useful about this book is that both the simplistic and complex spreads give me different ideas or angles to use when I create my own spreads. To date, I've used this book to avoid getting into a rut in the way I define my cards, and I've used it to get inspiration for new spreads of my own. Quite frankly, I could get a lot of the same information browsing the web for spreads, but it's much more convenient for me to have a nice little collection that I can keep in the same place as my cards, plus it saves me the footwork.

In summary, this is an inexpensive book that I'd recommend for anyone with moderate expections looking for ideas or inspiration, but this book will definately not present you 100 new fancy spreads that you've never heard of before.