Customer Reviews

Illustrated Tarot Spreads: 78 New Layouts For Personal Discovery

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have had the opportunity to work with several different books that collect tarot card readings in them. To its credit, this one is the strongest graphically. It has picture examples of many decks that I have not been able to find in the common market that are absolutely stunning visually and very nice to see. The book does have several nice layouts that are useful for people who are just starting out and would like to get some basic ideas. However, there really aren't enough in the book to make it challenging or interesting to me, a person who has read for several years. Besides this, several of the readings don't "read" well, and I have found them to be of limited use for me. I have not taken any one of the readings out of this text as inspiring enough to me for memorization, and I have gotten little inspiration for new layouts of my own, either. All in all, this book was not as strong as promised.

I happened to find a copy of "Illustrated Tarot Spreads" in a used book store recently, and I must say I wish I had sprung and bought a copy earlier.

The main feature of this book are the 78 different Tarot card spreads in this book - that's one for every card in the Tarot deck. That's a lot of spreads, and thus you might find that some of them aren't "right" for you.

I've been reading a long time, and I generally use a "Tree of Life" spread when reading for my friends, and a "Celtic Cross" when reading for people I don't know. But this book provides tools to read for both of those types of readings, as well as plenty in between.

The authors start with an introduction to Tarot cards, as many books geared to beginners do. There's a nice section about Using the Tarot properly, and an unusual section dealing with a "Sum of the Digits" card that might add a new facet to readings. Then there's a short guide to interpreting meanings of cards, followed by a section that allows you to select your significator - your own personal Tarot card.

Then we finally get into the meat of this book - the 78 different Tarot reading spreads. I found some of the beginning spreads such as the three card "Know Thyself" and the four card "Reaching the Goal" too simple for an in depth reading, but they might be OK for an answer to a simple question or a surface reading. There are two instances of using the Celtic Cross arrangement - one for your use on yourself and another with prompts for using it on others. There's three occurrences of the "Tree of Life" layout I like to use - one labeled "as the Tarot sees it", one labeled "of the seven levels", and one labeled "My World". The prompts for discovering the meanings of the cards in the layout are different for each, but I would have been happier had there only been one occurrence of each type of layout.

One of my favorite sections was the Astrological signs. There are layouts for each sign of the Zodiac, as well as a general Astrological sign layout. Each includes ways to find out what each card means in that layout. I plan on using this to tailor my deeper readings of people I don't know well based on their star sign.

The book ends with a fantastic "Structure of Life" layout using 34 cards. Labeled "The Total Human Being", it is broken down into easily digestible sections each dealing with a different facet of things that normally come up in readings. I am now using this layout for thorough readings for friends.

This is a good book for beginners, and a fine book to add to the experienced Tarot Card reader's library. If you want to do more than the "Celtic Cross" then this book is for you.

This is an excellent book for anyone. If you are just starting out or an accomplished reader, this is a great resource to have on hand. It can be used with any Tarot deck. The book covers many different issues and has more spreads than any book I have seen. A must for anyone serious about Tarot.

I really enjoyed this book. It provides detailed instructions for many spreads that I have never even heard of, as well as many I have. I do have to admit though, that a few of the spreads I tried, didn't seem to really "work" well. But then again, not always does one spread suit two different readings or individuals. I think that overall, this book offers more useful spreads than I have ever seen placed into one book as well as using very unique and lovely decks for the pictorials.

There are a lot of books out there about the cards -- it's nice to find a book focused on spreads. This book has a few pages of introductory material at the beginning, and the remaining pages show the spreads. As a newcomer to tarot, I found the spreads varied and interesting and the introductory material useful, compared to other books I've read. Though I would have liked to have a little more discussion of the spreads themselves, overall I like this book.

This book was a waste of my money. The book includes many spreads but little information on interpreting them and the correlation with each card. It just sits on my bookshelf.

This book offers some info on tarot (another reviewer covered this already...), but, its main beauty is the amount of wonderful spreads it offers.
Each page has a spread on it. I've never encounterd so many of them with such clear definitions for each card placement.
My friends and I use it often to do readings for each other.
I also use it just for myself, and family members.
We always find a spread in this book that covers the situation we need a reading for.

Readings done with these spreads have always turned out to be very indepth, exciting and lots of fun.
You can easily change them a bit, if needed, to fit your situation. But, I'm pretty sure you'll find a spread, just like it is, that will satisfy your reading need.

"Illustrated Tarot Spreads" is one of my main Tarot books.
I find it so useful, everyday, because it's spreads cover such a large variety of subjects in a very straight forward style. And its illustrations are large.

If you are a Tarot lover, and enjoy using,and learning, many different spreads you will not be disappointed with this book.
It's well worth its money, and you'll probably wear it out!

This book is for all those questions you really wish you had a spread for!! Not your typical "10 card spread" "celtic cross" tarot book...great spreads and easy to use!!!