Customer Reviews

Mastering The Tarot S&S Int: A Guide To Advanced Tarot Reading And Practice

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

 

 

It was a long wait for me, after reading Fenton-Smiths first book The Tarot Revealed. Mastering The Tarot offers a clear and simple approach to tarot reading without all the confusing mystical bits. It's filled with information you'll use in an actual reading.

It also has a list of all the questions you'll ever want to ask in your next tarot reading and this alone is worth the price of the book.

Drawing upon real life readings, it is filled with interesting and often humorous examples of what happens during a reading. It also provides useful tips on becoming professional, cleansing your workplace and a set of guidelines for practising Tarot readers.

The chapter 'Stranger Than Fiction' had me laughing out loud as I could relate to some of the bizarre readings detailed there.

I found this book to be of significant assistance in furthering my understanding and enhancing my self learning of the tarot. The author uses straightforward examples, and gives practical advice for those who are contemplating pursuing a career as a tarot reader. He speaks in concrete terms that are direct and helpful, something I don't usually find in other tarot books. It is a must-have in any tarot reference collection.

The information in this book about the symbols in the cards and the colors is great, giving you a better understanding of how the colors of garments, flowers etc deepen the meaning of the card. They symbology is also explored for each card. This for me was one of the best parts of the book.

Some of the things about the book that are interesting are the examples he gives about situations he has been in, if you have never read for people before this can be useful. It can also be overwhelming. The types of people you will get as a Tarot reader are so varied; you would be writing forever if you attempted to suggest every possible client or scenario, Paul does however give some good situational examples. He also gives some interesting spreads and card combinations.

I have been reading Tarot Cards for over 5 years. I know that is not as long as the author and I do not claim to know everything but I found that a lot of things in this book do not go down well with me or my training. I was trained by an amazing Tarot Professional Gail. In her training she teaches that you should never suggest a physical death to a client, friend or anyone for that matter. To even suggest such a thing can plant a very powerful idea in a person's subconscious. The most you should ever do even if it looks very obvious in the cards is to suggest the person seeks medical attention. In more than one place in this book, Paul suggests that if there are enough of a certain card then if means physical death.

Paul also reads reversals. I personally do not do this. Some people do and it works well for them. I personally believe that there are enough "positive" and "negative" cards in the deck, the three of swords, nine of swords, the tower, five of pentacles, seven of swords and I can go on can be interpreted in a less than positive way. Even a card as beautiful as The Star, if surrounded by oppressive cards can mean that the lesson or beauty of the card is not there for the Client. Paul suggests that if the card is reversed the Client has not learnt the lesson of the previous card.

The suggestion in the book of using a blank card is something I have not really seen before. It is like using the blank rune (which I believe and it is only my personal view, is a spare. Just in case you lose another rune). I don't grasp why you would use that? Some decks like the Tao have a blank card included (the Tao is a black card) and Brian Froud's, Faeries Oracle also have a blank card, but to include that in a tarot reading is something I found a little unpractical.

I would not recommend this book to beginners and like all books, nothing should be taken as gospel, take what you want from the book and leave the rest. 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack is recommended and so is Professional Tarot by Christine Jette.

Bright Blessings

Ethony

I recently bought Mastering The Tarot by Paul Fenton

I've bought some of his other Tarot books as well such as The Tarot Revealed and Tarot Masterclass.

I find Pauls books to be excellent. They are not the most deep or spiritual Tarot books around but there are plenty of other books that embrace Tarot in greater depth. 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachael Pollock comes to mind.

Getting back to Pauls books, they are witten in easy to understand layman language and each books clearly explains the card meanings, the suit meanings, numerology and the stories of the major and minor acarna which helps to give greater understanding of the card meanings.

Paul also gives the best information on reversed card meanings that I have seen.

Mastering the Tarot (MTT) is now out of print and I recommend buying Pauls Tarot Masterclass book which appears to be an update of MTT

Paul is a very experienced, no nonsence, down to earth tarot expert. His books are full of examples of his readings and practical tips on how to go about becoming a professional Tarot reader.

I think any of his books are a valuable edition to the Tarot enthusiasts library at any stage of their interest or career

Reading this book is as easy as a novel, learning without pain. Stayed interesting all the way through which is pretty cool for an instructional book. As entertaining as it is, however, it is still a very informative, educational book. I liked his 'turn of phrase' and will even memorise exact phrases for my own tarot reading when professional. Enjoy.

I bought this book as I thought it was the same one I had burrowed from the libary.. But it wasnt, its good, but I guess I should have checked more before I bought as it does not contain as much info as I wanted... Still a good buy though