Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling: Illustrated Guide to the Spreading and Interpretation of the Popular 78-Card Tarot IJJ Deck of Muller & CIE, Switzerland [Box set] [Cards]

Stuart R. Kaplan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1970

Contains full description and meaning of each card and reveals ancient card spreads. Min: 1.

Product Details

• Cards: 78 pages
• Publisher: U.S. Games Systems, Inc. (June 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913866024
• ISBN-13: 978-0913866023
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good beginner's book to the IJJ deck., March 20, 2001

By 

Uri Raz (Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling: Illustrated Guide to the Spreading and Interpretation of the Popular 78-Card Tarot IJJ Deck of Muller & CIE, Switzerland (Cards)

This is a beginner's book to people who wish to read cards with the IJJ tarot deck - a traditional deck similar to the tarot of Marseille (which means the numbered cards just carry the appropriate number of of the suit's symbol, rather than a picture as in the Rider deck).

The book starts with a good introduction, which explains what a tarot deck is and tells about it's history. The introduction is much more solid that than of most beginners' books nowadays.

Chapter II covers the major arcana in the standard "Tarot 101" format - two pages per card, one with the card's picture and another with a description of the card, the card's meaninig when straight, and the card's meaning when upside down. The meanings are mainly keywords, which I think are not terribly accurate but are good enough for beginners.

Chapter III explains how to spread the cards using the Celtic Cross.

Chapter IV covers the minor arcana. Court cards are explained in the same format as the major arcana, while the numbered cards are given 5-6 lines each with just meanings. Again, the meanings are mostly keywords.

Chapter V explains several other spreads - a seven cards past/present/future spread, a complex name based spread, three overcomplicated, badly explained, and rather useless spreads (56 cards horseshoe, 54 cards royal, and 7th card), and a nice Gypsy spread.

A bibliography is included, which I think is of little use - it includes this book itself, along with several other books without a hint regarding which material was taken from which book and why.

This is an average beginner's book - it covers the basic needed material needed in a good fashion, but doesnt do a great job of it.