Customer Reviews

Tarot & Dream Interpretation (Special Topics in Tarot)

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La vida es sueño-life is a dream, said Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca. If that is so, then what are our dreams?

In "Tarot and Dream Interpretation," Julie Gillentine makes an original contribution to dream analysis that puts the intuition and reason of the dreamer-independent of psychoanalytic theory- right in the center of the process.

Gillentine asserts that, if the dream is an inner "oracle" of the dreamer's self and its relationships, then its symbolic meaning may be directly accessed and understood through the synchronistic process of meditating on Tarot cards.

For many persons, accustomed to viewing the Tarot as a spurious form of gypsy fortune-telling, such a proposition may justifiably provoke skepticism.

Yet for the reader seeking to assume greater responsibility for understanding his or her own dream life, Gillentine opens a doorway to seeing the Tarot in a new light.

In an initial overview, Gillentine reminds the reader that dreams may have mental, physical or spiritual significance, and classifies dream symbols as to their respective levels of meaning: universal, cultural and personal.

In the latter part of the book, she provides a basic outline of the Tarot cards, their distinctive symbolism, and their meanings, informed by her many years of study of the cabala and its allied art, astrology. She also has complied a comprehensive glossary of various meanings for dream images.

In between, Gillentine urges her readers to keep a dream journal, and presents her original dream-recording chart, which enables the dreamer to quickly identify key symbols and the feelings they evoked in the dream. This dream-keeping chart will benefit anyone desirous to quickly identify and reflect upon most the important elements of their dreams.

Gillentine's background as a psychology major in her undergraduate studies shines through in the chapter that recounts vivid dreams of her own, or of members of a dream group to which she belongs.

Her descriptions of the dreams convey the fluidic nature of dreamtime thinking itself. Through illustrating how dreams help readers answer significant personal questions and confront issues of growth, this section is an excellent encouragement to dream big and meaningfully but analyze carefully and thoughtfully.

This writer had to try the Tarot spreads Gillentine mentions in order to write an effective review. Suffice it to say that, while I was certainly familiar with the Tarot, this was the first time I had asked a question about a specific dream. After shuffling the deck and pulling out cards at random in the "Pyramid of Consciousness" spread, I received a reading that was stunning in summing up the major issues of my life at this time, while pointing me in a positive direction.

"Tarot and Dream Interpretation" is a tool-book for the dream artisan in all of us, a highly practical, effectively written guide to entering into an active relationship with one's own subconscious mind and the symbols it uses to speak.

Not sure if it's for you? Take out your cards and ask the question.

I can figure out many dreams. On others, especially the ones that hangs over you all like a dark cloud. The use of Tarot and dream interpretation can many times explain, not everything, but put the dream in a difference perspective. An understanding that helps the dream and a way to find out meaning. Dream dictionaries a good, but if you have the bizarre dreams I have, there isn't enough in the dictionary.
Dreams can be a huge insight into something happening to you or someone you care about, but don't understand. Oh ya, some dreams are easy to figure out when you think of the symbols it held and trace them backwards.
This is a combo that I have been looking for. My neighbor is always coming to me because of my insight and dissecting dreams. So now have this book and my own cards to help me.
BUY IT, IT IS WORTH IT IF YOU ARE ANYTHING LIKE ME.

Well written, well organized and beautifully illustrated. The information about dreams and merging it with Tarot cards gives more insight into the issues and meaning in dreams. Easy to ready and easy to apply. The glossory of symbols and their meaning in the back simplifies looking up symbols.
Each Tarot cards is illustrated with explanations. One Tarot card per page. This one is a keeper with extra editions to give away to special friends.

My favorite part of this book is the description of the cards, including the symbolism of the numbers, and especially the possibllties for expanding my sense of what my dreams could be showing me. Things I'd not thought of but which help a lot. I also really enjoyed the sample dreams that illustrate the different spreads to use. I keep the book and cards right by my dream journal.

What's unique about this book is Julie Gillentine's blending of Tarot with dream interpretation - two disciplines that aren't generally presented together. Julie outlines a simple system to decode the messages of our dreams using the Tarot. The dream card spreads are easy to understand, and her descriptions of the Tarot cards are helpful within the context of dream interpretation.

I never have used the Tarot to help interpret my dreams before reading this book and I found it to be helpful and unique. I have begun to keep a dream journal and use this book extensively to give me insights I would never have come up with on my own. The questions the author suggests we ask ourselves for the Dream Spreads have made me think about my life in a different way, and have caused me to make many positive changes.

"Tarot and Dream Interpretation" by Julie Gillentine sets a new standard for interpreting dreams using Tarot as a tool. The techniques developed and shared by Ms. Gillentine will help anybody with a knowledge of Tarot interpret dreams for themselves and others. That's something new in dream interpretation.

I've never heard of anybody suggesting that Tarot spreads be used for interpreting dreams until Julie Gillentine did just that in this book. I don't know of any other system of analyzing dreams that uses Tarot as a tool for dream analysis. This is something new for the tarot community and for dream interpreters.

Not only is it a new approach to interpreting dreams, it works. I've had the opportunity to help three different people understand their dreams using techniques described in this book. In all three cases, the cards helped us both understand the meaning of their dreams. In all three cases the dreams themselves were quite disturbing. But in all cases the real message of the dream as revealed by the cards was obvious to the dreamer by the end of the reading. All three clients felt the cards helped them understand their dream and helped them know what to do about a situation in each of their lives.

Dreams are one way our subconscious and higher minds communicate with us. This communication is often confusing and not easily understood. Tarot is one way we can understand our dreams and cut through the confusion.

I like this book and recommend it to you.

I looked forward eagerly to receiving this book, hoping for some new ideas to use. When I finally received it, I was very disappointed. Over half of the book was devoted to yet another list of not particularly different or original card meanings. This series from Llewellyn is supposed to be for non-beginners and this material frankly seemed a waste of space. I did not find any new or interesting tidbits for my tarot practice in this book.

Overall, this series from Llewellyn is excellent and well worth buying but this book came across as a good idea that was not sufficiently thought-through and did not have enough originality.