Tarot for Life: Reading the Cards for Everyday Guidance and Growth [Paperback]

Paul Quinn (Author), Rachel Pollack (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2009

Paul Quinn transforms the Tarot from fortune-telling into the ultimate self-help tool for intuitive guidance, empowerment, and well-being. Discover how to apply the Tarot, as a lifelong resource, to access inner wisdom and gain deeper insights and practical, inspired guidance in relationships, career, family, and personal growth. With illustrations from the Universal Waite deck, the book offers 78 engaging casebook examples (one for each card) from Quinn’s readings for clients. Drawing on Jungian psychology, the Hindu chakras, and other esoteric traditions, he explains how the Tarot can reveal unconscious patterns and offer soul-directed advice leading to positive changes and greater well-being. Quinn also provides guidelines on reading the cards for oneself and others, interpreting reversed cards, handling difficult disclosures, and psychic self-care.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is not just theory; it comes from someone who knows.
From the foreword by Rachel Pollack

A masterful guide to better understanding your inner self and the challenges life brings on. No one better shows you how to use Tarot as it was designed to be used, for dialogue and conversation with your Higher Self. This book is a delightful way to grow to your fullest potential. I love it.
—Sonia Choquette, Ph.D., author of Trust Your Vibes, The Psychic Pathway, Soul Lessons and Soul Purpose

Takes Tarot to a deeper level—not just for 'fortunetelling,' but as a tool for initiation on the higher planes. Paul Quinn has written a clear and concise handbook for understanding these important archetypes and their meaning in your life.
—Anodea Judith, M.A., author of Wheels of Life, Eastern Body-Western Mind, The Illuminated Chakras, Waking the Global Heart

Paul Quinn has seamlessly integrated the best of Tarot tradition with a new vision for the twenty-first century. While maintaining respect for the Tarot as a divinatory tool, he also demonstrates its estimable value for personal development and increasing consciousness of one's life path.
—Dr. Kenneth James, Jung Institute of Chicago

Paul Quinn's valuable book explores the universal spiritual power that lies not only in the ancient symbols of the Tarot, but in our own willingness to find the meaning and message of those symbols deep within ourselves. It is a useful and entertaining guide for every spiritual journey.
—Reverend Ed Townley, Unity Minister

Thought-provoking and beautifully descriptive. I love your witty and urbane writer's voice. You are an extremely efficient and visual writer, warm, nurturing and a fantastic guide for the reader. Your sense of humor is a wonderful teaching tool. I thoroughly enjoyed your book.
—Gayle Seminara-Mandel, Owner, Transitions Bookplace

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Quest Books; Original edition (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0835608794
• ISBN-13: 978-0835608794
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Quinn is an author, teacher, and professional intuitive coach who is passionate about helping others gain insights leading to positive changes and greater well-being. He uses the Tarot as a tool to intuitively access the soul wisdom and guidance which he believes is present within everyone. Listed in 2004 as a "top talent" in Tarot by Chicago Magazine, he is author of Tarot for Life: Reading the Cards for Everyday Guidance and Growth(Quest Books).

Paul has been reading the cards for clients since 2000. He combines clairsentience, or the feeling he receives about the cards, with strategies to help clients integrate and act upon the insights offered. He uses the Tarot not as fortune-telling, but as a way to shed light on the influences -inner and outer -- that shape our life experiences, and identify opportunities for growth and transformation.

He picked up his first Tarot deck in 1998. The attraction for Paul was not just the cards but how their meanings corresponded with his lifelong studies in spirituality, mysticism, astrology, psychology, theatre, and human potential. The Tarot gave him the opportunity to integrate skills he had formally developed in practitioner certification programs from Chicago's NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Institute, Oasis Center for Human Potential Facilitator Training Program (1-year intensive), and in numerous consciousness-oriented programs at the Omega Institute, CG Jung Center, and Association for Humanistic Psychology.

Articulate, humorous, and inspiring, Paul gives interactive presentations on the Tarot, synchronicity, and practical mysticism, which he calls "the spirited life." He has presented programs for the Swedenborg Library, Chicago Spiritual Advisory Council, Institute for Noetic Sciences, Theosophical Society of America, Unity churches, and bookstores. He has been interviewed on radio programs internationally and on Chicago-area television programs.

Paul has taught Tarot classes in the Chicago area since 2000. More than teaching card meanings, he describes his course as a vibrant, playful "soul classroom" for exploring the Tarot as a lifelong tool for charting an inner-directed path to growth. Internationally renowned psychic Sonia Choquette, author of 14 books on intuition, sums up Paul's dynamic and immersive teaching approach: "Paul doesn't teach the Tarot, he teaches you to channel the Tarot." His Tarot class attracts a wide spectrum of students, including homemakers, healthcare professionals, artists, life coaches, and entrepreneurs.

Contact Paul through his website www.TheSpiritedLife.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best I have ever read and I have read the all!! August 4, 2009

By Jack L. Sleigh

Format:Paperback

Over the past 35 years I have bought or perused just about every book on tarot that there is. The single most inspiring is TAROT FOR LIFE. I have had to wait 35 years to find a book that can be used as a textbook for myself and students. Its simplicity yet depth is a jewel. I could easily get rid of my tarot book library and carry this one with me for ever. Yes it is simple for beginners and intermediates but it inspires advanced and practicing users in a way that is magical, opening doors to the self and doors of understanding others that is contemporary and free of all the blah, blah, blah that other writers concern themselves with. Mr. Quinn writes with the deepest understanding of the workings of the cards and the deepest understanding of human nature. He is able to blend these beautifully as a guide for the reader's interpretation and expanding knowledge. I have read books on tarot that are interesting in their complexity but useless in their practicality and I have read others that are interesting because of their concentration. Many of the latter are obviously written to make money. TAROT FOR LIFE stands on its own. Tarot reading should be simple and straightforward. The hard work is not done in the memorization of lots of card meanings nor the knowledge of esoteric symbols. The real work is done by the user who delves deep within themselves, reflecting on their true self and then knowing and linking their self to the universal. Psychic feedback is a result of this relationship not an end in itself. Mr. Quinn's book will get you to this place. Your job is to lose the self that you know and cling to. Our exploration of self through the tarot helps us to understand and experience how we already ARE free like the Fool but masterful like the Magician and all knowing like the High Priestess. This is by far the only book on tarot that you will NEED.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read and well thought out September 14, 2009

By Jennie Lin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Paul Quinn's book "Tarot for Life" is my new number one tarot book. It's not about 78 degrees of wisdom (which was totally over my head when I was first learning tarot). Instead, it's a fresh approach, a fresh voice in my tarot journey. Totally readable, it dives into each card in a well-thought-out approach. Key words are kept to a minimum; the book focuses on friendly narrative about 78 old friends. And it's the "stories" at the end of each chapter that really bring it all home. First, the stories are short. Extra points for that, in my opinion. But secondly, the revelations are spot on. They illustrate the meaning of the card AND help teach me new insights for my own readings. "Tarot for Life" is the right size (feels great in your hands) and laid out well on the inside (the quotes Mr Quinn uses for each and every card are worth the price of the book alone!). It has truly become my most treasured tarot book. Beginners, intermediates, and experienced tarot readers would all gain something from this book.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and practical June 4, 2009

By Emberweave

Format:Paperback

This book is a good addition to every person's New Age shelf. I'm not the most expert person in the Tarot, but I'm not a complete novice either and this book really fills the gap between the two. I've found several books that go so deeply into the meanings of the cards that they make Lord of the Rings seem terse, while "beginner" books get so bogged down in the practical details of spreads that they forget to help with the actual interpretation. This book finds just the right balance between the two. The explanations of the cards are thorough enough to give the reader a good grasp of the cards without feeling overwhelmed. There are little stories at the end of each explanation which help demonstrate interpretations without making each card seem fixed with just one way of looking at things. The How to do Readings section at the end offers sound advice on when to do (and when NOT to do) readings for yourself and others. There are also some new ideas for spreads which I've never seen before and they were fun to do. Tarot for Life was an entertaining read, but was also very helpful and practical and made the Tarot Cards much more accessible to me than they have ever been.