Customer Reviews

Tarot for Your Self

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

TAROT FOR YOUR SELF, is an excellent source of information for the beginner and the experienced tarot reader alike.

It is not a book that you read and think about, or a book that lists keywords for each card, it is a workbook that requires your attention. It is a tarot journal and an experience through which you learn valuable tarot lessons. Greer offers meditations, rituals, visualizations and dialogues. She introduces you to the court cards in such a good way, that you feel as though you would recognize them on the street, and yet, you are also able to recognize them in yourself too! She also offers mandalas, charts, astrology, numerolgy and affirmations, which are all designed to bring you closer to the tarot, to develop a better understanding and to allow you to "experience yourself in new and ever expanding ways" through the tarot.

TAROT FOR YOUR SELF is also an excellent reference book having a section dedicated to extensive meanings of each card and questions you need to ask yourself on pulling each card. It also offers insight on various spreads... from a one card reading, to the Celtic Cross, chakra spread and also the "Tree of Life" spread. Again, Greer introduces the spreads in such a way that it feels as though she is taking you by the hand and walking through each step. Its great... you just can't make a mistake no matter how complex the reading is!

Of course, TAROT FOR YOUR SELF can be found on most prominent tarot reader's bookshelves, as it is classified by many as an invaluable tool in your tarot journey and a "must have" for anyone interested in tarot. Dollar for dollar, it is excellent value. However the book has 253 good quality letter-sized pages.

Certainly TAROT FOR YOU SELF is a highly recommended book, and a valuable aid in learning and mastering the tarot.

I had read cards for several years without much enthusiasm or depth before stumbling across this book and the two companion books, "Tarot Constellations" and "Tarot Mirrors" (both sadly out of print). The books were a turning point that allowed me to go beyond simply reciting memorized meanings of cards.

If you have no imagination or intuition this book will be frustrating. If you require a book on tarot to tell you exactly what the author tells you exactly what how to interpret each card in three sentences or less you will not enjoy this book. If you are a person who is unwilling to spend time reading, processing and doing some of the exercises presented you will hate this book. Of course if you are one of those people one has to wonder just why you are reading Trot in the first place. "Tarot for Yourself" is not a quick `how to read the tarot' book. Ms. Greer asks you to think and process her ideas for yourself discarding what you don't find useful and adding your personal views to make reading cards a unique experience.

Designed as a workbook "Tarot for Yourself" encourages you to expand your horizons with the method you use for reading. I recommend this book often and suggest people take a year to read, practice and grow while working through the exercises. Ms. Greer encourages you to discover your particular way of interpreting cards. "Tarot for Yourself" provides over a dozen spreads to spur your creativity and give you the information and confidence to create your own spreads.

The greatest message Ms. Greer imparts is `trust yourself.'

When I first discovered this book in the 1980s, I was amazed at how fast and how much I learned in a short period of time! It is fun, and very easy to understand. Not to say it isn't great for experienced tarot readers. On the contrary! It goes as deep as you allow yourself to go. I love the new ways to study and play with the tarot. It was so much easier to open the doors after using this book. Until I got "Tarot For Yourself", most if not all, the other books I had previously bought seemed boring and very dry, or too cynical. She also goes into other authors' interpretations.and that allowed me to be much more open and relaxed about reading tarot for myself, and other people. Until I got this book, not many people believed that it was okay to read cards for yourself! (That was in the 1980s, remember)--- I got rid of all my other tarot books after I found this one! Of course, I also read her others (2 at that time) which take tarot even further and deeper. I love this book! It's the only one I need to use, even after 20 + years of looking at newer and older books. Just one ingredient in this book makes it more informative than the other books on the subject, and that is the fact that IT IS FUN with Mary K. Greer. She opened the door to allowing oneself to enjoy and play with the cards. Whatever deck a person owns, or how many decks, you can use this book, because she also encourages and enables you to use your own interpretations, and that there is no "right interpretation". Symbolism and intuition, which the tarot is based on, are stressed here. No superior, esoteric puzzles to try and figure out. My recommndation: Buy this book, and PLAY with your cards. Most of all, have fun doing it!

I belive that it is good to read books about the tarot to give you some informative insight as a beginner, but it sticks better when you have a workbook, especially as in-depth as this one. Mary Greer touches on, if not everything, then many things you should know about the tarot. Like a reviewer already stated, it's not just about memorizing the cards (which could be very tedious), but learning how to build your own feeling and intuition for the cards, and relating them to your situations in your own life. By the time your done with this book, you will feel much more comfortable with tarot and your intuition relating to your life. I highly recommend this book because not just your regular tarot book, it's more like SERIOUSLY learning something new! I believe that experienced tarot card readers can benifit from this. This book is a challenge, but it's a lot of fun! Before you can read others, you should know how to read your self! I hope I've convinced you! Happy reading!

As a Tarot Instructor and professional reader when most people ask me about Tarot books I usually am not impressed. Too much emphasis is placed on the authours process and not enough on getting the person reading the book to read cards well. Not so with Tarot For Yourself. This is probably the finest Tarot book I have read. Simple, playful exercises and ideas get you working with the powerful symbolism in the cards right away. As you progress through the book more and more specific information is presented to help you learn how YOU best work with the cards. This is definately a classic in the Tarot field- but it is also quite up-to-date and even revolutionary in some of the approaches it suggests. This is the only book I let my beginning students use for Tarot. And with good reason. Ms. Greer has done an excellent job of providing you with a path to find the Meaning of Tarot for yourself instead of asking you to memorize her opinions and revelations. Tarot is magic and this book captures some of that wonderful mystery and excitment. Try it for yourself.

I am a beginner with the tarot, and I started working with the "other" books. I found that alot of beginner books on tarot are basically reference books on the authors description of each card. Some of them are great to look up meanings but not so much for actually HOW to read them. In Mary Greer's Tarot for Yourself, it's a whole new perspective. After just the first couple of chapters I had so much more insight into the cards than I did before. Alot of her exercises may seem silly at first, like..."entering a card" and "talking to the characters in the card." I was like..."wow, I feel a little crazy doing this." BUT, I have to admit there is a method to the madness...it actually WORKS. Not only do you learn about the tarot, and about yourself, but you have a load of fun doing it. There is also a ton of stuff about astrology, numerology, meditation, etc. While Greer takes the subject seriously, she makes it seem very light and airy, and lets you actually PLAY with the cards. You don't feel like you are reading, studying, and memorizing while working with this book. If your going to invest in any tarot book at all this should be the one. I consider it a staple for anyone who practices tarot.

...This should be the one! Ms. Greer invites you to get to know the deck not just as a divination tool, but as a way of exploring patterns in your life. She offers great permutations, new ways of looking at old readings--you'll never look at the Celtic Cross quite the same way again once you've 'turned the wheel!' Her chapter on court cards is invaluable--I personally have always found the court cards hard to get a handle on, but through her exercises, I feel much more at home with them. And that's the point--they're exercises so you KNOW tarot, not just some canned memorized responses. Also, her exercises are FUN, keeping the element of play that one needs in tarot, whether you view it as serious divination or jungian, your intuition needs space to free-range, and it has this space through her exercises. A truly essential read for any tarot student.

Mary Greer has written a book that assists anyone to learn as much as they wish to learn about the tarot. She does not recommend any one deck nor does she tell you that you must memorize meanings for each card. Instead she offers ways to use your own mind, spirit and psychic ability to interpret the cards in the was you best understand. Since you are defining your own meanings, you will not forget them and will also feel free to add to and/or alter them as your knowledge and exposure to the cards increase. I teach the tarot in adult education classes and this is the only book I suggest my students purchase. If they do all the exeercises in this book, they will know more about the tarot than I do, and will have enjoyed learning.

I'm a Tarot schoolar and teacher. This book is a must to all beginners and not so beginners Tarot lovers. Indeed is the best Tarot book I haver read and I recommend it to every person really interrested in Tarot as a serious and honorable matter.

First, I must say that the previous reviewer shuns the author's decision to include other books as recommended reading, yet I find that when an author does this, they are helping the reader truly expand on the subject, and it shows that the author is secure enough to not feel that their way is the only way. This book has been THE most helpful book for me to learn the Tarot, and about myself and friends/family. There's a bit of numerology in it, and some lessons that are fun to do, at the same time, these teach more about the cards. I would recommend this book to novices and skilled alike.