I'm a deep dive person.  I meditate on things until I dream in its language.  I didn't read books in my beginning studies of tarot, I spoke with the cards and recorded readings.  You don't need a book to read tarot.  Using my own experience with symbol, I'd stared at the LWB that came with my Rider Waite Smith deck for years.  Why?  I don't buy books to collect.  I put them to work.  I don't look for tarot spreads or someone to tell me the “right” way to read, I ask my relationship with cards to reveal more of the Mystery.

But when I wanted to deepen my studies without re-inventing the wheel, THIS was what I needed next.

People mention they would like to learn to read tarot cards, or have just been “messing around” with them, but want to get better.  I now have an accessible recommendation for them.

I can say without hesitation if you want to read tarot at a deeper level, grab your deck, a pencil, and this book.

I feared this would be the source material of the oft-repeated keys words and single paragraph resource meanings, like an LWB expansion pack.  Oh, honey-child, was I wrong.

After a new preface, Origins and influences are covered in the introduction, starting in Italy.  At first I skipped it, intending to hurry up and get to the “meat” of the book.  But if you're normally like me, I would suggest doubling back.  It isn't a dense regurgitation of names and dates.  She begins describing the Visconti family cards, pondering the odd, relaxed posture of L'Apezzo, the Traitor, known as The Hanged Man in many Modern RWS derived decks.  This approach gets you curious, asking questions.  Why name this card the Traitor?  Why so relaxed and calm?  Why upside down?  Before you know it, we're talking alchemy, TS Eliot, Kabbalah, and Jung.  

That is my kind of history lesson.  And it's a great introduction to what Rachel Pollack manages to do throughout the book.  She breathes life, intrigue, and relevance into the cards and their relationships so that the details weave a story worth reading.  

Please note this book focuses primarily on Rider Waite Smith tarot family tree, not because they are the “correct” ones, but because she finds the scenic Minors an important deviation from the other systems, a space to allow individual experience to flow into the inherited traditional meanings.  I was also pleased to see the author makes zero attempt to downplay the existence, use, and equal value of other tarot systems.  I personally believe the archetypal information is largely transferable between the systems, so don't discount the book if you also work with others.  

Usually you get pages upon pages for the Major Arcana and a sneeze of a mention per Minor card.  Ms Pollack does give us 86 pages for the Major Arcana, and doesn't waste not a one.  She looks at the Trumps as a progressive tri-leveled sequence without neglecting the layers upon layers of significance in each card.  However, there are still a satisfying 117 pages devoted to the minor arcana. 

I especially appreciate the introduction to the Minors really makes sure to show the interplay between the suits and the rest of the deck as a whole.

The book uses this technique often, pointing forward and back, as shown on pg 178, comparing and contrasting the 4 of Wands and the Tower.  This immediately breaks through a robotic rote understanding while adding depth and data into an intuitive approach, leaving us in deeper relationship with not just a single card, but the whole deck.  I'm so for it today and how it must have rocked the community 30 years ago.

The spread section is ok, but it not the main strength of this book.  She would leave a new tarot reader woefully unschooled without ye olde Celtic Cross and sample readings.  However, I was pleased to see something a bit more intricate as the Tree of Life, pages upon pages of sephora explanation and all.  The author's experience and depth of learning and teaching really shines through.