Guest Author - Karen Artino
Maria Shaw begins the book for this set as she recounts how her mother first taught her how to read the tarot, and how she subsequently developed to become a professional reader. Includes tips on how to increase one's own psychic abilities and improve the accuracy of the readings. She shares, "Our job is to show people the good and not so good, but also to give them hope." Maria encourages young readers to "give them a different way of looking at things, a new perspective, but remember, it is they who choose to walk the path." She prompts them to trust their first thoughts and intuitions as they begin to work with the cards.
The author should be commended for emphasizing the responsibility, and the need for ethics when reading for others. She reminds teens that often people will reveal intimate secrets and details that need to be kept confidential. Also she stresses that becoming a reader is a sort of spiritual calling, it helps your own spirit to develop by forcing you to look at people, lives and problems from a higher perspective.
The companion book includes indepth descriptions and interpretations of each card in the deck, with both positive and negative qualities of the cards and keywords to help them memorize the meanings. A light, teen-friendly cover graces both the kit box and the book cover. The author does a good job of introducing tarot's history, and gives a great overview of the Major and Minor Arcanas in understandable language. For instance, "the Major Arcana is connected to the big events in our lives, such as graduation, marriage, death, and any life-altering triumphs and tragedies.
Easy to understand directions, card care, making your own tarot bag with illustrations for clarity, preparing for readings (cutting, shuffling, and simple spreads) are included. She includes a nice section on various spreads including modern ones such as "Thought for the Day/Daily Theme Card" to more traditional ones like the Celtic Cross. There is also a separate section on "Love" layouts. The book concludes with detailed, simple to read Upright and Reversed reading guides for all 78 cards.
The tarot deck included in this kit is the Universal Tarot, first developed by A. E. Waite and R. DeAngelis (LoScarabeo publishing). The deck sports traditional fine pen and ink colored images from the medieval period, and uses the traditional four suits: cups, wand, swords and pentacles. This kit makes a great gift for any teen who desires to increase their psychic abilities and develop skill in predicting the future for themselves or others.
Published in 2004, the deck includes 78 cards, with 22 Major and 56 Minor Arcana cards and fits nicely into a teen's hand.
Karen Artino - Tarot Editor
