A.M.

The Best Way to Learn About Tarot!

Revisado: 10-09-24

When I first grew interested in Tarot, I came across Lisa Papez's Youtube channel, where she reviews new tarot decks, discusses books on tarot, and even explains each card in detail. It was through her that I began to grasp the meaning behind tarot as well as ways that I could apply my own interpretations.

She is an incredible teacher and this book turned out to be a fantastic distillation of knowledge on the Tarot, laid out in the most direct and helpful way possible. She demystifies several areas that are often quite confusing to those new to tarot, such as how to grasp the court cards and identifying the differences between cards that appear similar at a glance (such as the Judgement and Justice cards). She also encourages a keyword system to help those new to tarot to develop their own ways to remember the meanings behind each card. The exercises and spreads included in this book are also incredibly helpful for those who wish to actively engage in studying the tarot. Everything is quite direct and easy to wrap one's head around.

The audiobook version narrated by Coleen Marlo is stellar -- her voice is clear and easy to understand. Though, I would recommend the print version as well as this is a fantastic reference book to return to often for both new and accustomed tarot readers.

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I reccommend this for detatched, objective minds

Revisado: 09-04-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Michael Puttonen has a lovely narrative voice. I appreciate how he approached this book with his performance.

However, the work itself was not engaging enough to keep my attention. Often the writer will arrive at a point, define the point with a more accurate linguistic term than what is commonly used, build up a detailed metaphor to show the term in practice and then repeat the thesis in a myriad of ways to drive that definition home. However, conclusions felt like an afterthought when those arrived and the meandering nature of this expository approach left me -- I really hate to say this -- bored.

For example, communities are interesting when described as "transacting swarms" and how that could be illustrated when it comes to insects and how they work in community, but that does not really delve into what that means for humans when those transactions result in the oppression of those without social advantage (i.e. how does a transacting swarm thrive when subjected to classism, racism, or sexism to oppress portions of the swarm for the short term benefit of a smaller portion of the swarm). If the point was made, then I missed it over the repetitive use of "transacting swarm" throughout the chapter as the point was driven home over and over again of how this definition works to help explain a facet of human nature.

In the books, I got as far as the concept of "fetish" as an alternate, non-sexual way of describing the mechanics of belief systems. It reached a passage about the value "fetish" attributed to money, where the narrator had to repeat several common sayings about money (i.e. "Time is Money." "It takes Money to Make Money", "Money is power.", etc etc.)... and that's when I realized I was bored. I could not make it past chapter 7. Perhaps there are great insights toward the middle and end of the book -- things that could connect these ideas to the seemingly chaotic nature of humans -- but I was not engaged in the meandering path enough to do so.

If this is a subject of study that interests you, if you are familiar with the author and his theories, if you have an objective, logical mind and wish for a new view on terminology in how some human concepts can be described in more interesting ways -- this may be the book for you. The narrator is certainly worth it.

However, if you see the fascinating cover and check it out as a subjective mood reader like me, you may be bored. This is not the sort of non-fiction book you'd read as you would an interesting podcast on an obscure topic. Nor are the concepts too complex to wrap your head around. It's simply... rather detached and meandering. It might leave you wondering what the point is to consider human concepts with different terminology.

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An Incredible Journey

Revisado: 06-13-24

The narration was incredible and the story itself is unforgettable. I loved how each section of the story paid homage to different notable writers and how the main character stayed consistant throughout -- I think a lesser writer could have failed but this was exceptional. I will likely read this again, as this feels like a modern classic for those who enjoy modern classics... and also who wished Spielberg's A.I. had been a much better film with a far more interesting story structure.

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