21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary K. Greer

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (May 8, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0738707848
ISBN-13: 978-0738707846

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for quite some time. I always wanted to get around to reading it, but kept forgetting to actually go back and read! A tarot discussion group on Facebook(tm) that I participate in frequently brought up this book, and this time I made sure I actually read it!

The book is set up as a series of steps to help the reader open up their mind to new and innovative interpretation techniques when performing a card reading. All of the exercises in the book are based off of an initial card pulled in the first exercise, with the recommendation to write down your results after each exercise. There are two levels of exercises included in each step: Apprentice and Adept. The Apprentice steps are quicker and more superficial versus the very deep reaching Adept exercises. My card that I pulled was The Tower from my Halloween Tarot deck, my favorite deck for the past 4 years. To be honest, some of the exercises were a bit more challenging because I drew a Major Arcana card and would have gone a bit easier if I had drawn a Minor, especially the sections on mode and suit.

This book is a long term read. I tried doing the exercises back to back, and my brain just couldn't take all of the information at once. I felt muddled and foggy after trying to plow through 5 of the exercises in a row. I'd honestly recommend doing an exercise a day/week/month. Use whatever time frame works best for you, but don't overload yourself with trying to go quickly through this book. The exercises go very in depth and challenge your viewpoints and the standard interpretation methods at first, but then she shows you how to combine methods seamlessly together in a very complex interpretation method. After the first few exercises, I just read through them so I could get a feel for the rest of the book. I think that it's great that she has so many different methods to use, but certain people might feel overwhelmed with trying to incorporate everything into a reading. If you used all the techniques on each card in a 10 card spread like the very popular Celtic Cross, you could be there for a day, at least.

Quite a few people that have spoken about the book and reviewers feel that this is a good beginning book to learn the Tarot. While I can see their reasoning behind this, I have to say I'm happy to be a more experienced reader with picking up this book for the first time. This book has the high chance of befuddling a person new to the Tarot with much more depth and things to look for than they are really ready for. This book, in my opinion, is a good intermediate level book. Read a few basic books, such as Complete Idiot's Guide to Tarot, which I will be reviewing soon, to get a few basics, then use this book to challenge yourself to go further.

One of the very slight downsides to this book is how many different decks she uses as examples throughout the book. While this does give great examples for comparison between different artists to help the reader look closer at the symbolism and imagery of each deck, it also encourages the reader to start collecting decks. Many of my fellow Tarot enthusiasts will agree that once the deck addiction has started, it doesn't stop easily! There is nothing wrong with collecting decks, but be prepared for your bank account to mysteriously drop while the postman brings more and more packages to your door.

Overall, I love using all of the techniques for doing a reading for myself where I don't mind taking the extra time and effort to really look deeply into it and find answers. For professional readers or those who read at parties, I would recommend getting the book for picking a few of the techniques to supplement your reading, but would also hold back and not do too many. Burn out is pretty easy if you try to do too many exercises or techniques at once. But, Mary Greer really encourages your thought and reading processes to a higher, more intricate level. I liked how she challenged me and pushed me further than I had really thought about with a card. Some experienced readers will note that a few of the exercises, particularly the ones on numbers, modes/suits, and symbols, will include some techniques you have already been using when reading. This book gives a new, creative look at the meanings of the cards, encouraging you to find your personal meanings and not rely on the book meanings as much. Just the few techniques I already went through have helped my reading to me more spontaneous and more intuitive.



If you really want to take the time and effort over the course of a few weeks or months and greatly change your view of the Tarot, I highly recommend this book.

If you want to get a copy of Mary's book for yourself, please click here to go to Amazon.