Journaling the Tarot: Evolutions by Andy Matzner

If you’ve spent much time on this site you will know, without a doubt, that I love tarot. If you’ve explored around a bit you’ll also know I’m a pretty big fan of journaling. So, when it came into my awareness that there was a book that combines the two I was pretty keen. Throw in a solid selection of quotes, my other weakness, and I’m a happy girl. Journaling the Tarot: Evolutions was always going to find its way on to my shelves.

Inspired by the Waite-Smith tarot deck, Journaling the Tarot: Evolutions is a comprehensive book. Andy Matzner states that he “used every detail of Pamela’s artwork to help [him] generate questions. He adds that “if at first glance it seems that a journal question doesn’t go with its card, [he] can assure you – at the moment in time [he] was working with the card, it made sense to him.” I have to admit, on my initial flick through, in some cases I had some “huh????” moments. But I decided to just consider the question I’d chosen alongside the card I had selected and see where I ended up. And, I’m glad I did because I’ve ended up with some fresh new insights about both the card and myself that I may not have discovered otherwise.

Journaling the Tarot: Evolutions has a very simple layout. Beginning with the Major Arcana and ending with the King of Pentacles, you’ll find a page, (or two, or three), of quotes related to the card, (which he also suggests you consider when journaling with the card), followed by around fifty journal prompts. Some cards have fewer prompts, for example the 8 of Pentacles has only 22, whereas others such as the 3 of Pentacles has 58 prompts. Put simply, you definitely won’t feel diddled if you open to a page that has less. There is so much on offer. The only thing you might find yourself wondering is ‘which one shall I do?’ To help decide which prompt to write on, Matzner suggests using a random number generator. I’m going to give that a try tomorrow.

About the Author

Andy Matzner is a psychotherapist, author, educator, group facilitator and tarot enthusiast. To date he has written seven other books:

Tarot for Transformation which he summarises as “using the major arcana to discover your best self and have a life worth living
The Tarot Activity Book – A collection of creative and therapeutic ideas for the cards
Journaling the Tarot – A little book of big questions
The Buddha Diet – A guide to creating a positive relationship with food and eating
Everyone has a Story – Using the hero’s journey and narrative therapy to reframe the struggle of mental health
Voices from Hawaii’s Mahu and Transgender Communities
Male Bodies, Women’s Souls – Personal narratives of Thailand’s transgender youth (co-authored with LeeRay Costa)

I have The Tarot Activity Book as well. I’ll put up a review on that shortly. I want to have a go of some of the suggestions first.

Generally I include a table of contents in my book reviews, but that isn’t applicable in this case because there isn’t one. The book is easy enough to navigate but it would have been a bit quicker to find the particular card you’re looking for if one had been included. That being said there are no page numbers either. It’s not a big deal though.

Journaling the Tarot: Evolutions does what it sets out to do. It provides an extensive list of journal prompts that is bound to keep any tarot-inspired journaler happy.