Tarot Tableau Revolution

I became aware of Tarot Tableau Revolution through Dina Rosenberg (creator of Crystal Keys Tarot). Dina runs a podcast called Apothecary After Dark with her business partner and one of the episodes she pointed me to was an interview with Maria Alviz Hernando, author of Tarot Tableau Revolution. While still listening to Maria speak, I grabbed my phone and ordered her book. While much of her teachings aren’t applicable to how I approach tarot, I found the book fascinating and I picked up some new ideas that I’ve since incorporated into my practice. I’ll be writing individual posts on those, but I will touch on a couple of them later.

The focus of Tarot Tableau Revolution

This is an interesting book. As the name suggests it is based around an idea familiar to those that read Lenormand — the tableau. Maria’s book focuses on a Nine Card Tableau. Although she does include a chapter on a 5 x 5 Tableau.

What she does really well, and why I consider this book suitable for beginners, is spend the first third of the book introducing the various techniques. For each technique she provides sample readings followed by an exercise to help you navigate the process. In gradually building on each layer in this way, you develop a basic understanding of her approach so that when she lays out the full spread you’re well prepared.

The focus of this book is around predictive readings. Thus she is adamant that, “The reading is always about the question asked, and not something else.” The way she structures the exercises around this central tenet forced me to look at the cards in different ways which helped me see things that I hadn’t noticed before.

Sample exercise

One of the exercises very early on in the book is called “Understanding Your Card Meanings.” For this exercise she lays out twenty five questions to answer with a single card. She uses the Nine of Swords for her example and then has you pick a card and do the same. I found this exercise fascinating. Below are five of the twenty-five questions:

1. How does this card describe something that is broken?
2. How does this card describe a friend?
3. How does this card describe an investment?
4. How does this card describe a new relationship?
5. How does this card describe a salary?

I did this with the Six of Pentacles because it is a card I struggle with. In many ways it helped me to make peace with the card.

But the Tarot Tableau Revolution isn’t all about getting to know individual cards. As she points out,

If a card is a piece of the puzzle, there’s only so much that we can learn from it on its own. We instead understand the card by how it connects with others.

If you’ve read any of my spread posts you’ll know that I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

In the second third of the book she shares how she draws information from the individual cards based on how they interact with the cards around them. Maria Alviz Hernando has some interesting ideas and while I don’t agree with all of them, I like that this book doesn’t just re-word the same material that can be found in many other tarot books.

Another technique

One technique I have embraced is Knighting. Based on the movement of the Knight in chess this is a technique generally associated with Lenormand. I’ve found it an effective way to introduce additional layers. Maria believes it shows underlying motives and she recommends using it if a card isn’t making sense to you.

7 things I like about Tarot Tableau Revolution

1. She has a great way of expressing the court cards.
2. She doesn’t just rehash the same information you see in many other books. She stands by how she sees things based on her own logic which she shares without discrediting other’s opinions.
3. Many exercises focus on getting you to interpret cards within a particular context which strengthens storytelling and staying focused on the question.
4. Even exercises that don’t relate to your style of reading can be beneficial.
5. It’s a fantastic book for those who want to answer day to day questions, including yes/no, this or that, and timing type questions.
6. Easy to read and well laid out.
7. The Recommended Reading list. I’m always a fan of these.

About the Author

Maria Alviz Hernando “is a tarot reader, divination teacher, author, deck creator, and international speaker.” Based in Madrid, she is also the director of the World Divination Association. You can learn more about her by visiting her website.

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Contents page

• Foreword by Mary K. Greer
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction

PART I: READING IN LAYERS

• Chapter 1: Core Meanings
• Chapter 2: The Elements
• Chapter 3: The Numbers
• Chapter 4: Colors and Body Language
• Chapter 5: Aspects or Reversals?
• Chapter 6: Narrative Reading Technique

PART II: TABLEAU READING

• Chapter 7: Introudtion to the Nine Card Tableau
• Chapter 8: Power Dynamics in the Tableau
• Chapter 9: The Map around the Querent
• Chapter 10: The 5×5 Tableau
• Chapter 11: The Major Arcana Tableau

PART III: READING IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS

• Chapter 12: It’s All about the Question
• Chapter 13: Reading for Relationships
• Chapter 14: Reading for Career and Finances
• Chapter 15: Reading for Health and Well-Being
• Chapter 16: Reading for Spiritual Purposes

• Concluding Thoughts
• Recommended Reading

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Recommendation

I would recommend Tarot Tableau Revolution to anyone wanting to build their tarot knowledge. However, it is particularly beneficial for those who do predictive readings. As Maria Alviz Hernando explains, “I believe in tarot as a predictive as well as an analytic tool. … We predict so many things in so many different ways that, to me, it doesn’t make sense to deny the predictive nature of tarot.” And, whilst that is not my approach to tarot, I think that’s fair enough.

Publishing details

Pictured version:

Published by Weiser Books in2025

Pages:

202 pp

ISBN:

978-1-57863-884-0