The Tarot Revealed: A Beginner’s Guide by Paul Fenton-Smith

If learning the tarot has felt like a constant uphill slog and you’re wondering if you’re ever going to make sense of all the cards and their intricacies then The Tarot Revealed can help. You can tell it has been written by someone who teaches tarot. This is a step-by-step guide that introduces you to each suit and each card in a simple, unintimidating way. Anecdotes are used throughout to help explain the cards and to solidify the concepts. This approach makes the book interesting to read on multiple levels.

The ‘Colour Meanings in the Tarot’ is a great primer. Understanding what each colour represents makes it easier to unpack a card and can provide an additional theme to the reading if one colour predominates. At the beginning of each suit’s chapter Paul Fenton-Smith also explains what a preponderance of a particular suit in a spread suggests.

For each suit there is an overall summary followed by a breakdown of each card. A decent sized black and white image taken from the Rider-Waite Tarot is also included. I like his suggestion to colour these images in accordance with the deck. When I studied anatomy and physiology I found my anatomy colouring book helped me to connect with the overwhelming amount of information I had to digest because it slowed me down and forced me to focus on each individual component. The same would apply here if you felt that way inclined. As alluded to earlier, colour can provide a wealth of information, and focusing in on the details of the card can increase awareness. Plus if you like colouring it’s a win-win situation.

Following an overall introduction to the card, there’s a general meaning, a relationship meaning, and an explanation for how he interprets the card if it appears in a spread in the reverse. Scattered throughout these section breakdowns are examples taken from actual readings. This helps to ground the meanings well. Following the suit breakdown is a chapter on its story.

The Tarot Revealed opens with the Suit of Wands, but before it rushes on to the next suit, he introduces the Court cards. He believes the Court cards are quite gender specific. This differs from many other books that say even if representing an actual person they represent energies/personalities rather than a particular sex. For what it’s worth, I believe they represent whatever you intend them to represent. The next two chapters cover one card readings and reversed cards. These, and the Court card chapter, are only brief. The same approach is taken with each suit. After Cups there’s a chapter on ‘The Blank Card’ and after Swords there’s a longer than usual chapter that explores how accurate tarot readings are. This is full of anecdotal evidence. Following the Suit of Pentacles there’s a glossy-paged section that provides several spreads and a basic astrological association table that includes the health area associated with the sign. The book builds nicely. Before launching into the Major Arcana are chapters on ‘Answering questions about money’ and ‘Using intuition when reading.’ The Major Arcana are given the same treatment as the Minor Arcana.

This is a well laid out book on all levels. It’s easy to navigate, the overall layout is good, and the font is easy to read. The author takes a fairly strong stance about what certain things represent, for example the Court cards, as mentioned earlier. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with everything, I believe when you’re learning it’s nice to have a straight up approach. A solid grounding in the basics, which this book provides, means you can then explore other ways of thinking and deeper levels of understanding without becoming totally inundated.

About the Author

Paul Fenton-Smith is a professional Tarot reader and teacher. He began teaching classes in 1985 when he founded the Academy of Psychic Sciences in Australia so he could teach predictive skills to practitioners. Other tarot books he has written include, Advanced Tarot and Tarot Masterclass. He has also written books on palmistry, intuition, and spiritual development.

The Tarot Revealed Contents

• Preface
• Part I Introduction
  • How the Tarot can help you
  • What is the Tarot?
  • The Tarot – from the past to today
• Part II Simple Readings
  • The Suit of Wands
  • The story of the Suit of Wands
  • Court Cards
  • One-card readings
  • Reversed cards
• Part III Increasing Your Skills
  • The Suit of Cups
  • The story of the Suit of Cups
  • The Blank card
  • The Suit of Swords
  • The story of the Suit of Swords
  • How accurate are Tarot readings?
  • The Suit of Pentacles
  • The story of the Suit of Pentacles
  • Answering questions about money
  • Using intuition when reading
• Part IV Advanced Reading Techniques
  • The Major Arcana
  • The story of the Major Arcana
  • Tarot card layouts
  • Starting out as a reader
• Bibliography
• Index

As I’ve said already The Tarot Revealed is a great book for beginners and those wanting to return to beginner’s mind. I enjoy reading entry-level books because I always find something new and I am reminded of aspects that have slipped from my practice. As a book tested within a course environment and included as part of the Tarot Correspondence Course offered by his company, it is intended to lead you step by step through the tarot and it doesn’t disappoint.

Publishing Details

Published by:

Inspired Living, an imprint of Allen & Unwin

Pictured version:

Published in 2008

Pages:

280 pp.