Review by Tabitha Chamberlain
Tarot
Spells
By
Janina Renee
Publisher:
Llewellyn Publications
ISBN:
087542670
Price:
Varies
I
was Amazon hunting; searching Amazon’s used book section for an
awesome deal, I found Tarot Spells for a PENNY! So MINE! I
placed my order and it arrived much sooner than I thought. Honestly
for a penny, I wasn’t holding terribly high standards here on
anything.
For those of us that practice witchcraft and tarot reading, we try very hard to join these two things together on a regular basis. Sometimes we can work these out for ourselves and it turns out beautifully. Other times our spells fail miserably. My major fault is when I use my gut instinct to pick out the Tarot cards for my Tarot spells and not logic of the card’s core meaning it falls flat for me. This book has been on my wish list for a while for that reason alone.
When I tore into the package, I was a little disappointed the book itself is from the original running. It’s actually older than my kids by a few years. The cover is rough, but pages unmarked and not really well used. I was left wondering if this is going to be even worth the penny that I spent on it – and there's the shipping, that’s always $3.99 on Amazon US.
First thing I noticed when I started reading Tarot Spells is the fact that is truly dated. The introduction and the basics covered in the beginning of the book predates what most of us have come to expect in Pagan, Witchcraft, or even Occult books. Referring to this repeatedly as “New Age”. I will admit that my hopes were getting lower.
Then I hit the first spell. Wait what just happened? For a book that is dated and would be deemed a “starter” book by most people’s thinking this book offers up 70+ amazingly detailed spells! They cover anything from Action, Affirmation, Health, Work, and some other stuff you wouldn’t even think to consider.
Each
spell has a black and white image of which cards you need in the
layout that you should put them in. There is a brief summary of what
the spell is about, how it should be laid out, what you can add to
the spell to customize it to your own liking. Personally, my favorite
aspect is why she choose certain cards for that particular spell.
If that isn’t enough, she also gives a meditation/visualization and affirmation for each spell that is shown in this book. Some of it gets repetitive, but each step of these spells gives you a great deal more focus than any other spell book I’ve ever seen.
There are 7 Appendices at the end of the book, giving you references to Choosing Significator, Preparing for Spells/Rituals, Candles, etc. The bibliography is very dated, so finding some of the book listed may prove to be impossible.
The
book uses Tarot cards in a spread form only that has to deal with the
spell itself. I’ve heard of other Tarot spell books requiring you
to actually damage your Tarot cards. For whatever my starting
disappointment was, it was totally destroyed when I started reading
the first spell.
Highly
interactive, highly detailed, and truly one of the best ways to focus
your attention for spell working. It doesn’t matter if you’re
beginner or an old hand at spell casting. You may not uses all of the
spells in the book, reading through them will give you great ideas to
help you create some of your own Tarot spells become stronger.
One last bit you can find a 2000 reprint of this book on Llewellyn for 17.99. Or if you go Amazon hunting, you’ll find all kinds of prices. You just never know what you’re getting yourself into.