Benebell Wen

This is a book intended for tarot readers at all levels of experience, beginner to advanced, and it meets that goal. As you'd expect, the bulk of the book covers beginner material, with meaty chapters on basic card meanings and layouts, The latter has good discussion of a variety of spreads, including standards like the Three-Card Spread and the Celtic Cross (of course!), but there is also good coverage of uncommon spreads.

So Wen's book covers the basics, but with almost 900 pages to play with, she gets to write about a lot of not-so-basic stuff as well. I was intrigued by her chapter on the Five Components of Circumstance: "the factors that determine what happens to you." Wen explains which cards correspond to which of the components, helping the practitioner (reader) identify the ones that are strongest in any given reading, which in turn can be used to help the Seeker (querent). There's also a chapter on the First Operation, a pre-reading technique dating back to the 1930's that a practitioner can use to identify the background issues in a reading. For those who want to really stretch their tarot muscles, the chapter on the Opening of the Key spread (or "spreads:" it's a five-stage process) presents a worthy challenge. Other chapters cover reading for yourself, helping Seekers handle downbeat readings, an overview of the business and legal aspects of professional tarot reading, ethics, how to handle inappropriate questions, and how to design your own readings. And more. Lots more. Like I said, it's almost 900 pages long. But I thought Wen's writing style was quite readable, a little formal in places, yes, but hey, she's also a lawyer. If you like getting to know an author before plunging into their book, skip to the last chapter, "A Personal Essay: How I Started" before tackling the rest of the book.

I don't usually comment on the physical aspects of a book, but I do have a few things to say about this one. This book is at the outer limits of what a standard paperback binding can handle, and if it bothers you to have the spine crack, you'll need to either read this very carefully or choose the e-book. (There are a lot of illustrations and tables, though, which are sometimes hard to read in e-format.) This is reasonably priced for a book this large, but I would've been willing to spend a bit more for a more durable binding. This is a book I'll want to refer to a lot in the future, and I just don't know how well it's going to hold up.… (altro)