Author: innowen

For today’s BATS Countdown draw, I received the 6 of Cups. This card brings up a lot of nostalgia for past BATS events and all the fun I’ve had attending and presenting at them. I’ve made a lot of friends at BATS and have learned amazing new techniques from those I learned from. I long to return to my tribe and wish BATS was sooner than later.

I also look forward to what greatness this year’s convention brings. I look forward to hearing about my friends’ lives and what journeys their lives have taken them over the year. I look forward to what the cards have to say to me during the days I spend in San Jose. I look forward to making connections once more that will become imprinted onto my heart.

August is one of my favorite months. It signals the end of summer and the long hot days. It’s my birth month. And it heralds my return to one of my favorite Tarot conventions, the San Francisco Bay Area Tarot Symposium. As I’ve done with other conventions, I’ve decided to do a daily countdown draw. So what did I draw today?

I drew the Two of Pentacles. I see this card representing all the amazing, fun, and busy times that this month brings me. Tomorrow I send out a package to my Beta Team to read through. I’m growing nervous and excited and hope they give me a lot of awesome stuff. In a week I turn 40 and my partner is throwing me a party. The weekend after that, I go camping with a large group of friends. I am so looking forward to that.

Finally, I get packed for my trip to the Bay Area and BATS. I am looking forward to reuniting with my friends Rose Red and Andrew Robinson and seeing my Tarot Tribe. I look forward to the classes and amazing discussions I have with my friends.

The Tarot Activity Book by Andy Matzner
Self published, 2013
Rating: 4 decks

Editor’s Note: I received a free PDF of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Tarot Activity Book, written and published by Andy Matzner, is a wonderful book to explore both the deck and yourself. Andy Matzner is a clinical social worker and Tarot reader who has found how to blend therapy sessions and Tarot in a fun and self-constructive way. With this book, Matzner has created a fun and co-creative way to explore the cards and yourself. Appropriate for all Tarot enthusiasts, this book will get you connecting to the cards in no time.

The Tarot Activity Book has 4 chapters: an Introduction, Conversation Starters, Writing & Journaling, and Arts & Crafts. The introduction gives you the background for why the book was written. Then the next three chapters (and a final appendix) gives you lots of activities that revolve around the topic of the chapter. Each activity follows the same pattern: there is a name, an objective, a background, and then the process. This makes the book highly usable and portable. If you read tarot for others, you can flip to an activity and quickly tell them why the activity will help them with their question or concern.

I love activity books. They’re great for advancing your skill set in a wide variety of ways. The Tarot Activity Book doesn’t disappoint at all. There are so many activities, it’s almost like activity overload. I found myself highlighting and bookmarking activity titles like crazy. And while I have yet to try these, I am so looking forward to testing them out solo and with my Tarot friends. The book is well organized—each activity and section builds off on one another. I love that some give insights into our personalities, while others give us creative outlets (both written and visual). For those of you who love quotes, this book has lots.

There’s not much to dislike about this book. It took me forever to get through it because there’s so much good inside it. I almost wish there was an index at the back to break down all the activities by emotional benefit, or objective. Oh, and I wish that Matzner produced this in eBook format. (Updated! There IS a kindle edition now.)

Bottom Line: If you want to connect to your deck and learn more about yourself as a person, then get The Tarot Activity Book and do the exercises in it.

Tarot Foundations by Brigit Esselmont
self-published
$37 via Paypal

There are a lot of good tarot books out there that teach tarot. Tarot Foundations is one of them. Styled as a workbook, it gives you daily small focused chunks of learning tarot card meanings, spreads, and interpretations. While it’s for those who know nothing of tarot, even us more experienced can find something inside to try and test out. Brigit Esselmont, owner of Biddy Tarot, shares her years of experience with readers and takes the scary out of learning the card’s system.

I love workbook style formats. Esselmont does a great job breaking down the bits of tarot and leading readers through a step-by-step format of knowing the cards She stars with the basics, and then moves into the cards by group, before finally showing you how you can read and start your own tarot reading service. There are a lot of activities in this book and it may take readers more than 31-days to finish the work herein.

It took me a lot longer to finish Tarot Foundations than I expected. With this being an eBook, there are also lots of links to Esselmont’s blog and other sites. Some of the links are not working but that doesn’t deter from the content. She’s even included charts and worksheets that you can use to record your own explorations. My biggest problem was wanting to play with the cards after every day.

BOTTOM LINE: If you are intimidated by tarot and want a safe and steady way to learn the cards then give Brigit Esselmont’s Tarot Foundations a try.