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.
